AG Bell Parent Advocacy Training

agbell.org offers a free Parent Advocacy Training to prepare parents for an IEP meeting. Parents can complete the 1 1/2 hour course on the computer. It offers legal information of the school systems responsibilities and information on the parents' role in creating and implementing an IEP. It is clear, easy to understand, and offers examples and videos of IEP meetings. Below is the course decription.

Description
After completing the P.A.T. program, parents will have a basic understanding of education law and how to negotiate appropriate applications to help develop an effective Individual Education Program (IEP) plan. P.A.T. also features actual demonstrations on how IEP meetings are conducted. Make sure you know your rights when working with your child’s school district so that everyone comes out a winner – especially your child.

Objectives
•Know the Law
•Know Your Rights Under the Law
•Know How to Use the Law to Advocate for Your Child’s Educational Needs
•Know How to Secure Ongoing Support and Services for Your Child

Confidence

As a mom of a child with a disability, I need to be aware of Brooke's self-confidence. I want her to be able to stand up for herself, self-advocate, and not think of her hearing loss as a weakness.

I need to be careful of how I talk with my 3 children. Making statements such as "Brooke can't hear because it is too noisy in here" or "Say it loud enough for Brooke to hear" are just constant reminders that hearing is hard for Brooke. It is better to make listening a family issue instead of a Brooke-issue. Saying things like "It is hard to hear someone from far away, please move closer" or "It's hard to listen when it is this noisy" or "Everyone should be looking at the person speaking" put the focus on the issue of listening instead of on Brooke's disbability.

I need to remind myself of this often and think before I speak!

Yucky!

Using a gallon size Ziploc bag, create a monster. I printed this monster from The Listening Room. To play, gather 12-20 itsy-bitsy miniatures; they can be food items, vehicles, clothing, etc since monsters eat just about everything. Play and "I Spy" type game by saying, "I see something yummy to eat....." and give a description of one of the itsy-bitsy miniatures.

Once your child finds the item, pretend to but mustard or ketchup or BBQ sauce on it and eat it up by placing it in the monster's mouth. Then let your child have a turn to describe an item.

Brooke had some great descriptions today. For French Fries she said, "You hold it with your fingers, it is red and yellow." She described the ice cream cone by saying, "It is white and brown and has a cone." I thought those where great descriptions!

Answering questions about a story

objective:

a. to listen to 5-6 sentences and answer a who, what, why, where question without visual clues


Points to remember:

1. In therapy, her teacher reads the pages, asks the questions and then shows her the picture after she answers the question but a home that doesn't work. Brooke wants to see the pictures and says, "No questions for Brooke" if I try to read without her seeing the pictures. So, at home, She looks at the pictures while I read and I'll ask her a question that she can't find the answer in pictures - which makes it a little harder for mommy!

2. Browse the books in the library that you think will work best for your family. I usually check out about 5-6 books each week.


Lesson:

1. Look at the front cover of the book.

and ask some pre-reading questions: Where is the title? What do you think the book is about? What do you see in the illustrations?

2. The first page reads: There's a cow in the road! And it sure is a shock when I first wake up at seven o'clock. I asked Brooke, "What time did she wake up?"

3. Another page reads: He's twitching his tail and tossing his mane. He's a handsome horse But a little bit vain. "I asked What kind of horse is he?"

4. There's a pig in the road! At the end of the line As I gobble my toast at seven thirty-nine. I asked, "What did she eat for breakfast?"

5. There's a crowd in the road! And it sure feels good To wait all together in our neighborhood. I asked, "Why are they waiting?"

Modifications:

1. Try to do this will all the books you read. You don't need to ask a question on every page, but do remember to ask a few to make sure your child is LISTENING to the story but just looking at the pictures.

Rhythm repeat

This is a great activity to help your child learn to listen:

Clap a rhythm and ask your child to imitate it. Start with a simple 3 clap rhythm; do a variety of them. Then try some 4 or 5 clap rhythms. Try doing it with your backs to each other so she can not see you clap. You will probably be impressed with what you child is able to imitate. This will help with auditory discrimination and phonics as your child starts to put sounds together to read or write words. And it is a fun activity to fit into your everyday routines to help your child learn to listen!

Funny Voices

Here is an easy auditory activity to play with your child:

Talk to your child and let her talk back to you in different intensities of voice: softer, louder and with different intonations.

Just use common everyday phrases:
1. "Would you like some orange juice with your waffle?" spoken in a whisper
2. "Look at the beautiful white blossoms on the tree near the car" spoken like you are singing
3. "Don't forget your backpack." spoken like an opera star

This is so much fun and your child will have fun listening. Encourage her to say some things really loud or with funny intonations.

