It’s Week 7 of YouTube Treasures for speech therapy!
If you are just tuning in, this is an 8-week series so you have a fresh treasure trove of YouTube videos, with person-centered treatment ideas for speech therapy. If you’re new to YouTube or want some new ideas for how to use these videos in therapy, read on!
Have you ever used a YouTube video during your speech therapy session, or as a home program assignment? Here are a few reasons why I like using YouTube videos as a therapy tool:
*They are interesting and relevant, which promotes therapy engagement. This also means the language practiced will be language needed for real life!
*They give information in real-life speed (they aren’t over-simplified). This means that skills or strategies practiced with a YouTube video could likely be used in real life as well.
*You can adjust the complexity by choosing different lengths of information.
* Best of all, there are a million (plus!) topic options, so it’s easy to use something personally-relevant for the unique communication needs of a patient.
YouTube Treasure: How To Care For a Pet Guinea Pig
This YouTube Treasure goes out to the animal lovers! With many neurological diagnoses, it’s nice to use speech therapy to practice skills for learning something new. After all, there will be many times in life when someone has to be prepared to take on new information: At the doctors, getting invited to an event, putting a new present together, traveling to a new spot, or maybe learning to care for a new pet! This YouTube is an example of how we can use relevant, meaningful stimuli to practice the skills and strategies to learn something new (even if that person isn’t going to be a Guinea Pig owner!)
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=inyZwa9rzpg?ecver=1&w=560&h=315]
Video Length: 4:05
Therapy Option: Use the short video above to practice note-taking as a strategy, and collaboratively create a system that the individual can use to recall this information until the next speech therapy session. Then, apply this system to other areas of the person’s life where they may need to be prepared to learn something new. Use the following information to check comprehension or recall:
Supplies for a Guinea Pig
- Pig Pen (4 square feet)
- Newspaper / Bedding
- Food
- 1-Quart water bottle
- Hiding spots (Coffee can, flower pot)
- Small brush
- Vitamin C tablets
- Wading Pool
How to Get Ready for a Guinea Pig:
- Read about guinea pigs.
- They are social: Get a friend for your guinea pig if possible.
- Have females from the same litter live together.
- Each guinea pig needs 4 square feet of space in a cage.
- The cage needs a solid bottom.
- Guinea pigs eat high-quality Timothy hay, which helps keep their teeth from becoming too long.
- Guinea pigs need Vitamin C, which they get through 1/4 c. pellets daily.
- Guinea pigs also need a handful of greens and veggies daily.
- Guinea pigs need water.
- Guinea pigs need hiding places in their cage.
- Guinea pigs need floor time daily to move around.
- Guinea pigs love to be brushed; long-hairs should be brushed daily.
- Use a small-animal vet to keep your Guinea pig healthy. They can live up to 10 years.
Therapy Ideas: If you like these ideas, be sure to check out the Home Sweet Home Series and my Shop. Here are some ways you may be able to incorporate a personally-relevant YouTube Video into speech therapy:
| To Target Strategies or Skills in This Area: | The Patient Could Do This: |
| Verbal Expression | *Use word-finding strategies to explain the supplies or top 10 tips for having a guinea pig.
*Next steps: Use Response Elaboration Training to explain to someone else how to care for a guinea pig. |
| Written Expression | *Write steps to care for a guinea pig in clear, organized steps
*Write an opinion paragraph persuading someone why or why not a guinea pig would make a great pet. |
| Auditory Comprehension | *Demonstrate comprehension across 4-minute in-context listening tasks, with 90% acc for open-ended questions.
*Practice using strategies such as note-taking to enhance comprehension. |
| Reading Comprehension | (Nope). |
| Motor Speech | *Challenge ability to carry-over motor speech strategy or skill while giving directions to a known or unknown listener. |
| Attention | *Sustain attention for listening tasks of *** minutes.
*Alternate / divide attention for a motor task (such as sorting) while also listening to new information, with 90% acc on each task. |
| Memory | *Short-term recall for +5/5 pieces of info after a 10-minute delay.
*Short-term recall: Explain instructions for guinea pig care after a 2-day delay. *Prospective memory: Price out guinea pig supplies and report back to SLP at next session. |
| Thought Organization | *Organize information using bullet points and sentences. |
| Problem-Solving / Reasoning | *List consequences of not remembering pet instructions
*List 2 action steps if someone is unsure how to care for a pet |
| Executive Function | *Evaluate strategy success during task or plan how to adapt strategies for new situation. |
| Pragmatics | *Recognize facial/body cues if someone doesn’t understand your directions
*Use appropriate eye contact, facial expression, gestures for presentation. |
Check out YouTube Treasures (knitting, medication management, sports news, recipes, airport directions, fix a lawnmower) or other web-based resources for therapy here.
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