The Art of Running in the Rain

Hope everyone had a great weekend!  Mine was a mixture of all different kinds of amazing.  Here are a few of the highlights:

• Dave made his ‘Tortilla espanola” and it was delicious!  Here’s a peek at it:

Tara came and we had a wondrous time: cribbage was played, snacks were consumed, dog parks were adventured to, breakfast was eaten, and so much more.

• I’m going to admit to you all that it was REALLY hard to motivate myself for the 9 mile run on Sunday.  As I felt the lack of motivation, I turned to my regulars (Pinterest, runners world, blogs etc.) to try to find a little somethin’ somethin’ to help me pump up my jam, but nothing was doing it.  I’m thankful to have Dave giving me a little extra inspiration; however, I want to be able to muster it all on my own (you know, I have to run a long run without him).  Now I turn it to you readers, what do you do to motivate yourself for a workout?  Do those “reasons to be fit” images do it for you?

  

  I will admit that the following quote really does help me (and I thought about it sunday): “You only regret the workouts you don’t do” -not sure who said it, but it’s all over Pinterest and runners world

• Last, but definitely not leasts, our friends held a ‘Game of Thrones’ season premier party and it was AMAZING!  The hosts went above and beyond and made Westeros style food (they even had mulled wine).  Everything was delicious and we watched the show with happy full bellies.

Well that’s it for my weekend.

I wanted to share a little bit about the other part of my life, my job.  As I mentioned in my about I’m a speech language pathologist.  I work part time as an early intervention specialist with a particular interest in Autism.  I also work part time as the owner of a private practice, “Little Peeps, inc.” (www.littlepeepstherapy.com).  Today I wanted to share with everyone my four favorite early intervention materials:

1.) Bubbles. Can’t say enough about the amazing power of bubbles!  First of all, the phrase “ready, set….” (let the child fill in ‘go’), is the most amazing language facilitation technique I’ve ever encountered. Keep in mind that you may need to use the phrase until you think you just can’t take it anymore.  Some of the important early developing skills I’ve seen bubbles elicit include: joint attention, turn taking, requesting, commenting, and exclamations.  Not to mention all the early developing sounds: /m/ (more), /b/ (blow, bubbles), /p/ (pop), /d/ (dip).  Lastly, WHO DOESN’T LOVE BUBBLES????

2.) Toy food. Pretend play is such an important skill!  It’s great to work on feeding others, feeding self, cutting food, making meals, etc.  I feel like the one thing that people don’t always realize about pretend food is just how much vocabulary you can use with it.  For example, you can talk about what it tastes, smells, and feels like.  You can introduce words that are related to the food: pot, pan, spoon, fork, knife, sink, stove, etc.  It’s also a great opportunity to just follow your child’s lead.  See what they want to explore, go with it, and expand on what they’ve said.

3.) Clear Plastic Container. Okay, okay, I know, this isn’t really a toy.  But if you have a game (e.g., Mr. potato head, puzzle, doll house), and you keep all the little items in a plastic container then your child will have to ask for them.  Now we’ve got some requesting going on.  You could even place the plastic container up on a shelf and see if they will point at it to request.  Once they have the container (which they hopefully cannot open), wait and see if they ask you to “open,” or say “help.”  A skill that might come before saying “help” would be handing the toy to you (it’s the nonverbal version of saying “help”).  Oh I could go on for days about the amazingness of containers and, in general, keeping most toys out of reach (to encourage requesting), but I’ll leave it there for now.

4.) Books. I bet you thought I was going to say the iPad? Well I do love the iPad (hey maybe I’ll do a post on my favorite therapy apps), but nothing beats a good book!  Board books are the best for this age.  I like to let my kiddos pick from a set of two (choices are another great way to elicit language).  I like to ask some simple wh– questions (what, where); however, if answering questions is difficult then I may prompt with a phrase (e.g., “I see a”).  I love bringing stuff to my mouth to show the child what the word looks like on my mouth, it’s more fun when I have props that go along with the book.  I’d say the two biggest things I adjust with this age is SAYING LESS, and WAITING.

That’s it for now.

Be well.