MindWing Concepts Blog

Dearest Maryellen,

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" :-).  I then proceeded to ask him how I felt, he said "bad," and that my plan was "to feel good."  I prompted him with a question: "What did I try to do to feel better?"  He was able to list that I "took an Advil, drank some coffee," and that "as a result," my headache went away.  I then asked him how I felt after that, and he said: "Better...and that's the little heart after the tie!"  I cannot believe how powerful the Story Grammar Marker® is!  My son was not able to retell an experience logically, partially due to my inability to prompt him properly.  The tool helped us both.  Thank you so very much!

Today, my son retold the story "Big Al" for the first time using his student SGM®, with prompting such as "who", "one day", etc.  He had a smile on his face after he was done!  I think for the very first time he truly got the "big picture" of a whole story.

I have watched your DVD and read both Autism books, It’s All About the Story & Making Connections, that I purchased in the kit at the Social Thinking Providers’ Conference.  I feel that the Story Grammar Marker® can really help many kids like my son.  I am motivated to keep on learning and spread the word!

Thank you again and best regards,

Sunny T., San Francisco, CA

Last weekend in San Francisco at the Social Thinking Providers’ Conference, we felt lucky to have met so many like-minded people who all share our goal: making children successful in school and in life. Social Thinking and MindWing Concepts have amazing synergy. We both take abstract concepts that are challenging to teach & learn and make those abstract concepts concrete, teachable and child-friendly. What an effective combination of methodologies and materials! In light of this synergy, Sean Sweeney has written this Blog.

Group Activities to Complement a Focus on the Character Icon

Recently I wrote about students with social-cognitive deficits and their tendency to lack strategies related to character description and traits. Another manifestation of this weakness is the fact that a group of kids could be in a group with me for weeks and still not know each other’s names. Or mine! I have learned to engineer lots of activities in which kids practice using each other’s names and character traits, and the Braidy and SGM Character Icons provide a key visual and common thread through these activities.

I first like to emphasize the concept of Friend Files, described in Michelle Garcia Winner’s Think Social. As Winner says, it is expected that we remember certain things about people we know by keeping an imaginary file in our brain (and first of all it is helpful to label our friend file with the person’s name)! Drawing from that file allows us to a) use the oft-positively-received behavior of showing interest and b) have a wealth of conversation starters. Maryellen writes in It’s All About the Story about a kiddo we probably all know: “To make conversation, it would be essential for John to know that the classmate liked baseball, but more specifically liked the Red Sox, and disliked the Yankees.”

The SGM Character Map is a great resource for developing actual, physical Friend Files. Try getting some colored manila folders to add motivation (pick your color) and attaching the Character Map inside. Over the course of some weeks, kids in your groups can “interview” each other in a rotating fashion, with the Map serving as a visual to prompt great questions. The Map can later serve as a context for the kids to make “Smart Guesses” (see Winner’s You Are a Social Detective) to practice social inferencing. After the maps have some accurate and more robust content, try making some quizzes (or having the kids do so) with a site such as StudyStack or ClassTools. I can guarantee it’ll be a lesson that reinforces your students’ ability to recall facts about each other and thus foster some great connections.

There are also some great games that develop a sense of character in a fun context! Try prominently displaying the SGM Character icon while playing any of the following:
Cranium Whoonu
Cranium Conga
Loaded Questions Junior
Things (edit the cards carefully)

Using any of these games would provide a great opportunity to add to the Friend File Character Maps as a post-game wrap-up. What did you learn about John during the game?

For more ideas on therapy materials and technology, please visit me at SpeechTechie or follow me on Twitter or Facebook. Thanks!

While running groups for students with social-cognitive deficits over the past years, I have frequently observed their difficulties with the story grammar element of character.  Often, these students start telling a story in the vein of “Mike and I went to…” as the rest of the group looks at them blankly, thinking, “Who is Mike??” Or at least the facilitators are wondering who Mike is, since the other students may not even be thinking of the “expected behavior” that they should listen, let alone tease out character details!

Mindwing’s new Autism Collection Book 1, It’s All About the Story, provides a great series of lessons introducing the importance of character description and details.  The Flip Chart Pages in Chapter 6, “Introducing the Character,” present the importance of character traits not only in stories, but also in social situations.  However, with social groups, it is likely to be easier to start with dynamic materials and sets of characters the kids might be familiar with, rather than have them be instantly examining each other.  The lessons suggest using magazines to collect pictures (an excellent idea) and in this post I am going to describe a few supplemental resources that can be used for group discussion and with the SGM Character Map.

I am a big fan of the interactive character spread, a visual array that presents a variety of characters that are clickable or roll-over activated, in that further information is presented through a pop-up or sub-page when you roll or click on the character.  A great example, though the site suffers a bit from advertisement infestation, is the Cars interactive poster (scroll down on the linked page to see poster).  The activity allows you to move a magnifying glass across an array of Cars, and read descriptions and even hear quotes from the characters.


