SOAL Home Health Services LLC

“J” was excited to have Show and Tell time describing his monster trucks” in ST today! This can be an easy home activity to work on with your child. Goals addressed:

🛻 describing object using adjectives
🛻 describing objects using verbs
🛻 “wh” questions (what, where, who, when, why)
🛻 objection function (what does your monster truck do?)

“Show and Tell gives children an opportunity to stand up and speak about a topic that interest them or share something that they love. It builds confidence and helps children develop effective communication skills.”

Wrapping up “LOVE WEEK” with L in speech therapy! Goals addressed:

♥️ letter /k/ /g/ articulation “what’s inside the box?” activity
♥️ hearts game working on colors and counting
♥️ 3-4 word phrases with adjectives and verbs
♥️ 2 step directions

It’s Valentine’s week! 😍 “I” worked on sun catchers made out of coffee filters in ST! Goals addressed:

🧡 fine motor skills
💜 irregular past tense verbs
❤️ sequencing while painting
🧡 correct grammar in conversation

❤️ Valentine’s Post: Sensory edition ❤️

OT frequently utilizes sensory bins for many reasons such as play, engaging interest in activity, tactile aversions, fine motor skills, plus many more!

Mrs. Josefina made this adorable Valentine themed bin for “J”. It’s filled with rice and has fun and safe objects for the child to dig through and find 😃

Drumroll please! 🥁

Our sweet “J” has graduated from speech therapy! What a great way to start the year achieving goals left and right! SOAL could not be more proud of this little one with her sunshine personality!

Little “J” mastered…
🌼2-3 word phrases
🌼Labial sounds in 2 syllables
🌼Identifying 100 common objects
🌼Following 1-2 step directions

Congratulations to our little Rockstar! ⭐️

“S” had a great speech therapy visit today working on:

💚signing “more” and “please”
💚 pointing at different colors
💚using joint attention while stacking the rings
💚 requesting by looking and sign language
💚seated activity for 2-3 minutes

🌟 Therapist Spotlight! 🌟

Kimberly is a bilingual Certified Occupational Therapy Assistant (COTA) for SOAL and services in the south Austin area. She has been a part of the SOAL family for 2 years but has been a COTA for 8 years!

Kimberly said, “My favorite thing about working in home health is interacting with people in their natural environment or setting, that way I can better understand and help them. Working with kids is never boring and makes for a fast paced day.”

She also enjoys spending time in the kitchen and making healthy meals! (YUM!)

✨💫 OT Activity Spotlight 💫✨

Mrs. Josefina’s favorite activity are these awesome shape matching eggs. This activity helps to improve fine motor, visual motor, visual scanning, and bilateral coordination skills.

The eggs can be used as a simple seated activity or a fun scavenger hunt!

Woohoo! JH and JH graduated from ST 🎉 They targeted these goals:

✨ identification of initial sounds
✨ rhyming
✨ retell of past events
✨ analogies

We are so proud of their hard work and wish them the best ♥️

❄️This cold weather has us inspired to make more winter crafts! ❄️

“D” and Mrs. Josefina made snowflakes during OT this week. This activity is packed full of skills!

▫️Strengthens hands by crumbling tissue paper and squeezing glue.
▫️Requires pinch and precision to glue the tissue ball onto the paper.
▫️Helps to improve visual motor skills and spatial awareness by copying the snowflake design and staying within the shape outline.
▫️Multi-step activity to help improve attention to task
▫️Can be upgraded by requiring to follow a specific color pattern!

Swipe to see how the activity came together. We hope everyone is staying warm!

So proud of our little Speech Therapy graduate “D”👩‍🎓 When she grows up she would like to be a “Tooth Doctor.” Keep striving for your goals and dreams! 🦄

New Years’s fireworks activity in ST with L!

🎆labeling colors with paint
🎆labeling verbs in phrases
🎆 requesting for help or more
🎆 fine motor and gross motor skills while using scissors and toilet paper roll

Only a few of our favorite OT moments in 2021. It’s been a fun year and we can’t wait to see what 2022 brings! 🎉

“R” and “H” made holiday trees! 🎄
By standing on different surfaces it not only challenges balance and ankle stability but also provides proprioceptive input.

