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37: Play Based Therapy with Anna Dalziel
552 Plays1 year ago
SLP Anna Dalziel goes over some play based therapy ideas for various ages.
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Transcript
IG @anna.dee.SLP
@playbasedspeechtherapycourse
@language.rich.preschooler
Play based speech therapy course:
https://www.playbasedspeechtherapycourse.com
Free one hour training: https://www.playbasedspeechtherapycourse.com/free-play-based-speech-therapy-webinar
Anna Dee website:
Language Rich Preschooler
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Transcript
Introduction to Top Pod
00:00:05
Speaker
Hello, and welcome to the Top Pod, a podcast to support itinerant teachers of the Deaf and hard of hearing, SLPs, and other Deaf education professionals. I'm Deanna Barlow from Listening Fund, and today we're talking about play-based therapy with Anna
Meet Anna Delzell
00:00:18
Speaker
Delzell. Thanks so much for being here today, Anna.
00:00:20
Speaker
Thank you so much for having me. I'm excited because this is one of my favorite things to talk about. So could you tell everyone a little about yourself and your background? For sure. So I am a speech language pathologist.
What is Play-Based Therapy?
00:00:31
Speaker
I graduated from my master's at University of Alberta in 2008. I've been practicing for about 15 years, working primarily with preschoolers, but I have worked with kids of all ages in a huge variety of settings, including in the classroom, doing consultation, working at our health unit. So here in Canada, people come
00:00:50
Speaker
to you at the health unit and comes to use the therapy, and now I have my own private practice. I have two boys of my own who are 10 and 12, so I get a lot of different ideas from them. I'm not going to lie. And I love play-based speech therapy. That is definitely my passion. I could talk about it all day. Well, we'll be talking about it now for the next 30 to 45 minutes, so that'll be perfect.
00:01:11
Speaker
For anyone wondering, do you want to talk a little bit about exactly what play-based therapy is and who it tends to be good for? Definitely. Play-based therapy is simply put teaching skills in a natural environment. We are creating opportunities for these skills and targets and words to come up naturally in the activity.
00:01:32
Speaker
just because it says play-based therapy doesn't even necessarily mean that we're playing it could be like when we're cooking or when we're reading a book it just means that it's naturally occurring and that we're able to get lots and lots and lots of models and lots and lots of productions as well as for who it's good for kids learn through play that research is out there anytime someone asks me for research articles for play-based therapy
00:01:53
Speaker
I mean, the evidence is pretty clear that kids learn best through play because it is meaningful to them and motivating. So play based therapy is really good for kids of any age. And I think it's also good for any professional who is working with children of any age, I would say from like zero to, you know, 15.
00:02:09
Speaker
Yeah, I definitely think so too. I totally am with you.
Embracing Play-Based Therapy
00:02:14
Speaker
I feel like I really started getting into play-based therapy actually when I had a preschooler who was just a little tough with the behavior and my LISL's mentor actually was pointing out to me like, that's not the way to go with this, like this kid is gonna not put up with that kind of work. Like you really need to do what's interesting to them and then you'll be able to model, you'll be able to get language out. And I feel like sometimes with like
00:02:37
Speaker
more docile kids, you can get away with being, I don't know, less play-based and it's fine, but then you get a tricky kid and you're like, oh no, they're not going to accept that kind of therapy. You really have to do it play-based. And that's when it clicked in my brain. And I've been so play-based ever since. But I feel like ever since I discovered that, I feel like I'm yelling, play-paced, everybody do it. It's so good. And even for those kids who
00:03:02
Speaker
you know, we'll sit and do the table work. I do find that when you use a play based approach, they learn the skills quicker. Absolutely. So just because they're like, okay with it, you know what I mean? Yeah, that's what I realized from the play based therapy. And also you mentioned about the behaviors like, I get a lot of questions about, well, how do you manage behaviors? I'm like, I don't have any behaviors and play.
00:03:24
Speaker
because I know they don't exist because you're following their lead the kids are motivating like those you know less desired behaviors happen when it's boring or when it's too hard and in play-based therapy we're tailoring it all the time to the child's interest and their level so
00:03:38
Speaker
Yeah, that was really what like flipped me into being like, Oh my God, like you're so right. So for us like TOD is like, I would say the intersection between SLP and TOD for the most part is language. Like we're not doing a ton of articulation necessarily. And we are doing a ton of like listening audition kind of work, but language is a big part of it for both
Play-Based Activities for Engagement
00:03:59
Speaker
of us. So could you share some of your favorite play based activities for language skills with any age?
