More ESY fun---sand art fish!

It's really not about the fish.  Making a craft isn't the point of ESY speech therapy---it's the process.  The kids have to request materials, follow visual and auditory directions, take turns, comment, answer questions, and pay attention.  They have to use fine motor skills, write their names, possibly draw or color, and use school tools such as scissors. Of course, the point of a speech pathologist and occupational therapist being there is to teach the above-mentioned skills.  The children really do learn!  The tangible result is a child-crafted creation that is beautiful to their eyes and to the eyes of the speech pathologist. The less immediate result is the next time a child participates in a classroom group, he will be better able to apply skills to do something else.  I try to capture my moments through pictures, and I really do love the little groups of kids who participate in this type of activity.

The creations from one of the classrooms.  There are 7 classes at Rashkis this summer!

communication board made with Boardmaker to go along with the activity

This picture and the following two pictures are from Pictello--an iPad app that has text-to-speech features

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from Pictello

from Pictello