Sitting During Therapy Is Boring!

It's starting to get cold outside...well at least it is in Michigan!  I love fall, but fall also means that my students are stuck inside for the next five to six months!  When students are stuck inside for that long, it's almost a necessity to have them play 'active' games.  It helps to get the blood flowing and they absolutely love getting a break from sitting at their desks.  One of my favorite 'active' games is the 'Floor Race' game.  I love this game because students actively participate, you can address any goal or multiple goals during one game, you don't need any materials and students love it!   Here's how you play...

Materials Needed: Nothing!
Directions:
1) Have your students line up, next to each other, at one end of the room.
2) Students then take turns completing a speech task*.
3) If they correctly complete the task, they can move forward one tile square.  If you don't have tiled floor, you can have them take one large step, move up 'one desk' or flip a coin and have them move 1-2 spaces (heads or tails).
4) Whoever gets to the other end of the room first, wins!

*Speech Task Examples
Wh Questions: Have them answer a 'wh' question
Following Directions: Give them a direction to complete before moving (touch the ground before you spin in a circle)
Prepositions: Put your hand 'behind' your head.
Vocab: Show them a picture or item and have them name it
Reading Comprehension: Read them a paragraph and have them answer a question (or read the entire book before the game to increase difficulty)
Articulation: Have them say their sound in a word, phrase or sentence 5X.
Create your own speech task!

I hope you and your students 'race' to great speech!  

Make Therapy Planning Easy!

        Do you ever find yourself trying to constantly come up with new ideas for speech and language therapy?  I know that with my preschool students, coming up with new ideas are a must!   Want to make your life easier while also helping to reinforce what your students are learning in the classroom?   Here is what you can do!

     Ask your students’ teachers what their weekly or monthly themes are!  I know that most preschool/kindergarten teachers have weekly themes to help their students learn.  Why should you use themes?

1) They make it easier to come up with therapy ideas

2) They reinforce what your students are already learning

3) Your students will be familiar with the material, so you can focus on speech and language

4) Your students will have a chance to get 1 on 1 help with this theme!  If they have any questions or are confused, you can help them!

Find out the theme of the week and then...

1) Pick a craftivity—Go on Pinterest and type in ’Your Theme’ craft ideas.  You will get hundreds of craft options to do with your students.  Work on following directions, articulation, sequencing, colors, describing, etc. during the craftivity.

2) Play a game—Go on Pinterest (make Pinterest your best friend) and type in ’Your Theme’ game ideas.  Play the game with your students and work on following directions, articulation, sequencing, describing, social skills, etc.

3) Read a book—I know that most SLPs have an entire library of books!  Find a book that has to do with your theme.  For example, if the theme is Pirates, find a book on lakes/oceans, boats, treasure, maps, etc.  Target goals such as ‘Wh’ questions, yes/no questions, describing, basic concepts, etc.

Have you ever used themes in your therapy?  What themes have you worked on?

Fall Articulation & Language Therapy

Fall is here and it’s a great time of year to get your students outside!  Personally, I love fall and creativities...so why not use them together for the ultimate therapy session!  Here is a creativity with suggestions on how to address your students’ goals. 

Leafy Animal Craft Materials

Free print out from this post

Glue

Crayons

Leaves

Ziploc Bags

Directions

1. Give each student a Ziploc bag.

2. Take your students outside to explore and pick up leaves.  While outside, you can address these goals.

· Describing: Have your students describe the trees, leaves, flowers, temperature, smells, etc.  Use descriptive words such as colors, feelings, textures, shapes and sizes.

· Following Directions: Give students directions, such as ‘Pick up the red leaf before you pick up the green leaf’ or ‘Run around the tree and then pick up two leaves’.

· Pronouns:  While describing the items outside, have your students use ‘it’ and ‘they’.  Also, talk about what each student is doing using ‘he’ and ‘she

· Prepositions: Talk about where the leaves are located.  Are they over, under, around, on, off, behind or in front of the tree?

· WH Questions:  Ask your students about the trees and leaves.  For example, ‘What is falling off the tree?’, ‘Where are the leaves?’, ‘Why do the leaves change colors?’, ‘When do the leaves fall off the tree?’, etc.

· Articulation: For each leaf the students place in their bags, have them say their sound 5-10X.

· Everything: Think about how to address your students’ goals.  Every goal can be addressed while searching for leaves and exploring outside. 

