It's that time of year again!

Yellow school buses are on the street, backpacks are on children as they run down the sidewalk and the sound of the school bell rings throughout the neighborhood. It’s that time of year again! Time to get back into the school routine!!!

Getting back into a routine can be a little bit challenging. My friends and I joke that we have until October 1st to figure it out, and until then we give ourselves lots (and lots) of grace! Going to bed and getting up early are half the battle. Adding in after school activities and travel for extracurricular activities for your children as they get older, can really start to be tricky. We want to share with you a few of our ideas on how to transition back into the school routine.

Sticky note weekly calendar

Visuals

Start a family calendar with days and lists of activities on those days. Our family uses a weekly calendar that includes each activity Monday through Friday. This helps our children increase their own independence (they know what is ahead) and plan for the items they will need the next day. It also helps us remember what our children have going on during the week!

Sticky Notes

Use lots of sticky notes with checklists and visual reminders. We place reminders of things each child is responsible for having done and ready before bed. This might include: backpack ready, lunch ready, sport bag ready, homework complete, reading done, etc. This gives an excellent visual and decreases the verbal reminders we have to give to our kids!

Checklists can also help for the morning routine. The lists might include: put on clothes, eat breakfast, brush teeth, shoes on, backpack ready, etc. Again, this decreases verbal reminders and increases independence!

Get Backpacks and Clothes Ready

Have your children get their backpacks ready and pick out clothes the night before. Morning time and morning routines are already crazy enough! This might alleviate some of the stress! Our own kids line their backpacks up next to the door, ready to go, the evening before. One of our children lines out her clothes for each day of the week on Sunday evenings!

Sometimes simple changes in habit can make a big difference for our routine. Remember to give yourself and your family lots of grace, and just like our friends joke… October 1st!!!

As always Trilogy Therapy is here to help. We strive to make access to speech, occupational and physical therapy services accessible to anyone, anywhere. We believe that therapy should have no barriers. Contact us today for all of your therapy needs!

Holiday Gift Guide 2021!

‘Tis the season! We're fast approaching the holiday season and we thought it would be fun to compile two gift guides - one for the kids and one for the therapists in our lives! While it should always be stressed that kids don’t need toys to facilitate purposeful play (my four year old prefers her rock and stick collection to almost everything else), it’s nice to have a reference point when grandparents or family members ask for ideas for our little ones.

Fisher Price Laugh and Learn Piggy Bank : this one is so fun for the toddlers in our lives and is such a great facilitator of grasp, hand eye coordination, and problem solving!

Poke-a-Dot books : these are a huge hit at my house. My youngest (1) loves to practice “popping” the bubbles and my oldest (4) loves to practice reading to her little brother and pops the bubbles back and forth as well. Excellent practice for finger isolation!

Stepping Stones : absolutely excellent for balance, coordination, and body awareness. So fun for building obstacle courses too!

EZ Roller : a fan favorite. These seated scooters can take practice to master, but are so great for midline integration, full body coordination and fluidity.

Spike the Fine Motor Hedgehog : another one for our toddler friends. As the name suggests, a super fun way to practice those fine motor skills - pincer grasp, visual-spatial and turn taking.

My First Palm Grip Crayons : Keeping the developmental progression of grasp in mind, crayons developed these palmer crayons for our younger friends with emerging scribble and coloring skills. They would be a fun stocking stuffer for the younger crowd!

MagnaTiles : Another favorite for a large age range. These magnetic tiles are great for building, imagining, calibrating force of movement and visual-perception.

Little Tykes 3’ Trampoline : A huge favorite to achieve sensory modulation at home that doesn’t require a ton of room. We’ve had one in our house for years and it gets used daily.

Sneaky Snacky Squirrel Game : Simple, yet fun, this board game does not require any reading, but is a good opportunity to practice grasp with a tool (some fun tongs!), color recognition and matching, and turn taking with friends!

Fidget Kit toys : fidgets have become more mainstream in classrooms in the last few years and we are here for it! These kits contain many different options and can be used to help kiddos increase attention to task in different settings.

For the therapist in your life!

We thought it would also be fun to include a few things we LOVE and a few things on our Christmas lists for this year as well. And yes, I included two different bags. One we all have and love (hello, Patagonia), the other is on my wish list. I’ve found that many therapists prefer different things for their “supply” bag, but also end up carrying around a smaller bag for personal items they can get to easily and hands free.

The best pens : We always need pens. We’re constantly losing pens. We’ll spend hours hunting down our favorite pen. Bear with us.

An excellent water bottle : I could and should just copy and paste the description from the pens.

