Helping Children Recover from Brain Injury
In my day to day life, I spend a lot of time with the four to eight year old crowd. And I have to tell you, despite what you may think about gender differences, or good parenting, or what is proper dinner conversation – poop – and all things poop and fart related, are universally funny to this age bracket.
Joey, I recently learned, is no exception. [Read more…]
When I arrived at Joey’s house a few Fridays ago, I was thrilled to find his seven year old cousin there with him. She could only stay for about ten minutes of our session, but it was one of the best, most targeted ten minutes I’ve seen from Joey.
Typically, when I first begin to work with Joey each session, he fills me in on random parts of his week. Sometimes I introduce a topic and he changes the subject to a preferred topic, or if he is really bored with me, he might begin exploring his words. I live with a five year old at my house, so while these behaviors are frustrating, I’m also 100% sure they are age appropriate. I find myself giving Joey reminders to stay on topic like I would with any five year old, or reminders that we can talk more after we do our work first. [Read more…]
Most of our parents don’t have to choose a language for us. We are automatically immersed in the language of our community, and that becomes the language we will take on as our own. We’ll use our parents’ words to communicate our wants and needs, socially connect, share ideas, and tell jokes. We may choose to learn another language, but our baseline communication is based on those around us.
For students who have difficulty accessing their community’s communication methods, their families are often left with choices. Families are left with decisions of how their child will access language, what methods the child will use, and who that child will be able to interact with while accessing that language. [Read more…]
Over my 16 years as an educator I’ve learned one valuable lesson: Never underestimate the power of a cute baby animal. This has proved true for working with angry five year olds who have difficulty regulating their emotions (somehow looking at pictures of baby animals can sometimes immediately cause a child to relax).
So a few years ago when I saw a Ready to Read pack of Zoo Born books I immediately grabbed it because I figured at some point there would be a student who would want to read them, or just look at the pictures. [Read more…]
Another fun book Joey and I recently discovered together was Stuck, by Oliver Jeffers. In its ridiculous plot, a boy’s kite gets stuck in the tree. To problem solve this he throws EVERYTHING into a tree – his cat, a boat, the fire department, etc. In the end he gets an ax… and throws it into the tree too. Luckily, the ax knocks the kite down (but leaves everything else at the top.) [Read more…]
