In addition to the strategy, I am including a monthly themed lesson plan. My current families with children who are twos or threes receive these monthly plans. Some children are also in a school program. Some children stay at home with parents and tele-practice is the only intervention/education they are using. Each family also receives Session Notes to follow up with our time on screen. These include observation, parent coaching and education, and next steps for each individual child. Enjoy and Season’s Greetings to all.
Expansion
(from Lesson Plans for Toddlers and Preschoolers)
Expansion: To increase the syntactic or grammatical structure a child uses spontaneously by correcting, adding, or extending elements within the child’s proximal zone of development.
An expansion incorporates all or part of a child’s utterance in a syntactically or semantically improved sentence (Cole, 2011). An expansion leads a child to the next language level without discouraging the child’s spontaneous use of language.
Like most auditory-verbal strategies, this strategy begins with listening. Both the adult and the child must listen for this to be effective. As the adults listen to the child, they will note errors in grammar or a short, but correct, structure. (They should not interrupt the child in the middle of a communication.) They should ask themselves, “What can I correct or what can I add here?” For example, if a child says, “I want eat goldfish,” they have missed using the infinitive form “to eat.” They are signaling that they are ready for this target. The adult should reflect the information back to the child to maintain interest and understanding. “Oh, I heard you. You want to eat goldfish. Can you tell me ‘I want to (acoustic highlighting) eat goldfish?’” Expect the child to repeat your model. If the child is unsuccessful, try again. If the child still cannot reproduce your model, say, “Nice try. You want to eat goldfish.” Listen for your next opportunity to expand an utterance to include the infinitive phrase.
What if the sentence is already correct? What if the child says, “I want to paint.” The adult might say, “Oh, I heard you. You want to paint. Do you want to paint with a sponge or with a brush?” The child chooses brush. The adult then says, “You want to paint with a brush. Can you tell me?” The child should repeat the model. If that is successful, praise, repeat, and move on. If the child is not successful, try a couple more times before praising the attempt, repeating the target and waiting for the next opportunity.
How do you know when and how to use this strategy?
The most important way is to listen carefully to what your child says. What structures do they use successfully? What do they use sometimes but sometimes omit or confuse? These are good targets. What is a logical “next step” for your child? The Teachers’ Assessment of Spoken Language (Moog and Biedenstein) is an easy way to examine your child’s language level. Level 1 is single words and 2-word combinations. Level 2 is simple sentences of 3 or more words. Level 3 is simple and complex sentences of 6 or more words. Level 4 is complex sentences of 8 or more words. Level 5 is very complex sentences of 10 or more words.
Typically hearing children are at Level 5 by age 5. What level do most of your child’s utterances fall into?
Work with your LSLS to determine which syntactical elements at that level are good targets before pushing up to the next level.
LESSON PLAN
Hear@PlayTM
Sessions for toddlers and preschoolers,
an excerpt from a series of plans developed by
Cynthia S. Robinson, M.Ed., CED, LSLS Cert. AVEd.
WeHearHere.org
Theme: Season’s Greetings
There is so much going on in December that is motivating to your child. It’s hard to choose what to work on. Focus on the power of your child’s interest. There will be neighborhood decorations, store displays, family traditions. Gathering, baking, decorating all provide opportunities to increase vocabulary and build listening and language skills. Get creative and have fun. There is no better time.
REMEMBER TO WORK IN YOUR CHILD’S PROXIMAL ZONE OF DEVELOPMENT. Start with what your child is doing successfully and push for one step up. Set specific goals for listening, for language and for vocabulary. Otherwise, your best intentions will get lost in the shuffle.
Please review the Planning for Parents’ section with every new set of plans. It helps to remember the basic strategies that always must be in place. Following these basics builds auditory memory, language structures, new vocabulary and pre-literacy skills.
I provide these plans especially to alert you to the material that is being covered in Auditory-Verbal/Listening and Spoken Language school programs. If your child were participating in such a school program, your child would be engaging in these activities all day, every day.
LESSON PLAN
Part 1 - Planning for Parents
Use your individual, follow-up notes from last session. If you need more help identifying specific targets for your planned centers or want to ask questions about the strategy, feel free to call or email me in advance. REMEMBER THAT YOUR GOAL IS NOT TO COMPLETE A PROJECT. YOUR GOAL IS TO USE THE ACTIVITIES TO BUILD LISTENING, LANGUAGE AND VOCABULARY.
Review below before each session.
LESSON PLAN
Part 2 - Parent and Child
1. Welcome and Hello Song
“Hello, _________ (child’s name). So nice to see you.” Repeat
(Wave and say “Hi” to each child. Try singing about yourself if you are not in a group. Say “Hi” to mommy, too. Try the hello song in front of a mirror.)