Erin Condren Lifeplanner : These can get a bit pricy but they are fully customizable and LAST. They work so well for keeping your life and your caseloads organized.

Patagonia Atom 8L Sling Bag : Easy, hands free, perfect size for a phone, wallet, water bottle (and a few diapers and wipes for my stage of life)… it’s excellent!

and because we need options…

Everywhere Belt Bag : this one is on my list this year. I’ve heard nothing but awesome things from anyone I know who has one.

More... Animated shorts we love!

A little over a year ago we did a blog about animated shorts and how to use them during therapy. We still love them and use them and wanted to share with you some of our new favorites!

Lifted

It’s like a driver’s test for an extraterrestrial! This fun animated short is about one of our “out of this world” friends learning how to navigate a spacecraft. It’s super cute and there are loads of opportunity to incorporate speech and language into this one including: Articulation, Verbs, Grammar, Inferencing, Pragmatics: Feelings Problem solving, Story Grammar and retell

Mike’s New Car

Mike is pretty excited about his new car. Do you think Sully will like it? Share this animated short with your students to find out. There’s an abundance of targets in this one, but here are some recommendations: Articulation/Phonology: fronting, Vocabulary:  Antonyms, Synonyms, Verbs, Pragmatics, Problem Solving, Feelings, Prepositions, Inferencing, Story Grammar and Retell

Gordon Goose

This is a short, animated short and can be used when you only have a few minutes to spare. Gordon is busy at work when he realizes what a beautiful day it is. What does he decide to do… work or play? Your students will get a kick out of this one and learn a lot too! Here are some targets: Vocabulary: Synonyms, Antonyms, Verbs, Prepositions, Grammar, Inferencing, Wh- Questions, Pragmatics, Problem Solving, Feelings, Story Grammar and Retell

*If you like this one, check out the Holiday edition Gordon Goose: Christmas Tree.

Trouble in Paradise

The island life! Will this crab figure out what is going on when a new visitor arrives to his own little island?! This is a great short to work on: Articulation/phonology: especially /r/ blends, fronting, Vocabulary, Wh- questions, Prediction, Increased sentence length, Grammar

Alike

This is a creative animated short that is great for helping all to see the bright side in everything and reminding all of us to have a little fun! This animation is great for many speech and language targets including: Opposites, Pragmatics, Problem Solving, Feelings, Vocabulary, Adjectives, Verbs

Animated shorts are great to add to your therapy activities whether you are in person or on-line. Want to see how Trilogy Therapy uses them in action? Click our demo page and we’ll show you how we use animated shorts while providing therapy to anyone, anywhere!

A little reintroduction ...

We decided since we’ve been at this for almost three years now (wow!), we have some new followers and thought a new introduction to Trilogy Therapy would be fun! We look a little different than traditional clinics you may be used to… utilizing a progressive mixed model approach with on-site and virtual services.

Who are you?

Three friends, therapists; and former coworkers who identified a need in our community and disciplines to bridge the gap between providing quality services and rural communities.

We’re therapists and moms. We juggle both roles, recognizing the overlap that naturally occurs when you’re a pediatric therapist and raising kiddos of your own. Does being a mom make us better therapists? Yep. Does being a therapist make us better moms? Absolutely. 

We stay up-to-date with current research and continuing education opportunities in our respective disciplines and believe in using our 40+ years of combined experience to best serve our patients and clients. 

What we do:

We utilize a mixed model of both on-site and teletherapy to provide speech, occupational, and physical therapy to deliver the highest quality, evidence based practice available. 

Why does this look different?

We get it. Pre-Covid, teletherapy was not mainstream and we had many questions from family members and even colleagues in our fields as to why we thought this idea would work and work well. Now, almost 3 years later, we’re confident that our company and our services speak for themselves. We believe in this model because it’s proven and it works! And to top it off, we love our face- to- face time too! We get to travel extensively for evaluations, site visits, treatments and supervision. It’s truly the best of both worlds for everyone.

But you seem like outdoor people? :)

We are! All three founders spend extensive amounts of time outdoors in active settings with our families. We can be found biking in Moab, skiing Red Lodge, and hiking the Bighorns. We believe in living our lives and our practices in all realms. We encourage free play outdoors as often as possible for all kids we work with. A common misconception about using a technology-centered delivery service model is that all therapy happens through a screen. We believe we’re merely the catalyst to facilitate purposeful play and skill acquisition and refinement in ALL environments. It’s what sets us apart and makes us unique to traditional, clinic-based therapies. 

