The Incredible Flexible You: Preschool Social Curriculum

It's Monday in preschool. If you scan around the room you might hear and see some things like this:

A group of kids are building a train track around the carpet. 3 kids are adding to the track, but little Jack is facing the wall stacking his track pieces in a pile to see how high he can get it. Jack's friends are not happy because they can't finish their track without all the pieces.

Ellie interrupts constantly at circle time and answers every question the teacher poses. 

 A group of 3 five year olds are playing in dramatic play. Each student is playing Mom, Dad and Baby. 'Mom' is cleaning the kitchen and 'Dad' is mowing the lawn. The little girl playing 'Baby' says, 'Hey Dad, I raked the leaves.' The other two kids turn and say "Hey! You're Baby you can't rake!"

Social skills can often be difficult to build in preschool students. Most special education classrooms are filled with SLPs, OTs, PTs, Intervention Specialists and paraprofessionals working on social skills in individual sessions, small group work and whole group. Social skills permeate all areas of the curriculum and having a consistant curriculum and vocabulary across the preschool day gives each specialists the ability to provided consistant instruction. The key is having a program that consistently builds on the concepts and vocabulary.

At the end of the spring I was contacted by the Social Thinking company. If you've purchased any of my social activities, you can tell I'm a fan of Michelle Garcia Winner's work. I regularly use their curriculum with my elementary aged students and was really excited to test out their new preschool curriculum, The Incredible Flexible You.

The program uses same terminology and philosophy as the programs for older students, but in language and scenarios more appropriate for their age. 

Back in the Fall at a local schools conference I attended a session, by Nancy Tarshis, MA, MS, CCC-SLP, about a this new curriculum, that wasn't even on the market yet. The Incredible Flexible You is a two part series that includes lesson plans, activities and music for preschool and early elementary aged students.

The basis of the program are 10 story books. They each feature four characters (Jessie, Ellie, Evan, and Molly) who experience social interactions in various settings. The problems and environments will be familiar to your students, making it easy to draw connections.

Volume 1 features 5 story books and curriculum for the following social skills: Thinking Thoughts and Feeling Feelings, The Group Plan, Thinking with Your Eyes, Body in the Group and Whole Body Listening.

The program doesn't stop at just a book for teaching social skills. Each lesson is laid out with instruction to teach social thinking. Unlike teaching a specific social skill, social thinking is not expecting learning for mastery. Social learning is something we do all over our lifespan. When we teach the different concepts and how they go together we are teaching our students how the nuerotypical brain learns social information intuitively.

To use the program, start with introducing the vocabulary using The Incredible Flexible You Storybook for that lesson. For example, let's use the lesson: The Group Plan. Read the curriculum information including the definition and the reason for teaching the concept.

Prepare the activities (an apple game, obstacle course, egg game, and cooking items). Start by reading the story to your group. Stop at each point in the book where you see a 'teaching moment' indicated by the icon. Use the lesson plan to help you identify all the teachable moments. During circle time I also used the accompanying music. It made a nice interactive moment for all the students, even the ones who were a bit young for the lesson.

After you read the book you can use some of the structured activities you prepared in advance to reinforce the concepts. I didn't have time to cut out these apples for the lesson, so I just used the ones from my Attribute Apples Box.

Next use the ideas listed to facilitate dramatic play that incorporates the skills discussed in the lesson. The lesson plan guide even lists easy ways to incorporate the vocabulary into the classroom. For example, " Jenna is following the plan and sitting in the circle."

Send home the family letter to encourage carryover and consistency of the program.

Pros: The philosophy of teaching social thinkings, instead of isolated social skills is fantastic. I have needed a social curriculum that matches my elementary programs for consistency. I appreciate that the book give specific details for teaching moments, extension activities and carryover. This is an excellent way to help those who are not SLPs use to the program with ease and therefore 'buy-in' to the program. I love that I've been able to use it with my K and first graders too!

Cons: I work in an integrated program, meaning I have children of many different levels. The program is designed for more high functioning students with 'average to way above average language and learning ability'. While it's a wonderful program for some of my students its not one size fits all. I'd love to see another program developed to accompany TIFY that addressed those more foundational skills in a systematic way.

I guess the true test of any product I review is, "would you recommend it to your SLP friends?" Last week at our preschool meeting I brought in my copies for everyone to look at and The Incredible Flexible You program got added to our product orders for next year! I'd say that explains how I feel about it! This is one product you don't want to miss!


