Using sticky notes to help clients organize their written language reduces the cognitive load of word order and word recall, and at the same time eliminates the frustration of constant erasing.

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Related podcast episodes:

The Tipping Point – episode 5
Narrative Language Intervention: Interview with Douglas Petersen Pt1 – episode 23
Narrative Language Intervention: Interview with Douglas Petersen Pt2 – episode 24
Organizing Language: Now with a Box – episode 35

Simple Tools With Denise Videos
Tally It Up!

Impossible R Made Possible online course

Dr. David Kilpatrick’s Equipped For Reading Success

Music: Simple Gifts performed by Ted Yoder, used with permission

Transcript

Denise: Yes, they were experimenting so it’s this sort of an analysis. Wait a minute, is that sound right? Is that the way I said it? Oh no, I need to do it this way. And then once the whole sentence is arranged with sticky notes, they can just copy and they have it right. They don’t have to erase it. See, when you erase a word that you need, because maybe it’s in the wrong order or something. Sometimes I can’t even remember it. It was hard enough for them to retrieve it. It’s gone. So it lightens the cognitive load for them.

Welcome to The Mindful SLP, the show that explores simple but powerful therapy techniques for optimal outcomes. I’m Denise Stratton, a pediatric speech language pathologist of thirty years. I’m closer to the end of my career than the beginning, and along the way I’ve worked long and hard to become a better therapist.

Join me and I’ll do my best to make your journey smoother. I found the best therapy comes from employing simple techniques with a generous helping of mindfulness. Joining me in the conversation is Dan, my technical wizard and office manager.

Dan: Welcome back. We’re so glad you joined us. Today, we’re going to follow up on last week’s discussion, where we were organizing language with boxes. This week, we’re going to organize language with sticky notes. We’re going to break this discussion up into five sections, word organization, rough drafts, phonological awareness, self-monitoring, and making stories. Tell us a little bit about this episode. Why did you call it When Every Word Counts?

Denise: Because there are times when every word doesn’t count. Someone with really beginning developing language, learning how to sequence, maybe there’s just learning to put a direct object in a sentence. So you’re not going to be hyper-focused on every single word. I use this approach for kids who are kind of beyond the organizing with a box that’s kind of for younger clients and somewhat broader concepts. These sticky note ideas are for older clients, generally clients who are reading and writing, to help them focus on individual words, help slow them down, help them self monitor.

Dan: The difference is really their motor skill ability, right?

Denise: Well, on the level to think about more abstract things…

Dan: To be able to think about more abstract. That makes sense, okay.

Denise: So let’s talk about word by word organization. When every word counts, every word needs to be in its right place. For children who can tell you what they mean to say, like you’re working on a story or something, but they can’t write it because when they try to write it, it’s just sort of like a word vomit. All of these words just appear on the page, maybe not in the right order, maybe not making sense, but the way they told it to you made sense. So how are we going to bridge this gap? That’s when I pull out the sticky notes. So, for example, there’s one girl I’m working with, who we worked a lot, on just verbally getting her to put in the direct objects to put in prepositional phrases, and now we’re going to tell a story and having her write it too, cause she’s at the level where she can write. Well, she wrote one word for one of her sentences, I was like, wait a minute, that’s not what you told me, that’s not what you said. Let’s grow this. I call it growing the sentence. I said, okay, let’s grow your sentence. Now, how are you going to start this? But instead of having her write on this rough draft form, she has. See, this is my pre rough draft, right? I’m like, let’s get out the sticky notes and let’s write the words that you tell me. And if they’re in the wrong order, we can easily manipulate them, move them around, insert one in without any erasing.

Dan: Right, so you’re putting one word per note.

Denise: And they are so tempted to write an a or a the with another word, because those words don’t seem big enough to give them enough weight, right. But it’s very important to know all the a’s and the the’s are really important. They get their own sticky note.

Dan: They go in different places, yeah. So that’s great. Being able to do that gives them a bit of a visual opportunity to mix and match and try different things.

Denise: Yes, they’re experimenting. So it’s a sort of an analysis. Wait a minute. Is that sound right? Is that the way I said it? Oh, no, I need to do it this way. And then once it’s all arranged, the whole sentence is arranged with sticky notes, they can just copy and they have it right, they don’t have to erase it. See, when you erase a word that you need, because maybe it’s in the wrong order or something, sometimes I can’t even remember it. It was hard enough for them to retrieve it. It’s gone. So it lightens the cognitive load for them…

Dan: Oh, that’s great.

