MindWing Concepts Blog

It’s that time of year, again – time to reconnect with our friends and colleagues at the American Speech and Hearing Association Conference, this year in Philadelphia.

1. We will be at Booth #215 with product demos, videos, special give-aways and prizes! If you mention reading this BLOG or getting our E-Newsletter, you will be entered in a special drawing with a chance to win The Autism Collection Kit!
2. In addition to our Booth #215, Maryellen Rooney Moreau will be presenting on the topic of Autism Spectrum Disorders in session #0303, Thursday, November 18, 9:30AM-10:30AM in Room CC/106B. This session is entitled: “It’s All About the Story: The Language-Thinking-Social Connection” and will highlight our new Autism Collection: It’s All About the Story and Making Connections...

This is a MindWing Concepts Map of the components of a story taking into consideration “story grammar.” It is called “The SGM^® Episode Organizer.” The story grammar components, making up the beginning/middle/end of a story are shown as icons. The Character, Setting, Kick-off (problem or excitement), Feeling and Plan are in the beginning. The actions (attempts) to carry out the plan make up the middle and the Consequence and resolution make up the end.

Help them ask Who, What, When, Where & Why Using the Story Grammar Marker^®

Children often “don’t know” what they “don’t know!” Using the Story Grammar Marker^® manipulative, parents, teachers and specialists can give children the ability to ASK AND ANSWER “Wh” questions such as: Who, What, When, Where and Why. Development of these abilities improves children’s oral language, writing, critical thinking and comprehension. It also especially can help children in social situations and conversations.

Maryellen is having a conversation with her granddaughter Lauren at the age of two. Notice how Maryellen used a cuddly toy cow to encourage Lauren to remember a visit to a farm. The two had experienced the event is real time. This interaction centers on the memory of the visit and is expressed as a personal narrative...

It’s really exciting when a speech-language material is published that provides clinicians with a ready-to-go resource that jibes well with strategies we already have been teaching. Such is definitely the case with the excellent We Can Make it Better program recently released by Think Social Publishing and written by Speech-Language Pathologist Elizabeth Delsandro. We Can Make it Better is a set of 20+ stories in which social interactions go quite wrong due to “unexpected behaviors” by one of the characters. The materials and activities unfold in a very logical therapeutic structure that challenges students to “make it better” by deciding alternative actions for the characters...