Buchanan K-1 Center
With the movement of the preschool special education program to McKinley Learning Center this year, it has decreased the number of students requiring speech and language services at Buchanan K-1 Center. This decrease has allowed time to work in the general classroom with students who might not otherwise meet the state’s criteria to receive assistance with their speech and language skills. The Speech and Language Pathology assistants (Mrs. Kelsey and Miss Allison) have been going into the kindergarten classrooms for 10-15 minutes sessions each week to reinforce the letter names and sounds being taught through the animated alphabet program by the teachers.
Individual speech sessions are typically 20 minutes long. The focus of the sessions depends on the needs of the child. Some children need assistance with improving their understanding of the movements of the articulators (tongue, teeth, lips, etc.) that are necessary for correct sound production. Other students might need help with increasing their understanding and use of words (expressive and receptive language skills).
These skills are vital to academic success! Some skills that are worked on are improving grammar/sentence structure (nouns, verbs, pronouns, prepositions, adjectives, etc.), labeling objects and actions, using inferencing skills (reasoning), asking and answering “why” and yes/no questions, sorting items into categories and explaining why the items belong in the groups, as well as many other skills.
They continue to use games and learning activities that focus on counting, labeling and identifying colors, shapes and numbers. Good sportsmanship when completing these activities is always expected and rewarded.
Submitted by Lori Eggleston, K-1 Speech and Language Pathologist