00:04:04
Speaker
Definitely. So I was writing out this list, of course, thinking about it. And I had this big list and I was writing why I chose each activity. And then I realized that it's all the same reason. So before I do activities, I'm going to just list the reasons of why I chose these activities. So the reason is because they can be modified for any skill or any target. I'm not sure the terminology you use when you're working on this, we call them targets. So like, yeah, that's fine.
00:04:29
Speaker
So any of your targets, you can incorporate a theme if that's your jam. And if not, that's okay too. They get kids moving, which I think is really important in therapy, especially with the little ones, but even with the older ones, they can also be as simple.
00:04:43
Speaker
or as complicated as you wish. So you can modify it and they're no prep or minimal prep. Yeah. I love that one. That's my favorite one. Right? So these are kind of all these activities. I just picked three. I had like 20 and then I'm like, you need to, so a scavenger hunt. It's so simple and so easy. So basically you hide things around the room.
00:05:02
Speaker
Now, how you can modify is you can hide anything. If the kid loves superheroes, you can hide superheroes around the room. If you're working on pronouns, you can hide figurines of different people around, whatever. So you can hide anything around the room, the kids find it and bring it to you. To make it more complex, you can make their rules like, if the superhero's wearing a cape, bring him to me. If not, put him in the bucket. So you can modify it to however complex, or if you're just working on little kids, you could just be like, bring me the one with the hat.
00:05:31
Speaker
You know what I mean? And they have to go through so you can modify it gets kids moving and no prep because you can just hide them around and to make it super no prep I get the last kid to hide the items for the next So you just have to make sure you kind of pay attention so you know where you're looking you don't want to lose any of your items
00:05:48
Speaker
So that's one way to make it more complex for older students is I have clues. So if they can read, it'll be like as complex and you could work on like idioms or you could work on those really understanding those really complex things if you're reading them out to them as well. So yeah.
00:06:05
Speaker
That's one. Do you have any questions about that one? I love it. I love stuff like that because I feel like, like you said, just getting them up and moving eliminates so many problems, especially if they're little or if they're fidgety. And then a lot of what you just said, it's language, but it's also listening because you can really adjust that direction to be on their auditory memory level really appropriately. And you're getting the opportunity to model.
00:06:32
Speaker
I feel like a broken record when I'm just like saying about like model, model, model, like that's how you teach it. Like we did a whole episode like towards the beginning about like teaching versus testing about how it's not just like testing, say this, say this, say this, or like follow this direction, follow this direction, but like taking the time to model it. And I feel like scavenger hunts are really fun because you have a lot of opportunity to model. And then also like, if you want it to flip it and then you have to go, they hide stuff and you find it like I've done it that way.
00:06:59
Speaker
then you have the opportunity for them to use it but they already heard you model it a bunch like anything like that I love because it's like super fun right it's so easy and you can modify it like you said a hundred different ways I use a scavenger hunt in most of my sessions for a huge variety of different
00:07:15
Speaker
So the next one is rescuing animals or toys. So you can rescue them from ice, like you can freeze them in ice if you want to be bougie. You can rescue them just from like painters tape on a cookie sheet or on your wall. You can rescue them from different boxes.
00:07:34
Speaker
Kids love rescuing. They love that feeling of helping, right? Because it's not often that kids are the helpers, right? It's usually adults helping them. So they truly really love that role. And then you can model things like plurals, you can model things like negation, like they are stuck, they aren't stuck.
00:07:49
Speaker
future verb tenses like you will help him or you did help him that's past tense so lots of opportunities there and again you can really modify it to the students interest if they really like zoo animals rescue zoo animals if they like space rescue some astronauts yeah and you can make it as simple and complex as you wish again so
00:08:08
Speaker
Yeah, I like that. I feel like a lot of that's in the framing because I've used masking tape before, but I don't think I've ever framed it as you're going to rescue them. That's so fun. I feel like just setting up that situation for them makes it so much more fun than just playing with masking tape or painter's tape. You could even mix it up with the scavenger hunt and rescue the animals around the room.
