Stage IV: Labial-Facial Control Therapy Ideas

Checking back to your System Analysis Observation and Motor Speech Hierarchy (SAO/MSH) to determine your first priority. I find I get more "bang for my buck" working at Stage IV/Labial-Facial control. I can work in syllable PROMPTs to help support jaw at mid-line in addition to building appropriate bi-labial contact/rounding/retraction.

Farm Washing Activity

My students love to give toys a bath. I start with whatever is motivating to them! 

Have the characters jump in "mud" (use play-doh or something sensory)

Clean them off with a spray bottle, small brush and towel

Turbo-Dry them in a salad spinner and send them home

PROMPT lexicon: oh no, mud, moo, baa, pig, peep, do two, wash it, go home

Digital version available here. Full YouTube demonstration here.

Rock Gems

Because learning rocks, use this fun activity with or without the Learning Resources Gemstones Game during speech or occupational therapy! (Use plastic eggs if you don't have the Gemstones).

PROMPT lexicon: open, same, match, put it in, shut it, I do, you do, need it, don't need it

Grab the activity here on TPT

Toca Kitchen 2

Toca Kitchen 2 is an engaging iPad app where students can create different meals for characters.

Follow directions

Describe

Create sentences

PROMPT lexicon: eat it, he/she, mmm, ah, uh oh, oh no, ya/yes, no, gone, cut it up, can I cut it, make it, done, pot, pan, cook

Check out the app companion and the BOOMCARDS here

Toca Tea Party

Set the table, choose your favorite cookies and cakes, serve tea and you're good to go! Simply eat and drink with your finger. With Toca Tea party, you can play together with your kids in a way that stimulates their imagination.

Follow Directions

Sequence

Vocabulary

Request/comment

PROMPT lexicon: uh oh/oh no, need, more, tea, hot, do you need more? Eat it, need it, put it on

Zingo

If you're on this page you must be a Speech Language Pathologist, and therefore own a Zingo! of some kind...

Use this FREEBIE to:

Build Sentences

Describe pictures

PROMPT lexicon: put it in, push it, he/him, she/her, give, need it, don't need it, go

Phonatory Control

Building phonatory control in students is an important foundation. Students learn that "voice is power" through simple lexicons:

/AH/ for "on", "want" (turning the voice on)

/M/ for "more" or "me"

/H/ volitional voicing

Activities that have a high success rate for my students and building volitional voicing include:

Belefun

Belefun is Elefun's Younger Sister. Turn the game on and watch the butterflies come out. Feed the butterflies to Belefun for continual fun.

Lexicon: /ah/ for "on", "want", "out", "in", /mmm/ feeding, "more", "me"

Scarves

Scarves are a great way to add movement to your session during music during music or interactive book. Have students wave them left to right, make waves, squish the scarf, move it fast and slow. 

Students can track the scarf to incorporate head tipping/turning into the session to activate their vestibular systems.

Read the beloved story "Going on a Bear Hunt" by Michael Rosen and follow directions using scarves or cloth like items. Great for engaging pre-school

Grab my FREEBIE to incorporate scarves functionally into a story activity to promote focus and attention during academic tasks.

Students will:

-Cross midline

-Track items with head tips/tilts

-Track items with eyes to decrease eye fatigue due to screen time

-Recall the sequence of events

-Follow directions

Spin it Again

Put gears on a pole and watch them spin down. Pull the pole from the base and watch the gears spin off to the ground. Flip blue base to choose a wobbly or sturdy bottom. 

Can be used for simple motor phoneme warm-up. 

PROMPT Lexicon: ah/on, up, go, me

Tunnel

Tunnels can be motivating and regulating at the same time. Students can: 

-Crawl through to retrieve desired items from inside

-Stand and wear it like a pop up hamper

-Roll balls through to have a pass

Yoga Ball

"What happens at the hips, affects the lips" the great PROMPT instructor Tracey Kellner.

