Speech-Language Pathologists detail programs at CTC and provide options for furthering communication at home.
May 2025 - High School Language Lab
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In the high school wing, students have the opportunity to participate in a Language Lab that runs on Fridays. This provides students staying on campus for CBI with additional support around language concepts. It also allows the speech-language therapist to continue layering in thinking, language, and collaboration through discussion and creative writing.
Recently, students have been provided with a picture prompt, and all students contribute ideas during the creative writing process. This solidifies the concepts of story grammar elements—also targeted in language arts—by brainstorming and discussing character, setting, plot, a main problem, an emotional response, and a resolution. All ideas are honored and synthesized. Students access their ideas through verbal expression and aided communication, contributing meaningfully to the discussion. |
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This reinforces each student’s value in both the academic conversation and the creative writing process. The outcome of the Language Lab is a rich discussion, yielding a final product that highlights the essence of shared collaboration. Language has no meaning if it is not shared—and this group context allows exactly that. Students listen to each other’s ideas, agree or disagree, and contribute their own thoughts to enrich the process.
Attached is an example of a final product completed by a group of high school students during their Language Lab.
-Michelle Attardi, Speech-Language Pathologist at Celebrate the Children
Attached is an example of a final product completed by a group of high school students during their Language Lab.
-Michelle Attardi, Speech-Language Pathologist at Celebrate the Children
April 2025 - Speech-Language Therapy Integration: Journey to the Center of the Earth
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During integrated speech-language therapy sessions, our middle school classes have been working closely with the story Journey to the Center of the Earth. It is a story about a scientist who goes on an exciting adventure to explore the earth’s underground world. While traveling through a volcano, they discover strange creatures, glowing caves, and underground seas. Along the way, they face challenges, but they work together to find their way back to the surface.
The integrated model at CTC allows for opportunities to support the generalization of skills that will help each child achieve their maximum potential in communicating their thoughts and ideas. Collaboration and co-teaching with teachers and support staff is an integral part of our approach to maximize skill development across the robust and natural contexts of the school day. Maximizing the Integration Model provides the child with more therapeutic opportunities within natural contexts, which makes the experience meaningful and more likely to generalize. |
Journey of the Center of the Earth has lent itself to many experience-based lessons that have been beneficial in supporting comprehension and demonstrating concept knowledge related to the story. For example, students practiced using prepositions via movement-based activities (e.g., obstacle courses climbing through/under items to simulate the “journey”), packing for a hiking trip, making and digging for fossils, building volcanoes, and gardening while learning about the surface of the earth and its various layers. During these integrated lessons and activities, students have worked on expanding their language and communication skills while focusing on areas such as sequencing tasks (e.g., steps to make a volcano), visual representation, and sentence formulation in order to describe picture scenes/experiences. In addition, students have strengthened their social skills through teamwork and shared problem-solving. The pictures included showcase experience-based learning opportunities related to Journey to the Center of the Earth.
- Rachel Wierzbicki, Speech-Language Pathologist at Celebrate the Children
- Rachel Wierzbicki, Speech-Language Pathologist at Celebrate the Children
March 2025 - Exploring AAC at Home!
Calling all Communication Partners! While utilizing Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC), a child’s communication partner plays a key role in supporting their ability to learn and use their AAC device to communicate. Therefore, it is important for communication partners to learn their child’s communication program and to know where vocabulary is located in order to support progress in using AAC effectively. Aided Language Stimulation is a strategy that involves a communication partner modeling language by pointing to symbols or words on the AAC device while also modeling spoken language. This helps the AAC user to make connections and to use their device within authentic situations. Below are some ideas to start learning your child’s device, which include fun ways to incorporate its use at home:
- Focus on one core word a week to use throughout the day. For example, “more”, “help”, “go” or “stop”. Core words are high-frequency words that are essential to AAC and language development! (click on the link via the bolded words).
- Try to have a conversation just using their AAC device with someone!
- Watch a movie and use social/commenting pages to make comments about the movie (e.g. "love it", "oh no!", "awesome", "silly", "crazy", "sad", etc.).
- Have a scavenger hunt around the house! Once you find an item, look for it on your child’s AAC device and model communicating it. This will work on navigation of various folders throughout the program. To expand upon this, you can also use the “describe” page to describe the items you find!
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5. Pick a time in your daily routine where you model language on your student’s device each day. For example, getting dressed in the morning (clothing folder), eating dinner (food folder), or focusing on places you are going (places folder). Focus on using verbs as well as nouns (e.g. go, eat, drink, get, wear, put on, etc).