As always, we love connecting with new clients, potential future Trilogy Therapy team members, fellow parents, and child development enthusiasts! Please feel free to send us an email with any questions!

Should I call a speech therapist? How to decide when speech errors just aren’t normal anymore.

Should I call a speech therapist? This question pops up a lot, and I hear it especially at the beginning of a school year. Often it’s not just parents but teachers asking about students they teach. The answer can depend on what setting the child is in as school based and private speech therapy differ on qualifying criteria. Here’s an excellent blog post on the difference, “Important Info for Parents About School-Based and Private Speech-Language Therapy Services.”

In the fall of 2018 a published journal article by McLeod and Crowe came out providing a cross-linguistic review of children’s acquisition of consonants in 27 languages. The article backed up what speech language pathologists already knew about sound acquisition… it happens earlier than most think! 

McLeod and Crowe really didn’t determine anything new, they simply summarized a terrific amount of studies to show when 90% of English speaking children develop specific speech sounds. Because we know that children with even just single speech sound disorders are at risk for a host of educational difficulties regardless of the number or kind of errors expressed (Farquharson (2019). It Might Not Be “Just Artic”: The Case for the Single Sound Error, ), we recommend any child that falls outside of the norms in McLeod and Crowe’s cross-linguistic study be evaluated further for speech therapy needs. 

With articulation therapy, early intervention leads to an increase in positive outcomes, meaning less time and money spent on therapy.  Studies show that the age of the child significantly impacts the outcome and duration of therapy.  With each year that passes, the length of time needed to remediate sound errors significantly increases, especially after a child reaches 8 years of age.

So if you are still wondering if you should call a speech therapist don’t hesitate any longer. Contact Trilogy Therapy today, because we believe no matter where you are, access to therapy should have no barriers and we’re ready to help!

Speech Teletherapy: Why in some cases it works better than traditional on-site speech therapy.

I’ve been doing speech teletherapy for several years and know first hand how effective it is, but I don’t think others truly grasped it until this spring when the entire country came to a halt and everyone shifted virtually.  Here are five reasons why, in some cases, teletherapy is more effective than traditional therapy and you should consider trying it!

Carry-over and home practice

Carry over is a client or student’s ability to take an individual speech skill learned in therapy and apply it broadly in all speaking situations. Because you are providing teletherapy within the client’s/student’s home this can be easier to achieve. Items used during therapy are typically found within the client/student’s home. These items can be used for practice until the next speech teletherapy session.

More frequent contact with therapist

Because therapy can be scheduled without worry of travel time and at the convenience of both the client/student and the therapist, it is much easier to have multiple sessions and contact with each other. In some cases short, more frequent practice, is needed to master a skill (i.e., speech sound aquisition).

Convenience of doing therapy in your home

As noted above there’s no travel time or waiting in waiting rooms. The client or student simply logs on to the HIPAA/FERPA compliant platform and the therapy session begins.

Helps with those who have social anxiety

I have clients and students who have difficulty warming up to others in person. Each session begins with a period of time used to build rapport and establish (or re-establish) a connection. However, with teletherapy, I have found the time for building rapport is decreased. My client or student is in his/her own home and often has support from a loved one to decrease his/her anxiety.

Family support and participation

My clients and students all have family members who actively participate in our speech teletherapy sessions. This has been invaluable as many of them then work on targets with the client/student during the week while we aren’t in our session together.

There are many reasons to consider when providing speech therapy in person, on-site or virtually, and Trilogy Therapy specializes in doing it all! Visit us at www.trilogyteletherapy.com and schedule a visit today!

Ellen C. Treide MS, CCC-SLP

Water Fun!

Summer is such a great time to explore the outdoors and engage in a variety of different sensory experiences. Some of my favorites that make the warm weather so fun to enjoy are all the water play opportunities! Water is a great medium for kids to explore to help regulate their sensory systems and is a great calming tool. When swimming, the proprioceptive input (input through the joints to increase body awareness) and pressure water provides creates a very centering effect that makes aquatic therapy so successful with kids with sensory processing difficulties. Other than taking a dip in the local pool (which some of us are finding a little more difficult this summer in a Covid-world), here are some of my other favorite ways to cool off!

-      Water table : this are fairly inexpensive and available through many different retailers (I ordered our daughter’s table off Amazon). They’re great for working on scooping and pouring, fine and visual motor skills, and the repetition of some of the play also creates a very regulating experience for your littles. My two year old uses hers frequently on hot days!

-      Mud pies : adding the water is a great way to explore different consistencies of mud, as well as whipping up a variety of different creations in your “outdoor kitchen”. Admittedly, this one is extremely messy but so much fun and so beneficial for tactile awareness as well.

