domestic_engineer Posted July 11, 2018 Share Posted July 11, 2018 I recently bought Mullin's Think, Talk, Laugh! book from Amazon based on @PeterPan's recommendations. Now, that I'm prepping to use it next year, I have a logistical question about the book .... is it worth cutting off the spine and spiral binding it? Or just three-hole punching it in order to pull out the necessary worksheets? It seems so bulky and clunky to use as-is, but before I make permanent changes to the book, I thought I'd see what *actual* users have to say about it. ?. I get the impression that lots of xeroxing of the charts and worksheets is needed; is that right? If so, then I kinda wish she had offered it as a PDF so that I could print off pages as necessary rather than xeroxing stuff out of the book. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TracyP Posted July 12, 2018 Share Posted July 12, 2018 I have kept it intact. We are about halfway through the book, and I haven't found it difficult to use as is. I have a bookmark at the beginning of the rapid naming exercises. From there it is easy to find the ones needed for each day. It is a lot of flipping back and forth... But I think you'd have that regardless of the format. I have not copied anything. I'm not sure what you are referring to when you talk about worksheets, and I have not needed extra copies of the charts. Hope that helps! 3 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sbgrace Posted July 13, 2018 Share Posted July 13, 2018 What ages would this book meet--is it for younger kids? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
domestic_engineer Posted July 14, 2018 Author Share Posted July 14, 2018 I’m planning on using it for early elementary, but I don’t see why it wouldn’t work for older kids either. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TracyP Posted July 14, 2018 Share Posted July 14, 2018 I have often wished I knew what ages this was intended for. It is very challenging for my ds (10yo). I asked his speech therapist to glance at it and give me an idea on age range. We came up with 8-14, just as a guess. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Crimson Wife Posted July 14, 2018 Share Posted July 14, 2018 21 hours ago, sbgrace said: What ages would this book meet--is it for younger kids? It would REALLY depend on the language level. It's hit-or-miss for my daughter right now. Some of the activities are the right level and others are too advanced. I shelved it because too much was frustrating for her and I've decided to focus on getting her reading fluently. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PeterPan Posted July 14, 2018 Share Posted July 14, 2018 Yup, way too hard for my ds right now. It would easily go into high school. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
domestic_engineer Posted July 15, 2018 Author Share Posted July 15, 2018 Is there another resource out there that would be better suited for younger kids? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PeterPan Posted July 15, 2018 Share Posted July 15, 2018 Well since you have it, why don't you try and just see how it goes? My ds has narrative skills that are 4 years behind his chronological age. We're working on things like how to describe stuff. Until we started our latest super intense language work, he couldn't even repeat a sentence, let alone cranking out the language-intensive stuff TTL wanted. It was great, but he just wasn't there. That's autism with significant language issues. Maybe your kid will be fine with TTL right now, kwim? If he's not, then identify what you're wanting to work on. Working memory is super easy to target because there are so many ways, all good and valid. Basically any of your inputs (auditory, visual, kinesthetic, etc.) work, and doing them with distractors or time lapses (things he has to recall 5 minutes later, an hour later, a day later) are even better. N-backs are good. But really, you won't know till you try. I would just take a step in, see how it goes... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
domestic_engineer Posted July 15, 2018 Author Share Posted July 15, 2018 11 minutes ago, PeterPan said: Well since you have it, why don't you try and just see how it goes? My ds has narrative skills that are 4 years behind his chronological age. We're working on things like how to describe stuff. Until we started our latest super intense language work, he couldn't even repeat a sentence, let alone cranking out the language-intensive stuff TTL wanted. It was great, but he just wasn't there. That's autism with significant language issues. Maybe your kid will be fine with TTL right now, kwim? If he's not, then identify what you're wanting to work on. Working memory is super easy to target because there are so many ways, all good and valid. Basically any of your inputs (auditory, visual, kinesthetic, etc.) work, and doing them with distractors or time lapses (things he has to recall 5 minutes later, an hour later, a day later) are even better. N-backs are good. But really, you won't know till you try. I would just take a step in, see how it goes... Yeah, I will try it .... I was just getting sucked into the research rabbit-hole. ? Thanks for the encouragement! 