A great travel time activity that promotes learning in the everyday!

Q, R, S, T, U, V, W, X, Y, Z

For more letter lunches:
Find B-I here and Find J - P here

Qq lunch included a quesadilla with salsa, quiche, question mark sandwich with letter Q Cheeze-Its and a Q sugar cookie. The note is addressed to Qt pie!

Rr lunch was a rectangle (cheese filled cracker), raisins, Ritz, Roll-up, raspberries and rainbow Skittles.

Ss lunch was Super with an S-sandwich, salad, strawberries, Snickers, Spongebob Square Pants cake decoration, and strawberry milk.

Tt lunch is Terrific: tuna and tortilla chips, turkey roll-up, tangerines, and tomatoes.

Uu lunch is u-noodles, umbrella made from bread, cheese and a candy cane, pineapple upside-down cake yogurt, carrots under an umbrella, cookies under an umbrella, and saltines with the letter U drawn with food markers.

Vv lunch included vegetables, veggie chips, V-sandwich, vanilla wafers (rectangles and circles) and vanilla pudding.

Ww lunch was wonderful with waffles, whales (really Goldfish, but close enough, worms, watermelon, white beans, and water to drink.

Xx lunch was a xylophone with a mallet, pretzel in an "x" shape and "carrots" in an x shape - that was a hard letter!

Yy lunch was Yummy! There was yogurt with strawberries, a Y sandwich, yellow lemon-heads, a York peppermint patty, and yellow pineapple chunks.

Zz lunch is zucchini frattata, zucchini muffins, a Zebra cake (Little Debbie's zebra cakes), a Z toast, and a bunch of zoo animal crackers.

For more letter lunches:

Find B-I here and Find J - P here

1,2,3 Listen

Objective:

a. to listen to a short sentence then pick the appropriate picture from a worksheet

b. listen and understand recorded voice.

c. We used this site to download the audio file and the worksheet: Body Parts

Points to Remember:
1. Download the "What's Wrong" audio file. You will need Windows Media Player to listen.

2. Then print off the included worksheet. I choose the worksheet with 2 answer choices but there are others such as 3 answer choices or connect the answer to the picture. I felt the 2 choices was an appropriate one for Brooke.

Lesson:
1. Tell your child that you are going to listen to some sentences on the computer and then ask her to show you a picture about the sentences she heard.

2. I used 2 envelopes so Brooke could only see the 2 pictures that we were working on.

3. Play the audio file. There is a pause button to stop it in between the questions.

The first questions states: "I have a cut on my arm." "What happened?" "I fell off my bike."
Once your child listens, pause the audio file. Ask your child to point to the picture that shows what the people were talking about.

Your child should point to the picture of the arm. If not, rewind the audio file and listen again.

4. Continue with the other 10 questions. Brooke was able to get about 4 of the 10 by listening the first time, a few we listened to twice, and a few she didn't get at all.

Modifications:
1. You can make up sentences yourself if you prefer not to use the recorded voices. Recorded voices are more difficult so make sure your child is ready.
2. There are lots of other topic choices such as transportation, weather, feelings, daily routines, Halloween, and more. We will be doing more of these too!

Silly Mistakes - Phonemic Awareness - Step 1

Silly Mistakes

We said some nursery rhymes by replacing a word with another word. For example, Jack and Jill went up the pickle. Today we are going to say the words in the in the wrong order such as The first little pig built a straw of house and ask your child to catch your error! (Silly mom or dad.)
For example:
1. Hey, Diddle Diddle the cat in the fiddle,
the dish ran away with the spoon
The cow jumped over the moon
The little dog laughed to see such a sight
2. One, two buckle my shoe,
three, four shut the door
nine, ten, a big fat hen
five, six pick up sticks
seven, eight lay them straight
3. Hickory, Dickory Dock
The mouse ran up the clock
The clock struck one
Hickory Dickory Dock
The mouse ran down

These are quick and easy to do! We did them while we were walking across the parking lot to Target. Your child should say, "That is not right." or "No, it is this way." to show she noticed the mistakes. Play often!

123 Listening

objective:
a: to listen and understand single words on a computer
b. to point to the correct answer with two options

Points to Remember:
1. Download the audio file and the "choose from 2 pictures" worksheet from the 123 Listening website. There are other options such as choose from 3 pictures or matching numbers to picture worksheets if you need to make the activity more challenging for your child

Lesson:
1. Tell your child that today you are going to listen to a word on the computer. When you hear the work, point to a picture of it on the paper. I covered up all the other questions except for number 1 so that Brooke was not looking at the entire page but only number 1.