00:08:29
Speaker
right? You could like give them a cape like you could get as like I said you can be as simple or as complex as you want in as prep time or not prep time as you want as well. Yeah and I like the painter's tape one too because a lot of times as itinerant TODs we're like not in our own room or like we're in a lot of like different rooms and like painter's tape is not going to ruin anyone's walls or like be hard to carry or like
00:08:52
Speaker
That's just a very flexible thing that I feel like you could tape stuff anywhere you want and you'd basically be fine. For sure. I do always recommend test a little sample test in case, but I have never had any issues personally. And then the last one, really easy. Of course, I always say use caution when you're doing anything that could potentially be a choking hazard. So be like, oh, my student, I put it in the mouth. Well, then don't use it. Do you know what I mean?
00:09:18
Speaker
Fair. I don't have a solution other than using your, you know, use your common sense if it's not going to work. You playing with a balloon. So this was actually inspired my 10 and 12 year olds have been home for cold for the past few days. And we blew up balloons for my husband's birthday and the games that they have come up with with these balloons. Yeah, I can't even there's so many different games. So playing with a balloon is really great for modeling concepts like high, low, slow, fast verb tenses. Again,
00:09:46
Speaker
If you wanted to work on some following directions, other concepts like long, slow, like you kept it up for a long time. You kept it up for a short time, which balloons big, which is small. So really easy and kids of all ages, like little babies love, like not babies, but like I call them babies, like two, three year olds and older kids love balloons. So yeah, really easy.
00:10:04
Speaker
Yeah, I like balloons. I also like balls for similar reasons. Like anything that you can like bounce in the air seems to be like and I like like beach balls, like specifically like not like heavy balls. Dodgeball. Not even like they make like plastic balls that are like not that heavy, but the balls are really light. So like you don't like if they knock into stuff, they're not going to knock anything over. Perfect. Which has like come in, which I've learned by experience. Let's just say that that like the beach ball is better.
00:10:35
Speaker
And they make like little beach balls for like littler kids and those are easier. And I feel like those are just as like, good. I'm going to try balloons though. Cause balloons is fun. I haven't done that. I just, I got to double check latex allergy, but, um, of course, like I said, I mean, you know, I always just say that because I feel like people forget about latex. Yeah. They think about food, but not about, um, things that you touch, but I love balloons because I feel like that would, I mean, you'd get their attention for sure. Like, can you, Matt, I bet you could do a whole session just on balloons. Like you might need to bring anything else.
00:11:04
Speaker
Right. So that's kind of when I tried to pick these activities. I wanted it to be like low prep and not a lot of stuff because I myself used to go to 20 different schools. So I get it. I can relate to that. Yeah. And like my next question is some ideas for more like older students. But now that I'm thinking about it, like I could definitely bring a balloon to my third grader. We could just like bounce it back and forth and like chitchat, do whatever we need to do. And like, I bet like she would love that. My kids are in grade five and seven and they were playing a game that they had like
00:11:34
Speaker
had to count who could hit it the most and then they would like go farther and farther from each other and who like and even following their lead with the balloon can be so is so beneficial right let them come up with a game and this actually kind of segues into our next question with the older students because I think I know myself even when I first graduated when I talked to SLPs I think we think that there's like little kid toys and like little kid activities and then like magically when kids hit what second grade
00:11:59
Speaker
All of a sudden, they don't want to do things, but that's not true. Older elementary kids even, and even my sons in junior high, they still like to play. And they still even like to play with things for younger kids. We still play pop-up games at my house. It's okay to bring things that we think are for younger kids, for those older kids. It also reduces that cognitive load, right? If we bring something that's super complex,
00:12:24
Speaker
And we're expecting them to learn things. It can be a little overwhelming for kids. I think about trying to, they're like, there's a reason driving and texting is illegal. Right. It's not much for us to do, right? So, but I did come up with a few
Encouraging Creativity in Older Kids
00:12:36
Speaker
ideas. So, which kind of goes into the balloon, but idea about making their own game with anything.
00:12:42
Speaker
So you could just bring out like game pieces and a dice and a balloon and be like, Hey, we're gonna make a game. And that's great for working on that expressive. Yeah. And if you want and you can model different things, especially for those conditional words, like if then next first before, right? Really good. And then for kids who need, you know, you can model it and then they can can do it. Trying to follow directions. That's another thing that kids have like, really enjoyed some of my older students. And that's a great one to do in a group.
