Good Morning, Good Night ASL Flashcards

If I were more organized, I would have one day a week where I’d post ASL flashcards, one day where I’d post alphabet activities, one day a week where I’d post recipes, you get the idea.

But I’m not, and I refuse to make any promises I can’t keep, so I hope you’ll just bear with my haphazard posts.  You never know what you’re going to get when you check in here, do you?

Well, as long as we’re having fun, right?

I do think if you are trying to learn sign language, it is important to purposefully learn new signs every week.  It is so easy to hit a comfort level and stop learning new things, but our kiddos need to be stretched.

Noah’s physical therapist has been very proactive in incorporating speech therapy into his hippotherapy.  She’s very hip to new sign language words that would be helpful for him to learn.  This week she taught us good morning.  This is a sign we can use naturally every day – the very best kind!!!!  So I thought I’d share.  Here’s good morning and good night flashcards to learn and post around your house.

Good Morning, Good Night ASL flashcards.

If you place the good morning card on the inside of your bedroom door and the good night car on the outside of your child’s door, you’ll remember to practice every day.

. . . And to all a good night.

 

Singing Our Way to Speech – Old McDonald Had a Farm PEC Board

Old McDonald Printable PEC Board

“Old McDonald” has been a favorite of Noah’s for a while now.  It’s a great song for putting to PECs, because it’s a predictable song that allows for filling in the blanks.  So if you’re working on animal recognition, animal sounds, letter recognition or working memory, this is the board for you!!!

The working memory component deserves a little explanation.  An important part of learning is short-term memory, and this is often weak in children with Down syndrome and other learning challenges.  In “Old McDonald Had a Farm,” working memory is the mechanism by which when a child gets to “With a ________ _________ here and a ___________ _____________ there,” he remembers that it was a cow he was singing about so “moo” goes in the blanks.  Using the PEC board provides a visual prompt to cue that working memory as to which animal sound belongs in the blank.

Preparation:  Print and laminate one set of the above printables.  Leave the first two pages intact and attach hook Velcro dots to the center of the box labeled ? and the boxes labeled “with a . . ., and a . . . , here a . . . “  Cut out the animal and animal sound cards.  Attach loop Velcro dots to the center of the backs of those cards.How to Use:  

1. Place the boards in front of your child.  Off to the side but still accessible, place the cards in sets of four, the animal along with the animal sounds that correspond with it.
2. Sing “Old McDonald” with your child.
3. Anytime you get to ”EIEIO,” point to and have your child point to the correct letter boxes on the board.  Provide hand-over-hand assistance if necessary.
4. When you get to “And on his farm he had a _________,” allow your child to choose an animal card.  Best case scenario would be for you to just stop singing when you get to this point, look at your child quizzically, and allow him to sign or say the animal.  At this point, direct him to the appropriate card set, and allow him to put the animal card in the proper position on the board.  Prompt as necessary.
5. When you get to the squares that require the animal sound, have your child put the animal sound in the box (hand him the correct card), and point to the words as you sing them.
6. Repeat for as many animals as you desire.

If I left out any of your favorite animals, or if you add other silly words in, please let me know and I’ll be happy to add cards for them.

Find and Seek PEC Board – School Bus

I happened to pick up a copy of School Bus by Donald Crews at the thrift store.  Talk about a treasure!!!!  There are so many activities I can use this book to springboard from, activities involving colors, shapes, sizes, etc.  It is a perfect book for my first Find and Seek board (directions here).

I typically shy away from creating printables for specific story books, because not many of us have the time or the funds to purchase every book we find an activity for.  Plus, if you’re like me, by the time the book arrived in the mail from Amazon, you’d probably have lost all the materials you had prepared for it.  Many of the PECs for School Bus are common items that you will find in a variety of children’s books.  So if you can’t get your hands on a copy of School Bus, look through another school bus book, or any children’s book for that matter, and only use the PECs you find matches for.

Here is the Find and Seek PEC Board for School Bus by Donald Crews.

I couldn’t get the colors right for a few of the PECs, so after you print them off, color the orange truck, brown car and orange garbage truck in with marker.