Become a Creator today!Start creating today - Share your story with the world!
Start for free
00:00:00
00:00:01
25: Vocabulary Stategies with Stacy Crouse
726 Plays2 years ago
Stacy and I discuss vocabulary strategies and activities you can use with students of all ages on your caseload!
RESOURCES MENTIONED:
Transcript
Recommended
Transcript
Introduction to the Todd Pod
00:00:05
Speaker
Hello, and welcome to the Todd 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 vocabulary with our special guest, Stacey Krause.
Meet Stacey Krause: SLP and Teletherapy Expert
00:00:20
Speaker
Hi, Stacey. Thanks for being here. Hello. Can you tell everyone a little about yourself?
00:00:24
Speaker
Sure. I am an SLP and I have been about 15 years now. I also received my listening and spoken language certification about six and a half years ago, right out of grad school. I started in an outpatient therapy clinic for birth to 21 year old children. Wow. I know. I know. I've always seen treated like the gamut. So I mean, same. Yeah, same with, yeah. TODs totally get that. I started transitioning to teletherapy in about 2014.
00:00:54
Speaker
And that was with a K through 12 caseload. So again, like, you know, quite the range, but I kind of, I like it that way. So keeps it interesting for sure. And then I currently just managed my business, which is a blog and creating resources full time at the moment. Wonderful. Thanks so much.
Challenges in Vocabulary Acquisition for Children with Hearing Loss
00:01:10
Speaker
So those are the reasons I wanted to have you come on to talk about vocabulary is that you're an SLP, you have a huge age range, and then also you have your whistle. So, so you could even speak to it from like the hearing loss side of things for sure.
00:01:23
Speaker
So just to jump right in, what would you say are the most important factors when thinking about supporting vocabulary? Like what's like the high level view? Well, as teachers of the deaf know that kids with hearing loss just don't acquire vocabulary at the same rate as their hearing peers because of usually lack of incidental learning or not lack of but decreased incidental learning. So where kids with typical hearing, you know, they pick up words from their parents, their peers,
00:01:51
Speaker
their siblings, whether direct or indirect conversations, and you know, all the talking that goes into learning about our routines and daily events and shared reading. But kids with hearing loss just don't quite pick up as many of those words. So in a way, the cards are kind of stacked against them from day one, where they are, you know, showing a lot of vocabulary deficits from the beginning. And so it's kind of like a game of ketchup from day one.
00:02:19
Speaker
Not to mention like delay in amplification and identification can cause that to be even a bigger issue. Poor listing environments or decreased wear time of their devices can all affect language and especially vocabulary development. Vocab intervention just isn't as cut and dry as a lot of our other language goals that we work on. You might agree as a TV, it's just like not concrete. It's not straightforward. It's kind of hard to measure.
00:02:49
Speaker
It's not like working on a possessive S and it's more gray area all around it. Yeah. It's frustrating that the thing, not the thing that's the most important, but one of the most important things to work on is also one of the hardest things to work on. Yes. The thing that requires the most nuance. It's like, oh, okay. Yes. Yes. Then the stakes just keep getting higher. What's typical for our kids? It just keeps getting more and more because kids with
00:03:16
Speaker
typical hearing, their vocabularies are growing too. So it's just such a key part of intervention, but it is not always so concrete.
Effective Vocabulary Intervention Strategies
00:03:24
Speaker
Yeah, and thinking about it not being concrete, if you're looking at a child and they have a vocabulary goal or you identify that they need support with vocabulary, how do you decide what vocabulary is important to focus on? Well, I always, as a school-based SLP, looked at their academic words and their academic curricula and what they're needing there.
00:03:47
Speaker
when I was more clinic-based and it was the little biddies with hearing loss, that would be more relevant words would be like the ones in their environment, the ones that they are related to their routines and their family, their customs, their cultures, all of that. But really, I don't make a goal for a specific words rather than
00:04:10
Speaker
as much as strategies and utilizing strategies, which of course for the little biddies especially, super important to include the parents to be able to understand those strategies and use those strategies in a variety of different environments, as well as their general education teachers. So it's a lot
00:04:29
Speaker
I think of just focusing on the strategies and using those to help develop vocabulary and less as much on me picking words. It's nice in that way. Yeah. I even remember when I first started teaching, I inherited some IP goals that were
00:04:45
Speaker
more like they didn't give me specific words, but they would say like 10 vocab 10 content words or like they were kind of weird and I they were hard to implement like 10 words over the whole year like 10 words every quarter like it wasn't really specific. It was kind of confusing. And then I would also inherit goals that were strategy based and I could just tell that those they worked better. The kids made progress that like carried over a lot easier.
