A Birthday 5 ways...

We LOVE birthdays @amyoconnellslpservices. A few weeks back, 5 (yes, FIVE!!) clients celebrated a birthday within the same week. If you know anything about me, I LOVE tiny toys... You may not know that I also LOVE the challenge of taking one game or activity and modifying it to meet the needs of multiple clients across a range of therapy goals. With 5 birthdays in a single week, you can bet that my mind was on "birthday theme" as I opened my #tinytoys bucket to prep for sessions. Here is what I came up with :)

As various (tiny toy) guests arrived for the birthday party, one client worked on rate, rhythm, and intonation while wishing monkey and bunny a happy birthday.

Another client practiced repetitive lip closure while working through the sentence “Happy Birthday Bunny” and “Happy Birthday Monkey”... Given the number of #tinytoy guests arriving at this virtual party, the practice opportunities were many!!!

To practice some #socialthinking skills, one client worked to develop a group plan for the birthday party and then made sure that all #tinytoy guests stayed in the group. This same client practiced identifying the #sizeoftheproblem when birthday planning didn’t quite go as planned.

For the birthday boy working on “r”, the #tinytoy guest list was filled with /r/ targets... Monster, Raccoon, Rabbit, Dinosaur, and Iron Man all arrived carrying presents filled with gifts containing the /r/ sound. Can you say “thank you for the rooster, Iron Man” five times fast?

Finally, a young client working to improve a pattern of dropping final sounds from words, practiced various consonant-vowel-consonant words as monkey and bunny opened presents containing things such as a cub, a net, a fan, a boat, a hat, a boot, and a top. Lots of presents meant lots of opportunities for practice.

While the session set-up didn’t change much for me that week, the therapy targets certainly did. Challenging myself to adapt a task to address individual learning styles and goals is one of my favourite professional challenges! And of course, who doesn’t LOVE a good birthday party? :)

#playbasedslp #amyoconnellslp #learningthroughplay #imagination #becreative #tinytoys #socialthinking #articulation #childhoodapraxiaofspeech #phonology #pediatricslp