Library Pockets for Speech Homework

So, I was killing time the other day at the local teacher supply store and what did I leave with? Everything chevron of course! I bought some adorable chevron library card holders, or library pockets, from School Aids.  I sat them on my desk, since they were so pretty, and had a great idea during my session...actually using them in the books I send home to parents! 

I cut a blank note card in half and used one card as a checkout card with the date the child was given the book. Make sure you do not use full names due to privacy concerns, of course. The date will help the parent stay accountable and will encourage them to bring it back! For the other card I wrote out homework ideas specialized for the child! This child was working on carrying over some articulation sounds that were found in the chant in this particular book so it was perfect. I also provided some other tips for using the book in different ways so the book could be used multiple times for practice.

I would usually stick a post-it on a book that I was sending home with homework tips and I love the idea that this way my homework is much less likely to get lost. It saves paper too. I also like the fact that I can start this system and have multiple therapy ideas for my books to pull from if I keep up with this system in the future! Future TPT ideas are brewing in my mind....

I bought this book at a book resale event and highly recommend it. It is a cute alternative to The Three Little Pigs. 

Now I'm off to think of new ways to use the rest of my library card holders! What do you use them for in your speech room?

SLPs Care for Oklahoma

Some amazing SLPs banded together to put some of their best therapy materials up on TPT in honor of the Oklahoma tornado victims. ALL proceeds go to Oklahoma. You get the benefit of over $140 worth of therapy materials for only $15. They have 2 packs available.

Like Playing House just showed our support by buying pack 1 and pack 2. Will you do the same?

Click here to show your support and gain a lot of therapy materials for a small amount of money.

If only I actually had things up for sale on TPT, I could have tried to join it! (Next goal!)

*****Update***** BOTH PACKS HAVE AMAZING MATERIALS IN THEM! I had many of these things on my wishlist and defiantly saved money purchasing these... for a great cause!

-Lacey

Speech FREEBIE: Auditory Processing Number Recall Cards

I just posted a new speech therapy FREEBIE here.


  

This download contains 120 Number Sequence Cards (4, 5, and 6 number sequences) for recall

 I don't know about you guys, but I get tired of thinking of number sequences on my own when working on this goal. Now, you can save your brain power and even use these as cards with games to make things more fun. 

 

Easy cut edges and cute chevron backgrounds to keep you feeling sassy included!

-Lacey

Speech Freebie: LaLa L Blends Ragdoll Artic Game

I made a new freebie for you guys! 

One of my favorite speech kiddos is an adorable little girl with apraxia of speech. We have cleaned up her speech a lot but her blends are just really adversely affecting her speech intelligibility. "The sa-nake sa-lithered down the sa-teep sa-lope."  (The snake slithered down the steep slope.) Epenthesizing her blends every time... After working with her I found that targeting 1-syllable /l/ blend words to work on the motor planning of these words has really helped. I made these cards and this game to help my little speech friend, and all of you SLPs who have clients just like her, master this skill.  Of course, this activity will work well for all kids working on /l/ blends as well!

This download contains 96 total 1-syllable /l/ blend cards:
16 /gl/ cards
16 /cl/ cards
16 /pl/ cards
16 /sl/ cards
16 /fl/ cards
16 /bl/ cards
1 Game Board
16 special cards

Graphics by: © prettygrafikdesign & Osagadesign and licensing inc. & MyCuteGraphics.com

There are more previews on TPT. Grab your freebie here. I would love for you to comment and let me know what you think!

Calm Parenting Experiement

Today is the first day of my year of calm parenting.  I am a very high strung Type A personality who wants to be the best at everything I do, but sometimes stress gets in the way of me being the most patient, best mother I can be (which is my number 1 priority).  So I am starting a challenge today. The goal?  Absolutely no yelling at my daughter for ONE YEAR! I don't yell a lot, but I always feel like a terrible mother after I do it, so I am going to try to not scream for a year.  I will try to update you guys along my journey, and hopefully inspire others to parent in a calm manner.  Just because our lives are hectic doesn't mean we should instill that in our children.  My hope is that my daughter will be able to truly see my love all of the time, even in the most challenging of moments.  Wish me luck!

