Language Therapy for Teens and Tweens: Practical Ideas for Practicing Clinicians

1. Language Therapy for Teens and Tweens: Practical Ideas for Practicing Clinicians Kathleen J. Abendroth, Ph.D., CCC-SLP

2. Learning Outcomes After this course, participants will be able to: • list five therapy activities for adolescent clients with language impairment. • define avoidance behaviors using a strengths based perspective when working with adolescent clients. • list current books and authors that are motivating and relevant to adolescent clients.

3. Adolescent Development “Tweens” Ages 9-12 “Teens” Ages 13-18

4. Tweens (ages 9-12) Puberty Clumsy Abstract thinking Sarcasm Mood swings Outbursts Overreactions Social ambiguity (Lesesne, 2003) Teens (ages 13-18) Social media/technology (Barnes, 2018) Sexual orientation Social advocacy Opt out/ Drop out Pregnancy Mental health/ illness Criminal justice system Prefrontal cortex

5. Linguistic Changes in Middle School Vocabulary- acquisition of Tier 2 vocabulary academic discourse (receptive understanding precedes use) Syntactic- Increased phrase and sentence length Macrostructure- ability to summarize expository text Inferencing- ability to apply context clues to comprehend (Lundine & McCauley, 2016)

6. Linguistic Changes in High School Complex Morphology (Nippold & Sun, 2008) Syntax- Greater use of clauses Vocabulary- Tier 3 vocabulary subject specific Executive functioning continues developing – planning, organization, memory and attention continues into early adulthood (Lundine & McCauley, 2016)

7. Therapy Ideas Thematic Units for Adolescent Language Therapy

8. Thematic Unit #1: Growth Mindset Growth mindset vs. Fixed mindset (Dweck, 2016; Dweck & Leggett, 1988) Teaches neuroplasticity Even Failure is Learning

9. Growth Mindset https://qahs.eq.edu.au/growth-mindset/

10. Growth Mindset Activities biglifejournal.com “How to Teach Growth Mindset to Kids” 4 Week Guide (free) Growth Mindset Printables Kit Famous Failures

11. Growth Mindset Journals Ages 7-10 Ages 11+

12. Growth Mindset- Famous Failures

13. Possible Goals • Specifically targets resilience • Comprehension • Connect information in text to student’s own life • Cause and effect • Verbal reasoning skills • Executive functioning skills

14. Thematic Unit #2: Videogame Dictionary

15. Videogame Dictionary

16. Possible Goals • Homonyms • Identify another person’s perspective • Synonyms • Syntax • Comprehension

17. Thematic Unit #3: Poetry

18. Blackout Poetry

19. Poems Found Poems Haiku Poems

20. Concrete Poems

21. Possible Goals • Analyze author’s purpose • Figurative language • Vocabulary • Creative writing • Listening comprehension

22. Thematic Unit #4: Job interviews Job Fairs Written applications Handshakes References Clothing Answering difficult questions Call backs Drug Testing

23. Job interviews • Apps to get started • Question Break downs- Word Banks • Do’s and Don’ts • Role Play • Video Modeling

24. Possible Goals • Functional life skills • Verbal turn taking • Syntax • Perspective taking • Comprehension • Career transition

25. Thematic Unit #5: Service Projects Set up a store front Brew Crew PBIS Cart

26. Service Projects Nonprofit service • Santa Paws • Coat Drive • Salsa Garden Use Podcasts Bianchi-Pennington, B. (2018)

27. Possible Goals • Turn taking • Multitasking • Social interaction • Following multistep directions • Using AAC • Problem solving

28. Strengths Based Strategies

29. Understand Avoidance Behaviors “Compensatory adaptations” • When a participant is expected to complete a task but does not, instead shifting the burden to another person. (Damico, et al., 2008)

30. Avoidance Behaviors are NOT PERSONAL! Positively viewed, it reveals: Awareness of difficulty Desire to overcome Attempt to develop strategies Way to monitor progress Sensitivity to success/failure Maintenance of interaction during difficult task (Damico, et al., 2008; Whited, 2015)

31. Improve Motivation Motivationrefers to factors that directandsustain goal-directed behavior (Nevid, 2013) 3 Components: Activation, Persistence, Intensity (Cherry, 2019) Use authentic topics and materials (Marlatt, 2018) Learn young adult culture (Lesesne, 2003)

32. Improve Resilience “The ability to bounce back from a negative experience” (Prince-Embury, 2006, in Caughter and Crofts, 2018) Caughter & Crofts, 2018; Masten (2004)

33. Build Rapport Team mentality- key to the meaning-making that goes on between interactive partners Rapport-  Constant negotiation of interpersonal relationships that take place in discourse. (Duchan & Kovarsky, 2011) Buy in to education is essential School pride Job preparedness Seeing recent graduates working College enrollment

