Anna has been adjusting to her new routine. When I say it’s time to do speech therapy, instead of heading to the door, she heads straight upstairs to the computer. We have been doing occupational therapy activities at home on our own, but she still continues her speech therapy and TalkTools therapy via online. We still wake up around the same time, 6:30 to 7:00 am and every other day, we go out for a walk or bike ride to start our day. After that we return home to do our TalkTools therapy. Then, after breakfast her brother and sister are given a list of assignments to do for school and/or they are online with Zoom in a class with their teacher. During that time, Anna and I do her “homework”. We start with “reading time” and depending on the day, we do Numicons. Numicons is a multi-sensory teaching tool designed to help children visualize numbers, ie. another way to teach math. After that, we start occupational therapy type activities. I usually try to start with hiding little animals in putty for her to dig out for hand/finger strengthening. Then, we try to do some kind of writing activity. This varies from writing or tracing letters with dry erase markers, using chalk and board (from handwriting without tears program), preschool activities or workbooks that require writing with either a marker, crayon, or pencil. I have had to vary her activities to try to keep her interested and engaged.
Online speech therapy has been working out better than I had expected. Of course, there was an initial rough patch as we worked out logistics and computer issues. Now that those issues have been for the most part, worked out, the online option has been great. Her speech therapist engages her by giving her little online games as a reward for completing her speech tasks. There is a video of Anna with her speech therapist as they sing and read a book together. Currently, we are working on possessive pronouns. TalkTools therapy has also worked out very well online. We thankfully haven’t skipped a beat with completing her speech therapy sessions with TalkTools. Her therapist picked up right where we left off and Anna continues to make progress. Her therapist shows us exactly what to do and always has a plan for us afterwards to move her forward. We are grateful that even under these circumstances; we can still continue with her speech and talk tools therapy.
Talktool admin
14 May 20