00:05:12
Speaker
And then for me, it was just so much easier to teach strategies than to teach a list of words because there's so many words. Right. You can't. That's a losing battle for anyone, any kid. Like you just can't.
00:05:26
Speaker
You just can't teach all the words. That's why I mean it's a week. Right. And like that's kind of like this. I know that's why we work on listening skills so much is so that way, like to hopefully like help them catch up like naturally, not naturally, but like through incidental learning as much as possible because it's like you got to attack it from both sides. But when it's a big fact of like we do sometimes just have to do direct vocabulary instruction or intervention. And I definitely agree. I'm glad you said that about strategies because I feel like
00:05:55
Speaker
I feel like I say that all the time on like a broken record. I'm like, here's the strategy and that strategy. I know. I mean, I see that a lot in like the
00:06:03
Speaker
the speech therapy Facebook groups, two people are like, what words are you picking? And it's like, I don't even try. That's so individual and impossible to just pull words out of thin air that are gonna transfer.
Teaching Advanced Vocabulary Techniques
00:06:19
Speaker
When I think of like vocabulary strategies, I tend to think of like context clues, things like that. Are there other strategies that you tend to teach a lot that are helpful? Yeah.
00:06:31
Speaker
semantic mapping and just expanding on the vocabulary that they do have. A lot of kids with hearing loss have not only a deficit and how many words they know, like the breadth of their vocabulary, but the depth of that vocabulary. So maybe they know what a fish is, but they don't know that it has scales, that it's cold-blooded, that
00:06:56
Speaker
that's called a fishing pole that you use. So just kind of expanding on those words that they do have and making connections between the words to kind of fill in those gaps.
00:07:07
Speaker
Yeah, I really like to work on that like word nuance stuff. I feel like that's like, I feel like it's also more interesting because you get to talk about words that you never thought you would be teaching. Yes, yes, I know. And it's just so fun how they just kind of come up naturally. And that's the best way to learn anyway, you know, is just through actual experiences with those words and those concepts.
00:07:30
Speaker
Yeah, I always try when I'm talking to a student to use vocabulary maybe a step higher than what they currently have. So if I know they know the word fish, then maybe I'm going to say salmon or whatever it is. I always try to see if I can be more specific just to see if I can push them a little further in the vocabulary, but it'll be meaningful because they know fish already and we're looking at a fish, but it's not just a fish, it's also a salmon. Right.
00:07:56
Speaker
Because I think a lot of people in general are guilty of kind of using the simplified language, which isn't really doing the child a favor in the end.
00:08:05
Speaker
Yeah. Especially with deaf kids. Yes. They tend to oversimplify teachers, parents, and I try to express to people, they can do it. Give them the benefit of the doubt, talk a little bit higher, be more specific in your language. It's fun to challenge yourself to be talking a little bit higher. Yes. I've seen research that says that children with hearing loss tend to not
00:08:31
Speaker
like inquire about words that they hear as much as kids with typical hearing, you know, they don't say, wait a minute, what is that? You know, they don't kind of self advocate in that way. And so teaching them the strategy of self advocacy to kind of, you know, stop and say, I don't know that word, or can you show me a picture of that or something is another good strategy. Just
00:08:53
Speaker
not only for right now, but for the rest of their lives, being able to recognize that they don't know a word and speak up. Yeah.
Encouraging Curiosity and Self-Advocacy
00:09:00
Speaker
I like to sometimes, if I'm reading a chapter book with a student, because one of my favorite things to do, which I've talked so much about, is using an independent reading book as material for your lesson, whether you're working on a listening goal or a vocabulary goal. Just take their independent reading book that they're already reading, because every kid has an independent reading book.