The Incredible Flexible You is available on the Social Thinking website. Version 1 retails for $99.50 including the music.

The fine print: This product was provided by Social Thinking for Review. No other compensation was provided and the opinions expressed are solely mine. 

Social Problem Solving {App Review Roundup}

 Have you been keeping up as Super Duper Pub. publishes their Fun Decks as apps? I went through my list to see which ones I didn't have yet, and noticed I was missing many of the social problem solving apps! The apps reviewed here are a combination of WH question and problem solving apps. I even threw in a following directions activity because it works on some of the same receptive language skills!

SD has added more and more features in its recent updates. Most notably: the ability to keep data after a game is ended.

What Would You Do At School If....

(2.99) This card deck includes 56 illustrated picture flash cards. Each card presents a scenario. The student must answer what he/she would do in these situations! Cards include, "What would you do if you needed to go to the bathroom during a test? and What would you do if during class, a friend wanted you to pass notes for him?"

What Would You Do At Home if...

(2.99) This card deck includes 56 question probes. Students are presented with social situations and make decisions about how to handle situations that would happen in the home.

Following Directions

($2.99) This activity features 52 cards, with single step directions. This app is perfect for young students. If you combine multiple cards you can add temporal concepts and multi-step directions.

WH Questions at School

(2.99) Includes 56 cards and the ability to track data. A variety of school based questions are included (Who is your principal? When does school dismiss?) 

WH Questions at Home

($2.99) The 56 cards in this app target WH questions that include household topics. Each student looks at an illustration on the screen and either reads the prompt or touches the screen to listen to the prompt. The student gives a verbal response. The clinician then taps the green or red button to score the student's verbal response.

The bottom line...

Pros: The new data collection is much more up to par with other SLP apps. I think the price is unbeatable for valuable clinic tools. Having everything on the ipad just make life easier to travel, even down the hall!


Cons: I wish the decks included NEW cards, not just repeats of the tangible product. It's an opportunity for updates materials that my students haven't already seen.

Disclosure statement: Super Duper provided copies of the included apps for review. No other compensation was provided.

February Features: Preschool Social Skills

Today I've asked Liz from SpeechLadyLiz to share with you! She's working in a clinic so social skills for the preschool crowd is part of her every day! 

I’ve been asked many times, “How do you work on pragmatics with preschoolers?”  It’s hard because you can’t be as direct as you can be with older children.  I work in a preschool and almost every single one of the children I work with has a pragmatic goal.  Along with that pragmatic goal there are always play goals.  So in my opinion, how do you work on pragmatics with preschoolers….play, play, play.  I recently had a conversation with another SLP who works in the schools.  She said the last thing I have time for is working on play.  Everyone around us was totally bored with our conversation or otherwise I might have flipped the table over and said “What???”  Play with preschoolers is probably the most important thing you can do.  What can you get from play you might ask? Narration, conversational turn-taking, following directions, commenting, initiating, asking questions, awareness, inhibition, attention and the list goes on and on.  I have the luxury of getting to see my kids for 4+ hours a week and 2 hours at a time, so I’m able to really bombard them with language related to our theme.  I figured I’d give you all a rundown on how I work on play and pragmatics with a specific theme. 

Playing With Baby Dolls

During circle time I like to go over the vocabulary and have each child repeat the vocabulary we are targeting that week.  Preschoolers=visuals, so I have this visual(freebie!) below to talk about all the things we can do with the targeted toy.  I also bring the toy into circle time and show them how to play with the toy properly.

 

Once we’ve practiced how to play with the toy in a more structured, facilitated environment, then we go to free play with the toy.  I have seen a lot of carryover of the skills taught into these play sessions.  The first time a child has a successful interaction with a peer and they see the importance of these interactions it's amazing! During the free play time I like it to be more controlled by me (I’m an SLP after all) and I do that by having a focused activity. 

  

Bathe the baby

I usually grab our sensory bins, some soap, a rubber ducky or two and a towel and let the kids go at it with baby bath time.  I purposefully only have one baby doll to use so that they have to take turns and work together to give the baby a bath.  This is also a wonderful opportunity to work on receptive language through identification of body parts and following directions.  Kids love to play with water plain and simple, so I generally hear a lot of spontaneous language during these types of activities.   

