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!

Tear Off Ads As Homework Or Carryover

An idea struck me earlier this week, so I played around with it to see if it would indeed work. We want our students to succeed in the therapy room, right? However, the progress that we are really aiming for is for them to succeed OUTSIDE the therapy room...that is, in the classroom, at home, or out in the community.

Homework and carryover are two things that I know I struggle with. The challenge can be getting students to return it...and in some cases, just to do it.

Have you ever seen those tear off ads? The ones with little strips of paper with a phone number or website that you can tear off to call/visit later on? Yep...they're getting "speechified!"

Cut out the whole rectangle, then cut horizontally so the words on the right are in individual strips. Your students leave with it and bring it back when the strips are gone, meaning they practiced saying the sounds (in words, phrases, or sentences) with multiple different people. It's based on the honor system, meaning you won't really know if Johnny just leaves the room and rips them off himself. BUT I'm hoping that because it's likely "new," it might be motivating to them!! 

I included 1 sheet (3 cards) for: initial /r/, er, or, ire, ar, air, and ar, plus a blank one so you can write in whatever targets you want. Click here to get yours!

Hope you enjoy this freebie!

If It's A Noun, Sit Down!

The other day, I was in the middle of a very well planned therapy session with some 3rd graders. We were using Nicole Allison's Nonfiction Fall Texts - the one about spiders, in fact. We had read the passage and were in the process of answering the questions. I happened to ask whether one of the words in the passage was a noun or a verb. I was met with blank stares. Now, that's not to say they don't know what a noun or a verb is. But at that very moment, I got nada. We were at a fork in the "therapy path." I'm being dramatic. 

I decided to forgo my plans and focus instead on nouns and verbs. I told the students to stand up, put their chairs against the wall, and stand in front of them. I said I was going to give them a word. They had to decide if it was a noun or a verb. 

"If it's a verb - an action - raise your hand."

"If it's a noun - a person, place, or thing - sit down."

And a "game" was born. I wrote their names on the whiteboard and said I'd give a point to the students who got it right. I also told them they had to close their eyes when I gave the word to reduce the chances of them simply following the lead of someone else. 

So it went like that! They were engaged and liked earning the points. Plus, anyone that walked by the room probably heard me chanting, "IF IT'S A NOUN, SIT DOWN" several times...

When have YOU been at the fork in the "therapy path" and decided to change courses? 

P.S. Nicole Allison's Nonfiction Texts are awesome in case you're wondering! I plan to return to the regularly scheduled therapy sessions next week. :)

Wipe Out Artic & Has/Have: Therapy Ideas

Popping in to share a couple therapy gems that worked well for me this week!

First, I hope you have one of these:

And by "these" - I really just mean the magnetic barrier for the barrier games from Super Duper. I bought it way back when Super Duper was still holding their 50% off weekly sales (really wish they'd bring that back) and it continues to be one of my best purchases to date. I use it for tons of things, not just barrier games. 

Idea #1: Earlier this week, I shared this picture on my Facebook page. It's how I worked on has/have with one student. I had little magnets from something else and it was fun to stick them on and then tell who had what. Obviously, I am a very good artist...just kidding!

Idea #2: Wipe Out Artic: This "game" would be appropriate for kids who have nearly mastered the word level of any sound. It worked with a first grader, I just read the words and had her repeat them as quickly as she could.

I wrote a bunch of words on one side of the board. I had a timer and an eraser on hand. I told the student we were going to see how fast she could get "wipe out" all the words. I set the timer and off we went. In order for me to erase a word, she had to articulate it correctly. If she didn't, I moved on to the next word without erasing it. We went through the list until all the words were gone. I wrote another set of words on the board and we did it again and she tried to beat her time.

That's it for now! Hope you're enjoying your Saturday so far!

Adapt Your Zingo Game + Freebie!

Do you have a Zingo game? There are several different versions, and this adaptation will work with all of them:

Disclaimer: Affiliate links are included for your convenience.

Step 1: Turn over the tiles and write numbers on them (1-72 or however many tiles you have). 

Step 2: Place the tiles back in the columns, but upside down so the numbers are facing up.

Step 3: Slide the slider as you normally would. 

Step 4: When the numbers pop out, find the corresponding numbers on your list and provide the stimuli for the students. 

Step 5: After answering, students can mark off the corresponding number on the bingo board, which is included in the freebie. 

Now for your freebie:

The freebie includes: 

-5 bingo boards (plus a blank one)

-Lists for categories, describing, and words to put in a sentence: includes 72 different stimuli items

Grab your freebie here!

Do you think you'll use this adaptation? 

How Do You Use It? Linky

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I missed last month, but I'm back to join Miss Speechie for her monthly How Do You Use It Linky. Here's her original post for this month, which features brown paper bags.