3. After your students collect their leaves, go inside and sit at a table to make your craft!

4. Have each student pick up one of the print outs that they would like to decorate and have them color their animal. 

5. Once the animals are colored, the students can glue the leaves on the animals.  I recommend gluing the leaves on the fox’s tail, the lion’s mane or the bear’s stomach. 

Articulation Toss A Sound Game

My students love to get up and move around, so I am constantly trying to think of new ways to engage them during articulation therapy!  Kids love playing my Toss A Sound game and usually never want to leave the speech room.  Since it's Wonderful Wednesday (which means you get a giveaway or a freebie), you can download this game right here for FREE!  Don't wait to download it though, because I am only leaving it up for one week.  

This game, along with many other game, worksheets, activities and more, is a part of my Articulation Therapy Plans For The Entire Year! 

Hide and Seek: Bathroom

Please welcome my guest blogger, Linda!

Hide and Seek: Bathroom

Did you ever have a principal ask you to have your speech office in a bathroom? An IN USE boy’s bathroom??? Seriously!! This actually happened to me when entering an overcrowded city school with a principal who disliked the previous speech therapist. Obviously, I said “No, thank you.” and found my own work space in the building.

While having your office in the bathroom is about as far from ideal as you can get,  SLPs working with preschoolers will end up spending some time there. Fortunately, there are lots of functional words and phrases that can be modeled and elicited while in the bathroom.

Early in the school year, the bathroom is  great for working on following directions with spatial concepts, such as in, out, on, off, under, up, down, here and there.

Action words can be taught in functional phrases. These include: open the door, help me, pull down/up, take off, put on, zip/ unzip my pants, sit down, get up, get toilet paper, wipe yourself, flush the toilet, turn the water on/off, wash your hands, dry your hands, put it in the garbage, etc.

While you will be modeling and teaching bathroom vocabulary receptively or for following directions at the beginning of the year, don’t stop there! It is so important to get students using the basic communicative functions expressively, too, such as requesting (help me), commenting (all done, uh-oh!) and describing (cold water).

As SLPs, we tend to jump in quickly and start talking, so it is important to remind yourself to use the expectant pause after routines have been established and the basic vocabulary is understood. You know what comes next in the routine, he understands! Now is the time to wait for your student to ask for help or comment! It’s okay if she can go through the routine independently and quietly. That is your cue that your student may be ready to have conversations about what you were doing before the bathroom break!

For nonverbal students or those with ASD, don’t forget to work on joint attention and expressive communication skills, too! Name the item needed and wait for her to look at it before helping. Wait for him to look at you and then what he needs help with to make a request. Start adapting your environment with visual symbols, like ‘I need help.’  Use hand over hand exchanging to get requesting started, if needed.

Speech therapy in the bathroom?

Absolutely! As long as it isn’t your office, too!

Linda’s home base is Looks Like Language, but today she’s in the: Bathroom! 

Thank you to Kim from Activity Tailor for organizing this blog hop!

To enter the Hide and Seek Blog Hop raffle, collect the names of the participating blogs and where they are hiding and enter them here.

Speech Therapy Count 'UP' to School!

Let's make the count down to the start of school more exciting...let's count 'UP' with prizes!  Each day, I will be giving away more and more prizes, all the way up to the ULTIMATE GIVEAWAY!  To get more details and to enter, visit my Facebook Page.  The giveaway started yesterday, so don't waste any time! 

*You can only enter through my Facebook Page.

Speech Therapy Back To School Organization

I started school last week (so not ready) and this year I have a goal of staying organized.  That is usually my goal in the beginning of each year, but I swear this time I mean it! I came up with a few ideas that I think will keep me organized and I hope they will help you too.

1) Laminate Your To Do Lists

 I go through so many to do lists throughout the year.  This year, I decided to laminate mine and simply wipe off all of my completed tasks.  Why didn't I think of this before?

 1) Laminate your To Do List   2) Use a dry erase marker to write your notes  3) Wipe off your completed tasks    *To Do List shown is part of my SLP Planner, Files & More

2) Separate Your Files

Files usually have so many random papers in them that make finding anything almost impossible.  Organize your files with strips of paper labeled with years, categories, etc.  This makes finding paperwork simple and quick!

3) Use Manila Envelopes

All of my upcoming IEP files are placed into a large manila envelope labeled 'Upcoming IEPs'.  This makes them so easy to grab when I am working on paperwork.  It also reminds me of what I have to do!

Here's to keeping organized this year!