-      Running through sprinklers. I feel like this is a no-fail, low-cost way to enjoy a great water experience that I remember doing a ton in my childhood as well. The gross motor components (and having to keep your balance on slippery grass!) make this even more challenging and fun. To put a different spin on it, you can encourage your kids to use “animal walks” (ie. bear, crab, worm crawls) to actively engage the entire body and increase vestibular and proprioceptive input even more!

-      Splash in puddles! Probably the most fun thing you can do. Take advantage of those summer storms and play in all the fun puddles left over after a big rain. 

 Of course, any water activity should be monitored and supervised by a responsible adult, as well as any social distancing measures taken if in a public place. Enjoy!

Animated Shorts... How to use them in therapy and teletherapy

Have you ever used animated shorts to guide your therapy or teletherapy? If you haven’t, you should! Luckily there are an abundance of them on YouTube and other video streaming websites. Here are some of our favorites!

Snack Attack

This cute animation details a grandmother’s need for a snack mixed with a little forgetfulness. Our students are always actively engaged with this one. Here’s what we love to target: Articulation: Ample opportunities for /k/, Pronouns, Verbs, Grammar, Pragmatics: Feelings and Problem solving, Story Grammar and retell

The Present

A boy and his dog! Some of our students really relate to The Present as it highlights differences and acceptance. There’s an abundance of targets in this one, but here are some recommendations: Articulation/Phonology: Fronting, Vocabulary: Antonyms, Synonyms, Verbs, Pragmatics: Problem Solving and Feelings, Prepositions, Story Grammar and Retell

Pip

Another dog animation here, but who doesn’t love puppies… especially, puppies going to puppy university! This animation follows Pip as he learns how to be a guide dog. Our students love this animation and it’s full of speech and language! Here’s what we like to work on: Vocabulary: Synonyms, Antonyms and Verbs, Prepositions, Grammar, Pronouns, Wh- Questions, Pragmatics: Problem Solving and Feelings, Story Grammar and Retell

Hey Deer!

Christmas animations always catch and keep our learner’s attention! Hey Deer! does not disappoint. The deer does everything exactly the same, everyday so this animation is really great for prediction. There are fantastic visual clues throughout! We also like to target the following: Articulation: especially /r/, Vocabulary, Wh- questions, Prediction, Mean Length Utterance, Grammar

Coin Operated

Imagination and the love of space are highlighted in this short animation as it features a boy’s desire to go to outer space. This animation is fabulous for many speech and language targets including: Articulation: especially /k/, Vocabulary, Prediction, Pragmatics: Problem Solving and Feelings

Lambs

This is a fun tale on how a mom and dad try to teach their little lamb to “baa.” Imagine the shock they experience when the lamb makes a “moo” instead! There are so many targets in this one. Here are some we use: Opposites, Pragmatics: Problem Solving and Feelings, Vocabulary: Adjectives and Verbs

Animated shorts really are amazing! Want to see how Trilogy Therapy uses them in action? Click our demo page and we’ll show you how we use animated shorts while providing therapy with no barriers!

Occupational Therapy Month!

Yesterday, a parent of a former client sent me a video of him kicking a ball five years ago at our therapy appointment in clinic. For one, I couldn’t believe it had been that long, but more importantly… I loved being reminded of why I love what I do so much. In the nine years I’ve been practicing Occupational Therapy (5 as a COTA … Certified Occupational Therapy Assistant, and 4 as a registered and licensed Occupational Therapist), I have yet to experience the burnout and stresses that I see so many of my colleagues mention on social media forums and in casual conversation. That’s not to say I haven’t had weeks where IEP after IEP piles on, I get bogged down in paperwork, and difficult situations arise that spike my stress levels. There are times this job is mentally and physically exhausting. Absolutely, but the positive in my career thus far has far outweighed the bad. I get to play for a job! How many people get to say that? 

The importance of play and development go hand and hand and the primary occupation of all children is to play! This is how they learn and experience the world around them. It’s such a privilege to be witness to that process and help facilitate those experiences. The connections I have made while being an OT have been some of the most long lasting and meaningful – my first boss in the OT world became my professional mentor (whether she liked it or notJ) and great friend. Many parents of kiddos I’ve seen in the past have stayed in touch and sent videos and photos through the years of their continued progress, coworkers have become great friends and now, business partners. This OT world is one that touches every corner of my life, and I couldn’t be more thankful for those daily reminders that this is all because of the line of work I chose to pursue. 