Diapering the baby

Warning: This activity gets pretty messy (but super fun!).  I have gotten over the whole, “Let’s keep my classroom spotless.” idea that used to inhabit my brain.  That is good with this activity, because baby powder gets everywhere (at least it smells good).  I let the kids go to town with the baby powder, lotion and wipes.  Let me tell you they love this activity (especially the boys).  Again this is a wonderful opportunity for turn-taking, team work, inhibition, receptive language etc. 


Some additional activities that are fun to do are painting with baby bottles.

Put paint in a baby bottle and then the kids can shake and squeeze to get the paint on the paper.

Make a sock baby.

All you need is a sock, ribbon, stuffing and sharpies.  This is a great take-home so kids can take it home and parents can help carryover those play skills at home.

Find those directions here.

What I’ve come to learn is you can’t force friendships with children just like you can’t as an adult.  So to help children understand the importance of friendships you have to create fun and engagement between them.  Pragmatics is one of the most important aspects of our job as an SLP.  We want our children to be social butterflies and have friends and successful social interactions.  Play is the way to get that start.  It’s not only a very important part of what we do, it’s an essential part of what we do.  It’s also pretty fun and entertaining too.

Check out my “How To Play With Cars” post here.

February Feature: A New Kind of Social Story

It's finally February! I'm kicking of my month of guest posts! 10 posts from my favorite bloggers, full of information about a variety of speech and language topics!

Today I'm welcoming Nicole Allison of Speech Peeps! Nicole's posts always draw my eye. She loves to incorporate EBP and is inspiring me to incorporate more into my posts too! Please welcome Nicole as she gives us some ideas for updating from the traditional social story! 

Social Stories. I love them.  In my experience, when a student exhibits behaviors, speech therapists are often pulled in to consult with.  Let’s admit it; we know a little something about behavior.  We know that often, a child exhibits behaviors because they can’t communicate.

Enter: The Social Story.  If you know me by now, you know that I like to include the research that backs up why I do what I do.  According to Adams and VanLue (2004), using social stories was found to be a beneficial tool in decreasing frustration behaviors.  For more information on social stories click HERE .

Like a lot of speech therapists, I was using Boardmaker to write social stories-which is great.

However, I recently went to a conference by Jamie Harding (The University of Akron-my home school :-)), which showed me how you can use your iPad to create social stories-which is even better.  

Here is how I’ve been using my iPad for kids with behaviors, social deficits, or kids just needing a visual:

1.     The iPad Video Social Story.

You will need a video editing app for this. I use iMovie  which sells for $4.99. There are also free apps like Vimeo and Video Editor Free.

Here are 3 easy steps!

1.     Record the student doing an appropriate behavior. Here is the beauty-you may give as many prompts as needed!

2.     Edit the video to take out all of the prompts.

3.     Email the video to the teacher and have the student watch himself doing the behavior independently.  This greatly increases the student’s confidence of being able to do it!

Below I will describe one that I made (I would love to show you but for confidential reasons, I can’t).

I had a little guy who was very reluctant to do anything in the classroom without the help of his aid.  His teacher and I consulted on what she wanted to see him do independently.  Then, his aid and I walked him through putting his book bag in his cubby, retrieving his pencil and going up to the smart board to answer a question, all while I recorded him.

Here’s my favorite part- I took out all of my prompting.  It literally looks like he is doing everything by himself!  You can also record over the sound and add your own voice.   “At school, Joe is able to do things all by himself….He is able to put his book in his cubby all by himself…Joe is very good at answering questions.  He is able to go to the smart board and answer questions all by himself… Joe is great at doing things all by himself.

Finally, just for fun,  I added some hip music in the background (which you are able to do with iMovie) and it looked and sounded like a mini movie of my student doing things all by himself!  I emailed it to the teacher and she shows it to him on a regular basis.

The result? …. He has gained a ton of confidence and is starting to do things independently!

Another social video I did was for my high school social group.  The teacher and I planned to take them on an outing to a buffet.  As you know, a food buffet has a lot of unspoken social rules…

How much food do I take?   Do I use the same plate?   How many times can I go back up for more food?

To help with the experience, the teacher and I set up a look-alike buffet in the teacher’s lounge.  We then walked the students through getting a plate, picking up food, going to another table, etc. I then edited out all the prompts and (again) set it to some cool high school music.  The kids loved watching themselves at the buffet!  And…it helped to prepare them for the real thing.

I know what you’re thinking….How do I have time for this?!  I thought the same thing, but after making your first video, you become familiar with the process and it becomes a snap.  Now, creating a social movie actually takes me less time that writing a social story...and it is much more meaningful to the students.

