The following contains excerpts from the article printed in the

APT Newsletter November, 1997
Association of Pediatric Therapists

Would You Take Advice

from a
Curmudgeon?
by Liza Osoteo

Hal Wilson is a self proclaimed curmudgeon with a penchant for collecting therapy ideas. His passion for his profession (he's been a speech/language pathologist for 18 years, working mostly in public school systems) has made him a prolific idea mill. In fact, after he compiled his first book of speech therapy ideas, The Not For Wimps Speech and Language Workout Book [Communication Skill Builders, 1994], he still had plenty of energy left over for a second book, The Growling Old Geezer's Therapy Tool Box.

Not only is the book fun to read (Wilson has a wonderful and self-depreciating sense of humor) but it's also imaginative and useful.

One of the tips on improving listening skills and ear training includes a noise-making activity that includes the whole family:
"Think of 10 things that have these two common features: they must have the target sound at the end of the word ... and they must make some kind of noise. After somebody writes these things down, see if anybody can imitate those noises well enough so that family members can guess what they are. OK, it's a goofy idea but try it anyway. Find out who has hidden talent.
Hal includes an editorial note:
"Sometimes this activity can lead to some interesting discussions. One time we spent a lot of time on the subtle differences beteeen a dog's grrrrowl and a lion's rrroarrrr. The sound effects coming out of the therapy room must have been interesting to a passerby."

Another example of Hal's creative ideas are his Cheapo Trivia cards [for the older students]. This section is designed to help kids tap into their own knowledge bank and also build new vocabulary. "Did you ever notice how some of our special needs kids just don't seem to have the general knowledge facts that most people take for granted? Well this section is an effort to address that need."

Some of Hal's sample questions (a few of which I had to stop and think about) are:

* What number do you get if you add a couple to a dozen?
* How many feet does an adolescent have? (Oooo, a sneaky question)
* What flower is named after our nearest star? (keep thinking, you really DO know this answer)
* What does "FBI" stand for?

While the site was originally created to market the book, it has since become a resource for other speech therapists to share their own ideas, successes and challenges.

Hal explained, "Along the way I realized I could do more than promote a book. I found a way to put a little something back into my profession and happily included the 'Therapy Forum' section so that other SLPs could share their own therapy ideas .... It's made me a better therapist, and I hope it does some good for those who visit the site,"
--- not bad for a man who claims his long term goal is to become "a cantankerous old codger."

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