As I made the transition through the years from clinic-based practice, to school-based, and now to teletherapy, these connections are the common thread that’s kept me excited and engaged in my field.  As Occupational Therapy month comes to a close, I just wanted to reflect on my excitement and love for this field that has adapted so amazingly during this global health crisis. So many OTs have been thrown into the unknown and have jumped into the teletherapy world with both feet and are thriving using this delivery service model. I couldn’t be more proud to be a part of this amazing community. 

Emily Washut, MOTR/L

Teletherapy... How to find and maintain a work-life balance

There are numerous benefits to providing teletherapy (see our blog post here!), but when you add in a global pandemic, your own kids homeschooling, and a spouse who is telecommuting, the work-life balance can seem much more difficult to find! 

Here are some tips on how to find and maintain a work-life balance:

Create a schedule and stick to it.

This may seem simple, but when your work is in your home, it’s very easy for work and home to get in the way of each other. Find a way to create and follow a schedule just like you would if you were working away from home.

Make a workstation.

Set up a place to work that is different from where you eat, sleep, exercise or relax. Your family will know when you are there it is time for work. They will also know the items in that area are for work. Even if your work area is in a corner, leave it just as you would your office, at a certain point during the day.

Use one specific device for work related material.

Pick one computer or device to use for work related email and other messages. Use only that device to read and respond to those during your scheduled work hours.

Keep a morning, evening and daily routine with your family.

With young children in your home, finding a routine is key. Build into your schedule breaks to help with school work and daily life needs. If you exercised in the morning or after work in the evening when working outside of the house, continue that routine while working from home.

Have pre-planned cues to let others in the house know when you are busy.

Setting up boundaries has to happen not only with your colleagues but with your family as well. Drawing mental boundaries, as well as physical boundaries with those around you is critical to find that work-life balance.

Soon working from home will be the new normal, and once you’ve set boundaries, finding and maintaining a work-life balance is much easier. The future is bright for teletherapy!

Heroism Comes in Many Forms

“You’re living a part of history,” I hear myself say repeatedly to my three daughters. “This is something you’ll remember forever, and tell your own kids about and probably even your grandkids,” I’ll add on. It’s true. Each and every one of us is living through a piece of history right this very minute.

In the past month, I’ve had the honor of working with many teachers and therapists as they transition from teaching within a classroom or providing services within a clinic to providing virtual learning through on-line platforms. To say it has been inspirational is truly an understatement. Again and again, I witnessed total and utter courage as these professionals moved forward, not knowing or feeling completely comfortable with this new way of teaching and doing therapy, but doing whatever it took to learn how to do it. They forged a path to make it meaningful for every student no matter his or her background. 

Because I am a speech therapist, and by nature love vocabulary and semantics, I often think about words that describe situations I am a part of or are going on around me. When reflecting on the past month, there are a few words that come to mind when I think of all the teachers and therapists who changed the way they were teaching and doing therapy. They developed a whole new curriculum and treatment plan in just a matter of weeks. Right away my mind fills with words such as perseverance, tenacity, grace, strength, courage, and inspiration, but the overarching vocabulary word, the one that it is most glaring... heroic.

I listened to an article today on Wyoming Public Media where a colleague and friend of mine, Wade Kinsey, was quoted as saying, "If I can provide some of that classroom community that we've spent months building over the course of the year that was taken from us, if I can get that back, that's the stuff that will make the difference for these kids,"  Not only have these teachers and therapists, worked tirelessly on doing just that but they’ve developed new curriculums and treatment plans compatible with on-line learning, and they have individualized each lesson and treatment plan according to the student. They’re taking into account students whose parents are essential workers or are not able to provide support and making plans accordingly, they’re dropping food and other essentials off on family’s doorsteps daily (i.e., tables and chairs to do school work on, writing utensils, paper, etc), they’re on video and phone calls all hours of the day and late into the night helping those who are most vulnerable, and they’re taking time away from their own family to tend to their students and patients. I’ve witnessed therapy clinics making lunches and having them available for their patients every single day, and this is on top of all the services they are providing. This is nothing short of heroic.

So yes, we are living a part of history, and the heroism our teachers and therapists have exhibited throughout this pandemic will always be a part of the story I will tell in years to come.  I will be forever grateful.

An open letter to school administrators, special education teachers, therapists...

Dear school administrators, special education teachers and therapists,

We realize with schools closing across our country you are working hard to figure out how to continue providing education to all of our precious students. Thank you for your hard work in achieving this and for taking on the task of educating our children in non-traditional ways.

If you are considering to provide educational and related services through online programs, Trilogy Therapy can help your therapists learn how to perform teletherapy effectively. We’re currently helping other school districts in our northwestern region do just that!

