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!

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

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

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

Speech Printable: Fall S-Blend Cards

SLPs and parents with kiddos: I have free printables for you!

Are you sick of looking at the same old generic artic cards too? Let's mix things up with the seasons. 

Fall Speech Bulletin Board Printables

Fall Sequencing Bulletin Board 
This was made for ST and OT in the private practice setting by can easily be adapted for school classrooms and school speech rooms! Here I have included printables for you to download. Just click the pictures of the printables.

Introducing & Teaching the Concepts "Before" & "After"

"Before" and "after" always seem to be difficult temporal concepts for children to learn. I created these sheets, using Boardmaker for the graphics, to make learning these concepts easier. I chose events that children know the natural order of to teach these concepts. You can read the sentences to the child, all meaning the same thing but with different syntax,  and have him/her point to which set they think the sentence means. So, does that sentence mean that dessert is first and dinner is second or is dinner first with dessert second. All of the answers should be row 1! After the child gets in the groove with practicing this way they can move on to practicing the concepts "before" and "after" with items that could be done in any order.

I have really found a lot of success with helping my speech kiddos link their prior knowledge of the order of things to these two otherwise arbitrary words.  Stay tuned for our next post which will contain cards for the next level of practicing "before" and "after."

SLP tip: Using a stylus as a pointer

Every kid I have gets a kick out of this little stylus. A lot of times you can find styluses at the dollar store. These can serve multiple purposes in your speech therapy session.

(If you are an SLP you realize that this picture is not upside down! This is my view with my speech kiddo!)

 Ways to use styluses or "mini-pointers" in your session:

$2.00 DIY Halloween Following Directions Activity

If you are a thrifty SLP like me, or a frugal parent, then you might be a frequenter of your local Dollar Tree like me. I picked up two bags of these Halloween rings to replenish my treasure box when I realized that they are the perfect manipulatives for many speech activities. They are fun in color and shape and there are lots of them!