34. 10 Poetry Books for Teens • The Rose that Grew from Concrete (Tupac Shakur, 1999) • Falling Up (Shel Silverstein, 1996) • You Hear Me? Poems and Writings by Teenage Boys (Betsy Franco, ed., 2000) • Things I have to Tell You: Poems and Writings by Teenage Girls (Betsy Franco, ed., 2001) • Blue Lipstick: Concrete Poems (John Grandits, 2007) • For Everyone (Jason Reynolds, 2019) • Time You Let Me In: 25 Poets Under 25 (Naomi Shihab Nye, 2010) • You Don’t Even Know Me: Stories and Poems about Boys (Sharon Flake, 2010) • Paint Me Like I Am: Teen Poems (Nikki Giovanni, 2003) • Red Hot Salsa: Bilingual Poems on Being Young and Latino in the United States(Lori Marie Carlson, 2005)

35. 10 Books for Middle School • Diary of a Wimpy Kid series AND *Diary of an Awesome Friendly Kid: Rowley Jefferson’s Journal* Jeff Kinney • Dork Diaries Rachel Renee Russell • The 13-Story Treehouse series Andy Griffiths • Wonder AND *Auggie & Me: 3 Wonder Stories* RJ Palacio • The Who Was? Series • I Survived Series (Scholastic) • Sideways Stories from Wayside High Louis Sachar • WishBarbara O’Connor, 2016 • A Wrinkle in Time (Quintet series) Madeleine L’Engle • If I Were in Charge the Rules Would Be Different! James Proimos

36. 10 Books for High School • The Hate U GiveAngie Thomas (Police brutality; Income disparity) • All American Boys Jason Reynolds (Racial tension; Police brutality) • He Said, She Said Kwame Alexander (Social Protest) • Blended Sharon Draper (Biracial experiences; blended family dynamics • Harry Potter series J.K. Rowling • Twilight series Stephenie Meyer • Necessary Noise Michael Cart (Types of Families) • Am I Blue? Collection (Sexual identity) • No More Dead Dogs Gordon Korman (Funny, student perspective) • It’s Our World, Too Phillip Hoose (social activism)

37. What challenges do you face as a clinician working with this population? • Group Discussion • Questions and Answers

38. References • Barnes, M. E. (2018). Centering the how: What teacher candidates’ means of mediation can tell us about engaging adolescent writers. Journal of Adolescent and Adult Literacy, 62, 35-43. • Bianchi-Pennington, B. (2018). Designing literacy discussion with podcasts. Journal of Adolescent and Adult Literacy, 61, 589-591. • Brown, B. (2012). Daring greatly: How the courage to be vulnerable transforms the way we live, love, parent, and lead. New York: Gotham Books. • Caughter, S. and Crofts, V. (2018). Nurturing a resilient mindset in school-aged children who stutter. American Journal of Speech-Language Pathology, 27, 1111-1123. • Cherry, K. (2019). Motivation: Psychological factors that guide behavior. Accessed on 5/21/19 from https://www.verywellmind.com • Damico, J. S., Nelson, R. L., Damico, H. L., Abendroth, K. J., & Scott, J. P. (2008). Avoidance strategies in an exceptional child during unsuccessful reading performances. Clinical Linguistics and Phonetics, 22, 283-291. • Duchan, J. F. & Kovarsky, D. (2011). Rapport and relationships in clinical interactions. Topics in Language Disorders, 31(4), 297-299.

39. References • Dweck, C. (2016). Mindset: The new psychology of success. New York: Ballantine. • Dweck, C. S. & Leggett, E. L. (1988). A social-cognitive approach to motivation and personality. Psychological Review, 95, 256-273. • Lesesne, T. S. (2003). Making the match: The right book for the right reader at the right time, grades 4-12. Portland, ME: Stenhouse Pub. • Lundine, J. P. and McCauley, R. J. (2016). A Tutorial on Expository Discourse: Structure, Development, and Disorders in Children and Adolescents. American Journal of Speech-Language Pathology, 25, 306-320. • Marlatt, R. (2018). Literary analysis using Minecraft: An Asian-American youth crafts her literary identity. Journal of Adolescent and Adult Literacy, 62, 55-66. • Nevid JS. (2013) Psychology: Concepts and Applications. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Cengage Learning.

40. References • Nippold, M. A., & Sun, L. (2008). Knowledge of morphologically complex words: A developmental study of older children and young adolescents. Language, Speech, and Hearing Services in Schools, 39, 365–373. • Prince-Embury, S. (2006). Resiliency scales for children and adolescents: A profile of personal strengths. San Antonio, TX: Harcourt Assessment Inc. • Routman, R. (2003). Reading essentials: The specifics you need to teach reading well. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann. • Whited, J. (2015). An investigation into struggling learners’ motivation to read. (Unpublished doctoral dissertation). University of Louisiana at Lafayette, Lafayette Louisiana.