Chapel Hill Snippets: Ocean Unit Collection repost; Musings on ESY

I'm in the middle of Extended School Year. For those of you who don't know what this is, it's essentially summer school for our children with significant disabilities who might regress during long breaks. Most of my children have severe language and cognitive delays, and I'm finding that I really need to go back to basics. These included working on communicative intent, imitation, joint referencing, and replacing behaviors with language. Core vocabulary is lacking with many, so I work with teachers on using basic AAC in the classroom. With some children, simple appropriate use of objects and toys is the focus of an activity.

I love ESY in that the experience makes me a better therapist. I meet many new children, and have repeat little friends from previous years. I ponder what I would do with them differently if they were my permanent students, and then look at my own caseload to make sure I am doing everything I can to help them become functional communicators. Summers such as this really do help me grow personally and professionally.

The bottom line is that I haven't had the need to get super creative with materials. This summer, the goal of therapy has not been reading a fancy book or creating paper plate sea animals, even though I do love making things with the kids.

That being said, here's a repost from last year of many of my ocean-themed books and activities.

---------------post from May 2013 below----------------------------------------------

Things are winding down at my school in preparation for our annual test-taking ritual. This year---a little less frenzy, since scores won't be available for everyone until October. This late date will eliminate retests (if a kid didn't pass in the past years, he or she had the joy of taking it again). This year, there's a reprieve from that for both the kids and for the adults who have to administer the tests. I'm happy!

For those of you who need materials centered around the beach or ocean theme, I've been collecting them over the years. During summer ESY (extended school year), we typically celebrate the beach and ocean, so I have several adapted books and crafts in my tool chest. Here they are! All free as usual.