TIP: If you can’t find a word, you can search it! The device will guide you through the folders you can access to find it.
- Rachel Wierzbicki and Taylor Park, Speech-Language Pathologists at Celebrate the Children
TIP: If you can’t find a word, you can search it! The device will guide you through the folders you can access to find it.
- On Proloquo2go, you can click the four dots at the bottom of the screen and then click the search bar.
- On TouchChat, you can click on the “ABC 123” button and then click the “Find Word” button.
- Rachel Wierzbicki and Taylor Park, Speech-Language Pathologists at Celebrate the Children
February 2025 - S.L.P Zones of Regulation
The Zones of Regulation framework is a valuable tool for speech therapists to help children develop self-regulation and emotional awareness.
It categorizes emotional states and levels of arousal into four color-coded zones: Blue, Green, Yellow, and Red. Each zone represents a range of emotions and energy levels, providing a simple, visual way for children to identify and communicate their feelings.
As a speech therapist, I often integrate the Zones into therapy sessions to support children to interpret and express their emotions or recognize how their feelings affect others. Supporting them with the Zones provides a common language to discuss these concepts.
The Green Zone represents calm and focused states, ideal for learning and social interaction. Blue includes low-energy emotions like sadness or fatigue, Yellow signifies heightened emotions like anxiety or excitement, and Red denotes extreme feelings like anger or fear.
Using this framework, I pair visual aids and/or use their augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) device with strategies to transition between zones, such as deep breathing or social scripts. Ultimately, the Zones empower children to understand themselves better and
navigate their social environments.
- Megen Cunningham, Speech-Language Pathologist at Celebrate the Children
It categorizes emotional states and levels of arousal into four color-coded zones: Blue, Green, Yellow, and Red. Each zone represents a range of emotions and energy levels, providing a simple, visual way for children to identify and communicate their feelings.
As a speech therapist, I often integrate the Zones into therapy sessions to support children to interpret and express their emotions or recognize how their feelings affect others. Supporting them with the Zones provides a common language to discuss these concepts.
The Green Zone represents calm and focused states, ideal for learning and social interaction. Blue includes low-energy emotions like sadness or fatigue, Yellow signifies heightened emotions like anxiety or excitement, and Red denotes extreme feelings like anger or fear.
Using this framework, I pair visual aids and/or use their augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) device with strategies to transition between zones, such as deep breathing or social scripts. Ultimately, the Zones empower children to understand themselves better and
navigate their social environments.
- Megen Cunningham, Speech-Language Pathologist at Celebrate the Children
January 2025 - Winter Activities
Read a book: Enjoy the down time and snuggle up on the couch or before bed and read or talk about a book. Use a favored book or a winter theme book, (some suggestions: “The Mitten” by Jan Brett; “The Snowy Day,” by Ezra Jack Keats; “There Was An Old Lady Who Swallowed Some Snow,”).
Flashlight “I spy”: Turn out the lights and use a flashlight to find items in the room.
Window “I spy”: Look out the kitchen window, living room window and talk about what you see “I see (I spy) a squirrel (a tree, a red car, etc).
Sing songs: Sing favorite songs to activate voice and use your body to enforce the action words.
Read Aloud a Winter Poem: Reading aloud a catchy winter poem can be a great way to share quality time at home with family. While reading aloud, encourage your child to produce the sounds of key words playfully and to the best of their ability. For example, when reading a poem you might emphasize: “winterrr, mmmug, snowballlll, fffffights, etc.” Read from a book, search online for winter poems, and have fun!
Helping in the Kitchen: You may have an assistant chef living under your roof and not even know it! Cooking is a wonderful activity to build upper body strength. Following directions in a sequential order is a great way to support executive functioning skills. Gathering all the materials from your kitchen can focus on your child’s visual scanning skills. Encourage your child to label and describe the items being used. Once the cooking is complete, challenge your child to sequence the process by recalling what they did first, second, last, etc. Keeping the utensils and ingredients used in sight may help your child remember and retell the steps they completed.
Capture the Moment: Taking photographs of the activities you and your family share is a great way to help your child recall and retell the experiences you shared. While viewing pictures of shared activities, encourage your child to add details in response to “who,” “what,” “where,” and “when” questions. You can also add descriptive words like “fun,” “cold,” “exciting,” etc. If your child is having trouble getting started, you can describe the photograph first and then invite them to try again.