00:13:09
Speaker
I don't know. Do you work in groups ever? Like, is that? Not usually. It's usually individual. Okay. Well, you could do a barrier task then even. So you'll go back to back. I'm sure you're familiar with this book. I love drawing. Yeah. That's the staple. Yeah. Go back to back. Tell each other how to draw a snowman or whatever and see if they're the same and different. Again, really good for that more complex language to explain to people because you don't even realize the words you're omitting when
00:13:34
Speaker
Right? Someone, you're trying to- So true. Yeah. I do like, if I don't have two, all the times I'll use whiteboards, if I don't have two whiteboards, I'll just take a piece of paper and fold it into like four quadrants, like, you know, like high board style, hamburger style. That way we have four like chances to do it and then you could turn it over and do it for more time without wasting so much paper. Cause I feel like, and then you have that whole thing where they can see how much is left. You know what I mean? And then when the activity is finished, it like makes sense to them that like the activity is finished and we move on to the next thing.
00:14:01
Speaker
I love that idea. I've never done that. That's a great idea. Another thing for older kids. So again, like I said, I have 10 and 12 year old boys who love sports. So I had to think about this, but playing different sports with rules. I mean, obviously, again, like I mean, like tabletop or like a small version. I don't mean like whipping a basketball around the room.
00:14:20
Speaker
To the school? Maybe. I'm just kidding. But if you even have like you could play basketball and you have a basket and they have to throw bean bags or crumpled up paper or you could do hockey like we've done tabletop hockey because I'm Canadian so hockey's really popular. We have nets and you just have like pom-poms and popsicle sticks so anything like that that kind of brings that sports especially with those older kids because that's like still I think cool. I don't know if kids say cool but you know.
00:14:47
Speaker
things that they kind of enjoy. But again, really good for that like higher level language. Yeah. And then board games. I know that is so simple. But I think board games for all ages are great. Really? Yeah. And if incorporate those goals, and it's crazy how much language goes into teaching and playing a board game again.
00:15:04
Speaker
follow up question about the board game. Yeah. How do you incorporate goals into it without just doing like you answer a question, you get a turn? Like instead of just using it as a reinforcer, can you give some examples of how you actually incorporate the language goals into a specific board game?
00:15:18
Speaker
Sure. So if we're working on like verb tenses and you would work on verb tenses. So things like I'm going to roll the dice. So before you roll the dice, I'm going to roll the dice. I rolled the dice. You are moving your guy. So that's for verb tenses. If someone got five and I got two, you got more than I did. So you could work in concepts like that. You're closer to the finish line than I am. I'm just thinking of different types of board games to have an example. I'm looking up that I have a lot of times I change the rules.
00:15:48
Speaker
And that's another thing changing the rules isn't to accommodate, right? But if you think about it, like language is everywhere, right? So you can modify it and model whatever thing that you it is that you're teaching throughout that game. And I always say like, if you can't target your goal in a play activity, then you might not have a super functional
00:16:05
Speaker
Yeah, I think that's probably true. Some games will lend themselves to different goals better than others. It depends on what inventory you have of games. I have an incredible amount of games.
00:16:20
Speaker
I don't have a ton of games. I have like a, you know, a handful, but not like a ton, but I do have like a bunch on my like iPad that are the same thing, but like, um, like it's like connect four, but on the iPad it's battleship, but on the iPad, like it's, um, because they don't need internet. Cause I never have internet anywhere I go, which is fine. Like I don't, I can survive without it, but it's kind of nice just to have some of those options. Like I have like, you know, the pop-up games, which even my big kids still think are hilarious.
00:16:48
Speaker
What I said, they love it. And by pop-up games, I mean like pop-up pirate and like the shark one where it's like you picked a shark bite. That's what it's called. I took it out of the box. So now I don't remember what it's called. I just carry around the shark with me. So, but like they still like that. Like they, they're still into that. I think is a good one for older kids because it is kind of scary.
00:17:11
Speaker
And, uh, dragon snacks actually are ones that my kids, older kids really like as well. But again, yeah. So yeah, just modifying it kind of for those goals. So like with connect four, you could say I, we need one more. We need two more. You have two spots, plurals, that kind of thing. Yeah.
