ACQ Vol 10 No 1 2008

M y T op 10 R esources Bronwyn Macey

boards, and barrier games. The possibilities with this software are only limited by your imagination (and of course IT skills) (www.mayer-johnson.com). 3 eLr

CanDo4Kids – Townsend House is a 133-year-old organisation based in Adelaide that supports South Australian children with sensory impairments. Launched in 2005 the speech pathology department is a quite recent addition to the services offered. It currently employs two full-time speech pathologists to provide services for children with hearing impairments, vision impairments and auditory processing disorder. Therapy resources can vary substantially between these different client groups depending on the severity of the impairment and, of course, age of the child. However, some resources are used across the board. In 2006 I commenced a 3-year training regime to become certified as an auditory-verbal therapist. Since early 2007 my caseload has become entirely children with hearing impairments, predominantly under the age of 6 years, so while I have tried to provide a list of therapy resources that are used across the different impairment categories, my focus is on resources for hearing impairment therapy.

Another computer program, eLr (Extra-Language Resources) is an internet-based program clinicians can subscribe to; it provides access to a comprehensive assortment of on-screen activities for targeting different aspects of listening, speech and language. Although incorporation into a therapy sessions takes a little extra time and a laptop, the children are highly motivated to participate in these bright and colourful click and/or drag games. Again, the application of each game is restricted only by the clinician’s creativity. A particular asset of having a subscription is the ability of the clinician to prescribe homework activities for the parent to practise with their child at home. With a home con­ nection to the internet, parents can sign in as guests and access the particular activities selected by the therapist. These games also assist hand–eye coordination and the use of a mouse. We have had children as young as 3 years of age use these activities successfully (ELR

1 People

A whole family (including grandma and grandpa) of manipulable people is invaluable in my therapy. They are a great tool across the age span to begin with body parts, clothing, and verbs early on, and progress to pragmatic judgement and role-playing at school age. I really like little wooden people with wire bodies as they can be bent into great action postures. 2 Boardmaker

Software Pty Ltd – www.elr.com.au). 3 Experiences books (scrapbook)

Boardmaker is a computer program produced by Mayer-Johnson which allows the clinician to tailor therapy resources for the client at the click of a few buttons. I use it to make simple games (with specifically selected vocabulary) such as bingo, memory and go fish, as well as schedule boards, nursery rhyme story

I have integrated using experiences books into my therapy recently, which is brilliant for targeting discourse level language but is also great for embedding speech targets. The child is given a scrapbook in which they are required to draw pictures or paste photos or other items in order to help them recount an experience

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ACQ uiring knowledge in speech , language and hearing , Volume 10, Number 1 2008