2. Music
Fun Songs: Youtube:
Need a 30 minute break? Go to Youtube and search “Our Favorite Christmas Songs” by Super Simple Songs. Your child will enjoy these songs and have an opportunity to practice listening and hear seasonal vocabulary. I love the “Hello Reindeer” song. It is simple enough to use for vocabulary learning. “Santa” set to Bingo tune is fun. The elf song has counting. “Where is Santa?” is great for preposition work. “Snowflakes Falling” is one of my favorites. (Spoiler Alert: We will be doing lots with snowmen in January, so I don’t focus on them in December.). We Wish You a Merry Christmas at the end, has great verb work and is fun to move to. Watch this video with your child and encourage singing along. Memorize a favorite or two for car rides or for when you need to redirect your child during the day.
3. Centers
Use an established play routine to start your center play. Items should be boxed or bagged, initially, and you should knock and open. You can take out one item, work on the request and the word label, and set it aside with a “Wait.” Continue to work through this introduction of items until you have enough items to engage in some interactive play. Make sure that you are creating some excitement as you open containers to remove toys or present materials. Say, “Hi” to any toys presented and “bye-bye” when you clean up.
4. Snack Demo and Snack Time
Snack Ideas: At school, we often play with food as a way to reinforce a theme and vocabulary and give another opportunity to listen and follow directions. Some children love making and eating all kinds of crazy things while some just play with their food and then ask for a cracker or cookie. You know best whether a themed snack will work with your child. Remember to consider all the vocabulary and language that can go into any snack activity. Slow down and use the power of snack treats to model as much vocabulary, listening and language as possible.
Snack Time - (Optional. Be prepared!)
5. Story Time
Please read daily. So Important! Visit the library, your local bookstore or Amazon! Check to see if your local library is doing a story time. That could be a good experience for your child. There are so many Christmas books. There are old favorites and new ones every year. Here are few good ones.
6. Closing with Good-Bye Song
Additional Craft Ideas: (Prepare cut-outs in advance or break each activity into several sessions.). Think about what strategies will work best for your targets.
Have fun. Review your targets. Ask yourself, “What skills did my child acquire (or demonstrate) during my activities.
Parent Review and Feedback? As always, I am here for you. Schedule and extra zoom session to get individual support!
Expansion
(from Lesson Plans for Toddlers and Preschoolers)
Expansion: To increase the syntactic or grammatical structure a child uses spontaneously by correcting, adding, or extending elements within the child’s proximal zone of development.
An expansion incorporates all or part of a child’s utterance in a syntactically or semantically improved sentence (Cole, 2011). An expansion leads a child to the next language level without discouraging the child’s spontaneous use of language.
Like most auditory-verbal strategies, this strategy begins with listening. Both the adult and the child must listen for this to be effective. As the adults listen to the child, they will note errors in grammar or a short, but correct, structure. (They should not interrupt the child in the middle of a communication.) They should ask themselves, “What can I correct or what can I add here?” For example, if a child says, “I want eat goldfish,” they have missed using the infinitive form “to eat.” They are signaling that they are ready for this target. The adult should reflect the information back to the child to maintain interest and understanding. “Oh, I heard you. You want to eat goldfish. Can you tell me ‘I want to (acoustic highlighting) eat goldfish?’” Expect the child to repeat your model. If the child is unsuccessful, try again. If the child still cannot reproduce your model, say, “Nice try. You want to eat goldfish.” Listen for your next opportunity to expand an utterance to include the infinitive phrase.
What if the sentence is already correct? What if the child says, “I want to paint.” The adult might say, “Oh, I heard you. You want to paint. Do you want to paint with a sponge or with a brush?” The child chooses brush. The adult then says, “You want to paint with a brush. Can you tell me?” The child should repeat the model. If that is successful, praise, repeat, and move on. If the child is not successful, try a couple more times before praising the attempt, repeating the target and waiting for the next opportunity.
How do you know when and how to use this strategy?
The most important way is to listen carefully to what your child says. What structures do they use successfully? What do they use sometimes but sometimes omit or confuse? These are good targets. What is a logical “next step” for your child? The Teachers’ Assessment of Spoken Language (Moog and Biedenstein) is an easy way to examine your child’s language level. Level 1 is single words and 2-word combinations. Level 2 is simple sentences of 3 or more words. Level 3 is simple and complex sentences of 6 or more words. Level 4 is complex sentences of 8 or more words. Level 5 is very complex sentences of 10 or more words.
Typically hearing children are at Level 5 by age 5. What level do most of your child’s utterances fall into?
Work with your LSLS to determine which syntactical elements at that level are good targets before pushing up to the next level.
LESSON PLAN
Hear@PlayTM
Sessions for toddlers and preschoolers,
an excerpt from a series of plans developed by
Cynthia S. Robinson, M.Ed., CED, LSLS Cert. AVEd.