00:17:31
Speaker
Yeah, sometimes I'll do it too. If they're like card games or like anything where we're taking turns, I'll have the like, I'll pick the card for you and tell you what it says. And then they pick the card for me and tell me what it says. So a lot of times we're working on auditory memory. So like I don't want them to read it. I want them to listen to it. So like by me picking the card and giving them a like telling them what it says, they have to listen. And then when they pick the card and tell me what it says, they have to
00:17:57
Speaker
expressively use it. So I feel like once they understand that that's how we're playing, it's easy. And you get a lot of practice and they don't really think they're practicing. I mean, they know they're practicing, but we're not stopping in between every round to do something else. We're just playing the game in this specific way. And it is funny because I'll have some people say, well, how do you get enough trials? And I say, I actually get more because we're doing therapy the entire time. We're not stopping.
00:18:20
Speaker
Right. Not stopping to play a game because then play does seem like a waste of time, right? Because you're just like you take your two minute turn and then you do one production or five trials or whatever you want to call it and then you play. But when you're just embedding it into the game naturally, you're actually getting way more trials and you're doing therapy for a longer time.
00:18:38
Speaker
Yeah, and I especially feel like with our like listening goals and stuff, like it's very hard to just do trials without the kid getting super bored. Like, it's very, it's not even like they're doing anything, they're following a direction, which is like, so boring. So like, I just never quite worked for me. I think it's easier just
00:18:57
Speaker
I actually think it's easier just to embed it in that way. You're not going up river. You're just like going with the flow. And then you're not worried about like, if you have cards or anything like that, you're not worried that you don't have the right ones or you left them in your bag because you can just use whatever you have in front of you. Right?
Language Skills through Challenges
00:19:15
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. And then the last one for older students are building challenges. So kids love building things. You can make it complex, like build the leaning tower of Pisa, or you could make it easy and just say, build a house again for kids different ages. And you can do that with like toothpicks and marshmallows to make it more challenging, or you could do it with like Lego. So whatever kind of building supplies that you have. So older kids seem to really like that as well.
00:19:41
Speaker
I feel like I could definitely do that more. I feel like that would be really fun. That's not one that I've done. Recently, I do have Legos, but I feel like you said there's a lot of other materials you could use to build that are not that heavy. You could just stick a bunch of stuff in a big ziplock.
00:19:57
Speaker
That could be it. You could just have a bunch of stuff. You could have like toothpicks, popsicle sticks. I like those little, I think they're called Plus Plus blocks. Meg Formers, they're heavy, but then they're for younger kids. Lego, what else have I used for building? Lincoln Logs, I have some of those. I have a lot of building stuff because kids, like you said, you just grab a bag of stuff and go.
00:20:17
Speaker
Yeah, and I feel like two kids really like when I mix materials. I don't know if they just don't have permission to do that other times, but I've been play-doh and pom-poms, and you would think I'm the most fun person on the planet, because I let them put the pom-poms in the play-doh. Life changing.
00:20:32
Speaker
I'm hilarious that you said that because I actually just wrote that. I put mini objects in Play-Doh as an example in something I was writing. Yeah, I think I didn't. Never. It was like pom poms and I think maybe little popsicle sticks or something. I don't know what it was, but they like to stick the popsicle sticks in the Play-Doh, but then they also like to stick the pom poms in the Play-Doh. I don't even remember what we were doing. It was just like they can make eyes. There's just like a lot of different mixing stuff because sometimes mixing it, even if I don't have a clear idea of what they're going to do,
00:21:01
Speaker
They have a clear idea and then that's good enough for me. For sure. And I think that that's the beauty of play-based therapy is you get to follow their lead once you're comfortable kind of eliciting those goals and stuff and you're able to do whatever the kid wants. So within reason. But I do think that building one with like fun materials is definitely one that itinerants could do because you just like you said, throw a bunch of stuff in as a box bag, bring it with you and then go from there. But there's so many like that always get their attention. And then as you're going, you can incorporate whatever goals you need to incorporate into it.
00:21:30
Speaker
That actually does lead in. It's such a beautifully flowing conversation because it leads into my next question. It's almost like you prepared. I do think about things sometimes helpful, but sometimes. My next question really was like, can you give some ideas for play-based therapy if you have limited materials because us as itinerants carry everything in. So like weight is a factor, but also like amount of materials is a factor and being able to use it for a lot of different kids.