Currently, Trilogy Therapy works with school districts providing on-line and on-site speech, occupational and physical therapy services. We’ve had great success implementing teletherapy and are happy to help your district do the same. We can train your therapists how to use teletherapy platforms, provide your therapists valuable digital resources to decrease planning time and offer extended support whenever they may need it.  All of your therapists will know how to make teletherapy effective, engaging and fun!

Please contact us for any teletherapy consultation you might need. Check out our website at www.trilogyteletherapy.com, email us at contact@trilogyteletherapy.com, or call (307) 459-1111.

We are here to help you!

Sincerely,

The Trilogy Therapy Team

Get Moving and Talking...Anywhere, Anytime

Trilogy Therapy has simple tips to continue fostering minds and bodies of our precious kids, anywhere, anytime!

Lo-Tech Options for PT at Home

Charades - Encourages motor planning and control

Potential Categories

• Animals (Flamingo, Frog, Duck, Cat, Chicken, Dog, Snake, etc)

• Sport Activities (Baseball, Volleyball, Golf, Hockey, Basketball, etc)

• Musical Instruments (Guitar, Piano, Drums, Trumpet, Flute, etc)

Balloon Living Room Volleyball - Great for visual tracking and eye-hand coordination

• Set up the “court”

• Each person gets 3 hits to get ball back to other side

• Don’t let the balloon hit the floor

Higher Tech Options for PT at Home

GoNoodle - Online website to encourage movement and activity all related to educational topics

• Create a free family account or an educator account

  • https://assets-gnp-ssl.gonoodle.com/parent_invite_pdfs/gonoodle_parent_invite_en.pdf

• Different categories including: Mindfulness, Sensory and Motor Skills, and Movement Type

YouTube Work-Outs 

• Many different fun workouts for kids

• Yoga, Frozen, SuperMario Brothers, etc 

Low Tech Options for Speech Therapy at Home

Play “I spy…”

• A good game of “I spy…” can be played anywhere! Try playing it by giving two to three describing clues (i.e., “I spy something green, soft, and you sit on it). 

Baking/Cooking/Crafting

• What a great time to bond and work together on something creative! This time also allows for lots of direction following, sequencing, and new vocabulary. Let your child help you with dinner, bake dessert, or make that scrap book you’ve been meaning to do for years!

Go for a walk or bike ride

• Get outside together and move. What a wonderful time to talk about what’s going on around you. Work on opposites (i.e., fast and slow, up and down, etc.), find and/or show verbs (i.e, find things that fly, find things that crawl, show me skipping, etc.), and describe what you see (i.e., “look it’s at the animal with feathers, who flies, and who will probably be laying eggs soon”).

Reading

• Read together! For older readers, a good chapter book might even be in order. This gives ample opportunity to talk about and work on comprehension of the different parts of the book (i.e., the main character(s), the setting, etc.). It’s a great time to point out and examine new vocabulary further. You can talk about specific words in the book, the meaning of those words, what are other words that might mean the same thing, what are words that are the opposite, what other words might be associated with the specific word, etc. For our younger readers, this is also a great time to look at the pictures in the book and talk about what you see. You can also work on hearing and saying the sounds in specific words in the book, and you can work on comprehension and understanding of what was just read.

Higher Tech Options for Speech Therapy at Home

ABC Mouse

• There’s a 30 day free trial for this educational website. It’s great for children between kindergarten and 2nd grade. Give it a try!

Vooks

• You can have a free subscription to this website if your school has been impacted by a closure. There’s also a free 30 day trial. Vooks takes normal story books, animates them, and makes them come alive! It’s really a great resource!

Boom Learning

• Boom Learning is full of gamified academic exercises including those that target speech and language! Try the starter package. It’s free and you’ll find a ton of really great exercises for your child!

Low Tech ideas for Occupational Therapy at home:

 -  Use that backyard swing set! Engage sensory systems with swinging, monkey bars, teeter totter, and going down the slide! 

-      Sensory play – we’re big fans of Floof and Kinetic Sand at my house. This could also be as simple as dumping flour in a casserole dish and driving cars through it or mixing water and cornstarch together.

-      Cook together – stirring, mixing, measuring – cooking targets so many excellent skills areas – cognition, attention to task, sequencing, bilateral coordination. Plus the end result is yummy!

 High Tech ideas for OT : 

Tools to Grow OT : This website offers two levels of activities – both free and membership options. Tools to Grow breaks down activities by skills targeted – such as fine motor skills, visual motor integration, sensory processing, and bilateral coordination. 

