Melissa and Doug Reuseable Sticker Pad

I am a huge fan of Melissa and Doug toys for both speech therapy and my own son.  Some of their items can be a bit pricey, but their Reusable Sticker Pads are very fairly priced at about five dollars and GREAT for speech therapy!

I got the habitat sticker pad as a gift from a fellow SLP last year and use it all the time.  I just ordered the vehicles pad.  Now I have my eye on the play house pad!  Oh the possibilities!

Here is how I've used this in therapy:

Categorizing:  Have the kids sort and group the animals into their correct habitats.

Vocabulary: Work on naming and labeling the animals to introduce new vocabulary.

Following Directions/Prepositions: Give one to two step directions, while also addressing prepositions by telling the child which animal the place on the pad, as well as where (place the whale above the lobster, etc).

Describing/Comprehension:  Have the child describe the animals using adjectives/descriptors.  You could also have them listen to your descriptions to work on comprehension/listening skills (point to the long, red animal with pinchers)

If you are looking for some cheap and versatile speech materials, check them out here!

Happy Speeching!

-Courtney

Bear Snores On

Before winter break, my preschool kiddos and I read Bear Snores On.  I love the "Bear" series and they are great for targeting language goals!

I made a little cave out of a tissue box by painting it bronze (I would have used brown, but bronze is what I had laying around!).  I had a bear beanie baby and found a printable for the characters in the story here.

While I read, I had the kids place the characters in the cave as they were introduced to keep them engaged and to also work on naming/vocabulary for the animals.  We also worked on following directions following the book by having them listen to which animal I wanted them to put in the cave (put the bear in first, then put the rabbit in).  Prepositions were also targeted using the beanie bear and the cave (put the bear in back of the cave, in the cave, on top of the cave, beside the cave, in front, etc).

We also talked about hibernation since it is winter, but that seemed to be a little above their heads!

Happy Speeching!

-Courtney

A SLP's 2014 Resolutions

Well, friends, it's almost 2014, which means it's time to make some resolutions!  I wanted to limit my resolutions to just a handful and I wanted to make sure they were easy to follow through with.  It's small changes that can make a big difference!  So, looking into the new year, here are my professional resolutions:

 

1.  Acknowledge my kiddos' accomplishments in a BIG way.  Who doesn't like to be recognized for their achievements? Of course, I'll continue with the verbal praise, but I want to take extra steps in letting my students know how proud I am of their hard work.  Time to start using my Awards and Certificates for SLPs more (which is on sale for extremely cheap at SuperDuperInc by the way) and start incorporating some of the cute ideas I've seen on Pinterest, such as the Spotted Using Good Speech behavior management system.  It's always good to send a note of praise home as well!

2.  Set aside time for some serious collaborating and consulting.  Although I do collaborate and consult with teachers, I want to step up that part of my services by making that time more consistent and efficient.  This means doing some education workshops and being better about scheduling specific times to consult, rather than talking for five minutes while I'm on my way to pick up a student.

3.  Learn more about language therapy.  So far, in my 2.5 years of my career, I have done a lot of professional development on articulation, autism, apraxia, executive functioning, and English language learners.  Time to get back to some basics and refresh on some language therapy techniques!

4.  Be more consistent in incorporating core curriculum and classroom units into therapy.  This goes back to number 2, doing more collaboration with teachers and really working together to incorporate their goals into the curriculum and vise versa.  

5.  Less pinning and more creating.  I have a good number of awesome therapy ideas pinned to my account that I have never implemented.  Time to get the creative juices flowing and start implementing some of those fun ideas!

What are your resolutions or what are some resolutions you have accomplished this past year?

Happy Speeching!

-Courtney

Cyber Monday Sale!

Didn't fix the shopping itch on Black Friday?

Take advantage of my Cyber Monday sale!

Check out the sale startingon December 3rd by clicking HERE!

Past Tense Cookie Sort

Wow, it's been awhile since I've posted any materials!  I finally had some down time to create some materials over fall break.  

While I was at ASHA, I attended a seminar about morphology and why it is so important to address morphology during speech therapy.  One activity that was mentioned was a sorting activity for the past tense ending in the /t/ sound and past tense ending in  the /d/ sound.  This is such a simple activity, but it focuses on multiple components, such as past tense patterns, phonemic awareness, and it also helps with reading and writing patterns.  As a school-based speech-language pathologist, I am all about aligning my practice with the common core and getting more bang for my buck.  If I can find an activity that targets multiple skills and reinforces skills in the classroom, I am all for it!

I created Past Tense Cookie Sort with jazzing up the sorting idea in mind.

In this game, students can sort between future and past tense to help them learn what past tense is, between /t/ and /d/ endings for regular past tense, or between regular and irregular past tense.  This game comes with sorting jars and a set of six mice that will eat up all your cookies if you aren't careful!

 

Check out Past Tense Cookie Sort at my TpT store, here!

Happy Speeching!

-Courtney