00:21:57
Speaker
For sure. So like I had kind of alluded to earlier, I did this for seven years. I traveled between 20 schools over like a 200 mile radius. Yeah, that's pretty big. Yeah. And I had two kids of my own. Like they were two and four when I started. So I'm like, I didn't have time to repack everything every single night for like, that just wasn't a reality. So what I did that worked for me.
00:22:17
Speaker
is to just create one tote. It was like, it was actually from 31, but it doesn't matter what your tote is. And I just had like all my materials for the month. And I'd have like some books, some games, a craft, a building activity, a toy and a sensory bin. I love themes. So mine were all theme related. It helps me get organized and grab my stuff. You don't have to use a theme.
00:22:37
Speaker
But I found with that kind of like core set of activities that you just always had, it was just so easy because you could follow the child's lead. You could mix it up with different ages, different goals, which just made it really, really easy for me. And then of course, I also have visuals and stuff. It was just really easy to have that tote that I just literally carried in my house and took out. So that made it easy. But another thing, if you're not into doing that, is just use what they have, right? So I don't know what rooms my itinerant teacher, like where do you have like a room or do you go in the classroom or does it depend?
00:23:06
Speaker
Oh, it depends. Sometimes it's a speech room. Sometimes it's a hallway. Sometimes it's the back of the classroom. If I have a speech room, I'm thrilled. I'm having a great day. I get that. I feel that I've done therapy in the bathroom before. That I haven't done.
00:23:22
Speaker
sink, not in the, yeah, we were like, doing washing hands and playing in the water. So anyway, but I think like, obviously, I don't think you can do that all the time. I think you might get a little bit bored if you just use what they had all the time. But just remember, like, you don't need to have a huge amount of things because you can use what's already there. You can go to the bathroom and do water play.
00:23:41
Speaker
You can go in the hallway and do a scavenger hunt or an eye spy. So thinking kind of outside of that box. And I think the biggest, biggest, biggest tip for me that was the game changer was remember you can reuse books and activities.
00:23:55
Speaker
Oh, yes. And I think that we as educators think that we can't do that, especially like I always had someone watching my session, there was always a parent or an aide in the class in the room, because I was also consulting. So I would feel bad.
Reinforcing Learning through Repetition
00:24:09
Speaker
I'm like, Oh, we read this book last time, or like the aid would be like, you read it last time. I'm like, Yeah, because kids actually learn through repetition. Or if they really loved an activity, bring it again.
00:24:18
Speaker
Yeah, and I got over that a long time ago. I love repeat. Also, but it also helps build connections. Like I don't know that study that says kids need to read a book however many times to like learn the vocabulary from it, right? So or listen to a story.
00:24:33
Speaker
So, you know, I don't think there's anything wrong with that. And then also once you use play based therapy, you realize that you're not prepping for every single student. So you don't need that much stuff. Cause you're able to use the same book with 10 different kids. You're able to use the same building activity with 15 kids. Cause you can modify it accordingly. So I think that's the beauty of play based therapy is you actually need less stuff. Even though people think, I think they're like, we don't have a huge collection of this. You don't need a huge collection of stuff. So in my opinion,
00:25:03
Speaker
Yeah, I think that honestly, the repetition piece is so important, especially for kids with hearing loss. Like we know for a fact they need more repetition than even typical hearing children who also need a lot of repetition. So I feel like it also just like builds their confidence a little bit because like they know like what the things are called now and they know like the rules of the game or like
00:25:23
Speaker
They just feel a little more confident when they do something more than once. And then I can either bring down my, not my prompts, but you know what I mean? Bring down my support a little bit, do a little less modeling. Maybe I do really heavy modeling the first time we do it and don't expect them to do much. And then the next time I'm doing less, they're doing more. I feel like it's so much easier to make progress when you have a constant and you're seeing that change over the course of a month. I do also about a month.
00:25:53
Speaker
Cause I see most kids once a week. That was kind of my sweet spot. And I feel like that was like not too much on my brain, but also enough that it's interesting. But then by the time they've seen it a couple of times, like they, I don't know, like I can really tell whether or not they're able to use whatever I was targeting with that thing by the fourth time. And then I switch it to something else and then we keep going. But I feel like it's much more meaningful when it's not something random every single time.