Have any of you tried "calm parenting?"  What were your results?

Getting To Know You Kit

Speech/Kid Post:    I have so many kiddos on my caseload that need to work on having a conversation. I created this free printable kit so that parents and SLPs can have an easy start at working on these skills. My awesome intern, Melissa McCoy, also helped with the content! Check it out below and download it here.

This kit contains:

36 Personal question cards with visual stimuli

6 Asking questions visual cue cards

2 Reminder cards for conversational turn taking

8 Reminder cards for SLPs to coach their students during  conversation

Print this kit and laminate the cards for best use. 

Have your child practice answering the personal and biographical questions, with the included cards, that will be needed for having basic conversations with peers and adults. 

Once your child has mastered answering questions about themselves, use the asking question visual cards to help your child practice asking a communication partner questions. 

When this skills is mastered it is time for learning basic conversational skills. Use the turn taking visual cards to role play conversations and show when it is the child’s turn to communicate.

The conversation reminders are great for helping the child repair communication breakdowns without stopping the flow of conversation or calling too much attention to their errors. You can also use the question cards as topic cards for conversation.

 I hope all of you find these tools useful for giving the gift of communication to your kiddos! Also, feel free to link your parents to these for home practice!

I'd love to hear what you guys think and if you find these useful. :)

-Lacey

Cupcake Questions- Why Edition FREEBIE

I finally did it guys! I made my first freebie for Teachers Pay Teachers! I am so excited to share it with you guys. I really hope you like it. Here are some detailed pictures of my why question game for you. Go download it here now and leave me some feedback if you like it! (I hope you do!)

 I created 24 why questions that are all related to making or enjoying cupcakes. 

We know all our speech kiddos love those! 

I tired all of these questions with my speech students and they really helped to make 

them think deeper and to open up a dialogue. 

I tried to follow suit with other TPT sellers and provide you with some game ideas. There are so many ways you can adapt a card game, as we all know, and I also added some other elements below to mix things up. 

There is a cute board game here and some dice that you can make to change the game. 

There are a couple of other elements included so I won't spoil all the fun. I hope you dowload my first printable on TPT for free and enjoy it!

Lacey

St. Patrick's Day Birthday Party

My daughter was born on St. Patrick's Day.  Her first birthday was before there was Pinterest to get ideas, but that didn't mean there weren't ideas on the internet.  Basically I did  a lot of research and finally found Amy Atlas (she is who I want to be when I grow up), which was my inspiration and first attempt ever at party decorating, so don't judge it too hard.

The main area was mainly green since it was St. Patrick's Day with a hint of pink for my little girl.

The scrolls on the left are a table cloth cut up and surged on the edges and then mongrammed (one for each child invited).  These were intended to be used as functional party favors.  They are reusableo on the table mats for toddlers eating finger foods.

The clover lollipops were all made with molds. The hat was made on by my mom on her embroidery machine.  

These are three wrapped Styrofoam cake forms used to display cupcakes with character. 

This was a framed bulletin board. The candy favors are in mini plastic storage bags and then stapled shut with scrapbook paper..  They were then pinned on the cork board with clear push pins.

These were cupcakes with my little girl's face on them.  They didn't come out great, but what can I say, it was our first try.

This was the pink table filled with: pink cupcakes, pink and green cookies, pink large mylar balloons, and pink clover lollipops. 

I also made the cake and the inside was pink strawberry cake.

 This party was simply a first attempt and was a lot of fun.  The green was because she was born on St. Patrick's Day (and this was likely the only year she would let me get away with it) and the pink was to celebrate the precious little girl. I hope you enjoyed seeing one of our first every parties.  

