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heres one I made earlier

Heres one I made earlier...


Phonbola
MATERIALS Big jar (Ive found that extra large jars of pickled gherkins are quite easy to find. If your therapy room has an unforgiving floor you will need to find a plastic jar instead.) Pen Small pieces of thin, foldable card MATERIALS As many battered old toy cars as you can find, the worse their condition the better Or, and more appropriate for older clients, pictures of real old bangers (you can get these from a specialist magazine on stock car racing) Alternatively use other old vehicles / pictures such as buses, trains, and motorbikes

Alison Roberts with more low-cost, flexible therapy suggestions suitable for a variety of client groups.

Alison Roberts is a speech and language therapist at Ruskin Mill Further Education College in Nailsworth, Gloucestershire. BRAWN Write words, phrases etc containing your clients target sound on the cards. Alternatively, if your client is a non-reader draw little pictures, or, if you have them, you could use Widgit symbols. IN PRACTICE (I) Simply place the folded cards in the jar, put the lid on, and roll it towards your client. They pick out a card and read it / name it. IN PRACTICE (II) The client makes a sentence containing the jar word. a monkey. Finally, you can decide and describe the fate of the car, perhaps to start a new life, after being repaired and repainted, or to be crushed and made into saucepans! Try to end the cars life on a reasonably positive note.

This is a fun addition to your phonological materials. You can use it as a one to one activity, or in a group.

Life of Riley
This is a lateral thinking activity for a group of fairly able children or young teenagers. It also helps to develop narrative skills. The idea is to explain how the cars could have got into such a state. Extra praise should be given for the funniest or most outlandish ideas.

IN PRACTICE Ask clients to make up a story to explain the current condition of the car. You can get the ball rolling yourself, for example describing how a vehicle started life as a family car, and was stolen and used as a getaway car, or got left in a beach car park when the tide came in. It was later sold to a new driver as a first car, but kept being badly parked, bumping into posts etc. It might even have been taken to a safari park and re-engineered by

Havent you changed!


A series of games for a group of clients to encourage observation of other people. It is also a good opportunity to practise Makaton or other signs.

MATERIALS Scarves, hats, glasses, jackets and so on for versions I and II There are several, progressively harder, ways to approach this. IN PRACTICE (I) You must have the change items outside the room. One of the clients is scrutinised by the others, goes out, puts on a hat, or a pair of glasses, returns to the room, and the others say what has changed. IN PRACTICE (II) A client goes out of the room while someone left inside changes something about themselves, such as putting on a jacket, with the others in the group remaining neutral. The other client returns and examines those already in the room, selecting the changer. IN PRACTICE (III) A client goes out of the room and the others decide on a facial expression, a Makaton sign, or a way of sitting, for example

with arms or legs crossed. They are all doing this action when the client returns for a short while to look at them, but nothing is said. Now the client goes out again, and the group adopts a different facial expression, Makaton sign, or pose, and when the client re-enters s/he must state what is different about the group. IN PRACTICE (IV) A still more difficult version is a new take on a parlour game. One person exits, and the others decide on an overt action and a covert action. The overt action could be to pass around something like an open or closed book, but covertly the action is sitting with the legs either apart or together. When the person re-enters the room s/he sits down with the group, and tries to join in with the groups activity. The first one in the group (one who is in on the secret) statesI pass on this book open, or,I pass on this book closed. The book will be randomly open or closed;

it is the position of the legs that goes with the words. The one who is excluded from the Secret tries to work out what the covert posture is. Another statement could be I pass on these scissors crossed, or I pass on these scissors uncrossed; again that would happen randomly; it would be the legs that are crossed or uncrossed. You could try I pass on this tea towel folded or I pass on this tea towel unfolded, when it would actually be the arms that are folded or not. (Passing the towel on with folded arms is possible to do!) Or try I pass on this pencil upright/ leaning, but it would really be your posture that is upright, or inclining slightly to one side. Then there could beI pass on this pen pointing up/down, and with the other hand slightly point up or down. Your own or your clients imaginations will suggest more of these; all you have to remember is that you need a statement which can apply both to an object and a bodily action.

SPEECH & LANGUAGE THERAPY IN PRACTICE SPRING 2008

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