WeHearHere.org
Theme: Season’s Greetings
There is so much going on in December that is motivating to your child. It’s hard to choose what to work on. Focus on the power of your child’s interest. There will be neighborhood decorations, store displays, family traditions. Gathering, baking, decorating all provide opportunities to increase vocabulary and build listening and language skills. Get creative and have fun. There is no better time.
REMEMBER TO WORK IN YOUR CHILD’S PROXIMAL ZONE OF DEVELOPMENT. Start with what your child is doing successfully and push for one step up. Set specific goals for listening, for language and for vocabulary. Otherwise, your best intentions will get lost in the shuffle.
Please review the Planning for Parents’ section with every new set of plans. It helps to remember the basic strategies that always must be in place. Following these basics builds auditory memory, language structures, new vocabulary and pre-literacy skills.
I provide these plans especially to alert you to the material that is being covered in Auditory-Verbal/Listening and Spoken Language school programs. If your child were participating in such a school program, your child would be engaging in these activities all day, every day.
LESSON PLAN
Part 1 - Planning for Parents
Use your individual, follow-up notes from last session. If you need more help identifying specific targets for your planned centers or want to ask questions about the strategy, feel free to call or email me in advance. REMEMBER THAT YOUR GOAL IS NOT TO COMPLETE A PROJECT. YOUR GOAL IS TO USE THE ACTIVITIES TO BUILD LISTENING, LANGUAGE AND VOCABULARY.
Review below before each session.
- Parent Goals: As always: establish joint attention; provide purposeful interaction; establish a play routine that enables you to keep some power to encourage vocalization. Think about the songs you sing, the fingerplays and chants you do and encourage your child to fill in word approximations, words or phrases as you provide WAIT TIME at the end of a line or phrase. Use an expectant look and/or gesture to indicate you expect a response. Point to your ear and praise vocalization. Expand your child’s skills by providing an improved model for them to imitate. Remember: They must attempt to repeat it back to you.
- Goals for child: As always: joint attention and participation in activity. Work to slow the pace of your child’s play routine to provide optimal time for listening and language. Make sure your child fills in your pauses with babble, jargon, word approximations, words or phrases, either spontaneously or using your model. Make sure your child is building vocabulary by listening for labels, practicing new words in daily life, vocabulary drill, stories and games.
- Review the strategy and demonstrate a play routine with parent-selected activity in advance if desired. (I am just a zoom away.)
LESSON PLAN
Part 2 - Parent and Child
1. Welcome and Hello Song
“Hello, _________ (child’s name). So nice to see you.” Repeat
(Wave and say “Hi” to each child. Try singing about yourself if you are not in a group. Say “Hi” to mommy, too. Try the hello song in front of a mirror.)
2. Music
Fun Songs: Youtube:
Need a 30 minute break? Go to Youtube and search “Our Favorite Christmas Songs” by Super Simple Songs. Your child will enjoy these songs and have an opportunity to practice listening and hear seasonal vocabulary. I love the “Hello Reindeer” song. It is simple enough to use for vocabulary learning. “Santa” set to Bingo tune is fun. The elf song has counting. “Where is Santa?” is great for preposition work. “Snowflakes Falling” is one of my favorites. (Spoiler Alert: We will be doing lots with snowmen in January, so I don’t focus on them in December.). We Wish You a Merry Christmas at the end, has great verb work and is fun to move to. Watch this video with your child and encourage singing along. Memorize a favorite or two for car rides or for when you need to redirect your child during the day.
3. Centers
Use an established play routine to start your center play. Items should be boxed or bagged, initially, and you should knock and open. You can take out one item, work on the request and the word label, and set it aside with a “Wait.” Continue to work through this introduction of items until you have enough items to engage in some interactive play. Make sure that you are creating some excitement as you open containers to remove toys or present materials. Say, “Hi” to any toys presented and “bye-bye” when you clean up.
- Decorate a tree: It’s time to break out last year’s paper or box tree or make a new one. Your tree should be about 36 inches high. It can be a laminated version on a wall or window or a painted, stacking- box version. Make some paper ornaments of different colors. I like to use Velcro dots for ease of adding and subtracting. You can add vocabulary pictures to them as well. You might have a green ornament with a reindeer and a red ornament with a reindeer. By having a pair, you have made cards that can be used in a variety of ways including listening for critical elements. You can also make some “gifts” to put under the tree. Lots of opportunities to work all your targets from session notes.
- Continued Sensory Table: If you do sensory play, think about including safe ornaments and other decorative items in a tray of your favorite filler. This is a way to reinforce seasonal vocabulary and work on language and listening targets from your notes. Good for question/answer work.
- Toy Store: Set up a little table with some toys on display. Add gift bags to package purchases. Put out a toy cash register if you have one. Talk about shopping in a way that connects with your child’s experience. Use a store name or show a familiar logo such as the Target’s bull’s eye to help them connect. Practice sentences such as, “What do you want to buy? I want to buy a ____. Thank you for helping me. Come back soon.