When working with non/low verbal kids I try to get them moving as much as possible. Consult with the OT/PT and see what they do with the student. 

-Bounce on a ball

-Roll over the ball (on belly/on back)

-Scooter

-Swing

-Gentle spinning (pick them up or in a chair)

-Crawling through a tunnel

-Animal walks

Appy Hour

Toca Boo

The power is out at Bonnie's house due to a terrible storm. Help her move through the house and scare her family! Explore different rooms, turn sinks and lights on and off to build suspense and even stop to snack on plums, spicy pepper and soda to fuel your fun!

-Map skills

-Following directions

-WH questions

-Oral motor practice (pa/pop, ma/mom/mama, boo, pop up, toot, go, baby, down, in, behind, under, Bonnie, sisters, brother, grandma, grandpa)

*Check out the print companion and Boomcard companion I made for this game*

Toca Kitchen 2

Cook up some fun in your speech sessions with this app. Help feed the hungry customers by preparing different foods. 

-Following Directions

-Make sentences

-Pronouns

-Commenting Like/Dislike

-Oral Motor words/phrases to use (ah/mmm, uh-oh, ya/yes, no, hot, pot, pan, not, can, eat, gone, make, done, eat it, can cut it, can eat it)

*My students enjoy using the hard print items and Boomcard companions I made for this app*

Pet Doctor

Take care of all the pets in the office, feed them and put them to bed.

-Discuss cause/effect

-Identify body parts/injuries/doctor equipment

-Commenting

-Oral Motor practice (oh no/uh oh, boo-boo, go home, eat it, put it on)

Pair the app with a simple matching activity (I found this one years ago at the Target dollar spot) or Henning Lohlein's "All Better Book". 

I incorporate additional fine motor skill work by playing "save the animals", where they are trapped in rubber bands. 

-Take the rubber bands off

-Clean the animals with a spray bottle

-Place tape or real band-aides on the injury

Toca Doctor

Help the patient with all their injuries.

-Cause/Effect

-Inferencing (How did they get hurt?)

-Body parts/labeling

-Health/Wellness

-Oral Motor practice (boo boo, uh-oh, put it on, take it out, help, all done)

Toca Store

Open the store and choose the items you want to sell. Students can take turns being the cashier and the customer.

Describe categories & functions of items

Expand vocabulary

Social communication/turn taking

Oral Motor practice (I want, I choose, put it in, need it)

*Pair with companion boomcard activity for additional support/practice*

Zoombinis

Use logic, analyze data, spot patterns and hone problem-solving skills with 12 perilous puzzles and four levels of difficulty. Great for upper elementary, middle school and high school students. 

-Intro video (wh questions, story comprehension)

-Problem solving

-Teamwork

-Identify details

-Follow directions

-Express ideas 

*For iPad only, you won't be able to find it if you search on your phone*

Listening and Attentional Supports

Students are frequently referred for a speech and language screening due to teacher reports that "they just don't listen."

Ruling out any hearing loss, behavioral issues and true language challenges, let's discuss why this is most likely not the case. Our vestibular systems are responsible for providing our brain with information about motion, head position, spatial orientation and motor functions such as balance and head stabilization. The eyes and the ears are connected, do you turn down the radio when you're lost?!

Academic tasks that require moving eyes and coordination can manifest as attentional symptoms, therefore look like a student "just can't listen" when in reality they're having difficulty focusing with their eyes.

• Visual Fixations: sustained focus
• Tracking: following a moving object
• Con/Divergence: shifting gaze from teacher to work
• Quick Localization: visual attention shifts in space to monitor
• Saccades: attentional shifts needed to read/monitor

When a student is having difficulty using their eyes they will start to utilize other parts of their body. Eye strain/fatigue will bring in the use of their head/neck/back, and cause postural deficits. Resource allocation means that they are on output NOT input, which is essential for absorbing information for academic tasks. 