00:09:20
Speaker
For the most part, if they're in elementary school, they have an independent reading book and most middle schoolers do too. But I will read a page or whatever every once in a while, I'll stop and I'll ask them, find two words on this page, you're not sure what they mean. And then that eventually leads to them naturally asking me what words mean because we're just in the habit of talking about it. But just pausing and being like, okay, just look at this page, any words you're not sure about, even just a little bit not sure about.
00:09:47
Speaker
Just to get them in the habit of asking about words has been really helpful because then they get, they actually will start asking and that's so much easier than me trying to guess. Yes. That is a great idea because it's like just acknowledging that we don't all know all the words. So let's talk about the ones we don't know and just make that be open and acceptable. And I love that. That's a great activity.
00:10:09
Speaker
I like it because I don't have to prep anything. I already have their book with them. It's the same book for weeks. It's like work smarter, not harder. Yes, and you get to hear little snippets of different random books. Yeah, tons, tons of snippets.
00:10:29
Speaker
You don't have to like, quote unquote, play dumb. You know, like, I really don't know what's going on. Explain it to me. And that's, that's a great activity. Exactly. So you said a couple of strategies, were there any other ones? Cause I kind of jumped in there. Let's see. I mean, just repetition, you know, they don't, with the lower incidental learning abilities, like they it's, it's simply because they're not getting as many exposures to words a lot of times. So just using a lot of repetition for older kids, more of like.
00:11:00
Speaker
I'll probably do more of the like metacognitive strategies where it's like, well, we don't know this word, let's use a dictionary and look it up. Or, you know, within word analysis with morphemes, like, you know, the prefix and the suffix, and you can do some more of that kind of analyzing the words. Do you have like a way that you like to teach that or like an order you go about teaching it? Like, do you teach prefixes first, suffixes first?
00:11:26
Speaker
I don't. I just kind of do them simultaneously, probably. A lot of them know of kind of what that is. And I should say like a lot, most, all of my deaf and hard of hearing experiences with the little bitty. So I'm kind of talking about vocabulary with like just language impaired older students. Yeah, totally. Um, but a lot of them kind of know those concepts loosely from like ELA, but I don't think I have like a hierarchy. I've
00:11:54
Speaker
curious to know if there is because that would be very valuable. Yeah, I'd be curious to know if there's a list of ones that occur at a very high rate. What are the ones that if you learn a top 10, that would make the biggest impact? Yes. Because one of the things I feel like I struggle with the most is that I don't have a ton of time and I don't have a high frequency.
00:12:14
Speaker
So, I'm seeing most of my kids like once, maybe twice a week. And that's a lot, a lot of TODs I know see them even less than that. And I guess that's something you can lean on speech to like collaborate with maybe so that you're working on the same things so that you get that higher frequency. But if I, it's like, I can't teach all of them, obviously. I can't even teach half of them. Like I can maybe only teach 10 of them. So like what, what would make the biggest impact? You know, that would be an interesting thing to like look into. Yes, that would be,
00:12:43
Speaker
I saw one time, I have speech emusings, I think has a vocabulary resource. I saw one time that's got kind of broken down prefixes and suffixes in a real structured way. I don't have it. So I can't speak much to it, but I bet it's amazing. I'm sure I love all her language resources. They're really, they really break stuff down. Yes, especially for the upper elementary, middle school ages.
00:13:03
Speaker
Yeah, so that might be a good job. Do you have any specific strategies for older students, like high school, if they're working on higher tier three vocabulary? Yeah. A lot of it is the academic curriculum vocabulary again, explaining or working through not just the definitions, but how they go together. Like math, it seems like a lot of my older students
00:13:29
Speaker
working on some and operation and what are other ways to say those that are kind of like synonyms for that academic vocabulary and then a lot of metacognitive strategies probably. A lot of other strategies I use the same with the little biddies, but it looks totally different with older kids' activities. It looks different at the con.
00:13:49
Speaker
text of the prompts, it all looks different, but it's a pretty similar strategy when you boil it down. Yeah. Could you give an example of what that would look like for an older child? For which one? The metacognitive strategy. Kind of like what you're saying within a book or a reading. I do a lot of read works, passages, and things like that with words we don't know since I was doing teletherapy. Look up on dictionary.com or something like that.
