{Review + Giveaway} Sequencing App

Disclaimer: I was provided a copy of this app; however, the opinions expressed are solely my own.

Recently I was contacted by I Can Do Apps to do an app review! I am excited to be sharing my thoughts on their Sequencing app.

It is available in the app store for $4.99 (click above picture). Sequencing is an important skill for both functional daily living, as well as story telling. There are 5 different activities within the app. 

This is the main screen:

This is an example of the first activity (ID the picture that occurs first or last). This one was my favorite activity because a lot of my kids struggle with first and last. 

This is an example of the second activity (ID what picture happens next):

This is an example of the third activity (touch the pictures in the order that they occur). I have to say, this one was the hardest for my students. I don't know if they all understood the concept of touching one picture then the next picture. 

This is an example of the fourth activity (put three pictures in the order they happen):

This is an example of the fifth activity (number the stages).

Under settings, you can turn the words and reinforcement on or off, plus see other available apps made by this company.

What I Liked:

-several levels available so it can work for different students/ability levels

-clean, uncluttered graphics

-this app really targets temporal concepts, which so many of my students struggle with

-the fifth activity really allows you to see if your students understand the concept of sequencing (but they do need to be able to read)

What I Would Love To See:

-I'd love the ability to put in your own pictures

-I'd also love to see 4 and 5 step picture sequences

Overall, this is an excellent app with varying levels to help students learn sequencing. The different activities kept my students' attention and it was a fun way to work on this type of skill. 

Enter to win a copy below:

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Peek At My Week 10/26

Disclaimer: Affiliate links are included for your convenience.

Autism: I'm using this great new product from Speech Language Pirates to target concepts with these kids. I'm working in some Halloween vocabulary as well. 

K-2: We're reading There Was An Old Lady Who Swallowed A Bat. Who doesn't love that old lady? Tons of TpT sellers have companion activities for this (and other old lady) books. You can work on so much with these books, such as retelling, sequencing, WH questions, etc. 

 I also found this freebie and we can use it to talk about what each costume requires, make sentences, etc.

3-5: We're using my October Find and Fix Irregular Past Tense Verb cards, plus some of the nonfiction cards from S.A.L.L for All. Of course, along with talking about Halloween and all the fun that goes with that. I happened to find these fun writing prompts from Growing Smart Readers that I think will be great to incorporate writing with language skills. 

Last call on the October Mystery! It will disappear on October 31st and a winner for the special giveaway will be chosen - click the picture to check it out. I promise it will be something you can definitely use this week! Check back November 1st for the new monthly mystery!

Happy Halloween!

Halloween Round-Up

It's that time of year again - costumes, candy, and spooky fun! Here are some seasonal activities you can use to add some Halloween fun to your sessions:

October Mystery: This is only available for the month of October! You can also enter a special giveaway just for purchasing!

Mummy Madness: This is a freebie! It's fairly open-ended and can be used for describing, making sentences, writing a story, etc. 

Pumpkin Irregular Plurals: This is also free and focuses on those irregular plurals that change the "f" to a "v." There is a cute poem that can help your students remember the rule. 

Batty Associations: This is an original mini-book and activities that has some Halloween vocabulary.

Some other freebies that I've seen pop up from fellow SLP bloggers include:

Cooking:

Spooky, Toothy Halloween Treat Freebie from Speech Snacks

Books:

Room on the Broom freebie from The Speech Bubble

Misc:

Halloween Riddles from Major Speech Pathology By A Minor Girl

Open-Ended Games:

Boo! A Spooky Ghost Game from thedabblingspeechie

Halloween Open Ended Game by Dean Trout

Candy Corn Speech from Lauren LaCour

Grammar:

Halloween Grammar Freebie from Nicole Allison

Ghostly Grammar from Speech Time Fun

Artic:

Vocalic R Halloween Fortunes by Courtney Gragg
Spooky Speech by Sublime Speech

Language/Vocabulary:

Halloween Memory by Carrie Manchester

Scary Simile Jack-o-Lanterns by WordNerdSpeechTeach

Monster Describing and Guessing Game by Super Power Speech
Halloween Idioms and Phrases from Jenna Rayburn

These should keep you well-stocked for the coming weeks! Reminder: if you download any of these freebies, please leave feedback!! 

Speechy Feedback October 2014

Speachy Feedback is back! For this month, my winner is TpT username allymarie02! She left feedback on my Find and Fix Irregular Past Tense Verb Task Cards. It brings a smile to my face when I see feedback like this - it makes me happy that something made your crazy, busy life a little easier!

You won your choice of product from my store (no bundles).  Just email me at teachspeech365@gmail.com with your choice!

Stay tuned for next month's winner!  

Peek At My Week: 10/19

Disclaimer: Affiliate links are included for your convenience.

Week #8: Whoa, I feel like October is going super slow and super fast at the same time...I don't think that even makes sense. I'm currently drowning in evals and progress reports are looming...channel Dory and "just keep swimming."

Autism: I started some Halloween vocab with Batty Associations last week. The interactive portion of putting pictures in the book is keeping the students' attention! I've also been using the color/size apple part of the S.A.L.L. with these kids, plus my very fancy poker chip pacing board. I put this together because I can simply take off a chip for shorter utterances. We've been doing a lot of "I see a small/medium/big, green/yellow/red apple." I can also work on receptive tasks with the poker chip by laying all the apples on the table and telling the student to put the chip on a specific apple. So far, this is working well!

