Introduction to My Website:
This will be our home base for my students receiving Speech/Language therapy.
To my students: I miss seeing you at school very much and can't wait until I see you back at Oak Park again. While at home, remember to stay safe, stay healthy, wash your hands and continue to ROAR! Always be Respecful, On Task, Accepting and Responsible. Your families need your help!
Parents and Families: Please know that you can always contact me if you have questions or need support. Contact information is listed in the "Contact Me" tab above.
While service delivery may look a little different when you are at home, there is the potential for some exciting things! I am excited to share information and communication strategies with you. This website is filled with ways to best help your child to communicate. This website provides a wealth of information on communication strategies that we use at school. We can have a discussion of areas of the website that would be most applicable to your particular student.
Welcome Letter During Quarantine
Dear Families,
These are challenging times! I sincerely hope that your family and your Oak Park student are staying healthy and that you are having some fun during this period of time away from school. This website will provide a wealth of information about language strategies and "tips and tricks" for you to use when communicating with your student.
I want you to know that I realize that you all have many demands on your time. It is very difficult to be a parent, to be working, maintaining your home, providing food for your families, and to also be expected to help to teach your children. It is beyond challenging. I love that the district is providing us guidance to ensure that we focus on "Relationships before Rigor, Grace before Grades, Patience before Programs and Love before Lessons".
During weeks/days when your student is in quarantine, I plan to provide some recommended activities (via website links) that you may complete with your child. I intend to focus on activities that may highlight strategies that we use in the language therapy setting. Activities/strategies such as aided language input, the prompt hierarchy, shared reading, core vocabulary instruction will be targeted. The website links may include a short explanation of a strategy, a video of that strategy in use, and ideas for how you can incorporate these strategies into activities that you do with you child on a regular basis. I do hope that you find these activities and strategies beneficial and a good way to continue you and your student's learning over the next few weeks. I think it will be a very beneficial way to share the types of things that we do in the school setting with you, so that you can use the same types of strategies with your student.
Given that you will all be pulled into a multitude of directions, by many people, I intend to keep these activities short. Especially in the beginning, I do not intend to post too much information. I think that the amount of information from so many different sources can be overwhelming for our families. It you feel you want more information than is being provided on the website, feel free to reach out to me.
I will contact each of you to offer support, guidance, and personalized activities and sessions as needed. If I am not aware of your quarantine status and have not reached out to you, please contact me via my contact information which has been provided. I would love to review the website with you and provide individual guidance on activities which may be most beneficial for your student. If you need to reach me at any time, please do so via phone call or text to 941-500-4145 or email mary.millbourn@sarasotacountyschools.net.
I know that this is a new and unknown method of learning for all of us, but know that we are engaging in this new opportunity with an abundance of compassion and grace. I am excited to support you in these learning opportunities and in this new delivery method, and please do not hesitate to contact me if you have any questions.
I am excited to connect with you soon!
Sincerely,
Mary Lisa Millbourn, MA, CCC/SLP