00:14:17
Speaker
And one of them actually has a kid definition. I can't remember which one it is. Maybe it's dictionary.com or Miriam Webster or whatever it is. There's a definition that's more for kids, but it's still appropriate for high school. So we'll just use those tools right there in the session on screen share or break it down by prefix and suffixes or the root word, different morphemes like that.
00:14:46
Speaker
Yeah. When I'm in person, a lot of times I'll have them ask Siri what it means. Like I'll just hold it on my phone and I'll just say like, what does that word mean or whatever? What's the definition of the word? I do that one because they think it's fun. So they're more likely to ask me what a word means if they know they get to ask Siri. So like, it's just like an engaging way to get them to ask about words, but also it's faster than typing it in. So like it wastes less time for me. Yeah.
00:15:14
Speaker
And like I said, I like to just foster curiosity. So anytime they ask me a question, I don't know. I always ask theory. Most of my kids know that that's a thing that I'm willing to do. That is awesome. And it's so 21st century, too. Yeah. Nobody has a big actual dictionary anymore. So might as well use what they have available, which is a lot of them, the older ones especially.
00:15:35
Speaker
Siri with phone or Alexa. And for some of my younger ones, too, it actually gives them like they'd have to say clearly. So like it's if they are working on any particular sounds like in speech that I'm supporting or a lot of my kids, they talk too fast. Like that's their main issue. So like having them slow down so Siri can understand them. It just like it takes a lot of boxes for me having having them ask Siri about a word or about a question.
00:16:04
Speaker
I love that. That is an awesome idea. It was on my mind because I was doing like a puzzle and it was like a United States puzzle and they were asking me what the biggest state was and on the puzzle it looked like it was Texas but I know it's Alaska. So I was like let's ask Siri and they were like they asked Siri and they're like Alaska it's like not big enough.
00:16:25
Speaker
It was a good learning opportunity. You could ask them, why don't you think? Why didn't they put Alaska the size it should have been? Yeah. And then also why is Alaska next to Hawaii? And I was like, well, it's a puzzle.
00:16:42
Speaker
I was like, let me show you the real map. And then I'm like, it's up here, like off the puzzle. And they were probably a little young for me to be doing this. They were like, um, whatever you say. I was like, sometimes I shoot too high. I'm like, yeah, I'm going to go high. I'm going to like talk a little above them. I went a little too high above them that time. I find myself going down those like
00:17:02
Speaker
rabbit holes kind of all is lost because you just kind of follow, but it's not bad either to follow that lead. So I think you'll remember that, you know, because we went down that rabbit hole together at dinner. Yeah.
Addressing Vocabulary Gaps in Older Students
00:17:18
Speaker
Well, it's funny because my next question is like, what vocabulary gaps do you see frequently? And how do we fill those gaps? And the reason I brought up the puzzle, at least with kids with hearing loss, a lot of times things like states, unfamiliar places, unfamiliar names, anything that's not like in context of their daily life, like gets missed. Yeah, quickly. Do you have any other gaps that you tend to see? Receptive vocab. I mean, I think a lot of people think
00:17:44
Speaker
expressive vocab is like the biggest gap, but really studies have shown that receptive vocab is like they just aren't getting enough of those exposures to words to like truly get them to enter their lexicon. Interesting. So, you know, sometimes I think we might focus too quickly on the expressive when like we might need to back up and do some receptive tasks using a lot of repetition.
00:18:08
Speaker
like we said earlier, using the actual word in a syntactically correct sentence and not simplifying it or using like the broader term. And let's see, I kind of talked about it earlier, but like the vocabulary depth, you know, making sure that they have all that semantic knowledge and the language flexibility to talk about words and their connections to each other and between those words.
00:18:32
Speaker
Yeah, that reminds me I have this like game from you. It's like a compare and contrast game. Yeah. Like hexagons and it's you have to like connect the things by something they have in common or something that they don't have in common. I think I only play it with things they have in common. Yes. Yeah.
00:18:51
Speaker
But I like to use that for vocabulary specifically because it forces us to talk about things like texture and function and category. And it's not just teapot. It's appliance and metal and all of these other words that I just necessarily wouldn't.