2.     Comic Strip Social Story

Another way to create a social story using the iPad is by downloading Strip Designer for $2.99.  With this app, you can create social stories that resemble comic strips. This app allows you to add photos, speech balloons and stickers.  You can also paint on the photos or draw your own pictures.  And of course, you may then email the story to teachers or students.

Here is one I created for a little guy that needed reminders on how to play a board game:

I love making things visual for my kiddos. It’s proven to work and I’m seeing the results with my students.  As professionals, we need to keep adapting our ways to fit our students’ needs.  I hope you gained some fresh ideas would love to hear how you are using your iPad with students!

Thanks again!

Nicole Allison 

St. Patrick's Day Feelings {Freebie}

Happy Friday!

If you're buzzing over from the new SpeechieFreebies site, welcome! I can't wait to see all the good things that come from this collaboration. We 10 SLP's have been so excited to share it with you! And we're especially thankful for Jessica for organizing a space for us to collaborate!

Today I'm sharing a St. Patrick's Day feelings freebie.

 These sweet shamrocks have 10 different faces expressing emotions!

Use the cards for a variety of activities for children with social pragmatic deficits! Grab the freebie over at TPT.

You can grab the freebie over at TPT. While you're there, fill up your wish-list for Sunday's big sale!

Valentine's Day Grammar & Social Skills

Just popping in to share the LOVE! Valentine's Day activities full of love are ready for you to pick up if you need them!

My Valentine's Day Grammar packet features many SWEET animal friends and 6 grammar activities. These are my most frequently used objectives. The document is 37 pages in length. Find it here on TPT. Scroll down for a sneak peek! 

Puppy Love:  Pronouns (60 cards) Fill in the blanks with the correct pronoun. Add puppy pieces to the dog scenes, but watch out for the love sick cards!

I Stinkin’ Love You: Irregular Verb Cards  (20 cards) Each card contains a sentence. Students must choose the correct answer to fill in the blank. They may keep their card on the box of chocolates if they answer correctly. 

 ‘Toad’ally in love: Irregular Plurals (24 cards) Students read each card. Find the two frogs that match for the regular and  irregular plurals. Use each in a sentence.

Robot iLove: Subject/Verb Agreement (18 cards) Students read the sentences and fill in the blanks with is/are. Sort the robots onto the correct square.

Love Bugs: HAVE/HAS Cards  (18 cards) Students read the sentence on the card and fill in the blank with HAVE or HAS. Then sort the bugs onto the right leaf. 

Guppy Love:  WAS/WERE cards (18 cards) Students draw a card. Read the sentence and fill in the blank with the correct past tense form of ‘to be.’ Sort the card onto the correct bowl. 

Find the grammar set in my TPT store! 

The social packet is 29 pages in length and includes 4 different activities. Many activities are appropriate for elementary student. There is a level 2 set of problem solving questions that are appropriate for middle school and high school students. 

Social Problem Solving Level 1: Ages 5 & up (24 cards, blank cards, 2 mats) Print a cup or envelope for each student. Students collect cards for their mat by answering questions. If they answer appropriately, they keep the card. The student with the most cards is the winner. Targets: Classroom Behavior, Politeness, Initiating Conversation, Apologizing, Spatial Awareness, Interrupting, Reads Nonverbal Language

Social Problem Solving Level 1: Ages 12 & up (24 cards, blank cards, 2 mats) Print a cup or envelope for each student. Students collect cards for their mat by answering questions. If they answer appropriately, keep the card. The student with the most cards is the winner. Targets: Classroom Behavior, Bullying, Sarcasm, Dating, Compliments, Peer Pressure

Continuing Conversations: (18 cards, blank cards, game board) Cut and laminate all cards. Place them next to the game board. On each turn, pull one card. Read the speaker and the statement. Determine how you would respond to that comment or question. If you answer correctly, move your piece on the game board. The first person to the end of the board is the winner. Watch out for the ‘Love Sick’ spaces, which send you back to start. Targets: Classroom Behavior, Bullying, Sarcasm, Dating, Compliments, Peer Pressure

Expected & Unexpected Behavior: (18 cards, blank cards, 2 mats) Students draw cards and decided if that behavior is expected or unexpected. Sort the cards onto the corresponding envelope. 

You can find it on my TPT Store! Here! 

Don't miss the SLP sale. Everything in my store will be 20% off.

Check out the updated list of 81 different SLP stores on my RESOURCE LIST HERE.

I've got my cart full!