 Best Apps for screen time : 

-      Dexteria – fine motor skill development

-      Dexteria Dots – fine motor development with some math

-      Dexteria VMI – visual motor integration skills

-      Doodle Buddy – a fun drawing app

-      Little Finder – this one targets visual perception skills

-      Osmo Tangram – more visual perception skills

-      Letter Reflex – great for working on letter reversals

-  Sensory Sound Box – a calming visual and auditory app you can control by touch

Our Favorite Speech Teletherapy Resources

Trilogy Therapy realizes with recent school closures and additional changes we might see in the face of COVID-19, some of you are turning to teletherapy. We believe the health and well-being in all humans are of utmost importance. We also know that we are in a unique position in providing teletherapy services to help traditional therapists through these uncertain times. We would like to help you better prepare for your teletherapy experience by sharing some of the resources we use daily to make our sessions great.

Please use the following resources as a roadmap to help you and your students stay healthy. We’ve taken a minute to list some of our favorites!

Ultimate SLP 

The Ultimate SLP is a new(er) website full of amazing speech language therapy materials, including fun, interactive games with real life pictures. We love this site so much that all of our speech therapists have access to a monthly membership through Trilogy Therapy. Seriously, this site takes off hours of planning time each month!

Boom Learning 

Boom Learning is a website full of gamified exercises we highly recommend. One of our favorite features… data tracking!!! There are four different levels of membership depending on your usage. Give the starter level a try. We’re sure you’ll love it just as much as we do!

Vooks 

We’re probably a little behind the ball on this one. We just started using Vooks at Trilogy Therapy and can’t believe we have been missing out for so long! Vooks makes storybooks come alive! These are great resources to pull out and use in any teletherapy session!

The Whimsical Word 

The Whimsical Word  has done a fabulous job creating digital resources for speech language pathologists and special educators. We find the Whimsical Word’s website and blog incredibly valuable. The Whimsical Word’s digital resources are outstanding!

Smart Notebook 

Smart Notebook provides a great platform to create your own speech therapy activities. We use Smart Notebook for a number of other reasons too, like creating visual schedules and picture symbols. Smart Notebook has definitely come in handy!

Jigsaw Planet / Memory Match 

These are some of the awesome free games we use during our speech therapy sessions. They are a great way to keep attention, and/or add incentive. We also use them to teach new computer users how to click and drag. Give them a try!

Teachers Pay Teachers

There are also some really great resources on Teachers Pay Teachers. Below are some we use frequently for speech teletherapy:

• The Whimsical Word

• My Teletherapy Room

• Speech Your Mind

• Speech Wonderland

• Language Speech and Literacy

• GoldieTalks Speech

• BVG SLP

Teletherapy continues to change healthcare and our industry. It’s important for us all to realize the power and effectiveness teletherapy provides our patients and students in achieving their greatest potential.

Extended School Year... Trilogy Therapy is Here to Help!

Extended School Year (or ESY as it’s called in many school districts) is known as the extra or additional special education and/or related services a student receives before or after school or over an extended break like winter, spring or summer break. These services can help a student continue to grow and move toward meeting his/her IEP goals.  ESY services also assist students to avoid regression, and when used appropriately, have many benefits for students receiving special education and related services. It can be difficult, however, for school districts to find providers to fulfill the required ESY service time students need. 

There are many reasons speech, occupational and physical therapists work in school districts, one of them… extended breaks (summer, winter and spring). Let’s face it, it’s extremely nice to have these breaks, and if these specialists have children of their own, it’s an added benefit to follow a “school schedule.” Often when school districts turn to district employed, therapists to fill the required ESY hours, they find many of the specialists declining. Don’t worry Trilogy Therapy is here to help.

Trilogy Therapy has occupational, speech and physical therapists ready to take on any and all district ESY needs. We use a unique approach called our mixed model approach which utilizes both on-site therapy and virtual therapy services. With a mix of both on-site and virtual therapy services, successful outcomes are achieved for students, all while decreasing the inefficiencies of trying to fill ESY therapy positions with district therapists who want and need a break. Trilogy Therapists can provide therapy services to students over breaks to meet ESY needs, all while continuing to work toward meeting IEP goals and objectives. That way district therapists are able to return after breaks refreshed and ready to take on full caseloads. 

Trilogy Therapy is committed to providing related services to rural and hard to access areas where therapists can be difficult to find. We believe no matter where you are, access to therapy should have no boundaries and we are committed to fulfilling this need throughout Wyoming.

