Welcome, everyone, to a new school year! My name is Kimberly Bartlett, and I'm a newcomer to the Tritt team. I have been so warmly welcomed and encouraged even in my first few weeks. I'm the speech pathologist for preschool, including the special needs classrooms and kids coming in from the community. My themes for the year will be closely aligned to Mrs. Tommasello's and Dr. Laushey's themes, and students' communication, articulation, and language goals will be targeted within the same (or similar) unit. I will post information about what we're working on in speech and ways that you, as parents, can continue the learning at home by reading books with your children and talking and playing together!
For the first few weeks of school, our theme is appropriately "Back to School." We're reading books about preschool and "If You Take a Mouse to School." We are expanding vocabulary by talking about what happens at school, what items you might see (backpacks, pencils, etc.), what color the school bus is, etc. Everything that we do in speech (or the classroom) can be extended beyond speech and out of the classroom with the help of parents and siblings. For example, driving home from school today, I spotted 4 school buses and thought about how parents can expand on what we're learning about in speech and in the classroom by commenting on the real huge buses driving by, talking about the color and what noise it makes and its function, all for the purpose of making the brain connection that the little picture of a bus or a toy bus that we look at during speech is really a big and exciting moving machine! Repetition is key, especially for young working minds (Ok, let's be real, I have to be told something multiple times for it to sink in, especially when it's a new procedure), so talking about a topic or reading the same book multiple times only helps to make the neural pathways stronger, like trotting over a certain path in the woods multiple times to make it clear.
I'm so thankful for the opportunity to be in the position I'm in, to be able to encourage others to use their voices and communicate effectively. I'm looking forward to this year!
For the first few weeks of school, our theme is appropriately "Back to School." We're reading books about preschool and "If You Take a Mouse to School." We are expanding vocabulary by talking about what happens at school, what items you might see (backpacks, pencils, etc.), what color the school bus is, etc. Everything that we do in speech (or the classroom) can be extended beyond speech and out of the classroom with the help of parents and siblings. For example, driving home from school today, I spotted 4 school buses and thought about how parents can expand on what we're learning about in speech and in the classroom by commenting on the real huge buses driving by, talking about the color and what noise it makes and its function, all for the purpose of making the brain connection that the little picture of a bus or a toy bus that we look at during speech is really a big and exciting moving machine! Repetition is key, especially for young working minds (Ok, let's be real, I have to be told something multiple times for it to sink in, especially when it's a new procedure), so talking about a topic or reading the same book multiple times only helps to make the neural pathways stronger, like trotting over a certain path in the woods multiple times to make it clear.
I'm so thankful for the opportunity to be in the position I'm in, to be able to encourage others to use their voices and communicate effectively. I'm looking forward to this year!