00:19:11
Speaker
Yeah, I wouldn't think to target and I wouldn't necessarily think that they wouldn't know. But we've all had that experience of working with a kid and all of a sudden they don't know a word like metal. And you're like, how do you not know this word? You're in like fourth grade. Yeah, but they just missed it somehow. So I really liked that activity things that like that. It's not even like higher level vocabulary. It's just like random. Yes, little pockets. Right. Yeah, all those attributes. I mean, we kind of
00:19:38
Speaker
forget about that when we think it's not just labels when we're talking about vocabulary. There's so much behind it. It is such a big part of language.
00:19:47
Speaker
Yeah, I feel like I remember to do categorizing, like I remember to talk about category names, like I'm always making sure that not only do they know cow, pig, chicken, they also know animal, like those I remember about, but some of the more like attributes, like you were saying, like of things that are like a little higher, like because I guess when you get past preschool, you think that they're just going to pick up those words.
00:20:13
Speaker
Like we teach those things to preschoolers like we teach soft and hard and big and small But then it's like in your when you're in fourth grade and they need to know things like I don't know appliances I know that's like it comes up. It's not like it's not gonna be a vocabulary word in school Yeah, they just assume you would have picked it up by now so I really like that anything like compare and contrast games like I mentioned that you have or like things that bring up that attribute vocabulary if you're
00:20:42
Speaker
If you know you need to support vocabulary, but you're not sure how, I think that can be a really good way to go for like that functional vocabulary. Yeah. And I think a lot of us go like, when we go categories, we go like one step up. And I think I've seen research on this too, like instead of step down, like the, what is it? Like subordinate categories where it's like, um, like a couch is furniture.
00:21:05
Speaker
But couches could be like a sectional, a love seat, like even more specific. Oh, interesting. Yeah. It's also an area that I think we don't even really think about a lot of times. Yeah. I wouldn't have thought, I wouldn't have thought to go lower than couch, but that's totally right. That like sectional is like a very normal word for people to eat and love seat, all like super like relevant, you know? Like if someone in their families has ghosted on a love seat and they're like, what? Or the sofa. And we've all had a grandparent or something that calls for that.
00:21:34
Speaker
That's really helpful to think about because I do think I will go up, you're right, but not down in my thinking. Yes, so do I. So do I. So you're not the only one. So interesting.
Making Vocabulary Learning Engaging and Fun
00:21:47
Speaker
Okay. So one of the things I hear from like teachers and stuff is that like sometimes vocabulary intervention can be like kind of boring because it's like a lot, not that reading is boring, but if you're just reading like passages or
00:22:02
Speaker
you're doing like task cards, it can be a little boring. And there's always the option of like doing a game and taking a turn and like, yeah, but if we want to move beyond that and actually make the vocabulary intervention itself fun or interesting, do you have any like activities you really like or strategies for making it more fun?
00:22:20
Speaker
Yeah, well, I don't know if this is the SLP in me, but I'm like all about the themes instead of just, you know, kind of pulling from thin air. And the research does support that using themes can help provide like the semantic map, like, you know, all the connections between the words so that students aren't having to make like that leap on their own.
00:22:43
Speaker
There's kind of like that network there for them to kind of make sense of it all. Yeah, I'm doing an episode on themes for like, because we because when you have such a big age range, sometimes you can't. Yeah, like it's hard to do themes when only like three of your students are in preschool and like, yeah, before an elementary school or you know, it's all spread out like that.
00:23:01
Speaker
I think it'll be out by the time this is out or like right around there. Oh, cool. Awesome. Look for it or look for it soon. But I agree. People are like, why? People just do it because they think it's cute. It's not just cute. I feel like it just helps me hit words I wouldn't have otherwise thought about. Because am I really going to talk about random insects on my own? No, I'm going to need the spring theme to bring that up for me. Right. It kind of puts it all together.
00:23:31
Speaker
It's nice to hear that research supported because that was just my gut instinct. You're right. I just wrote a blog post earlier this week about themes with older kids. I have a couple of them out like, why use themes with high schoolers and it's not what you think. It's not like fire trucks. It's finding the topics they're interested in or that are being used in their school or in their curriculum and really digging into some of those kinds of
00:23:57
Speaker
topics. I call them more like topics with older kids, I don't know, even though it's like the same concept themes. Are there any that come to mind that are particularly good? Video games. A lot of science topics like natural disasters or like astronomy. Like a lot of the kids, the older kids seem to be into those kinds of things. Food themes, of course.
