Merry Christmas! I’m spending this week with my husband’s family in Connecticut. I’m posting a few of my favorite blog posts in case you missed them during this time. I’ll be back after the Holidays with some more (finally) cuing posts as well as a THREE YEAR blogging celebration in January. Check back for some awesome prizes and fun contests.
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My son has recently started to make little books on his own. He writes “words” in them or sometimes copies words that he has seen and illustrates them. Last week, I went to pick him up from childcare and saw that he had made a book that was sitting on the counter. I asked him if he had made book and he looked at me sulkily and said, “Yes, but Miss Sharon said I can’t take it home because I used too much paper.” He used 5 pieces of paper to make his story-but he only drew on half of the paper for each sheet. My dilemma is that I don’t want to be the helicopter parent that solves problems or tries to contradict the teacher all the time. As we were getting his coat on, I tried to help him problem solve solutions. We ended up deciding that we could bring in 5 pieces of paper and then take his book home. This is only the second “book” he’d written and I wanted to read it! Here’s what was a little heartbreaking for me. You have a child (a boy nonetheless) who is starting to write his own stories-what a great early literacy step! Is paper consumption really the lesson that we want to be teaching him? Plus, I pay almost 900 dollars per month so you’d think I could get 5 sheets of paper as a bonus.
As professionals working with children, our words are powerful. As parents to our children, our words are powerful. As adults in the community, our words are powerful. It’s easy to forget this as we need to share information with others. But we can choose how we frame our thoughts-and we can choose what we want to communicate to the children and students with whom we work.
The second thing I try to do is to take time to provide feedback or comment on my client’s strengths. I always have a list of strengths in my evaluation reports (attention to task, willingness to interact, imitation abilities etc.) I try to comment on my client’s strengths during our sessions. I read a book awhile ago which suggested using phrases like “I’m proud FOR you” instead of “I’m proud OF you” to help children internalize their own sense of accomplishment versus relying on other’s praise. I try to use it sometimes but it does sound a little awkward when you are trying to say it.
Sometimes these are strengths that we use in the therapy room, but often they are strengths that the child may exhibit in other areas. I might say something like, “Wow, you really like to build legos. I bet you have really good visual spatial skills.” Or “I noticed that you can talk a lot about computer chips, you seem to have a really good memory for details.”
This is one of my preaching to the choir Soapbox’s. As Speech language Pathologists, we tend to be an observant, caring group of professionals who takes time to learn each child’s strengths and weaknesses.
How about you? What tips do you use to communicate with parents and your students? Would you have taken the story home or left it at school to teach respect for your teachers? Let me know by commenting below. As always, I appreciate anyone who takes the time to share these posts with other’s on Pinterest or Facebook.
