Hello! I am the speech-language therapist at HES. I completed my undergraduate and graduate level work at MCC and NIU. During the week, I am involved in identifying students who qualify for services and then implementing therapy to help them overcome their communicative challenges. I believe communication is a life skill that is crucial for success in the academic, social, and (later) career domains. I want all students to feel confident in their abilities to express their thoughts in a clear manner with appropriate nonverbal skills (eye contact, body language...) and also to understand what they hear. My work is very rewarding!
There is a new name floating around....Miss Brener! She is a graduate student from NIU who is learning the tasks of a school speech-language therapist. Miss Brener joins us each Thursday until Christmas break. Please feel free to contact us if you have any questions :)
On Thursday, the 29th of September, I hope you have the opportunity to stop by (room #107). Your children have impressed me with their strong start to our school year! Thank you for supporting their progress with home practice activities :)
We are exploring and enjoying a variety of autumn-themed activities that target use of specific vocabulary (such as adjectives and compound words), auditory recall/comprehension, sentence structure variety (such as questions vs. statements), and sequencing. With each task, we also focus on careful production of sounds while maintaining fluent speech. These students are PAWSOME!
Fall seemed to extend itself all the way until our holiday break. With the New Year (and new snow), our groups remain focused on communication goals while enjoying a variety of games. The "build a snowman" task helps us to practice story sequences while the "spell snow" game is all about matching wh question and answer types. The "trees with no leaves" activity centers on language reasoning and problem solving, and the "word polar bears" push our word retrieval skills for vocabulary.
During our Communication Lab sessions within the classrooms, we continue to explore the ways to send and receive communication, the obstacles that interfere with success, and how to repair those errors. I am SO impressed with the energy, curiousity, and persistence of the students!
Recently I have welcomed some new friends to therapy sessions....while also preparing for a few speech "graduation" parties! How exciting to get to know some kids better and to congratulate those students who have reached their goals :)
Welcome green leaves, sprouting flowers, and chirping birds! We love our lengthier stretches of sunlight and the ability to leave the mittens at home! As we happily enter this third trimester, we are blossoming with progress (and pride)!
Many of the students are gaining consistency in producing their targeted sounds even when verbalizing longer sentences. Our fluency groups are demonstrating improved breath support and connected sounds to make their speech smoother. Hurray for the language lessons that have helped us understand more vocabulary and learn how to structure sentences with the right grammatical choices. Meanwhile the social communication skills groups are using eye contact, on-topic comments or questions, and careful analysis of facial expressions to be more successful in the art of conversation :)
I encourage you to work with your child on the weekly home practice activities. With your help, those goals can be reached sooner!
