ACQ Vol 10 No 1 2008

they had in the time period since the last therapy session. Drawing is great but it’s also exciting for the children to glue in movie ticket stubs, birthday cards, or sports day ribbons, etc. It is particularly good for targeting past tense language. It ensures a parent–child language activity is completed at home as I ask to see what they’ve been up to at the beginning of every session. Sometimes we draw what we’ve done for the therapy session so the child can go home and tell the other parent about it. I also have my own experiences book that I draw and glue pictures in to steer the child towards a certain therapy goal. For example, a picture of a visit to the beach can target beach vocabulary, irregular past tense verbs (swam, ran, rode, etc.), or even word initial /b/ or word final “ch”. I have even had parents own an experiences book to help model past tense discourse. The children take great pride in their book (providing increased motivation) which they can share with extended family and friends. 5 Digital camera A picture is worth a thousand words (and language structures) and children love to look at pictures of themselves. In fact, they seem to enjoy looking at photos of just about anything familiar from their plate and spoon, to their bedroom or even their favourite shoes. With digital camera technology children can now see the snapshot immediately after it has been taken, making the task of the photography itself a language activity in addition to the activities designed once the shots are in printed form. With parental permission, the pictures of a role-play activity of one child can make up the picture sequencing cards for another child. 6 Box of everyday objects (shoe, sock, cup, toothbrush, spoon, ball, hat etc.) Working with little ones, a box of common objects is surprisingly useful for bringing everyday life into the therapy room. The items enable targeting of phrases related to everyday routines at the therapy table. Our therapy requires parental participation during the session and follow-up at home so theoretically all items inside must found in any typical household. 7 Colourful, empty bags and boxes

sensory impairment. The fact that my singing voice is not high quality is actually an asset too. If my voice was world class my therapy partners, the parents, would never feel confident about using theirs. Even children with hearing impairments are drawn to the supra­ segmentals of singing very early on in the development of audition and listening, so any singing, with or without actions or props should be exploited. 9 Wind-up toys

The array of wind-up toys available is enormous, from swimming Nemo fish and flipping monkeys, to a coin- stealing dog hiding inside his doghouse. Again highly motivating, these toys are handy for targeting tenses. Children can be required to predict what each toy might do, comment on what it is doing while in action, and then review exactly what each toy did. They are also great therapy savers to divert a child’s attention if

they become unsettled. 10 Orchard Games

While we only have a small collection of Orchard games, there is an enormous variety available, and the ones we do have get used very frequently. These colourful, interactive games are quite durable and very adaptable. Some examples are: ■ Washing Machine: great for clothing vocabulary as well as wet/dry, clean/dirty, and in/out concepts. The cards can be used in conjunction with the machine or as snap or memory cards. ■ Greedy Gorilla: This game is good for teaching manners as every time the gorilla burps (when you feed him a junk food card), everyone must say “Pardon” or “Excuse me.” It is also great for food and drink vocabulary, categories (vegetables, dessert, drinks, fruit), and healthy versus unhealthy foods. ■ Shopping List: This is a particular favourite. It can target food and shopping vocabulary but I have also used the Boardmaker software program to create shopping lists of items targeting a particular speech sound. Instead of shopping for toothpaste and apples we might go shopping for a sheep, a shell, a shoe and a shower (Orchard Toys – www.orchardtoys.com).

From my auditory-verbal training, I found it is of utmost importance that auditory input always precedes the visual. Therefore on top of generating intrigue, cute and interesting boxes and bags make the presentation

of a therapy item fun. 8 My singing voice

There is no such thing as too much singing for any child and this is especially true for children with a

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S peech P athology A ustralia