There are plenty of simple activities to incorporate into your speech and language sessions to support visual skills:

Eye Found it

The 6 foot board game is a collaborative style game where players work together to all reach the castle before the clock strikes midnight. Students can follow directions, target vocabulary (I use the Expanding Expressions Tool (EET) to describe the items on the card) and answer WH questions. 

The compact card game is a fast pace competitive search and find activity. Students race to see who can find the objects on their cards. When the object is found, a new card is flipped and play continues. 

PROMPT Lexicon: I see it, I did it, I am, me, I do, character names (Pooh, Woody...), Counting numbers

Hiding Break

Fighting eye fatigue after many hours of screen time can help regulate students (and teachers!)

Students can use their hands or cover themselves in a blanket. Keeping eyes open and staring into the blackness will bring better benefit for eye fatigue.

*IMPORTANT: Make sure students wash their hands prior to putting them over their eyes.

Hit the Hat

The hammers have suction cups and the hats are different shapes, patterns with blue or red borders. Students roll the dice and race to locate the correct hat. Game can be modified to eliminate boarder color for more winners. Students can take turns rolling the dice and describing the hats for others to find.

PROMPT Lexicon: hat, hit, did, it

Track Slow Objects

Use bubbles, balloons or juggling scarves in sessions to support visual and language needs.

Keepy Uppy: Have students tap a balloon to keep it up in the air

Bubble Pop: weighted wand for popping bubbles slowly (duct tape a small weight to the end of a stick)

Throw and catch juggling scarves

PROMPT Lexicon: /ah/ (want, exclaim excitement, again), /mm/ (more, me), bop, pop, go, oh-no

Vision Boost

Every 20 minutes, look at something 20 feet away for 20 seconds to keep your eyes healthy. A vision boost is an easy way to accomplish this task.

One arm straight, one arm bent and shift your eye gaze (ONLY your eyes, no moving your head) from near to far points 20 times and then switch your hands and do another 20 looks. 

Cozy Up with a Great Book

"Young children who heard the same book multiple times retained a new word better than children who were read different books containing the same word."

Numerous studies have shown that storybook reading promotes later academic performance, reading fluency and print knowledge. A study in 2011 by Horst et. al. was the first of its kind to explore how being read to influences young children's ability to learn new words from storybooks. The lack of research in this area is particularly surprising given how frequently young children are read to during their everyday preschool experiences. The study found that repetition of storybooks is important for learning new vocabulary from books. Young children who heard the same book multiple times retained a new word better than children who were read different books containing the same word. 

Reference: Horst, J.S., Parsons, K.L. & Bryan N.M. (2011). Get the story straight: Contextual repetition promotes word learning from storybooks. 

KUDOS to @midtownspeechnyc for this special instagram post, if you're not following along click this link to check her out!

Here are the books I read on repeat for my students during Winter. 

Snowmen at Christmas by Caralyn Buehner

Read the story of what Snowmen do at Christmas.

-Compare/contrast our Christmas traditions to the Snowmen's

-Search for hidden items on every page; mouse, T-Rex, cat, bunny and a Santa face.

*Tip: Searching for hidden pictures is great for visual skills needed for attention, reading and writing!*

Sneezy the Snowman Maureen Wright

Sneezy the snowman enjoys winter fun with his friends, but keeps sneezing!? His friends make attempts to help him warm up, but keep melting him.

Pair the story with the amazing melting snowman, build the snowman and read the story. Watch what happens!

-Sequence

-Cause/Effect

-Categories (things that are hot)

*Tip: I have students discuss items that are hot, and then illustrate a sentence as to why Sneezy may have melted*

The Mitten by Jan Brett

Nikki goes on a winter adventure and loses a snow-white mitten from Baba. Forest animals find the cozy mitten and all squeeze in.

-WH questions

-Sequencing/recall

-Following directions

-Oral motor (put it on, ball, bam/smash, put it in)

*Check out @simply_speech and her FREEBIE smash mat companion*

Falling for Rapunzel by Leah Wilcox

Add this fun story to your Valentine's Day sessions. Rapunzel is too far away to quite make out what the Prince is trying to say. This is a hilarious hit in my speech sessions as we read the story of miscommunication.