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Crimson Wife Posted July 15, 2018 Share Posted July 15, 2018 14 hours ago, domestic_engineer said: Is there another resource out there that would be better suited for younger kids? In terms of teaching categories, there are some good resources sold by this SLP. WH- questions there are a ton of different resources out there to tackle. My DD has the basic skills to do the activities in Think, Talk, Laugh but she lacks the vocabulary and background knowledge for many of the questions. For example, in session 6 in the first task (naming categories from specific examples) she'd probably be able to get 6 out of 15 of the questions. For the second task (exclusions), she'd probably be able to get 8 or 9 out of 14. For the third task (which word doesn't belong), she'd probably be able to get 4 out of 14. The fourth task is synonyms and they're all WAY above her level. The fifth task (what questions), she'd maybe miss 1 but might get them all. The sixth task (who questions) I'd have to add more description but she'd be able to get most. For example, I'd have to change "who wears a colorful wig and a big red nose?" to "who works at the circus and wears a colorful wig & a big red nose?" and "who flies on a magic carpet?" to "who flies on a magic carpet with Princess Jasmine and has a pet monkey Abu?" The seventh task (naming functions of an object) she'd be able to get at least one answer for all of them but might have trouble coming up with a second function for a few. The last tasks are Rapid Naming and they'd be challenging to her because of the demands of the task rather than not knowing her letters or shapes. The Rapid Naming words we could only do the CVC and level 1 sight words because she's not a fluent enough reader for the harder word lists. Think, Talk, Laugh is an excellent resource for the child who is at the right language level for it. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PeterPan Posted July 15, 2018 Share Posted July 15, 2018 Honestly, I haven't looked at my TTL in probably a year. Like CW's dd, my ds ended up needing really significant work on FFC (features, functions, class). If you go to my narrative language and autism thread you can see everything I've done. Basically I went through Linguisystems and bought everything they had that paired with whatever we were working on next in the Rothstein 100% vocab primary level (out of print, I like a pdf in that thread). Killer good, worked well, not a problem now. That hit functions, categories, attributes, exclusion, synonyms, antonyms, definitions, you name it. Then we started working on more details of language that weren't there for him (grammar, concepts, etc.). The SPARC books are killer for that. For working memory, the SPARC books especially have been successful, because they involve repetition with visual prompts. It stretches him in a way he could actually get to and it's specifically targeting language. I've probably spend $500+ in the last two months at Linguisystems, but we've kicked some serious butt. The issue was my learning curve, and doing it that way (usually totally prepared materials) got around my lack of knowledge about how to do it. Sounds like I should go back and look at TTL. Like I said, when we tried it, it was so hard he was melting down. We're almost, almost done with the work we're doing. We're on concepts now (in/out, near/far, etc.), and I think that may be the last major language piece missing. Then it's more on to applying the pieces and rearranging pieces and using parts of pieces. So like now, he finally is doing word play, because he's actually thinking at the word level and noticing words have PARTS and that the parts have MEANING and that he could manipulate them. He NEVER did that before. Now spelling makes sense to him and is interesting to him. So yeah, I'm not sure what you're needing to accomplish, but that's what we had to do and I lay it out in extraordinarily boring detail in that narrative language thread. https://forums.welltrainedmind.com/topic/672837-narrative-language-in-autism/ That's the thread https://speechamy.wikispaces.com/file/view/100+Vocab+Prim.pdf That's the pdf you want http://www.linguisystems.com/products/product/search And these are the types of materials you pair it with. You take the first topic heading in that 100% vocab book (classification by function) and you find anything/everything that would expand and give you more work on it. I did the Spotlight book for Categories Spotlight on Vocabulary Level 1 Categories and a card game they sell. You'll see more Spotlight books to go with the chapters in the free pdf. I also used the SPARC books, other things. Put in the term, see what they sell, do what you can. I was pretty much in the overkill camp, but it really ended up more being just right rather than overkill. The HARDEST week was that first with going through functions. Once you he figured it out, everything got a little easier. Now it's hard because we've gone through that stuff (vocabulary is what speechies call it ) and are now working on "concepts". Those are really hard for him for some reason. They're itsy bitsy words like near/far, in/out. They blow his brain and cause meltdowns. The point is to find these terms and dig and explore and not let the fact that it's a speechie site intimidate you. If it's what you need, just jump in. The materials are very clear. Now I will say I had him read aloud EVERYTHING, including the directions at the top of the page, and I milk it, requiring complete sentences and more language than the page requires. If it asks a question, he has to reply with a complete sentence. If a yes/no is given on the page for answering, I don't allowing that. Sometimes we break it up and he gives the yes/no and then goes back through and makes sentences. It's been sheer gold for us. Lots of ways to skin a cat, but that's what we've been doing. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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