Envelope System App

As much as I love the envelope system and think that it's the best way to go when trying to make your money work for you, I have to admit that some months I just can't keep track of where I spent my money, because although I have the money, I don't always have the actual envelopes with me.  If you seem to have this same problem I found the app for you! I don't know about you but I always have my phone with me, so it's logical to keep track of my spending using my phone.

The Budget Envelopes by Mobile Innovations LLC is basically a checkbook balancing sheet that is interactive.  It offers a lot of different benefits, but I simply typed in my budget amount for each category and I simply typed in the name of each place I spent money and the amount.  Every time I spent money I simply added it to the category and it automatically shows you how much you have left for the month in the category.  This app has really helped me get my spending under control and help me see exactly where I've spent each dollar (I got to Chick Fil A way too much!).


The coolest part is that you can try it for free, but after 20 transactions you are asked to buy it for 2.99.  The Budget App also offers the following for your 2.99:

• Recurring Budget Envelopes
•  Charts and reports for your income/expenses
• Syncs data across multiple devices
• Print reports directly with any Air print enabled printers
• Optional Passcode protection

Try it for free.  What do you have to lose? It saved me $200 my first month using it simply by making more aware of where I was spending my money. I hope this app can do the same for you!

*I am in no way affiliated with this app, I just like to share things that make my life a little easier.

Valentine Time

Cute Valentine Alert! I have to show my speech students some love a few times a year.  I was lucky that some awesome bloggers helped me accomplish this task for Valentine's Day in less than 30 minutes and for well under $5. 

I used Pinterest to find a cute Valentine for the boys and one for the girls. They are both made using glow stick bracelets from the dollar store. (Dollar Tree only had 5 packs for $1 when I purchased them but Target had 15 packs for $1 so shop around!)

Print out your girl's Valentine printable from The Teacher Wife and print out your boy Valentine printable from Stitch Craft Creations. They both came in color but I decided to just use black ink to save money. I used some heavy paper, grey and pink, to give them a little stiffness. 

 I used my scissors to slice a place for the "light sabers" to slip through on the boys Valentines.

I slipped on all of the bracelet joiners and tried not to crack the glow sticks! (I only failed on a few.)

Grab some tape or some labels to cut up like I did. All you have left to do is to tape your glow sticks to the back of your Valentine's and you are done!

                                                            Happy Valentine's Day!

                                                                         -Lacey

Free SLP Fluency App: Fluently

This awesome app for self monitoring when stuttering is free today. Grab it while you can. It is regularly $9.99. 

Below is what the app icon looks like. The audio sensitivity can be adjusted for background noise. The green button turns red and the phone vibrates when the child stutters. The applications for your speech therapy sessions are endless. Also, this is the perfect tool for speech homework for those children with fluency difficulties.

I'm so glad a fellow SLP shared this deal with me today so I could share it with you!

-Lacey

Are You Potty Training Too Early?

I have been very busy this month, organizing, cleaning, making  a plan for a year, not to mention beginning the introduction of the "potty" with my almost three-year-old.  My doctor has been harping for me to start potty training since before my daughter was even 2 1/2.  I had read this article by Dr. Steve Hodges, when my daughter was very young and had decided to follow his recommendations regarding potty training. 

However, my doctor (who I typically love very much) made me feel like I wasn't being a good mother, because I wasn't already trying to potty train.  Don't get me wrong, we had a little potty and offer for her to try it, but we weren't forcing the subject.  Well, finally he made me feel neglectful, so I tried hard core potty training for a week and it made both my daughter and I feel like failures, and our success rate decreased.  I decided it wasn't right for her to be potty training yet.  She didn't even have words for "poop" and "pee" yet for goodness sake!

A quick summary of Dr. Hodges' research:  Dr. Hodges is a urologist and he has done extensive research, including x-rays of children's bladders.  Dr. Hodges states, " I believe in potty training when kids are ready -- when they show an interest and can tell you when they are peeing or pooping -- and I believe that few kids are genuinely ready before age three."  My daughter cannot actually tell me when she is going, which tells me she isn't quite ready to successfully potty train.