New Year’s Resolution: Encourage your child to think about the future by formulating 2-3 New Year’s Resolution goals. For example, “In the new year, I would like to (try a new food, use the treadmill more, meet up with a friend outside of school).” Write down these goals and review them with your child throughout the break so that they can share them with their peers when they return to school.
Capture the Moment: Taking photographs of the activities you and your family participate in is a great way to help your child recall and retell the experiences you shared. While viewing pictures of shared activities, encourage your child to add details in response to “who,” “what,” “where,” and “when” questions. You can also add descriptive words like “fun,” “cold,” “exciting,” etc. If your child is having trouble getting started, you can describe the photograph first and then invite them to try again.
- Written by the Speech-Language Pathology Department at Celebrate the Children
Flashlight “I spy”: Turn out the lights and use a flashlight to find items in the room.
Window “I spy”: Look out the kitchen window, living room window and talk about what you see “I see (I spy) a squirrel (a tree, a red car, etc).
Sing songs: Sing favorite songs to activate voice and use your body to enforce the action words.
Read Aloud a Winter Poem: Reading aloud a catchy winter poem can be a great way to share quality time at home with family. While reading aloud, encourage your child to produce the sounds of key words playfully and to the best of their ability. For example, when reading a poem you might emphasize: “winterrr, mmmug, snowballlll, fffffights, etc.” Read from a book, search online for winter poems, and have fun!
Helping in the Kitchen: You may have an assistant chef living under your roof and not even know it! Cooking is a wonderful activity to build upper body strength. Following directions in a sequential order is a great way to support executive functioning skills. Gathering all the materials from your kitchen can focus on your child’s visual scanning skills. Encourage your child to label and describe the items being used. Once the cooking is complete, challenge your child to sequence the process by recalling what they did first, second, last, etc. Keeping the utensils and ingredients used in sight may help your child remember and retell the steps they completed.
Capture the Moment: Taking photographs of the activities you and your family share is a great way to help your child recall and retell the experiences you shared. While viewing pictures of shared activities, encourage your child to add details in response to “who,” “what,” “where,” and “when” questions. You can also add descriptive words like “fun,” “cold,” “exciting,” etc. If your child is having trouble getting started, you can describe the photograph first and then invite them to try again.
New Year’s Resolution: Encourage your child to think about the future by formulating 2-3 New Year’s Resolution goals. For example, “In the new year, I would like to (try a new food, use the treadmill more, meet up with a friend outside of school).” Write down these goals and review them with your child throughout the break so that they can share them with their peers when they return to school.
Capture the Moment: Taking photographs of the activities you and your family participate in is a great way to help your child recall and retell the experiences you shared. While viewing pictures of shared activities, encourage your child to add details in response to “who,” “what,” “where,” and “when” questions. You can also add descriptive words like “fun,” “cold,” “exciting,” etc. If your child is having trouble getting started, you can describe the photograph first and then invite them to try again.
- Written by the Speech-Language Pathology Department at Celebrate the Children
December 2024 - CTC Coffee Corner
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CTC's Coffee Corner had its grand opening on Thursday, November 7th! The CTC Coffee Corner is a new, student-run business giving Young Adult Program students an opportunity to practice soft skills, executive functioning skills and social-communication skills.
These skill sets will ultimately be transferable to a variety of vocational and social environments in the post-21 year-old world. It is spearheaded by the Y.A.P. therapy team: Keri Sharpe, SLP & Immy Moustafa, OT, as well as the teacher in charge of the Food & Beverage in-house internships, Andrew Reynolds. Staff, be sure to come visit us in the back of the Y.A.P. building or place your order online! -Keri Sharpe, Speech-Language Pathologist at Celebrate the Children |
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November 2024 - Robotics Club
The speech department and occupational therapy department have joined forces and creativity to start a Robotics Club. This new endeavor will allow for the students to work collaboratively with peers, using shared control and engagement, to complete multi-step tasks. The students present with the maturity to read each step, identifying the components of the task, problem solving and adhering to the sequence to see a finished product. The initial role-out of such a group has yielded high interest and gleam in the eye from the students. Verbal language and critical thinking are paired with fine motor and executive function skills to achieve a cohesive goal. We hope to expand the group to more like minded students who enjoy seeing how things work. -Michelle Attardi, Speech-Language Pathologist at Celebrate the Children |
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October 2024 - Mouth Breathing and Your Child
Source: Michelle Attardi, Speech-Language Pathologist at Celebrate the Children
