District Learning Support Services, Burnaby Schools

Category: General (Page 1 of 3)

Back to School Strategies

Engaging with your child about their day at school can be a rewarding experience, but it can also be frustrating for parents when your child gives a one word answer to the common question, “How was school today?”

Here are some additional ways to encourage your child to share more:

  1. Ask Specific Questions: Instead of general questions, ask about specific parts of their day. For example, “Who did you sit with at lunch?” or “What game did you play during recess?”
  2. Create a Routine: Establish a daily routine where you spend a few minutes talking about each other’s day. This can be during dinner, a walk, or bedtime.
  3. Use Conversation Starters: Try fun and engaging questions like, “What made you laugh today?” or “Tell me the most interesting thing you learned about.”
  4. Be an Active Listener: Show genuine interest in what they say. Use body language, facial expressions, and follow-up questions to show you are engaged..
  5. Share Your Own Stories: Share something about your day first. This can make them feel more comfortable opening up about their own experiences.
  6. Engage in Activities Together: Sometimes, doing an activity together like cooking, playing a game, or drawing can naturally lead to conversations about their day.
  7. Avoid Immediate Interrogation: Give them some time to unwind after school before asking about their day. They might need a little space before they’re ready to talk.
  8. Use Visual Aids: Using drawings or pictures to talk about their day can be helpful. Ask them to draw something they did or saw.
  9. Encourage Storytelling: Ask them to tell a story about their day, focusing on details and emotions. This can help them articulate their experiences better.

These strategies can help create a more open and communicative environment, making it easier for your child to share their thoughts and experiences with you.

Please see the About page for the name of the speech-language pathologist for your child’s school and browse by topic for other areas of information.

Growing with DLD

What is Developmental Language Disorder (DLD)? It’s the most common childhood disorder that most people have never heard of. DLD  affects 1 in 14 people causing difficulties understanding and using language for no known reason. In Canada, there are approximately 2.6 million people with DLD. DLD is a lifelong problem and affects people of all ages.

Today is international DLD Awareness day and the 2022 theme is Growing with DLD. DLD is a lifelong, permanent disability. People do not grow out of DLD but can thrive with supports that can include speech-language therapy and educational adjustments. It’s about growing with DLD.

Resources

RADLD Canada

DLD and Me

Raising Awareness about DLD video

How Was School Today?

Welcome back to school! Many children often give a one word answer to the common question, “How was school today?” Try some alternative questions to help your child share more information about their day:

  • What was your favourite/least favourite part of today?
  • Tell me something that was exciting/scary/funny/gross/cool.
  • Who did you help today? How were you helped today?
  • When were you happiest today?
  • Where did you play and who did you play with at recess today?
  • Tell me the most interesting thing you learned about.
  • What are you looking forward to tomorrow?

Some children will also use a  home/school communication book to help them share important information about their day. Please click here for examples. Please see the About page for the name of the speech-language pathologist for your child’s school.

Autism Experts

Who better to learn about autism from than the experts – not just people who study autism, but people who are actually autistic! As our knowledge about autism as a society progresses from awareness to acceptance, there is much to learn from autistic folk themselves. Below is an infographic with ways you can educate yourself about autism by listening to autistic voices.

Watch
Ask An Autistic YouTube channel
Why Everything You Know About Autism is Wrong TedTalk

Listen
Two Sides of the Spectrum podcast

Explore
The Autism Spectrum According to Autistic People website
What is autism? blog post
Uniquely Hari AAC user blog

Read
Books for kids about Autistic experiences
Loud Hands book

Shop
All Things Sensory Shop for fidgets
Divergent Minds Club Canadian jewelry & chewlery store

AAC – Modelling Without Expectation

We can create authentic connections with our AAC users by remembering one simple rule: model without expectation!

Modelling without expectation means using the AAC device yourself to model language without asking the child to respond. It’s simple! You are showing the child how to express language in a natural setting. Think of how many times a child hears a word before they express it themselves – the same is true for our AAC users. They require lots of modelling of vocabulary before they can use those words independently.

Kate McLaughlin explains more about modelling without expectation in this video. Watch here

Remember that using an AAC device should not feel like ‘work’ for the child. Language learning should be fun. Here are some activity ideas for Touch Chat.

  • Does your child love animals? Touch Chat has an extensive animals page. You can explore the different types of animals along with their homes and there’s even a page for animal sounds. Pair this with animal toys that you already have around the house and make a zoo. Maybe the animals have wandered out of the zoo and it’s your job to round them up. There are lots of opportunities to model words such as:
    • Questions: WHERE are the animals, WHO is hiding
    • Core words: look, put, help, come back, go, find
    • Places: zoo, farm, ocean, safari
    • Adjectives: talk about whether the animal is big/little or fast/slow, describe their colors, if they have a short/long tail
  • Increase engagement in reading by using the included pre-set vocabulary pages for books such as Brown Bear by Eric Carle and No, David! By David Shannon. This is a perfect opportunity to model while reading with the related vocabulary already there on the page for you. If your child has a favorite book you can add it to the device and include relevant vocabulary. Ask your SLP to help you add a new book page or watch this video on how to edit and add pages in Touch Chat  Check it out here

Today is World Down Syndrome Day

World Down Syndrome Day is a global awareness day observed on the 21st day of March, the 3rd month of the year. This date was chosen to signify the uniqueness of the triplication of the 21st chromosome which causes Down Syndrome (Down Syndrome International, 2022).

The Burnaby Speech-Language Pathologists work with students with Down Syndrome as well as their families and school teams.

This year’s World Down Syndrome Day campaign theme is “Inclusion Means…” What does inclusion mean to you?

For more information, please check out these resources:

World Down Syndrome Day

Down Syndrome Resource Foundation

 

Reference

Down Syndrome International. (2022, February 10). About WDSD. World Down Syndrome Day. Retrieved March 21, 2022, from https://www.worlddownsyndromeday.org/about-wdsd

Articulation Workshop 2022

Thank you to those who took time to attend our virtual Articulation Workshop. We believe that parents and caregivers are a child’s best teacher and we hope you learned some strategies to help your child practice their sounds at home. Speech sound practice can be fun!

If you have questions about the home program, need more materials or have any feedback about the workshop, please contact your school speech-language pathologist. Remember to fill, sign and return the consent form if you would like us to follow up with your child. Have fun practicing!

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