Miss Mimi’s Speech

Spreading joy and happiness next week with Halloween lollipops after a job well done! Happy Friday everyone

I got this today randomly in my mail. It resonated with me

I’ll be posting FREE videos this week of me reading stories from my home office. I’m calling these videos, Story Time with Miss Mimi. You can show your children them from my business page at your convenience. ... My goals in posting these story time videos are to stay connected with the kids on my current caseload, continue to encourage language and literacy learning in preschool and school-age students and to support parents who are finding it difficult to read to their children at home while still working during this complicated and emotional time. Stay tuned for my first story time video this week posted here. Until we meet again Lots of love Miss Mimi

Spreading joy and happiness next week with Halloween lollipops after a job well done! Happy Friday everyone

Yes https://youtu.be/F8pL7a0Qzjs

I got this today randomly in my mail. It resonated with me

https://programminglibrarian.org//online-story-time-corona Looking into this and will post free story time videos to my page, if I can, once I know more about this issue. Thank you

I’ll be posting FREE videos this week of me reading stories from my home office. I’m calling these videos, Story Time with Miss Mimi. You can show your children them from my business page at your convenience. ... My goals in posting these story time videos are to stay connected with the kids on my current caseload, continue to encourage language and literacy learning in preschool and school-age students and to support parents who are finding it difficult to read to their children at home while still working during this complicated and emotional time. Stay tuned for my first story time video this week posted here. Until we meet again Lots of love Miss Mimi

Adult ABC’s Plus some love from the kiddos this week Wishing everyone a happy Friday and Valentine’s Day!

Me today organizing / cleaning my home office ... lol https://youtu.be/LmrY_0-PBkE

I know recently there’s been many posts about cuts to education. Although I’m not a teacher, I feel I have similar passions and would advocate likewise for what I believe in and for what is right. I know there was a point about fighting to keep full day kindergarten. As a SLP, I would totally support this. I know I don’t work in education and I couldn’t possibly know all the facts and perspectives, but early learning and foundational skills are so important! They are the buil...ding blocks for later learning. Confidence is created in the early years and can certainly always change at any time, but when you start practicing your learning skills earlier, you are giving them an advantage. I know I’ve posted before about the principles of neuroplasticity. Essentially, the littles are sponges . The brain is most plastic from 0-5 years. This principle also applies to research on language learning. Research has supported that it can be easier to learn a language at an earlier age. Another reason why I feel there should be a full day kindergarten as an SLP, is that many students are identified with a possible learning disability, speech, and or language disability by the teacher in the classroom. This early identification for students with possible disabilities gets the ball rolling for support. Government funded wait lists can be lengthy, so the sooner the better to start the referral process. Again, I know I’m not a teacher and I’m not realistically experiencing what is happening in the classroom environment, but I’m hoping they will keep a full day kindergarten for some of these reasons I’ve shared. See more

I always like to post when I can when a student makes me something This week a student made me a card. They drew both of us working at the table smiling It makes me feel good to know that I’m making their learning experience a happy one

Found this today in my drawer. 2020 will be 8 years as a SLP

This week I wrote Christmas cards to all my students and families. As I was writing them, I reflected on my time with them this year and their improvements. I could honestly post after every session sharing a success story, observations and or strategies that I noticed were helpful. As well as, stories about students feeling so happy and confident after sessions and noticing their interest in literacy increasing The bottom line of this post and writing these Christmas cards is that I appreciate all my students and families and I feel truly blessed to do what I do. It’s been a great year Merry Christmas to everyone and looking forward to seeing everyone again in 2020. So much love

A random act of Christmas kindness to brighten my Monday A little student spontaneously gave me a candy cane and said, Miss Mimi, because you give us candy canes all the time, I’m going to give you this big, shiny one. This genuine comment and kindness made my day. ... I’m not posting this to brag and or to advertise, I just really wanted to share how random acts of kindness and simple gestures can brighten someone’s day and this was a great example of that today. As well as, when two candy canes come together, they make a heart