I have to admit, I usually buy the white ones for some reason. Target usually has them, or I order via Amazon. Turns out, Amazon has many different options:

This is how I use paper bags in therapy:

1. Sorting: You can do this with categories or verb tenses. Simply write the category on the bag, open it, and let the sorting begin.

2. Crafts: There are several crafts that I've found that use a paper bag. A simple search on Pinterest yielded tons of options. You can probably find a different paper bag craft for every month!

3. Homework: I've also sent home homework tasks, articulation cards, or other things to practice inside a paper bag. Less likely to get lost on the way home!

4. Stimuli "Holders": If you have vocabulary cards, artic cards, etc that are student specific, you can label a bag and stick them in after the session. This way, students will know to just grab their bags on the way in.

Check out Miss Speechie's linky to see other great ideas!!

5 Tips to Survive the Beginning of the School Year

Staff went back on Monday of this week. That means that this week has been full of meetings, professional development, schedule-making, paperwork, and definitely some stress. There is a lot of work that goes into the days leading up to greeting kids on the first day of school! I'm sharing some tips that will help you survive this time.

Tip #1: Talk to teachers! If you're returning to the school, it's a great way to reconnect and find out how their summers were. You can also use this time to find out which teachers have your students and   it gives you "face time" to start the year out on the right foot.

Tip #2: Ask about grade level schedules! Every school probably has a slightly different way of doing this, but you'll want to know when lunch/recess/specials are for each grade level to begin building your schedule.

Tip #3: Make planning easy for the first couple of weeks! Do some "getting to know you" activities or crafts and have fun welcoming your students back or meeting them if they're new to you. I have an easy (and inexpensive) craft called My Speech-O-Graphy, which will help you get to know your students AND remind them of their goals. Your students will be settling into new routines, so be mindful of that. There are tons of free activities on TpT - I just made a category of all my free items, so it's easier to find. Click here to be taken to those! Several would work for this time of year!

Tip #4: Think data! You'll want to think about gathering some baseline data. I have a free informal tool that will help you gather some preliminary data, but you'll want to check in on how students are doing on their IEP goals of course. 

Tip #5: Don't get attached to your schedule. As frustrating as it is, I find myself changing my schedule slightly throughout the year to accommodate new students, special events, personality differences, etc. It's a necessary evil of the job, but I try to just go with it!

Those are my tips for surviving back to school. How do YOU survive this crazy time of year?!

Getting Organized For A New School Year

Disclaimer: Affiliate links are included for your convenience.

Getting organized for a new school year can be daunting. I've done my share of changing jobs since graduation, due to moving or other reasons, so I've probably "started over" a little more than the average person.

I almost always get organized in a similar way though, so I thought I'd share how I go about doing it. Maybe it'll make your life a little easier, too!

Materials I Need: 

I buy a monthly planner. There are TONS of cute SLP planners (<--- click that link and you'll be taken to some of them, I just searched "SLP planner") out there, plus I know some people enjoy Erin Condren planners. But I actually just use a plain old monthly one, like the one seen below. I like to be able to see the whole month at once and just write in meetings, times, upcoming IEP due dates, etc. 

I use a small binder clip at the top to make it easy to flip to the current month. I prefer mechanical pencils, and always try to write in pencil in my planner. Why? Because things ALWAYS change (yes, you know those IEP meetings that get rescheduled 3 times). I do tend to have white out on hand for those times I didn't have a pencil. Also, sticky notes are a necessity, because I jot down things I have to do and stick them on my desk. When the task is done, I get great satisfaction in throwing away the note (it's the little things, people).

     

    

Steps To Tackling Scheduling, Planning, Etc:

1. Make an Excel spreadsheet...actually make four. One for my caseload info, one for my schedule, one for my planning sheet, and one for IEP dates. You can add sheets at the bottom of the workbook:

Caseload Sheet: I put name, date of IEP, date of re-eval, primary disability code, teacher, grade, and goals. I like to have everything in one place, which helps immensely when I go to plan. As I go to IEP meetings through the year, I just go back into the sheet and update dates and goals. This is how I set mine up:

Schedule Sheet: I put the days of the week across the top and times down the left side. Then I look at the master schedule and see when kids are going to lunch, specials, recess, etc. I slowly go about the task of putting kids in where I think would be a good time. I'm usually shooting for language arts since it seems to be a good time to pull/push in (I realize that might be different wherever you are). When I put in kids names, I also put the teacher, because it takes me a little bit to remember who is where. 

