Moving to a new site!
Rakovic's Speech and Language Chat
by prakovic
3y ago
  I AM MOVING! When I began this blog its original purpose was to assist my speech and language pathology students in their clinic. It was a place they could refer back to about evidenced-based therapy, paperwork, behavior management, lesson plans, and suggestions for materials. It expanded to include graduate students in special education that were learning about speech and language disorders as part of their masters in special education. More blogs were added about reading, writing, and academics. I am in my 42nd year as a  practicing speech and language pathologist.  When y ..read more
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Executive Function: what is it and how we can assist our students, first steps
Rakovic's Speech and Language Chat
by prakovic
3y ago
In my role as a speech and language pathologist in the middle school, I often see the difficulties my students have in the classroom. I may have taught a skill or concept in my treatment with them, I may witness their hard effort to complete an assignment but yet they still are failing. Why is this happening? I am fortunate to work in a school in which the teachers strive to provide support for the students with study guides, graphic organizers, agenda checks, and office hours. Yet still, the students feel overwhelmed by the complexity of the content, how much they need to process from the l ..read more
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Spelling Rules: why to teach them
Rakovic's Speech and Language Chat
by prakovic
3y ago
I was never a good speller. I went to a parochial school and spelling tests and spelling bees were a weekly trial for me. I clearly remember when in fifth grade Sister Rosa tried to bolster my self-esteem by giving me the easy words in the spelling bee as usually, I was the first one out. Spelling instruction consisted of weekly memorization of a list of words that were tested on Fridays a day I began to dread. For the most part, how we were taught was memorizing the letters in the words depending on our visual memory. There just was only so many words I could remember. We were taught phonic ..read more
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How to Use a Favorite Child’s Song in Speech Therapy
Rakovic's Speech and Language Chat
by prakovic
3y ago
Wheels on the Bus Interactive Perhaps there are no other songs that children like more than the ‘Wheels on the Bus’.  Many young children love to watch big vehicles.  School buses with their bright yellow color, flashing lights, and laughing children draw children into watching them. The simple song ‘Wheels on the Bus’ combines a simple repeating verse with simple actions that even a young child can imitate and join into the song about their favorite vehicle. I use this simple file folder song choice board as does it really matter if you have the ‘wheels of the bus’ be the first ver ..read more
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Giving Choices Assist in Gaining Cooperation
Rakovic's Speech and Language Chat
by prakovic
3y ago
  The best lesson plans don’t work if you do not have a student’s cooperation. Something that I have found is that by allowing the student some control of a situation you are able to not only garner their attention and focus but the efforts they put into the activity. There are a variety of ways that you can do this. When I am working with younger or more significantly impacted students I create choice boards. The base of the boards are always the same but prior to offering it to the student, I choose which choices to make available for the day. One example of this is this song choice bo ..read more
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School Reopening 2020
Rakovic's Speech and Language Chat
by prakovic
3y ago
  The opening of the new school year is going to be a challenging one this year. There rightfully is a great deal of anxiety as there is a multitude of plans offered for school reopening. It is hard to prepare for something that is so fluid especially so for speech and language pathologists as our caseloads are so different from classroom teachers. The number of students that we see often necessitates that we group students from several different classrooms. Our interactions with our students often require very close contact and the ability to see a student’s mouth.  We may see a l ..read more
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Nursery Rhymes: Combining Digital and Hands on Resources
Rakovic's Speech and Language Chat
by prakovic
4y ago
  One of the continuing education courses I am taking this summer is ISTE SUMMER ACADEMY.  I have been inspired by Joesph South at ISTE talk about resilient learning systems that are adaptable to any situation. Think of learning first and technology second. I have been a strong advocate of students learning nursery rhymes. They have been part of our culture and their typically short narrative can assist students in learning the structure of language. Nursery Rhymes can assist the beginning of learning about rhyming words. They are perfect for teaching a student how to sequence sim ..read more
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Distance Learning: Similar to when Movies Went from Silent to Talkies?
Rakovic's Speech and Language Chat
by prakovic
4y ago
One of my favorite movies of all time is Singing in the Rain.  The plot deals with the difficulty people had in adapting to the change from silent movies to talkies. What really worked in the silent film did not work in talkies. This is how I felt about distance learning. I have been a speech and language pathologist for 41 years and I am constantly involved in continuing education to be able to hone my skills. I feel very comfortable working with students whether it is individually, small group, or a whole class. I love the interaction. I have consistently incorporated technology ..read more
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How to Read a Book to Your Child
Rakovic's Speech and Language Chat
by prakovic
4y ago
The most important thing that parents can do to assist their child in education is to read to them.  Reading opens up new worlds to your child, stimulates their imagination, and exposes them to vocabulary that is not common in conversation. Reading promotes cognitive development. Cognitive development is the ability to think, understand, problem-solve, and promotes the development of memory skills as the child begins to organize his world. However, it is not just the reading of the story but it is the talk around the stories that help the child see the world. It helps them relate the st ..read more
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Fiction versus Nonfiction a fun active way to teach ( Distance Learning or Classroom)
Rakovic's Speech and Language Chat
by prakovic
4y ago
BOOK SORT: Either gather up a selection of books in your home or classroom or have your child pick books off the bookshelf.  * Ask your child to sort them into piles Once they have done this ask them how they chose to sort them. This is a discovery phase. It will be interesting to see what categories they are using to do their sorting.   Ask your child questions: Why did they sort the books the way they sorted them? Could they think of another way to sort them? What is their biggest pile? Why do they think this is their biggest pile?  If they have not sorted them into f ..read more
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