2. Play the audio file. For number 1, it says "arm". you child should then point to the picture of the arm on the worksheet. The audio file says the word only one time; there were a few times that I needed to go back a play the file again.

3. This was a little frustrating for Brooke. She would say, "I didn't hear it." with a pitiful look on her face. We only did up to #8 and then stopped. She need 3 of them repeated and on #3 after 2 repeats of the word "finger", I said it for her and she was able to get it.

4. I also did this with Brooke's twin sister Kate who has normal hearing. She was able to complete all #10 questions without repeating or having difficulty. So, I know that Brooke is developmentally able to do it and we will continue to practice.

Five Little Chicks

objective:

a. to answer questions about a simple story

b. to listen to the story on a recorded device with background noise


Points to Remember:
1. Brooke spent time listening and answer questions about a story. Then we started listening to a story on a cassette tape; now we are listening to the story on a cassette tape with background noise. This required that Brooke really begins to focus on her listening skills.

2. Record your voice reading the book. Remember to pause after each page since you will be pausing the tape after each page.


Lesson:

1. Listen to one page at a time without allowing your child to see the pictures in the book.

2. Ask a question. For this book, there was a different object that the chicks were looking at such as: a bug, a butterfly, a strawberry.

3. Ask, what did the chicks see?

4. Once your child answers, show her the page in the look.

5. Rewind the tape and listen again if necessary.


Modification:

1. There are lots of children's books on CD/cassette. Most have background noise such as music or sound effects. These will work great.

2. Extend the lesson into a fun craft or snack. We make a chick out of a left-over Easter egg!

Silly Mistakes - Phomenic Awareness - Step 1

Silly Mistakes Read a familiar poem or story . . . but make any kind of Silly Mistake that will be obvious to your child. For example, You might replace a word with nonsense: Jack and Jill went up the pickle or say the words in the wrong order: The first little pig built a straw of house or even swap sounds: The clock struck one, The mouse ran down, Dickory, Hickory, Hock Ask your child to catch your error! (Silly mom or dad.)

Today we replaced words to practice our listening:
1. Humpty Dumpty sat on a chair
2. Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall, humpty Dumpty had a great fall, all the king's horses and all the king's monkeys, couldn't put Humpty together again.
3. Old Mother Hubbard went to the refrigerator to give her poor doggie a bone
4. Old Mother Hubbard went to the cupboard to give her poor doggie a bone, but when she got there the cupboard was bare, so the poor kitty had none.
5. Little Miss Brooke sat on a tuffet
6. Little Miss Muffet sat on a tuffet, eating her applesauce, along came a squirrell and sat down beside her and firghtened Miss Muffet away.

We had so much fun with this activity!

Here are some Christmas Silly Mistakes we did in December.

/d/ and /g/ initial sounds

Objective:
a. to practice sounds with the same place
b. /b/, /d/, and /g/

Points to remember:
1. The sounds /b/, /d/, and /g/ are very similar. When you make the sound the only difference is where you make the sound. Try it! The /b/ is made with your lips, the /d/ is make with the tongue, and the /g/ is made back of the tongue
2. It may be difficult for your child to hear the difference in the sounds and/or to make the sounds correctly.

Lesson:
1. Practice making some non-sense words first. Ask your child to repeat after you.
baa dee
goo bay
die boo
bye gee
doo gay
2. Then add repeated sounds such as
baa baa dee
goo goo bay
die die boo
bye bye gee
doo doo gay
3. Once mastered try the sounds alternating:
baa dee baa
goo bay goo
die boo die
bye goo bye
doo gay doo
4. Then 3 sounds repeated, such as
baa baa dee dee
goo goo bay bay
die die boo boo
bye bye goo goo
doo doo gay gay
5. Then alternate those sounds - this is where is gets difficult for Brooke
baa dee baa dee
goo bay goo bay
die boo die boo
bye goo bye goo
doo gay doo gay
6. Practicing this speech babble with your child will help her to hear and remember a series of sounds. So that when she hears a word that is new to her, she will be able to remember it and repeat it. It also helps her to practice making sounds correctly
7. Here is a sheet we found that we have been practicing with since Brooke has some difficulty with /d/ and /g/ sounds.

D-G Sequencing Sheet

Modifications:

1. Other sounds with place differences are /p/, /t/, and /k/ as well as /m/ and /n/ and /f/ and /s/. Listen to your child and see if she struggles with these sounds - then make sure to practice!