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Auditory Processing Disorder in the Classroom: A Practical Guide for Australian Teachers and Speech Therapists There is a student in your class. She sits near the front. She tries hard. She is not rude, not distracted by her phone, not disinterested. But she consistently misses the second half of your instructions, gets confused when two things are said quickly, and looks blank when the rest of the class seems to understand. She does not have a hearing problem. Her ears work perfectly fine. What …

Pragmatic Language Skills: Why Some Kids Say All the Right Words But Still Can’t Connect He was seven. Smart kid, read well above his level, could rattle off dinosaur names all day, and could hold his own in a conversation with an adult. But at lunch, the other kids kept their distance. Group projects were a mess. He talked over people, missed the moment when someone wanted to change the subject, and laughed at the wrong times. Teachers liked him fine. The kids his own age found him exhaus …

If one walks into any primary class room or therapy room in Australia, one would observe that there are children who require movement on a regular basis during the course of a school day. Movement is natural, and regular input of sensory information may assist certain children in becoming more regulated and attentive. That is precisely why the use of a simple yet economical tool such as the sensory balance ball fits the bill in this case. At Fun Stuff Educational & Therapeutic Resources, we …

Anyone that works with children knows that questions are everywhere. Teachers ask questions to engage their class. Children ask questions during their play. Speech pathologists incorporate questions to develop language skills. Parents ask questions to their children every day. Who, What, Where, When, Why questions appear simple, but answering them aids in the development of a young child’s language. They grow a child’s ability to process a story, carry a conversation, follow directio …

The raising of a child who has autism brings unique pleasures and difficulties. One of the most frequent problems parents have is how to calm an autistic child at home during times of anxiety or overstimulation. overwhelmed. Each child diagnosed with autism differs, and so the strategies that work for one child may not be effective for one. There are, however, proven techniques that are gentle, and may aid in creating a more peaceful and more calming family environment. In this article we'll loo …