-Sequencing/recall

-WH questions

-Rhyming

-Yes/No questions

-Vocabulary

-Create your own story

*Book companion can be found on TPT by SteamPunk Speech*

*Tip: pair this story with card game Sleeping Queens and Lover's Leap found on www.thelisteningroom.com*

Pancakes for Breakfast by Tommie DePaola

National Pancake Day is typically in early March. We celebrate every year in speech with this story and flippin' fun activities. This wordless story is great for any age. Early one morning the lady wakes up and decides to make pancakes, but keeps running into problems. 

-Problem solving

-Create grammatically correct sentences

-Sequencing/retell

-Vocabulary

-Oral motor (she can make it, she needs..., go out)

Sweet, Sweet Certification

I have made the leap from "Trained" to "Bridged" to "crazy"...I mean "Certified"! Totally worth it. I have been certified since Fall of 2015 and I am still learning. Things are much more "second nature" now and I feel way more confident in the lexicon and overall practice of PROMPT. The certification process was stressful and tedious, but I learned a lot in 4 months.

Advice:
*Work with a mentor.
*Be organized; schedule, highlighters, post-it notes.
*Prepare for the unexpected; children get sick-things come up. Leave yourself extra time to get things done.
*Clear space on your computer and recording devices.
*Learn how to work "google drive" prior to the process.
*Have multiple cameras taping for the inevitable "out of space" or "random" stop.
*Use your resources.
*Be confident. You're going to make mistakes, but this is always a learning process-not meant to be perfect.
*Don't be afraid to make these mistakes.
*ABR. Always Be Recording. ALWAYS!
(The client won't want to stick their face into the camera every second and you are bound to tape something magical. Like when mine accidentally poked me in the eye, and then 3 months later, in a different video, poked me in the eye...with his toe. $10,000? America's Funniest Video? Of course I'm going to split it with the kid! <----it's in writing now.)

Listening Language

Dingle Dangle: Listening and Language! I love this app it is so adorable and silly. There are two different activities: players can listen to instructions (in noise!) or build their own scarecrow.

This app was created by the Royal Institute for Deaf and Blind Children (RIDBC) by listening and spoken language specialists.

I love to pair this app with the story "The Little Old Lady Who Was Not Afraid of Anything". I use this with a lot of my students.

We color and cut out the pieces and make puppets. They have to listen to the sounds of the pieces and make their puppet do the actions

Shoes say "clomp clomp"
Pants say "wiggle wiggle"
Shirt says "shake shake shake"
Hat says "nod"
Gloves say "clap"
Pumpkin says "boo!"


       

PROMPT:
Phonatory Control: "ah" for on, "mm" for more
Labial-facial control: boo, shake, oh no!
Lingual control/sequenced: clomp, wiggle, clap, nod

LANGUAGE: sequencing, following directions, recall story, describing

      And the mouse went ::click click::

Peek-a-Boo I'm back

Using visuals I can use this for a great listening activity.; for auditory-visual therapy. The animal hiding behind the door makes a sound and the door shakes so it's a good visual for the hearing impaired! Animals include the usual farm friends: horse, cow, sheep, chicken... and some funny new friends: owl, rabbit, llama! From a closed set I show the pictures of the animals and have the child guess which animal they hear in the barn.



I love the Melissa & Doug matching game and pair a simple barn toy to finish our FARM-tastic session.



LANGUAGE: follow directions, prepositions, matching

PROMPT:

Mandibular control: baa
Labial-Facial: boo, moo, peep, woof, meow, baa, me, push
Lingual: one, two

Old McDonald has nothing on me!

"Poppers"

Choose from a variety of animals: cow, horse, pig, fish, alien, squirrel, moose! Push the ball in and aim it at the target *Children need constant supervision...don't let them pop it in their face.

We laugh, we cry, we do a little math! Very fun and entertaining.