Poker chip pacing board:

Preschool: These kids are pretty easy to plan for since I focus pretty much on articulation at this age (in my current district anyway). So I usually just pick a game or reinforcer and drill, drill, drill. I usually let the kids pick, so it can be anything from potato head to pop up pirate.

K-2nd grade: The book this week is The Legend of Spookley the Square Pumpkin! This is such a cute book and perfect for this time of year.



I found this great Cariboo Questions freebie from Peachie Speechie:

I'm also using something that was a huge hit last year - skeleton directions!! Cheap skeleton hung on the wall. Velcro attached to various spots on the skeleton and to dollar store creepy crawlies = instant fun!

3rd-5th: I'm using the pumpkin section of S.A.L.L. - synonyms/antonyms, figurative language, listening comprehension! Plus, a story from Super Power Speech's Fall Into Language Level 3.  

Happy planning!

Wordless Picture Books

Graphics: KG Fonts, PrettyGrafikDesign

Disclaimer: Affiliate links are included for your convenience.

Using wordless picture books in speech therapy is a common way to elicit a lot of different language skills. Here are the links to some posts done by fellow SLP bloggers:

Smart Speech Therapy

Playing With Words 365

Let's Grow Speech

Miss V's Speech World has a list of wordless picture books on TpT

Why should we use these types of books?

-great for a range of ages, from the very young on up

-gives insight into a client's narrative abilities

-allows you to look at grammatical structures, sentence structure and overall vocabulary skills

-you can use the same book over and over again

-they can be great ways to help a child learn how to expand utterance length

-parents can use them at home

Amazon does have some, including the following:

 

The latest product to hit my store is one that I'm super pumped about. I've had the idea brewing for awhile, but it took a little bit to figure out how to best approach it. It is an expanding packet of short wordless picture mini-books. What does expanding mean? It means that if you purchase now, you get to download any additional updates for free! With each addition, the price will increase though.

Click below to be taken to the listing:

So, let's take a closer look. Right now, there are 4 stories included. They range from 10-12 half pages (to save on ink and lamination). The backgrounds are white, mainly because I didn't want to send my printer to an early death (haha) with really intricate backgrounds. I kept graphics simple and uncluttered because a lot of my kids get distracted if a scene is too "busy." Plus, I wanted to leave it as open-ended as possible. Additionally, there is a one page "pre-made" story that you can use if you wish to. They also are aligned to many common core standards!

The 4 stories right now are: 

1. The Sticky Spider Webs.

2. What Pet Shall I Get?

3. When I Grow Up!

4. My Community

Below are examples of what the pages look like:

The "pre-made" story is a full page. I used repetitive, but detailed, complex sentences because a lot of my kids struggle to formulate these types of sentences. Again, the use of the story is completely up to you. 

Enjoy!

Clinical Skills Confidence: Have A Life!

The latest installment of Clinical Skills Confidence doesn't actually focus on anything clinical. We all tend to eat, live, sleep, and breath speech - but it's important to have a life outside speech too! Recently I asked my Facebook followers what they like to do to stay in shape. It got me thinking about how it's important to have work/life balance! 

These are some of the things I like to do to make sure I'm living outside the SLP world:

1. Exercise: I make this a habit 6 days a week. It takes getting out bed early, but I feel so much better afterwards. Recently, I discovered The Gymbox through Amazon Prime. It also gives you access to a lot of Jillian Michaels' workout videos. I usually just run, but I know I need to mix it up with some strength workouts. 

2. Hang out with friends: I'm lucky to have close friends in the school that I work at. We routinely get together outside of school.

3. Get takeout and watch a movie: At least one weekend night, my husband and I get takeout and just watch a movie. It's nice to just relax and spend some time together. 

4. Do seasonal activities: Apple picking, pumpkin picking, ice skating, farmer's markets. Whatever it is, get out of the house and take advantage of the seasons. 

5. Find a hobby: For me, I actually really enjoy blogging and TpT activities, which has turned into my hobby - but that's speech related. Outside of that, I like to cook/bake, read, and do crafts.

What do you do to "have a life"?

Peek At My Week 10/12

Disclaimer: Affiliate links are included for your convenience.

Week #7: 3 DAY WEEKEND. Need I say more? But there are still 4 other days to plan for, so here it goes:

Preschool: I picked up a Lucky Ducks game during a recent thrift store jaunt, so that'll be making an appearance for this crowd. Ducks + Phonology Interactive Books = fun!

 

Autism and K-2: I just finished and posted a mini-book and activities for Batty Associations. Which will go perfectly with a book called Five Little Bats Flying In the Night by Steve Metzger.

 

The mini-book contains activities for fall/Halloween vocabulary, associations, following directions, and overall language skills. It will help these kids work on a variety of skills! Click the picture below to check out the listing.

The mini-book features bats who are missing associated items. 

 The pieces can be placed into the book:

There are WH questions with visual choices:

A cut and paste sequencing mat:

3rd-5th: Using this synonym freebie from Activity Tailor. 

I'm also using the October task cards from my Find and Fix Irregular Past Tense Verb Cards that was just posted. Plus, some of the activities in the football section of S.A.L.L. for ALL.  

Enjoy!