 

For more extensive Disney content, try their All Characters Page.  This page would be very motivating to a group of kids with diverse interests!

 

Another page worth exploring is a complex image of Disney Characters through the years.  Your web browsers’ magnifying glass tool (or Window>Zoom) will allow kids to “find” particular characters they would like to discuss. I’d particularly recommend The Muppets section for some great videos and visuals that would elicit character descriptions.

Last but not Lost-well, yes, it is Lost- is one for you or maybe some teen clients that were into the late, great television epic (I had some fans in my groups)!  

What could you do with these sites?  Each would be great to explore with a laptop or LCD projector (Interactive Whiteboard would be even better), with a follow-up use of the Character Map.  Perhaps a game of “I Spy” would allow kids to practice skills in a game format…

For more ideas on therapy materials and technology, please visit me at SpeechTechie or follow me on Twitter or Facebook.  Thanks!

Every year during the Superbowl, a few commercials stick out from the sea of repetitive beer, snack food, and summer blockbuster ads.  This past year, one of the best was Google’s Parisian Love ad, which told the story of an American’s romance with a French woman in a simple and brilliant way, as an unseen character “Googled” various search terms that reflected events in his life.  A follow-up ad about a girl switching schools, which I never saw aired, would be even more relatable for kids and is definitely a great model of a complete episode.

This week I am blogging to tell you about a tech resource that is really simple to use - Chicago's Museum of Science and Industry's Simple Machine's Game.  This site is a perfect example of how resources that were not designed for SLPs actually provide wonderful language-learning opportunities.  It is also one of the best-designed- and totally one of the cutest- sites I have seen of late.  Additionally, it presents the perfect blend of narrative and expository structures as a context for intervention, and concerns a key and oft-tested (on state assessments) curriculum topic- simple machines such as lever, wheel-and-axle, etc.

So let's start with the narrative piece. The "plot" of the game involves some adorable aliens (I think?) whose need to assemble a robot at the museum is complicated by some missing pieces (the Kick Off!).



Blue boss sends Twich off to find the missing items, and our fun with simple machines begins! Along the way, Twitch deals with out-of-reach parts by using various simple machines (kids will need to make choices in order to work them) to do his job with a minimal amount of force.  Choose incorrectly and he will run out of energy or miss his mark!



The machines are ultimately pretty "simple" to construct (with your help), so don't worry-- this is not an impossible game that will take hours.    The plot actually comprises a complete episode that you can map with students during or after the activity (note that the tasks can be accomplished in any sequence).  See below for a sample SGM map!

Link to handout on issuu:  http://issuu.com/speechtechie/docs/simplemachines?viewMode=presentation

As this site is primarily designed to inform kids, it would also be a good opportunity to use Thememaker™ information maps, particularly the “List map.”  Lists abound on this site, such as examples of simple machines given after each level is complete:

• inclined plane-staircase
• lever-shovel
• wheel and axle-steering wheel
• pulley-elevator

 Other List topics include missing robot parts, items lying about the museum (great word retrieval activity, too) or items used to create simple machines.  The site would also lend itself to exploring Cause-Effect and Descriptive structures as well.

Hope you enjoy using this site!  For more ideas on how to integrate technology in your speech and language interventions, please check out my blog, SpeechTechie. 

Using Kerpoof for Digital Storytelling and Narrative Development Part 2

Over the years I have come to believe that Story Grammar Marker has taught me as much about narrative development as it has taught my students about telling stories!  Initially, I used to use the full SGM and teach Complete Episodes, regardless of my students' level of development.  Although they gained a good sense of the icons and could identify story elements, the ties between elements were missing--what to do about my third graders who still peppered their stories with "and then" after "and then?"  Using the Day in the Park booklet with students really helped me understand my students' narrative levels and the cohesive ties that mark each stage. From there, my use of the SGM became much more thoughtful, differentiated and holistic-- addressing sentence structure as well as overall story structure.

Back to those 3rd graders- although we had done "Day in the Park" in Grade 2, they definitely needed a review, specifically one that would boost them from an Action Sequence to a more complex story that included more mature cohesive ties: a Reaction Sequence.  Their teacher welcomed me into the classroom for a group project in which kids were asked to create exactly this kind of story.  After a review of the SGM icons (character, setting, kickoff, and reaction), the cohesive ties (I called these "glue words" in the classroom), and plenty of modeling, the kids set to work in groups with Reaction Sequence story maps and Kerpoof as a visual inspiration.  The story maps provided structure and a kind of checklist to make sure that kids had met the requirements, and in the meantime they had great fun being creative!  I found my students left the project with a greater understanding of how complex sentences made their stories better, and could generalize the skills into other tasks.  The booklet embedded below provides you with a review of the Kerpoof interface as well as 4 examples of student work, complete with my notations of the story elements and cohesive ties each group used.  You can click through to the Issuu site if you would like to download and/or print the booklet.

