MindWing Concepts Blog
Letter from a Parent of A Child with Autism
I have a 6.5 year old son who has high functioning Autism. His Test of Narrative Language is at 3% for both receptive and expressive components. I introduced the Story Grammar Marker® to him this week and we went over the book “Big Al” by Andrew Clements together a couple of times, as described in your new book “It’s All About the Story.” I am thrilled to tell you that at dinner time a couple of days later, we were talking about our “ho-hum” day, and I mentioned to my husband that I got a headache in the morning. My son took over and said: “That was a kick-off!” I was shocked to see how quickly he grasped the tool that he calls “Grandma's Story Marker” :-)...
Kick-Off the Kick-Off
In some recent posts I have described some visual and interactive activities to complement the instruction in It’s All About the Story establishing the concepts of character and setting. In keeping with the sequence of lessons in Mindwing’s Autism Collection, I’d like to move on to a few ways technology can help you introduce the Initiating Event or “Kick-Off “ of a narrative. As the lessons describe, you can discuss how in a particular setting, something happens to characters to “change the ‘Ho-Hum’ day” and start the story! An additional language strategy is to teach the words and phrases that signal a Kick-Off: suddenly, just then, etc. Taking a step beyond the visuals in the lessons, you can teach your students to apply the concept of the Kick-off using a few fun interactive technology resources...
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Is Maryellen Actually “Maryellen Who?”
Theodor Seuss Geisel, better known to the world as Dr. Seuss, was born in 1904 on Howard Street in Springfield, Massachusetts – which is right around the corner from MindWing’s office. The Dr. Seuss National Memorial Sculpture Garden is located at the Springfield Museums near our office as well. The influence of Ted’s (Dr. Seuss’) memories of Springfield can be seen throughout his work.
In keeping with the spirit of the holiday season, we wanted to share a lesson idea from MindWing’s book: East Meets West for the Holidays by Maryellen Rooney Moreau and Judy K. Montgomery. This lesson is based on one of Dr. Seuss’ most beloved holiday stories: How the Grinch Stole Christmas.
Gingerbread Characters and Settings
Using the holidays as a context for language interventions can be tough, as it’s important to be inclusive of all cultures and celebrations. From a technology perspective, there just aren’t many great interactive resources about the Festival of Lights (anyone want to make some)? Gingerbread, however, while associated loosely with Christmas, is probably fair game in the public school setting!
Now, while websites with excessive, distracting ads are often something I rule out as a potential therapy resource, sometimes sites that are actually a giant, yet somehow unobtrusive ad can be great...
Happy Thanksgiving!
Happy Thanksgiving from your Friends at MindWing Concepts!
For a yummy Thanksgiving appetizer, we have posted a fantastic recipe from our friend Stacy called: Baked Apple Cheese Dip. This recipe is posted as a ThemeMaker™ List Map and a Sequence Map. See post!
Narrative Practice Hypothesis
The following description (bolded) was a component of a presentation by Carol Westby, Ph.D., at the American Speech/Language and Hearing Association Convention ASHA 2008, Chicago. Italics are our notations.
Narrative Competency plays a large role in the understanding of why people do what they do.
Stories are natural extensions of children’s earlier experiences of sharing of event structures...
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Narrative Competency plays a large role in the understanding of why people do what they do.
Stories are natural extensions of children’s earlier experiences of sharing of event structures...