Tag: teacher

How Everyday Tech Can Empower Learning and Communication: A Conversation with Joan Green

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If you’ve ever wished for simple, practical tools to help your child thrive at school, support a loved one’s communication needs, or even stay organized yourself, you’re going to love the latest episode of the Just My MomSense podcast.

I had the pleasure of chatting with Joan Green, a Speech-Language Pathologist, Assistive Technology Expert, Author, and founder of Innovative Speech Therapy. Joan has dedicated her career to helping people of all ages use everyday technology to overcome challenges in learning, communication, and independence.

In our conversation, we explore how technology can support kids, teens, parents, teachers, caregivers, and older adults alike. Whether you’re parenting a neurodivergent child, helping a high schooler prepare for college, or supporting an aging parent, you’ll walk away from this episode with resources to make life just a little easier.

Resources Mentioned in the Episode

Join the Tech Life Inner Circle Membership
Your go-to community for live training, expert support, and curated tools.
👉 https://innovativespeech.com/tech-life-inner-circle/

Register for the Tech for College Success Summer Workshops
Perfect for college-bound students who need help with executive functioning and organization.
👉 https://bit.ly/summerworkshopstechforcollegesuccess

Learn more about Joan Green and Innovative Speech Therapy
👉 https://innovativespeech.com/

Follow Joan Green for More Expert Tips & Tools

Don’t Miss This Episode!

Listen Here or wherever you get your podcasts! Don’t forget to subscribe to Just My MomSense for more conversations, parenting support, and resource-packed episodes.

Have questions about assistive tech or want to share your favorite tools? Drop a comment below or message me on Instagram @justmymomsense!

Themed Learning Week | Day 2

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“Climb the mountain, not so the world can see you, but so you can see the world.” – David McCullough

The World was our theme for Day 2 this week!

We kicked off our time by reading an oldie but goodie “I Am Human.” We love adding this book into our rotation from time to time to open the discussion of kindness, how we’re all connected and what we can do to make the world a better place. The conversation led to why it’s good to reduce, reuse and recycle and different types of ways we can help other people.

I found these awesome worksheets from clevelearner.com via Pinterest. They got to review directions of a compass and started to working on reading a map. Would a map discussion be complete if they weren’t able to create their own treasure map?

They decided to complete the treasure map while dressed as pirates. I took apart an old box and planned to have them create a city out of it. They had bigger plans!

Since they were already dressed as pirates and had a treasure map, why not create a whole island? They got to work with crayons, Play-Doh, figures and anything else they could find!

All in all, Day 2 was a success. The best part was watching their imaginations take over and finish off learning time.

There will be a total of 4 days in this series. A cold ran through the house that gave us a mid-week break!

School May Not Look Like You Imagined: Part 3

On By justmymomsenseIn school1 Comment

Taking the School Bus

Back in my day, there were walkers and bussers. Walkers were the kids who lived too close to the school and didn’t qualify for bus services. Bussers, well that one is obvious. I was a walker.

When registering ‘J’ for school, we had to sign forms for him to take the bus and were told we would receive a bus pass prior to school starting. I asked if I was able to drive him myself or if he was required to take the bus. The woman was taken aback by the question and said of course I could take him but that every child had the ability to take the bus.

I knew ‘J’ would never go for it.

We did try though. We talked to him about it and asked if he wanted to try. It was a big no. At the time, his sister was 2 and stated “I’m gonna take the bus when I go to school!”

We figured we would start the school year with me bringing him, and maybe once he saw friends taking the bus, he would want to as well. One day he finally agreed to take it home from school. This was huge!

I received a message from his teacher saying that he started to cry once he realized it was time to line up and walk out to the bus. She let me know his friends consoled him and all chanted his name. This made my heart melt. Once they got outside, the Principal and Vice Principal were also cheering him on. He went onto the bus in tears.

My biggest fear was that he’d try to run. When faced with fight or flight, he typically choose flight. We had prepped him leading up to it; we would meet him at the bus stop and he should not to get off the bus until he saw us. But we were still a bit nervous.

My husband, J’s sister and I all went to the corner to wait for him. We were talking to a neighbor when we heard honking, we look over and the bus had pulled up right in front of the house. We ran over and he walked off the bus in a pile of tears and sniffles. He did it! He rode the bus! Something he was so nervous about but he made it through.

He made it clear he never wanted to do it again.

The only other time he has taken the bus since that day was for his only field trip. They went to see a stage show of Frosty the Snowman. He sat next to his teacher and did great. I think being with his whole class, having the comfort of his teacher there and knowing I was picking him up once he returned to school helped to make that bus ride a whole lot easier.

Truth be told, having never taken a school bus myself (except for field trips), I was totally fine with the idea of picking him up and dropping him off. I just want him to always know the option is there for more independence. If he changes his mind one day and wants to ride the bus with his friends, we will support it. If not, that’s ok too.

In the final part of this series, I will discuss our experience with school closing due to Covid.

Happy Earth Day!

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Picture it: 5 AM in my house (said in my Sophia Petrillo voice):

‘J’ wakes up, comes into our room and excitedly whispers IT’S EARTH DAY IT’S EARTH DAY!

Do I love how into Earth Day he is? YES

Do I love how he wants to learn more about helping the environment? YES

Do I love that he wanted to buy the Earth a gift? YES

Do I love that he acted like it was Christmas morning and woke everyone else up? No, no I don’t. But hey, ya win some ya lose some.

‘J’ has been learning about Earth Day this week in school. He’s learned all about reducing, reusing and recycling. Watching all of this reminds me that each generation gets smarter. It’s awesome being a fly on the wall to watch it all.

‘J’ and his sister were all in for some Earth Day photos. We worked on arts and crafts by reusing various materials and planted some flowers in old coffee cans. How did you celebrate Earth Day?

L to R: Creating the earth with a paper plate, paint and a ziplock bag, Making flowers out of recycled paper, planting flowers in old coffee cans

A Sensory Evaluation: Take 2

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During his Kindergarten year, ‘J’ received Occupational Therapy at school. His Occupational Therapist (OT) was awesome and we stayed in contact to keep each other in the loop. However, occupational therapy in school typically focuses more on fine motor skills (ie: handwriting) and whether or not the student cannot focus in class. ‘J’ was doing great in both of these areas. Unfortunately, the school could not provide more assistance when it came to sensory difficulties. They did not have the space or types of therapies to assist students in this way. It was recommended that ‘J’ would not receive OT for 1st grade.

Knowing that ‘J’ struggled with lighting, sounds and still had separation anxiety during morning drop off, we had him evaluated by an outside OT. He was evaluated at the end of February, 2020 in the areas of Touch Processing, Visual, Oral, Movement and Motor. Without going into specific details, he received scores under the categories of “More Than Others” or “Much More Than Others.”

It was recommended that ‘J’ receive occupational therapy for help reduce sensory sensitivity in the area of auditory, touch processing, visual, oral and sensory seeking behaviors. There would be focus on strategies to help reduce anxiety in social settings, to make him become more comfortable with challenges and to adapt to given situations within his life.

We were able to have two sessions with his new occupational therapist before everything shut down due to Covid. In the meantime, I came up with a Sensory Diet (pictured below), bought some fidget toys to assist with the sensory bin and luckily it was spring which meant lots of opportunity for outside play.

Like everyone else, we had to adjust our daily life. Although we were looking forward to have ‘J’ get started with occupational therapy to focus on his challenges, we did the best we could without it.