Hi there!  Sean Sweeney here- I am a Speech-Language Pathologist and Instructional Technology Specialist. I am really thrilled to be blogging for Mindwing, and look forward to sharing and discussing lesson ideas with you!  When I transitioned from a hospital setting into my first school-based position in 2000, I really had no idea what I was doing. My focus was limited to drill-and-practice card games and worksheets that had very limited connection to what my students were struggling with in the classroom.  Realizing this, I thought back to my public school clinical placement in graduate school, where my wonderful supervisor, Fran Eldridge, had introduced me to Story Grammar Marker.  The AHA! realization that I should apply the SGM (and later, Thememaker) toward my students' struggles with classroom content was a revelation, though in retrospect it was a great big DUH!

Fast forward to today...I have long had an interest in how technology can provide context within our interventions, much the same way a storybook can provide context.  In this approach to intervention, Mindwing's tools have served as essential structure to help my students break down language, (as used with a website that provides information, for example) or organize and produce language (when used in conjunction with a creative "Web 2.0" resource that allows students to save and publish work).  To focus on this latter "bottom-up" strategy, I suggest you check out Kerpoof, one of my favorite resources for its versatility and ease of use.

Kerpoof* is a free, interactive website recently acquired by Disney and is basically an online version of Kidpix Studio.  Kerpoof's interface allows you to choose a background, characters and other setting elements, and add word/thought balloons and caption boxes (sounding promising?).  You can create, share, export or print the resulting pictures or multi-picture story sequences.

I am a big fan of how the Mindwing "Day in the Park" Student Activity Booklets allow you to review the SGM icons as students construct progressively more complex narrative.  Books that correspond to narrative stages are a great way to provide our students the necessary further practice with learning and connecting the icons, but Kerpoof could be another excellent option. Students could be prompted to simply make a scene (Descriptive Sequence), focus on what characters are doing by adding action-oriented pictures or captions (Action Sequence) and so on, and practice using the corresponding SGM maps to help them construct and orally formulate the stories they have created.

You can use Kerpoof casually or create a teacher login (recommended) at the Kerpoof Scholastics page.  More next time on how to use Kerpoof to address more complex levels of narrative!  Comments, questions or feedback are always welcome.  For more ideas on integrating technology in your practice, please visit my own blog, Speechtechie!

Story-based Intervention for Children with ASD

Since April is Autism Awareness Month, we thought that the contents of this blog entry should be about MindWing’s tools and methodology as a Story-based Intervention for children with autism spectrum disorders.
 
In September, 2009, the National Autism Center announced the results of its multi-year National Standards Project1. This project “serves to support parents and professionals and answers one of the most pressing questions…: How do we effectively treat the growing number of students with autism spectrum disorders (ASD)?” (Wilcynski, S. (2010). Communique. National Association of School Psychologists, 38, 5). In the Findings and Conclusions Report of the National Standards Project and the more comprehensive technical report entitled, National Standards Report, Story-based Intervention was cited as one of eleven established treatments for autism. The following is Wilcynski’s definition of a Story-based Intervention Package: These interventions include treatments that involve a written description of the situations under which specific behaviors are expected to occur.  Stories may be supplemented with additional components (e.g., prompting, reinforcement, discussion, etc.).  Social stories™ are the most well known story-based interventions and they seek to answer the “who, what, when, where, and why” questions in order to improve perspective-taking.”

The National Standards Report stated that Story-based Intervention influenced self regulation and interpersonal skills.  The age group most affected was 6-14 years.  The diagnostic classifications most affected by this intervention: Autism Disorders and Asperger’s Syndrome. We at MindWing, through our research and experience over the past 16 years, have found that narrative development is basic to:

• Writing and comprehending social stories™ as well as
• Comprehension and expression of social situations in real life AND
• Comprehension and expression of situations in story books read in school and for pleasure.
• Perspective taking of self and others
• Continuing development of a Theory of Mind, including mental state sentences.
• Cohesive communication of the story as a whole
• Problem-solving and conflict resolution

Children are assisted, through the use of MindWing’s multi-sensory tools and methodology, to comprehend and communicate “the story” at their developmental stage.  Story form may be written, oral, pictures, play or drama.  

Our new Autism Collection is designed especially for our colleagues working with children with ASD. Please CLICK HERE to see the description in our Store.

We are proud to finally (officially) introduce our NEW Autism Collection with two spiral-bound manuals (It’s All About the Story & Making Connections), games, activities, cards, stamps and more! Click here to see a picture of the Autism Collection and to learn more about this brand new product. The Autism Collection is available at a discounted, introductory price of $74.95 during the month of April.

We wish you the luck of the Irish - Happy St. Patrick’s Day from MindWing!

A wonderful lesson was sent to us by our good friend and colleague Valerie Fluhr, M.A., CCC-SLP and her speech intern, Tammy Tran, both from OCPS in Orlando, FL.

It is to be used with Story Grammar Marker® and the book My Lucky Day by Keiko Kasza. Click here to download the lesson.

Sláinte!