00:24:24
Speaker
Just like the geography, kind of like you're talking about travel and the way people live differently in different parts of the world. And being in teletherapy for so long, I do a lot of YouTube videos or live webcams. I love live webcams. The national parks, I'll have them. And my kids and I got really into watching this one in Alaska this summer that was bears fishing for salmon.
00:24:47
Speaker
in this waterfall thing. It was so cool. I feel like science is such an underrated theme. So many older kids are so into science topics.
00:25:01
Speaker
so much vocabulary. Almost too much, but that's such a good tip. I'll have to remember that when I'm doing some stuff with the older kids that if you're going to introduce something, science can definitely be the way to go. Because I know, I know, we have to support the curriculum vocabulary. And we do, we do, but sometimes you just want to shake it up a little bit. It's a little
00:25:24
Speaker
I always like to have a couple standalone lessons in my back pocket. In my back pocket, I mean like on my iPad.
Using Technology and Real-World Connections in Learning
00:25:32
Speaker
Just like always there. Either like a Google slides thing or like an interactive PDF thing.
00:25:39
Speaker
Just so that way, when the day comes, when I have nothing to support, which does happen now and then, over your day, and they can't tell me anything they need, and I can just have a standalone lesson that can cover vocabulary. Because I feel like every single child I work with is working on vocabulary in some capacity. Even if they don't have an explicit vocabulary goal, I feel like almost all language and listening goals can be tied back to vocabulary.
00:26:06
Speaker
And sometimes they're just not into it. They don't want to talk about what they talked about in school. Like, you know, we all have those days. So it's not like you're doing any harm to talk about something totally random because, you know, it's going to come up in their, their day to day at some point. So yeah, I agree. And that's why I like.
00:26:22
Speaker
like the digital resources because I feel like I'm spoiling my themes episode, but I like digital stuff for themes because I don't have to prep it. Like if I'm only going to use it with a handful of students because it's only appropriate for a handful of students, then I'm not going to go crazy like Velcroing stuff. I'm just going to download it on my iPad and call it a day. Yes, 100%. I feel like we kind of answered this a little bit, but what are some of your go-to activities to work on vocabulary?
00:26:52
Speaker
Well, since I've been in teletherapy for almost a decade, it's all digital at this point. But boom cards, I love boom cards, so dynamic, so interactive, so much great feedback for kids. Google Slides for older kids, which is
00:27:06
Speaker
also got a lot of those same features as boom cards. I like Google Slides for itinerants for older kids specifically because a lot of the places I go because I don't work for the district, I don't have access to internet. Fun, I know. But almost all schools are one-to-one, so the student has a computer.
00:27:27
Speaker
So if I can either share it with them ahead of time or make a folder where I drop stuff in for them, usually I can get stuff that way. And then they can open it on their computer. And then I do have Google Slides available. I just have to think a little bit ahead about having it on their computer if I can't access my internet on the school system.
00:27:51
Speaker
Sometimes they let you know and sometimes they don't. Everyone changed it after COVID. They let us on during the pandemic. They're like, okay, do whatever you want. And then when everyone came back, they're like, just kidding. And they took it all down. No Wi-Fi for you. Yeah. So I feel like Google slides for older kids is really helpful. And then interactive PDFs for younger kids on the iPad are the two ways I get around that. Yep. Yep. Because you don't need any internet after you've downloaded that one. So that is awesome.
00:28:18
Speaker
I like a lot of like, uh, like with teletherapy, I do a lot of scavenger hunts, which sounds like how do you do that? But like the kids will, I mostly saw kids in their homes. Well, they'll like go get stuff or I'll tell their parents ahead of time, like, Hey, we're going to be, uh, talking about fall stuff and they'll, you know, bring a leaf and we can get so much language out of a scavenger hunt. Like they love it. And I'll show what I have. And they love to see that compare and contrast them and tons of language. That's probably my favorite.
00:28:47
Speaker
I've done that too like in person where we like go outside like and we just like find stuff or also sometimes we're in like random rooms like I don't always have like the same. To call it a therapy room is a stretch. I don't always have the same space to do work. It's oftentimes a closet, a large closet with a table in it and I'm more than happy to do that.