00:26:20
Speaker
Right. Well, if you think about kids who play at home, like they don't play with a toy once, and they never play with it again. There's the kids have favorites, they play with it all the time, right? And that play looks different every time. So if you bring in some mag farmers one time, one day, they might make houses for the animals the next time they might make a castle, like, you know, so there's, there's lots of ways to use all these different open ended things. And I feel like the kids will tell you what they like. Like, so
00:26:44
Speaker
Can you play this next time? I have that all, and I do, and I actually write it down. I'll be like, I'll write it in their chart on a post-it at the front. They really like that and bring it. I don't care what we do. I just care that they're learning and having fun and engaging. It's not about me, right? Yeah. And it's not always what I expect too, because I always ask them when we're walking back, mostly because I want to work on their memory, but do you remember everything we did today? And then can you tell me what your favorite thing was after they've told me, after they recalled everything we did?
00:27:12
Speaker
And I'm always kind of surprised by what the favorite is. It's not always what I, like, it might be what I thought, sometimes what I think is most fun in the moment. And they're like, I really liked that book we read. And I'm like, oh, awesome. Yay. Like, I was like, oh, there were so many other fun things, but the book is what you like the best. Like, I love that. Like, yeah, that makes me so happy. But like, sometimes they say like, I liked the iPad, I liked the iPad, whatever, which is fine. But it's not always what I expect. And then I have a little bit of insight of what type of thing worked well for them for next time.
00:27:40
Speaker
And even repeating activities, I just want to elaborate too, because you're talking about that year to year as well, right? I think like I have friends who are like planning a new lesson for the whole year. I'm like, well, he did that last year. I'm like, they don't remember. They don't remember. I read Stacey the Snowman with like one of my students I've had for four years, like four years, and he loves it. And he's like, I love this book. Like, yeah, okay. Just like, we listen to the same Christmas songs or we listen to, you know, we do the same thing on, we have traditions or whatever. So it's totally fine to reuse things. You don't need new things every year.
00:28:10
Speaker
Yeah, I don't remember what I did last year, so I don't think they remember what I did last year. That's just another tip. I think just not putting too much pressure on yourself to always have something brand new and exciting every time for every kid. It's a good way to get to burnout. Yeah, I feel like just cycling in new things occasionally when I think of them. I use Google Keep on my phone to keep track of all my ideas and stuff. I've talked about it before on the podcast, but I have OneNote on there that's just ideas that I see on podcasts or social media.
00:28:39
Speaker
whatever. And I just like jot them down in there. And then that way, when I feel like I'm getting in a little bit of a rut, I just like scroll through and I'm like, Oh, yeah, like the the marshmallow popsicle sticks or marshmallow toothpicks. Like what a great idea. Like maybe I'll try that next week. And then I just like I rotate them in as I feel like I'm getting bored. Because I feel like when I'm getting bored, that's like, well, you're excited. I find that through 100%. I actually had course member from the play based speech therapy course message us and she's like,
00:29:06
Speaker
I tried this game to target Chuh. It was a speech goal. It was like how your chicken. She's like, but it was so boring and the student wouldn't get interested. I'm like, well, you sound like you were bored. So like if you're bored, they're bored. They feel that energy. Like I can make a paperclip exciting. You know what I mean? But, but if you're not, if you're truly not enjoying it, then, then find something else for sure.
00:29:27
Speaker
Yeah, I feel like there are certain things that like, I like playing with farm animals, but like after a while, like maybe I'm not that interested in farm animals. And like, and that's fine. Even if the kid hasn't seen farm animals in six months, like I don't have to play with them a final one too. Like I can bring something else. And that will be much more meaningful to them because I'm like not going crazy making animal sounds for the tenth time that day. Yeah.
00:29:48
Speaker
So I feel like it's nice to just like keep a running list that way when you feel that like drag, you can just like scroll through and be like and just add one thing in like it doesn't have you don't have to revamp everything just like one new little thing and all of a sudden I'm like, okay, I'm good. Again, like I'm, that's a great ideas and stuff. I love that.
00:30:07
Speaker
Because I used to just write down ideas like every random place that I could write down something and then I like got into my Google Keep and now it's like I do it on my work Google Keep like not even my like because I have everything separate so it's like you know right next to my notes and my district info is like right underneath that like a bunch of ideas so that way it's like accessible to me when I'm out yeah not like in a planner on my desk at home
00:30:30
Speaker
That's where mine is. I would love to be able to check my planner at home, but unfortunately, I live off my phone basically. When I was at schools, I didn't have a plan. I carried my planner with me. I don't know if that makes it worse or better, but anyway. I used to do that. I was too heavy, got to let it go.