Denise: …to have all these words out. And what happens frequently with these clients is if you start to point out a little error that they made, maybe they just need to insert one word, that you could put above the line with little care, right. Or maybe they just need to switch a couple of words, you start to say, oh, let’s fix this.

They erase the whole sentence, furiously and fast. And you’re like, well, wait a minute. You didn’t need to do that. But it’s an all or nothing approach with them. I gotta have it all right, or I’m erasing the whole thing. And all of that work they put into is gone. They’re not really motivated to try and write it again, or they’ll make the same error.

Dan: It can be real discouraging, and that’s, that’s what we’re trying to do, is get to an easy way.

Denise: Yeah. Bring in the errorless learning, so you’re not making the same error every time you write it.

Dan: Exactly. And it’s a good skill to learn for the long-term too. I mean, it’s, I mean, our next section is rough draft. I mean, that’s exactly what you’re doing.

Denise: Yeah. I’m kind of combining this word organization and rough draft section together. It also helps for those clients who sort of the rush and don’t care. I’m just going to write this sentence out and it is what it is. You can take it or leave it. Like, no, we got to have a one-to-one word correspondence. You need to write, like you spoke it, basically.

Dan: Well, it slows them down, helps them process it, but it also gives them a chance to just get it right. I like that. It, like I said, it’s a good skill to have. You did this when you were putting together the R course, you know, you wrote out your topics on sticky notes and we were able to move around and change them without having to do a whole lot of erasing. I mean, as adults, we use this all the time.

Denise: Well, it’s the ultimate cut and paste that we use with our word processors now. Right?

Dan: Well, uh, as a project manager, I’m using sticky notes all the time to help people figure out what steps are and everything like that. It’s, it’s a great way to do it because you’re right, it is errorless learning and it’s all right in front of them. Terrific. How can you use this for phonological awareness?

Denise: I love to use sticky notes to help them represent syllables and words or even individual phonemes. Let me talk about David Kilpatrick’s Equip for Reading Success Program I use all the time. He has clients manipulating syllables in words. So to recognize each syllable is a great skill. I did not realize when you get to a three syllable word, how many of my clients can not discern what the middle syllable is. It’s just like, it just kind of fuzzy to them. It’s kind of like when we were in Italy and I never learned to say the name of that town that we stayed in, what is it called?

San, San G that’s it San Gimignano, see? And every time I say it, you look at me like you didn’t say it right. Well, I haven’t put it out on sticky notes each syllable, but if I did, I could probably learn how to say it. It’s kinda like that. I can’t process it. What am I missing? I’m missing something. But as for these clients, and so one of my clients who was working on the three syllables, and so what they do is you say like, say Idaho, and then I’ll say, well say it again, but don’t say ho.

So you’re asking him to leave off the syllable. Well, we think it would just be easy to go. Ida. Her response was idat, and that is so common with my kids who really struggle with phonological awareness. They just don’t hear that middle syllable. I have to use my sticky notes. This is I, this is duh, this is ho. Okay. Now let’s take away ho, and what have you got? I dah. Okay.

Dan: It it’s a visual cue again, that helps them get to it.

Denise: So why are sticking notes so good for this? It’s because you can write on them or not. So what David Kilpatrick says is there’s levels of queuing. You want to get away from the writing and spelling cue as quickly as you can, because our write-in spelling is not consistent, right. And we want them to be able to manipulate the sounds in their mind. If I write down Idaho and you’ll cover up the h o, it’s easy for her to do it. Right. But if I just use a sticky note or a token, three blank ones, she has to do it in her head. And so what I really like is if I really need to use the write-in spelling, I don’t have to, oh, put these blocks away or these magnetic chips and pull out the sticky notes. I’m already using the sticky notes, right. I can pull out the pen and write if I need to, but.

Dan: It just goes quicker, but it’s still that blank synthesis part that helps. Yeah.

Denise: Yeah. And that’s actually analysis, taking away a syllable. And so here’s another example. Just yesterday. I was working with a child and this is more into the phonemic awareness now because we were manipulating the individual sound.