00:29:09
Speaker
sometimes I do just like use what's around me as like, like, do you see anything in here that reminds you of this and then like, go that way? Because we kind of take advantage of the things around you. I haven't worked in a school setting that's not virtual. So I hear I hear all the horror stories at the closets, the janitorial closets that SLPs are
00:29:33
Speaker
I put my foot down at working in the hallway. I refuse to work in the hallway unless I have a table. If they have a little table in a quiet hallway, I will accept that because some speech rooms, like they don't even have enough room for the speech therapist. So they put a little table in the hallway and sometimes they let me borrow their little table.
00:29:54
Speaker
And that's a great day for me. I have a table. The hearing loss, that's another layer of just needing a conducive environment.
Practical Advice for Therapy Sessions
00:30:02
Speaker
Yeah. And I know this is not what the episode is about, but I feel like a tip that's been super helpful for me for finding space is if you go to the office and ask who's not in their room right now? Who's on prep? Who's music? Is that a special? Who's at lunch?
00:30:17
Speaker
and then use their room. So you have to get permission from the office and the office will tell that teacher, hey, this person's using your room for 30 minutes. And they might be sitting at their desk, which is like a little awkward, but I just kind of got past that because I need the space. Because there's really no extra space, but not everyone's in their room all the time.
00:30:36
Speaker
So that's kind of how I've gone. That's been my most successful strategy is asking the office who's not in their room and can I use a desk in their room? And most of the time they're happy that you're not bothering them for a separate room. So they're like, yeah, sure. You can use our leftovers. Yeah. That's kind of like what's worked, but sorry, not about vocabulary, but it's okay. It's all the struggle. It's real. Yes. Yeah.
00:31:02
Speaker
Is there anything else about vocabulary or any tips or anything that we haven't touched on today that you think would be helpful for people who are working on vocabulary goals with their kids? Gosh, I don't know. I mean, just keeping it fun, keeping it lots of different learning modalities.
00:31:19
Speaker
So of course, listening, incorporating sounds, audio recordings, coloring, movement, videos, I think that's kind of just like the best place as a combination of all different modalities, which can be a little more work on the front end. But if you're doing a theme, you can usually stretch that across several grade levels with some tweaks here and there.
00:31:40
Speaker
Yeah, I guess that's about all I can think of. Yeah, that sounds good. I feel like it's good to think about all the different ways that we can work with what we have and connect it to other things and then make it all gel together in a way that's functional and helpful for the students. It's really when it comes back to as long as it connects to something else in some way, then that's what makes it stick in their brain, I think. Agree. They have a place to put that little nuggets.
00:32:10
Speaker
Yeah, I feel like I always say it's like they got to put it in like a folder in their brain So like what what file cabinet is it going in? Like it has to you can't just have a random full file folder lying around It's not gonna you never gonna find it again So I guess you're gonna teach them about there's a random if the ELA teacher gives you a list of words like you got to connect those words to something because otherwise
00:32:31
Speaker
They're just floating around. I got lots of papers in my environment that are floating around. They're not being found. I like that file folder analogy for making connections in kids brains because I feel like it's like, oh yeah, okay. I see where you're, and then tell them where they're putting it so that they remember. Yes, multiple times making those connections.
00:32:58
Speaker
Absolutely.
Resources and Conclusion
00:32:59
Speaker
All right. Stacy, thank you so much for being here today. Could you tell everyone if they have any questions or anything where they can find you online? Sure. I have a website and a blog and that is stacycrouse.com. That's S-T-A-C-Y-C-R-O-U-S-E. I am on Instagram at stacycrouse.slp.
00:33:19
Speaker
And then I have a TPT store. That's also my name, Stacy Gross. So, you know, real creative over here. Nice and easy for everybody. I'll also link all of the stuff we talked about and all Stacy's links in the show notes. So if you want to check it out, you can. And that's it for the show today. Like I said, all the links and the transcript can be found below in the show notes or at listen to top pod.com.
00:33:42
Speaker
If you have any questions or have any of your own fun vocabulary ideas to share, feel free to post them in our TOD Community Facebook group or DM me on Instagram at listeningfun. Have a fantastic day and I'll see you next week. Bye. Bye.