Furthermore, Dr. Hodges stated, "Kids hold their pee and poop because they simply don't understand how essential it is to get themselves to the bathroom when nature calls. Kids think you only go to the bathroom only when you desperately need to, or when your mom threatens to withhold treats if you don't. The most seriously constipated kids I treat are those who trained earliest and with ease. In other words, they've been deciding for the longest period of time when they should pee or poop. But even kids who train later can develop problems, especially if Mom and Dad aren't keeping tabs on them. Parents cringe when I say this, but getting your child out of diapers is the easy part!" His point here is that children don't understand the importance of going to the restroom, instead they are more concerned with playing, which may result in accidents or even worse over the long term, true medical issues with toileting.  It is our responsibility as parents to make sure our young children go to the restroom enough, so that they aren't "holding it" too long.

I plan to ask my doctor next time we visit, what exactly are the benefits of potty training early. The only things I can think of are less diaper rash (which my daughter never has) and not having to change diapers (which don't really bother me).

 Hopefully you take the time to read Dr. Hodges' insight on potty training.  He does not define a specific age that is "perfect" for training your child.  Instead he simple reminds us that our child knows when they are physically ready to use the potty. He also explains that accidents (once potty trained) are not normal and that the child may have urinary problems or be severely constipated.  I wish you luck with potty training your child. I know (from experience) that it's not all rainbows and butterflies!  Just remember to celebrate your child's successes and expect a few accidents.

SLPs: Have you tried TPT?

As an SLP I have been excited to see the increase in the amount of SLPs sharing their therapy materials on the Teachers Pay Teachers (TPT) website. I have downloaded lots of freebies but just only browsed the "pay" items. With all the free stuff why pay to download anything right? Boy was I wrong! I finally took the plunge and decided to actually pay for some materials. I feel like I hit the jackpot. My $4.00 that I invested was totally worth it and I will have these materials for years! So, fellow SLPs, read on, pull out your laminator, file folders, plastic baggies, scissors, and cardstock. Get ready to download, print, and make some cheap, adorable, and everlasting therapy materials. Tip for printing things from TPT: Actually read the directions on how many of each page you should print. I forgot to do that! Okay, now lets get to the good stuff.

I decided to start with one of my very favorite SLP blogger's, Jenna Rayburn's, TPT store. At her store, I browsed and browsed and finally decided on my first purchase. I chose to buy her Winter Receptive Language: Speech Therapy digital download. This digital download came with 4 separate games. I will give you a brief description of each since she already has the descriptions available at her store.

Game 1. Ski Trip: Following Directions had more than enough cards for a session ranging from very basic directions, conditional directions, to two-step directions temporal directions. She also includes some "special" cards to make playing a game with these cards more fun. I love that I could use the title sheet on a file folder to make it look like a real board game for my kiddos. It included the game directions as well. I stapled the sides of the file folder to make a pouch that holds everything. This game also came with two place holder cards. All the items were printed on cardstock, laminated, and the cards were held in a plastic baggie. 

Game 2: Penguin: Answering WH Questions. This game is pretty self explanatory. It contains a visual for types of WH question words which is a great bonus and has lots of "special cards" and even blank cards. I use the blank cards to ask personal questions. 

The graphics are just so cute!

Game 3: Hot Chocolate: Comprehension. This game includes some well written winter related paragraphs, some adorable special cards, five task cards, and two place holder cards. The instructions are also included. 

Game 4: Artic Animals: Sequencing. This game has all of the same awesome features. The cards have a topic and 4 steps to sequence. 

Ugh, I just love everything about this set of games! $4.00? That is $1.00 a game. I know how long these things take to make too. Just think, if you invested $10.00 a month to new therapy materials on TPT you could have an amazing collection in no time. I will continue to shop here. Now that I know it is worth it I'm hooked. I hope you guys check out Teachers Pay Teachers and get some inspiration!

Lacey