I said, say grow. And I say, now say it again, but don’t say, er, so it had to change into go and he wasn’t getting it. And so I was like, you know, grow changes to go. And he’s like, that doesn’t make sense. I said, why doesn’t it make sense? He said, because grow is so much longer. So he’s thinking of how you write it, he’s thinking there’s four letters in grow, and two letters in go and that doesn’t make sense. See, that’s just a little example of how our kids who have this problem, these problems with reading, they’re trying to equate each sound with each letter and that does not work, not in English, right. And so we have to say oh, and I’ll use a sticky note for each sound. There’s only three sounds in grow. Take one sound away, we’ve got two sounds, go. It’s interesting to the same client I was telling you about who said I dat when she had to take the ho off of Idaho. Okay. We’re several levels beyond that now, working on something else, but I noticed that she grabbed a sticky note to help her pay attention. Every time she gave the word back to me manipulated the way it was supposed to be, she gave herself a tally mark. So she wasn’t even using it to write down writing or spelling or anything just to help her maintain the tension because the next week, we didn’t use a sticky note and it was so interesting. She got the first five right, right off the bat. No hesitation, exactly what you want. The next five bam bam bam missed all five of them in a row, because her tension was gone. She does have ADHD. And I thought, oh, she needs a sticky note just to keep her mind focused on this task.

It’s an endurance thing. She could only listen to and manipulate so many sounds without something to keep her on track. So that’s how I use it with phonological awareness leading to phonemic awareness.

Dan: Okay, well, let’s jump into self-monitoring. How do you work with self-monitoring and sticky notes?

Denise: I talk about this a lot in episode five, which I called The Tipping Point. As you’re getting clients who’ve been working on R, or really any older client who has just has one single sound they’re still trying to conquer, getting to that point where they are their own self monitor. I have this activity, I call Match Your Plan. We play games. They were playing pickup sticks. I’ll say, okay, I’ll give them a sticky note, give myself a sticky note, and say what’s your plan? Are you going to use your R sound in one word? Are you gonna use it in two words? Every time you take a turn with a pickup stick, you need to say something, you just say, I’m going to get this one right here. Or this is hard. Or this is a tricky one. That’s an example of how we use the R once, you know, so they write down their plan, I write down my plan, and every time they take a turn, they have to make a little tally mark if they match their plan. So it’s a great self checker because I’m not coming in and saying, you didn’t say R, are you need to fix that.

I just look at them and say, did you match your plan if they forget to make the mark on their tally note. Sometimes I just look at them, I don’t say anything. I don’t take my turn. And then they’ll look at me like, why aren’t you going? And I’m just kind of look at their sticky note and they’re like, oh, and then their eyes start to do that thing, you know, when you’re recalling something, your eyes kind of go up in the corner, like, did I do it? And they’re starting to review in their mind how they sounded and if they’re not sure, I say, well, you got to do it again, if you’re not sure. So it’s, it’s great. It works great. And parents love this.

They’re like, oh, I can do that. I can do that with them. You’re not making a judgment on how their R sounded or their S or whatever it is. They’re far enough along that they can do that themselves, right. They just need to be mindful of using that sound. Another way I use sticky notes for self-monitoring is an activity I call Tally it Up. I do have a Simple Tools video on this. You can go to my main page at slpproadvisor.com and go to Simple Tools With Denise and it’s called Tally it Up. But this is how it works.

Dan: We’ll also link to it in the show notes.

Denise: I had a client who was memorizing a poem, and she had all the words memorized. The first stanza, there were several Rs in this poem, she was working on R, and she just kept missing the same words. But if she has said one line at a time, perfect. She said the second line at a time, perfect. She’d even get two lines, but third line, Rs just started dropping out. I’m like, how do I make her realize, that she, she just was clueless. She didn’t realize she was missing them.

So finally I said, okay, I don’t care how slow you go. I gave her a sticky note, I gave her a pencil. I said, every time you say a word with R, you make a tally mark every single time. And what was so interesting was that was hard for her to do. She just kept missing the tally marks. Her mind would go someplace else.

So I had to teach her to go slowly, make a tally mark, every time there was an R. And that took her to the next level in therapy, you know, doing that several times. Then she was able to do it finally without making tally marks, but she just needed something to get her to pay attention. There is an R in this word and I need to say it right.

Dan: Because it’s all subconscious, speaking is, when you’re trying to think about the sounds, but you need to stop and think about the sounds, if you’re working on that one.

Denise: You’re trying to get them automatic. I mean, you don’t think about the sounds, but you could. If you had to, and I gave you, you know, a sticky note or whatever and said tally, every R you say it would be no problem for you, you could do it so fast and so easily. And she couldn’t.

Dan: Right, you were just looking for a way to interrupt her so that she can stop and think about it, as it’s a, yeah, it’s a technique I’ve seen many times for breaking habits.