“R” and “H” made holiday trees! 🎄
By standing on different surfaces it not only challenges balance and ankle stability but also provides proprioceptive input.

Z and Ms. Neda working on an Olaf fluency ring toss game! ⛄️

❄️ Taking deep breaths when feeling “stuck” and “frozen.”
❄️ Meditation and yoga while standing still like a snowman
❄️ Identifying the differences with “bumpy” and “smooth” speech during the activity
❄️ Balance, coordination, and pausing for slower speech

☃️❄️ Winter Theme OT Activity ❄️☃️

“J” and Mrs. Josefina got crafty and made a paper chain snowman during OT. This activity addresses many skills …

☃️ Scissor skills to cut lines
❄️ Visual motor skills to copy the design for snowman’s face and learn how to connect the paper links
☃️Pinch and precision to glue the paper ends together to form a link
❄️Attention to task

We can’t wait to see everyone’s favorite winter craft activity!

👗👚Dressing Skills in OT 👕👖

“R” completed this fun sticker activity that promotes learning about articles of clothing and dressing for various occasions. It is an important skill for kids, of many ages, to learn in order to become more independent. This activity addresses:

👚 Identifying articles of clothing
👖Learning what clothing is required for school, bedtime, cold weather, warm weather etc …
👗Learning orientation of clothing, which item to put on first (ex: socks before shoes), and which body part the item belongs to (ex: mittens go on hands)
🧤Making choices
🥾Requires pinch and precision to place the sticker
🧢This activity was graded by placing the static sticker on the table in order to pick up more easily. Static stickers will stick to most flat surfaces and are easily removed and can be used again!

The theme this week is about giving thanks and ALL of the turkey related activities.

“J” created a turkey using craft feathers during OT with Ms. Jessi. This activity requires pinch, precision, and visual scanning to insert the feathers into the styrofoam ball. Swipe to see how the activity came together!

Other ways this activity can be graded:
🪶Taking turns
🪶Following instructions (ex: insert only the orange feathers)
🪶Gross motor: Squatting down to retrieve feathers from floor level.
🪶Oral motor (ex: blowing on the feathers to make them wave)

🦃🍂 “A” and Mrs. Josefina are gobbling up all the fun Thanksgiving activities during OT 🍂🦃

This fun craft is stuffed full of skills …
🔸Visual motor skills - constructing a design by copying a picture
🔸Fine motor skills - using pinch to hold the clothespins for painting
🔸Tactile and messy play in order to reduce food aversions
🔸Attention to task

“Wacky” Wordy Wednesday with H and Ms. Neda working on sentence flip cards! 🙊

🌟 Grammar and language
🌟 3-4 word phrases
🌟 Labeling funny sentences
🌟 Yes/No questions
🌟 Pointing to letters/words
🌟 Picture to word recognition
🌟 Nouns,verbs, prepositions, adjectives and more!
🌟 “The frog swam in the shop.”

🛍 You can purchase this on Amazon: Junior Learning Sentence Flips Toy for $10

🌟OT activity spotlight! 🌟

OTA Jessi’s favorite toy to utilize during sessions are Bristle Blocks. These blocks are multifunctional and address many skills like bilateral coordination, hand strengthening (by grasping to pull apart), attention to task, and pretend play!

“L” had so much fun playing with the blocks and made a T-Rex 🦖 and a truck 🛻

It’s “Siblings Saturday” 👯‍♀️
M and N worked on a categories and prepositions activity in ST with Ms. Abby!

-Categories with animals and colors (cat, bat, duck, chicken)
-Prepositions while glueing where the cat, pumpkin, and bat are hiding (pumpkin is on the grass)

Frankenstein Friday! 💚
“I” was working on an articulation activity with Ms. Angie in ST:

-labeling body parts in Spanish (ojos, boca, nariz)
-working on colors and letter /b/ words in articulation

“J” and Ms. P exploring the MANY benefits of using Play-doh during OT 👇🏼

🦖 Hand strengthening - it helps to strengthen little hands by grasping, pinching, squeezing, and pressing into the texture.
🦕 Sensory - It can be helpful to reduce tactile sensory difficulties
🦖Visual motor - by creating various shapes using play-doh mats
🦕Scissor skills - The soft texture is perfect for little ones to learn how to use scissors!