First off, I wanted to share my year long behavior system that I use with the students. Every time the students come for speech they can earn a raffle ticket to put in my raffle jar for a chance to win a prize each week (I pick two winners each week). They also earn 2 jelly beans or m'm's (whichever I buy) after their speech session as a small treat. Above you can see my behavior consequences if the students get warnings in the speech room. For some of my groups, we have to review before each lesson what will get them a warning on the board to help prepared them about what is "expected". I include visuals of "unexpected behavior" and "expected behavior" as a visual reminder.
You can read my post on how I have incorporated the
Dollar Challenge from Speech Room News into my therapy groups. Using the dollar challenge method has been very successful with keeping my both my articulation and language groups motivated!
You can create a calm down space in your room that you can direct student's to go when they are upset or misbehaving. My OT gave me some bean bags and then I created a visual poster that I can use to help direct students to the space without engaging in arguments. You can grab that visual poster
HERE. Create a stress ball that your students can squeeze when they are wiggly, upset or having a hard time focusing. I found this cool emotion thermometer on pinterest to help students regulate their emotions. You can grab a copy of that poster on
Chapel Hill Snippets blog spot or you can grab my
Mood Thermometer visual aid to which also helps with mood/emotion regulation.
My supervisor during my internships in the schools used
Speech Bucks as part of her behavior management system. It worked really well and it inspired one of my first products! Students could earn $2 every time they came for speech. If they kept all their tokens (they got 5 each session), they received $2. If they lost 1-4 tokens, then they still got $1, but if they lost all their tokens they didn't get any dollars for the day. Students got to cash in their money at the end of the month for different prizes. You could give extra speech bucks for mastering a skill, bringing back speech homework, or remembering to come to speech without a reminder call! I have also used my speech bucks to have the group earn a speech party. As a group the kids have to have a perfect day in order to earn "bucks" for the group. Once we got $20 we would throw a cookie party or have a free activity day. This promoted working as a team and helped others to see how their behavior was affecting the group.
Last up, here are some ideas for working with TEENAGERS! They can be a tricky, confrontational, hilarious, rude, unmotivated and endearing group of kids that can be a lot of fun to work with if you COULD only figure out what makes them tick! I remember it took me half a year to figure out how to work with 7th and 8th graders. To keep them motivated to come see me, I always had a box of red vines or a jar of jolly rangers that they could get after each session. They always knew they would get a small treat after seeing me. I also tried to find out their interests and hobbies, so that I could find articles, games, or materials around what THEY enjoyed doing. Incorporating media, music and you tube was how I got the kids interested in working with me. Students could earn watching a music video or funny you tube clip (appropriate for school) by doing their work. Some would also like earning a free day "off" from speech or printing up a picture of their favorite celebrity.
Hope this was helpful! Visit my
blog,
facebook,
TPT, and
Pinterest for more ideas and resources. Thanks again Kristine for having me!!
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