Denise: And the third one that I use for self monitoring is actually in my R program, Impossible R Made Possible. I call it Mind Your R, you could do it for any sound really, but it’s really a mindfulness technique for the client who knows how to produce the sound well, but is not doing it, is making errors with how they produce the sound.

So you can have an R that’s really good, really perfect. A rope. And then you can have it go a little bit off, like whope. I mean, they kind of almost have it, it’s not wope. It’s just a little bit off. How do you fine tune that? How do you get them to realize that there’s a difference between their almost R and the really strong, perfect one you want?

Well, I use Mind Your R, and I start it with sticky notes. Now I have a worksheet, but basically it’s through boxes. So I use three sticky notes and I tell them, I want you to say the sound right two times, and wrong once. And I’m going to guess which one is your wrong one? And we use little mini M&Ms to make it fun.

So in the boxes, you get eat the one M&M in the box of the one that’s wrong, and you model for them. So you model saying that right twice and wrong once. And they almost always hear mine. I mean, they’re so good at that, but they don’t hear their own. So they’ll either say them all wrong or they say them all right.

And I’ll point it out to them. And they get this stunned look on their face, like what. And so then they start hearing that really fine distinction between the almost right and the right one. And it works really, really well. I love using mind your R or it could be mind your S, it could be whatever you’re working on.

Well, I’ve got one more story about self-monitoring now I talked a lot last week about pronouns and when you’re going to worry about he and she, but I have a client who was to the point where yeah, we’re going to work on he and she, her error was actually she said her for she every single time. And for some reason, the he and him was all worked out, but not the her, and she, she can tell stories, she’s manipulating individual phonemes as far as her phonological awareness goes. So, yeah. It’s time now to address this. Again, two sticky notes, one with the word she on it, one with the word her on it. First, I just want her to notice when they say it every time, I say she wants you to note it down, to make a tally mark, every time I say her, I want you to make a tally mark.

And then I did it for her. And then I had her do it for herself. So we’re taking tiny little steps, right. And two weeks of that, and she was starting to clue in. She was like, oh. And she was starting to use she on her own, which she had never done, it always been her unless I’d kind of done a little reminder and then she just started to do it.

We’re reading a book and describing characters in a book. And I was like, oh, this is pretty cool. She just, she stopping and thinking about it now. It was just sort of a habit just to put her in.

Dan: And that’s, that’s really what it’s about, breaking those habits. Let’s move on to our last section, making stories.

Denise: I talked about this extensively in Story Champs. So we have two episodes on Story Champs and interview with Doug Petersen, episodes 23 and 24. But if you haven’t listened to those, if you’re not familiar with it, I’ll go over it real quickly, a basic story has a character, a problem, a feeling, an action and a resolution.

And there are some pre-made stories in Story Champs you can use, and they’ve got little icons that go with it. And what you do is they tell that story three times, they tell it with the story pictures and with the icons, you take the pictures away. They tell a story with just the icons, you take the icons away, they tell the story with nothing. I love that progression, that memory and that practice that they get. But then after that, you say has anything like that ever happened to you? They tell you a story or you kind of pull a story from them if you can. Or sometimes I just make up stories. Sometimes they can’t.

We have some puppets, we’ll play a game, we’ll make up a story. We draw the story on post-it notes. Do the same thing. They tell that story, made up or personal story with the pictures, with the icons, stack up the sticky notes, tell the story with just the icons and then tell them anything. And they have a story to take home. They have the little post-it notes to take home. So basically I use that all the time and we’re making up stories all the time.

Dan: Well, there’s several ways that we’ve covered on how to use sticky notes in your therapy and how you can help your clients with them. Just simple little devices. I am sure there’s many other ways that you use sticky notes, let us know in the comments of the episode or over SLP proAdvisor dot com, on how you use your sticky notes in your therapy. This is a really, really simple technique, Denise.

Denise: When you master the simple, the complex takes care of itself. What I always say. And come back next week, we’re going to be talking about how to build a speech therapy clinic, real basic techniques of one-on-one. If you’ve had some questions, if you’re curious about it, if you wonder if it’s something you can do, we’ll be talking all about that. So see you next week.

Dan: Thanks for listening to The Mindful SLP. We invite you to sign up for our free resource library at slpproadvisor.com slash free. You’ll get access to some of Denise’s best tracking tools, mindfulness activities, and other great resources to take your therapy to the next level. All this is for free at SLP proadvisor.com/free.

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