ACQ Vol 10 No 1 2008

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ACQuiring knowledge in speech , language and hearing, Volume 10, Number 1 2008 29
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
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
My Top 10 Resources
Bronwyn Macey
boards, and barrier games. The possibilities with this
software are only limited by your imagination (and of
course IT skills) ).
3 eLr
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
Software Pty Ltd – ).
3 Experiences books (scrapbook)
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
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.