Practicum Experiences
1.) Cypress Regional Hospital
Time Period: January 2013- February 2013
Cypress
Regional Hospital is located in Swift Current, Saskatchewan and it is there
that I fulfilled my first 6 week SLP Assistant practicum for Medicine Hat
College. I had my practicum in the Rehabilitation department, working under two
SLPs and one SLP Assistant. There, I provided speech and language services to
pediatrics, ranging from 1 to 5 years old. I would see clients working on
articulation goals for 30 minute sessions and clients working on phonological
or language goals for 45 minutes. Within that time, I would use materials
provided by the hospital to meet the variety of targets each client had.
Outside materials were not allowed in for sanitary reasons. Before each
session, I would plan and prepare my materials that I wanted to use. After each
session, I would clean up the room, sanitize the used materials (especially if
they were “mouthed”) and then document the client’s performance. I would also
report this information to my supervisors. Apart from the therapy side of
things, I also carried out some general clerical duties. Firstly, I was to call
every client’s parents and remind them of their appointment the day before.
That way, if they did not remember, they were made aware of the appointments or
if they needed to cancel, we were made aware of the cancellation. I also would
photocopy any pages that the SLPs, SLP Assistant or I planned to send home as
“homework” for the family to work on outside of the therapy session. As well, I
would photocopy, laminate, cut out and prepare any articulation/ phonology
cards that the SLPs or SLP assistant asked me to. Lastly, I was to create at least
one new activity that was easy to do and that the department could continue using once I had left. I created
two activities and examples of them are below.
Rice Treasure Hunt
The
therapy department had a large Tupperware container of uncooked rice that they
barely used, so I saw a creative opportunity to use it as an activity. I
created the “Rice Treasure Hunt” by sticking small items or flashcards in the
depths and would have the client “dig for treasure” and then use what they
found to work on their goal. This was adapted from a sensory activity created
for children with autism. For language goals, small toys would be hidden and
the client would fish around for one to find. Once found, I would either wait
for the child to spontaneously label it or I would label it repeatedly and then
wait for the child to imitate or not. The more repetitions, the better the
child will learn. In the case of articulation/phonology, I would hide flash
cards with the target sound depicted on them in the rice and have the child
find them. Each time a card was found we would work on producing the sound and
then continue on our search for more cards. I found that this was a much more
interesting way for the children to work on labels or sounds than just going
through a pile of objects or stack of cards. It allowed for them to be active
and the mystery of finding treasure kept their interest high.
Bubble Wrap Game
Another creative opportunity I had was when the staff was
about to throw away bubble wrap from a delivery. Again, I wanted an active way
for the children to work on their targets rather than the monotonous, traditional
way. By sticking a card with the target sound on each bubble (this was the
large bubble kind of bubble wrap), I would have the client step on a card and
pop a bubble or two before working on the sound. Then, once we were done that
card, they would get to pop some more bubbles. This activity allowed for them
to be active and to get excited about popping a bubble. Who does not love
popping bubble wrap after all?
2.) The PREP Program
Time period: February 2013- April 2013
For my second 6 week
practicum for the SLP Assistant program at Medicine Hat College, I was at the
PREP Program here in Calgary. The PREP Program is a private facility dedicated
to providing therapy and support to children (from birth to 18 years of age)
with Down syndrome and their families. There I worked under three SLPs and
worked in all four sections PREP offered: Early Intervention (birth to 2 years
of age), Early Childhood services (2-5 years of age), Elementary (6-11 years
of age) and Jr./Sr. High (12-18 years of age). With Early Intervention, I
would help prepare snacks, lead educational songs and activities, clean up the
play space and do the laundry (bibs worn by the clients). In Early Childhood
Services (ECS), I would assist the leaders in activities, model both general
and play behaviors to the clients and help with set up/clean up. In the
elementary section, I would work with individuals or small groups on
their speech goals. This could include articulation (sound productions),
phonology (sound patterns), syntax ( producing phrases and sentences),
semantics ( generating and understanding meaning of language) and pragmatics
(social language) or any combination of these areas. It was there that I
developed a game called “Let’s make a Sandwich” (below) because it was a
versatile game that could work for almost any goal, from a specific speech
sound to turn taking. I have been told that they still this activity to this day.
Lastly, when working the Jr./Sr/ High group, I would help to model and teach the social skills
that we were focusing on that week. Some examples include how to ask questions
or the sequence of what happens at a fast food restaurant vs. a sit down
restaurant. When we were taking breaks, it was my job to try and engage the
clients in conversation and model for them the typical behavior for interacting
with peers and adults as needed.
Let’s Make a Sandwich
Using these pictures
(only a sample of what you could potentially use), the goal of the game is to
make a sandwich. This sandwich can have anything on it, it any order and can be
tailored to you specific goal. The crazier the items, the more fun it will be!
Depiction, not the actual materials I made
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