Some session prep and planning for this week All part of the job For preschool speech and language, I’ll be using this book for Christmas vocabulary, combining words and formulating sentences (age-appropriate). ... The /S/ is a later developing speech sound that is commonly tricky (frontal / lateral lisp). Santa can be a fun target/practice word this time of year. If Santa is too tricky for the little ones just learning to talk, Ho Ho is a great, easy, functional word to encourage communication and participation. Simplifying words that can be too tricky can be a great strategy to encourage participation and confidence For my literacy kiddos who are reading ready, they can read this book to me in session with SLP support as needed The candy canes are rewards for after Unfortunately, no candy cane emoji, yet

Dr. Suess books have been pretty popular lately! They never get old! I love these books because they have a perfect combination of phonics, sight words and high frequency words. They are perfect for early readers as the words are not too tricky and the writing style is repetitive. ... I’ve noticed these past few weeks that the kids have been feeling pretty confident after reading them Green eggs and ham (Sam I am) is a classic and I’m excited to use, Go, Dog, Go this week. I also picked up a National Geographic book called, Jump, Pup that is very cute and has a similar writing style to Dr. Suess with easy phonics (words you can sound out like jump) and early sight words (words you learn by seeing frequently like was).

The kids are really excited about these enormous Halloween swirl lollipops! They are rewards, but I’ve also been using them as a vocabulary and spelling opportunity with ENORMOUS instead of big with my older kiddos! One of my bright kiddos last night gave me the idea when we read the word ENORMOUS in her book and then she beautifully related the word to the lollipop I love when the kiddos give me ideas, too!

Feeling festive already ! I picked up these new flash cards this weekend after I got a new Clifford book towards the end of the week with a Christmas theme that was super popular! I love noticing which books are more popular (e.g., what books the kids want to read the most) when they look through my book bag I’m so excited to use these this week with the kids! The flash card pack also had some popular culture kid trends such as unicorns and tacos with super c...ute illustrations! I hope they are just as excited as I am!

Pinkalicious and Thomas early literacy books for learning letter names and sounds in a 1:1 environment.

https://youtu.be/Gnd7joNP_gI The Hanen Centre in Toronto is an amazing resource for parents and SLP’s! Their website has so many ideas and tips / strategies for parents and SLP’s. I often look at their posts to get ideas for my sessions and in this video I shared below, it’s amazing to see that we are both on the same page ... I’ve used this same song in a therapy session before to encourage a little boy to talk as it’s fun, interactive with gestures and the word me is a perfect easy CV (consonant vowel) word structure with an initial bilabial speech sound with /m/. The bilabial and front (e.g., made at the front of the mouth) speech sounds (b, p, m) are the first sounds to develop and when working with the little ones to encourage talking, it’s important to choose target words that are not too tricky (e.g., later developing sounds such as /s/ and /r/). Also, sometimes puppy can be an easier word for a dog as dog moves from front (e.g., /d/) to back (e.g., /g/ made at the back of mouth) speech sounds while puppy is two bilabial front consonants /p/, making the mouth transition easier. Also the back sounds /k/ and /g/ are trickier because they are not as visual as front sounds and front sounds developmentally are easier. In this video you’ll get a great visual example of how to elicit more words and talking with your little one. I love this video and will share more as I see them

https://youtu.be/7VvBAgQKmso Great video! Don’t underestimate gestures in early language development

Great book for explicitly teaching eye-contact with the little ones Also great for early literacy with a repetitive writing pattern and simple, short sentences on the page.

Fun books to read in sessions by popular requests from the girls with unicorns, fairies and Barbie The kids were really into them this week

I’ve been using this book as a preschool resource for increasing expressive language (e.g., combining three words with I see you) and to increase eye-contact when speaking for social language goals. The little ones love looking at themselves in the mirror. It was a hit this week It’s also a great book for early literacy with a repetitive pattern throughout with, I see you for learning early sight words.

It’s been since February that I last posted on this page. I keep getting reminder notifications from Facebook and every week I think to myself, this resource would be great to share with everyone. Or, I should share this success story on my page. Since February, it’s been pretty busy, and I’ve yet to post anything. With the school year coming to an end and with working privately for over one year now, I’ve been reflecting on the experiences and highlights: Being a...Continue reading