I talk about Emma a lot on this blog. Emma is Ayub’s speech therapist. Here are some posts about how she’s helped Ayub with his speech and communication: how there’s more to speech than vocab and grammar, how to deal with a toddler speech delay, and how Oasis Place is an awesome therapy centre for kids. Hi Emma! You should write a guest post. Multiple guest posts. So I don’t have to write such mediocre updates of your progress with Ayub 😛

This week in speech therapy, Emma and Ayub made chocolate mud cakes in a mug

Emma wanted to work on strategies to help Ayub explain his thoughts. Now that he has basic language skills, he needs help sorting through his thoughts, putting his ideas together, organizing sentences, and speaking in an understandable flow. So much more to talking than we realize, huh?

So Emma and Ayub made chocolate mud cakes in a mug.

Improving vocabulary, grammar, and speech through play

Speech therapy for kids focuses on play. That’s why Ayub loves it so much. He doesn’t even realize he’s learning. All he knows is that they’re doing something fun, exciting, and different. Usually it’s games, this was the first time he would be “cooking” during therapy.

Throughout the session, Emma prompted him to use new words with regards to baking, thus expanding his vocabulary. I… can’t remember what new words he learned. Omg. My mama is Ayub’s designated therapy driver on weekdays. And she doesn’t remember what new words he learned. But she said she could hear them talking and laughing really loudly from the waiting room.

Introducing mind maps to help Ayub explain

• The white cup represents the main topic (how to make a mug cake)
• The three forks stand for the 3 main points – ingredients, utensils, and steps
• The rest of the forks represent the details under those 3 main points

So for example, you would explain how to make a mug cake like:

I don’t actually know the recipe of the mud cake mug cake, but you see how the mind map works 🙂

Ayub needs a visual cue to explain his thoughts

Have you finished season 2 of ‘Stranger Things’? Ayub is like Will. He can’t explain. He needs to draw or see in order to explain. If you haven’t watched ‘Stranger Things’ yet, you won’t know what I’m talking about. Actually, if you haven’t watched ‘Stranger Things’ yet, I don’t want to talk to you at all.

Anyway, Emma says Ayub is able to explain the process of making a mug cake with these things on table to help visualize his thoughts. It’s a tremendous help to him and eventually, with practice, he’ll be able to make a mind map in his mind while talking. So he won’t need to rely on visuals.

When I asked him to tell me what happened in speech therapy, he couldn’t really explain. My mom prompted him and he could kinda explain. But still, he was all over the place. It wasn’t until Emma checked in with me that I understood what happened.

Implementing mind maps at school

This sprint Ayub is learning about coding and video game development. His homework has been to keep a journal. His guide told him he could fill it up with text, pictures, drawings, anything he wants, as long as he explains the topic.

Since Emma introduced mind maps, we’ve been drawing mind maps. It’s an awesome way to help Ayub organize his thoughts and speak with more clarity and understandable flow.

I forgot to take pictures of his journal. I will update tomorrow with pics.