00:30:56
Speaker
Okay, perfect. Is there anything else about play based therapy? Any like, big tips, important information that I haven't asked about specifically, but you feel like it's important for people to know?
Importance of Child-Led Therapy
00:31:06
Speaker
I think we touched on it. But I think that the more you do it, the easier it'll get. Yeah, right. So I think people try it, maybe try it once. And then they're like, that didn't go as I expected.
00:31:15
Speaker
So I don't want to do it anymore, right? But it's like with anything like riding a bike or whatever it takes practice and the more you practice the easier it'll get the less you have to prep the more you'll be able to just jot a note down in your phone and just be like I'm gonna do that I know exactly how to target all of those things and then the other thing is following their lead is really a beauty part of play-based therapy so typically when people
00:31:36
Speaker
come to me for advice or like they're just starting. So I kind of give more structured ideas because I feel like once you build that repertoire of ideas, you're able to follow the child's lead. Because I know in our grad school, we were like, follow child's lead, follow child's lead. I'm like, yeah, but I don't know what to do if they start banging blocks. I don't know how to follow their leads. But when you start a little bit more structured, you'll get less structured quickly. Also very quickly. But I think it just gives you something to start like a starting point and just like you're giving yourself more keys or prompts like we do our students.
00:32:06
Speaker
So yeah, starting a little bit more structured and then you'll easily be able to follow their lead. Yeah, I think those were kind of the big two that I had jotted down. Perfect. And I know you have lots of resources for people on Playbase Therapy and a lot of information.
Resources for Play-Based Therapy
00:32:20
Speaker
So can you please share what you have, resources, links for people who really want to start getting into Playbase Therapy and need more structure? For sure. What do you got?
00:32:29
Speaker
So we have, Kirsten is another Canadian SLP. We met through Instagram and bonded through our love for play based speech therapy. We created an online play based speech therapy course for speech language pathologists, we've had teachers of the deaf, we've had OTs take it. And it is very comprehensive. It will teach you everything from start everything from like talking to parents to getting organized and everything in between. And we also actually have a free webinar that you can take it's a great place to start it gives you kind of like a little crash course and you can
00:32:58
Speaker
get in our professional development. Yeah, we should be able to most people. Okay, yeah, you definitely check with your regulatory body to make sure but we do offer a certificate at the end. So that would be a really great place to start. I also created a course called the language rich preschool, which helps educators create a environment that fosters language naturally through daily activities. So through like snack time through circle time through lining up,
00:33:22
Speaker
all those things that you're already doing in the classroom. So that's a really good program for anybody who's either consulting to a teacher or is in the classroom themselves to kind of just set it up and all the resources that you need to do the activities I suggest are in there. Also, both of those have Instagram handles and then I have my Anna D, SLP, Instagram and blog
00:33:42
Speaker
Like I have lots, like is that writing it down? Sometimes I'm like, Oh, wow, this is maybe why you feel overwhelmed sometimes. There's lots of resources and a lot of them are free. So it's a good place to start. But I would start with that free webinar. Perfect. Yeah, start. That's where I would start.
00:33:59
Speaker
I'll put all the links to all that in the show notes for everybody who wants to take a peek and even I say just like going through like following you on Instagram if they don't already just like your stories or like your highlights like that's one of the places that I go when I need play-based ideas because I'm like I'm like okay I have this toy and I like can't think of like a good like play set up for it like kind of like like I have the tape but like what do I do with the tape like oh I rescue the animals duh like as soon as you said that I was like of course that's what I would do with it like
00:34:24
Speaker
But sometimes you just need someone to do a little to think it for you. So I would definitely check out your Instagram and the webinar because I feel like that'll be like a perfect place for people who want to get into play based therapy but need just a little bit of help. Yeah, perfect. Yeah. Awesome. Thank you so much for sharing all of that amazing information. As always the transcript and all the links we just talked about will be linked
00:34:47
Speaker
down below and in the show notes at listentotopod.com. That's everything for today. I'll see you next week. Bye. Thanks for having me.