Trilogy Therapy is ready to take on any and all ESY needs your district may face. If you want your students to continue making good gains, and your district therapists to be refreshed and ready to take on a full caseload, ask Trilogy Therapy about covering your ESY therapy needs today!

Reflecting on Connecting

When traveling home after an on-site visit, I often find myself reflecting on what Trilogy Therapy is all about and why we are so proud to provide therapy services to anyone, anywhere. Trilogy Therapy uses a unique approach to provide speech, occupational and physical therapy, using both virtual therapy and on-site therapy (Mixed Model approach).

Recently, I had the pleasure of working on-site in a small school district. This was not my first visit to the district, but I had not been on-site in a couple of months. Currently, Trilogy Therapists provide virtual speech therapy to about 30 students in this district weekly. Our therapists have a strong connection with each student and share lots of smiles, laughs and triumphs together, not to mention virtual “high-fives,” fist bumps, and pats on the back. The students work hard during their therapy time, and they are making good gains to show for it, all while having a lot of fun. 

Once I checked into the school, I opened the office door to walk down the hall when I heard, “Mrs. Treide, you’re here!” I turned around to see one small (but mighty) kindergarten student, who was receiving speech therapy through our Mixed Model approach, running toward me with her arms open wide for a hug. That moment was a great reminder of why Trilogy Therapy provides therapy through virtual and on-site modes and the considerable difference our therapy makes. I know Trilogy Therapists are making connections whether we are providing services virtually or on-site and those connections carry-over into each student’s performance toward meeting his/her therapy goals. 

Trilogy Therapy is committed to providing speech, occupational and physical therapy services to rural and hard to access areas where therapists can be difficult to find. We will continue to work toward  building successful relationships and connections to help our students achieve the most growth possible. We believe no matter where you are, access to therapy should have no barriers.

Contact Trilogy Therapy today to learn more about how we can provide speech, occupational and physical therapy services to you, no matter your geographical location.

We have you covered!

Nine months notice seems like plenty of time... until you realize you need to find a solution to fill your therapist’s position while on extended leave.  With the shortages of speech, occupational and physical therapists our nation is facing, finding someone to fill in for an extended leave can be quite challenging. Don’t worry, Trilogy Therapy has you covered!

Trilogy Therapy combines teletherapy services with on-site services (Mixed Model) to offer a solution to the challenges school districts face finding speech, occupational and physical therapists.  Trilogy Therapists have their feet on the ground working and collaborating on-site with students, teachers, PLC teams, and district therapists all while combining virtual services through teletherapy. 

Trilogy Therapists work closely with the therapist who is on leave to make sure the transition goes smoothly. Our therapists continue collaborating with school staff and covering all therapy sessions, evaluations, IEP meetings, and PLC meetings just as the therapist who is on leave did, so when he/she returns it’s as seamless as possible. But most importantly, Trilogy Therapists provide top-notch, evidence based therapy to make sure all students continue to achieve success while his/her full time therapist is away. 

Trilogy Therapy believes access to therapy should have no boundaries. We are committed to providing long term and short term solutions for all of your related service needs. Consider calling Trilogy Therapy to cover your next extended leave today. Trilogy Therapy has you covered!

“Seating” Your Students Up for Success

Students can excel when given the tools they need. An appropriate work environment is imperative to facilitate function. The growing choices for seating options are exciting, but also make it difficult to decide what works best for each student. 

Traditional Chair and Desk

• Best when feet are on the floor, desk is near lower rib height and the student forearms can rest comfortably at a 90° angle. Good for most students that have adequate strength and stability to maintain internal postures correctly. 

Traditional Chair and Desk

Hokki Stool and Rocking Chair

• Allows for “controlled” movement. Great for those kids that need to move! Activates musculoskeletal system and can promote improved core posture leading to better distal control (like writing or computer work).

Hokki Stool

Standing Desks

• This is an up-and-coming new rage that allows students to be more physically active during their day while also facilitating better concentration, especially in students 3rd grade and younger. (Taking a stand to help Students. University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Research Study, February 26, 2018, https://uwm.edu/news/using-standing-desks-in-schools/)

Standing Desk

Cube Chair and HowdaHug Chair

• Cube Chair - provides additional support, gives children their own space, preserves physical energy. Great for students with low tone and weakness. 

• HowdaHug Chair - provides deep pressure for improved proprioception, vestibular input. Works well for students that have Autism, ADHD, and sensory processing difficulties. 

HowdaHug Chair

Trilogy physical therapists are experts in analyzing a student’s environment and helping make meaningful implementations that improve attention, work endurance, and performance. Contact us today to learn more.