- Building: Use blocks to stack into a tree shape. Give your child a chance to copy what you did.
- Art Center: Put out several cut-outs of Christmas trees and a collection of stickers and let your child decorate the trees. To avoid lots of cutting use green paper cups turned upside down with a star cutout glued on top. See more craft ideas below.
4. Snack Demo and Snack Time
Snack Ideas: At school, we often play with food as a way to reinforce a theme and vocabulary and give another opportunity to listen and follow directions. Some children love making and eating all kinds of crazy things while some just play with their food and then ask for a cracker or cookie. You know best whether a themed snack will work with your child. Remember to consider all the vocabulary and language that can go into any snack activity. Slow down and use the power of snack treats to model as much vocabulary, listening and language as possible.
- Remember when you are tasting new foods to work on “I like/I don’t like.”
- Making initial requests by using, “I want” and follow up requests by modeling “I want more___” or “I want to eat______."
- Commenting (mmm, so good, sweet, crunchy, salty, etc.)
- Don’t forget to ask, “What are you doing? Model and target, “I am eating______.”
Snack Time - (Optional. Be prepared!)
- Large pretzel sticks can be decorated by dipping them in marshmallow fluff or whipped vanilla icing. Roll them in crushed peppermint candy to make a peppermint stick. Putting the candy in a bag and hitting it to crush is good fun. Don’t forget to practice your “ing” verb forms
- Christmas Trees: Pointed ice cream cones spread with green frosting and decorated with colored candies is a good way to reinforce Christmas tree, decorate, ornament etc. A healthier version can be constructed flat on a plate using thin, Granny Smith apple slices. Put one “smile” on top and then layer down in twos. Decorate with raisins. Use peanut butter for glue. Cut a cheese slice star for the top. Add banana slice gifts under the tree if you want. Lots of vocabulary work here. Pick your language targets.
- Reindeer: #1. Chocolate or chocolate dipped marshmallows skewered on a stick. Decorate with candy eyes and a red candy nose. Break a pretzel loop to make antlers. #2. Use Rice Krispie treats instead of marshmallows. No skewer needed. #3. For a healthier reindeer. Use two bread slices and a heart-shaped cookie cutter to cut 2 hearts. Sandwich together with your favorite filling. Put a red cherry or raspberry on the point for a nose. Add raisin eyes. Use broken pretzel loop to make antlers. #4. Use Nutterbutter cookies. Use your favorite sticky spread to add candy eyes, a red nose, and pretzel antlers. #5. If you make pancakes for breakfast, you can make a large face, a small nose, banana slice eyes and a cherry or raspberry nose. Add bacon antlers.
5. Story Time
Please read daily. So Important! Visit the library, your local bookstore or Amazon! Check to see if your local library is doing a story time. That could be a good experience for your child. There are so many Christmas books. There are old favorites and new ones every year. Here are few good ones.
- Bear Stays Up by Wilson and Chapman
- Dream Snow by Eric Carle
- How to Catch an Elf by Adam Wallace
- There was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Bell by Colandro
- Pete The Cat’s 12 Groovy Days of Christmas by Kimberly and James Dean
6. Closing with Good-Bye Song
Additional Craft Ideas: (Prepare cut-outs in advance or break each activity into several sessions.). Think about what strategies will work best for your targets.
- Handprint wreath. Cut the center out of a paper plate. Trace your child’s hands on green paper. Cut out and glue around the border. Draw and cut out a red bow. You can also do this by precutting green holly leaves instead of the handprints. Punch a hole in the top. Add a yarn tie and hang on a doorknob.
- Triangle reindeer. Cut out a large brown triangle, a red circle nose and some black eyes. Trace two, brown handprints for antlers. Assemble with point down with red nose.
- Make a tree with 3 of your child’s handprints in green paint on white paper. One handprint on top and 2 below. Draw on a truck and a star.
- Coffee filter art. Fold one filter in half for wings. Crimp in the center. Make a triangle dress with the second filter. Glue to a large craft stick. Use hot glue for best results. (Be careful.). Add details. Make a coffee filter wreath. Use a paper plate with a cutout center as your base. Decorate coffee filters by dripping food colored water on each one. At the end try a few drips of pure food color to produce variegated greens. Glue to plate when dry. Add a bow.
- Christmas lights. Take a line drawing of a tree on white paper. Use your child’s muti-colored fingerprints all over the tree. Draw black lines of ”cords” to connect Christmas lights.
Have fun. Review your targets. Ask yourself, “What skills did my child acquire (or demonstrate) during my activities.
Parent Review and Feedback? As always, I am here for you. Schedule and extra zoom session to get individual support!