PROMPT:
phonatory control: ah, ha, ha-ha, mmm (for more)
mandibular control: up, on, pop
labial-facial control: up, pop, on, moo (is the name of our cow), oh-no, push
lingual control: on, top, in

Language:
-Follow directions to aim at different targets
-Follow directions to pick a special colored ball/animal

Pragmatics:
-Turn taking
-Don't point it at people/yourself!

Don't be a party pooper in speech...play with some "Poppers"

Toca BOOca

Toca Boo is a new and a great game for the Halloween season.

The little girl Bonnie dresses as a ghost to scare her family members! Travel through the big, dark house to find: mom, grandpa, little sister, big brother and the twins.

Hide behind items for a big scare! But don't get caught in the light. Find some snacks for even sillier scares!





PROMPT:
Phonatory control/Mandibular control: ah, ha, ma.mama, pa/papa, pop
Labial-facial control: boo, eat, ew, mom, toot, baby, me
Lingual control: eat, toot

Scare on, Bonnie.

What's in a Name?

People who like Star Trek are called "trekkies" , if they shop till they drop they're considered "shop-aholics", individuals who swoon over Edward, Bella and Jacob are "Twihards" and Hunger Game fans have requested "Tributes" while Harry Potter fans are "AWESOME".

So what about people who love PROMPT? I've brainstormed a few potentials:

1) PROMPTEES

2) PROMPTenadors

3) Your hands are cold! (I hear this enough...it's got potential in the running)

4) PROMPTing People

5) PROMPTing peeps

6) Face Ticklers (this is how I explain it to my preschoolers, "I'm gonna tickle your face, it might feel funny")

7) PROMPTettes

What do you think? Let me know!

For those who have taken the plunge into learning this intense and wonderful technique, please take a look at some lexicons I've shared:

Toca Boca Tea Party

Toca Boca Doctor

Monster at the end of this Book/Another Monster at the end of this Book

Miny Moe Car

Bamba Ice-Cream/Burger

Visit the PROMPTinstitute's site to find a course near you! 

What are you waiting for, you could be a "insert nickname here".

***These thoughts and ideas are my own.  I am not receiving compensation from the PROMPT institute, nor have any PROMPT officials agreed on a nickname.  I have completed the Introductory course/training as well as the self-study project and the Bridging Course.  You must be PROMPT trained to provided PROMPT intervention. If anyone at the PROMPT institute reads this and WANTS to pay me...I won't say no. I accept cash, coffee or donuts.***

SmartReview

I've made the jump from "PROMPT trained" to "Bridged".  It's been an exciting adventure and I'm anxious to continue to learn and hone all my PROMPT skills.

After the Bridging course, I purchased the SmarTools (Cards and CD).  The PROMPT institute offers a wonderful discount for those who buy them through the instructor after either Intro or Bridging.  I highly recommend these products.

CD:
The CD allows you to add clients, input client information and even take daily session notes! Every client folder also allows the user to complete the SAO/MSH and pick goals from a wide variety of pre-written goals!  This has been very helpful in making the transition from trained to bridged!

The CD also has components to look up specific words/phrases based on stages/goals as well as activities!

Cards:
The cards are a photo card set based on PROMPT systems and motor speech hierarchy.  They are divided into 5 stages (phonotory, mandibular, labial-facial, lingual and sequenced movements).  Each card deck has 26 word pairs. This is another wonderful transition tool, as I'm finding it easier to navigate stages.

It looked like just another mundane post...but it wasn't another mundane post!

This is a great and simple activity for identifying simple objects (some doozies in it "Great Horned Owl", "Angel"). After you read the book you can make your own spilt milk clouds!

Squeeze paint in the middle of the page (*I added sparkles for something special*), fold the page in half, press down and open.

I looked like a sheep....but it wasn't a sheep!

PROMPT:

*Use a carrier phrase "It looked like a ______, but was it?!" the child can respond "No"

Language:

Sequence, answer simple "WH" questions