Planning Sheet: When I think I've got a schedule (haha...it WILL change, I know that), I copy that sheet to a new sheet and leave the kids names and a some extra space. This is what I use to help me plan each week. I will pencil in ideas for what I think we'll be doing. Some weeks, I have a book that I do with multiple grade levels or some weeks I have a craft. It all depends, and I try to do open ended themes that I can tailor to whatever goals I need to. *Names are not real*

IEP dates: Since you have the kids name and IEP date column already on the caseload sheet, I copy that to a new sheet and organize by ascending date. This way, I can see which kids' IEPs will be due in any given month. *Names/dates are not real*

This is unsorted:

To sort, you click on that AZ sort button (circled in red). You are given the option to sort oldest to newest, which is the one you want. Just make sure to highlight the name and date boxes, so the names stay with the dates. See below, you can now see IEP dates by the month!

2. Data logs: We have a district wide data sheet that SLPs use, so I make a folder on my desktop for logs. I type in the name and goals and save a copy for each of my kids. That way, when I need more, I just go in and print one off with the goals already on it. I put all of these in a binder. At the beginning of the day, I go through and pull out the logs for the kids I'm seeing that day and put them all on a clipboard. 

I will admit, it's a lot of work at the beginning. However, this system seems to really work for me. It keeps me organized and having most of the info on the computer makes it really easy for me to go in and change something. 

*You will notice that I'm not mentioning anything about room organization. I'll tell you why. I have been parked in a lot of very, less than desirable areas. I never know where I'm going to be, so I usually wait until I have time to scope out the space I'm given before doing anything room-wise. I would love to share a whole bunch of decorating ideas, but the reality for me is that sometimes I don't have much more than a desk to call my own. So I go with what I'm given and do my best to make it work. I love looking at everyone else's very cute rooms though!

Awesome Therapy Find

Browsing in Target, I stumbled upon an awesome toy!

Disclaimer: Affiliate links are included for your convenience.

It's called Magic Jinn Animals (cost less than $5 too). He's a cute little guy who tries to read your mind. You think of an animal and touch his nose. He then proceeds through a series of questions to try to figure out what animal you're thinking of. Examples include "does the animal have stripes, is it a feline." Yes, I stood in my kitchen and tested it. No, nobody else was home, so I didn't look too crazy. 

The above picture on the box shows what kinds of answers you should give to Magic Jinn. If you mess up you can return to the previous question he asked by saying "go back." He guessed the animal I was thinking of!

Fabulous, right! Now, how will I use this in therapy?

-Target auditory processing - you have to listen to the questions and answer appropriately

-Look up various animals and discuss traits, categories, basic WH questions prior to playing with Magic Jinn
-Use it in conjunction with my latest product (Speech & Language Zoo). There's a section that provides nonfiction details about various zoo animals!

I did a quick search on Amazon and found this one, plus there appears to be one for food, which I will definitely keep my eyes peeled for.

 

What do you think? I'm excited to use this!

Do You Have Apples To Apples?

If you have Apples to Apples for Kids, then you can use this other option for playing the game! I have to admit that I don't often pull this game out, as it doesn't always fit the needs for my groups. This week, in desperation search of something that would capture the attention of a few of my bouncing-off-the-walls students, the game made an appearance. I altered the rules. We first went over the definition of an adjective. Insert me wanting to bang my head against the wall when some kids answered "we weren't taught those." Ok...it's the end of the year. I ignored that. 

Anyway, back to the point. The green cards have adjectives on them. I laid out 5 green cards in front of each student and gave them a stack of red cards, which have nouns on them. I said "first student to find 3 nouns to fit each adjective wins." Add a little competition and we were off to the races! 

They liked it, they learned a little, we practiced language skills...the end.

Hope you can use this idea!

Richard Simmons + Speech Therapy

What? Did you do a double-take? Yes, I said Richard Simmons + speech therapy. Let me explain. I often do therapy in the school setting in chairs at the table. Obviously. It's school. But I decided to try something a little different and you know what? It resulted in increased language usage, motivation, FUN...and just a little laughter.

*Disclaimer: While this may result in some laughter because these videos are clearly from the 90's, I could possibly be convinced to do this in the privacy of my own home (haha)* 

Step 1: Search "Richard Simmons" videos on YouTube. I think this one is good. It's long, but you can choose 1-2 minute increments to show. 

Step 2: Explain to your students that you will be doing speech therapy but a little differently today. They will be watching a video and then they'll be expected to retell what happened. These are some skills that you could easily target: sequencing, past tense verbs, and prepositions. 

Step 3: Watch the clips that you've selected. Fair warning: you may need to watch it twice, since I'm fairly certain the giggles will prevent them from paying attention the first time. 

Step 4: Retell what happened. Talk about what the people did, where they moved their arms and feet, what order they did things in. 

Clips To Try:
Minutes 2-3: moved arms to side, moved arms to the front, moved arms above head, looked to the side, lunged to the side

Minutes 12-13: moved arms above head, lifted both legs, walked to the front, moved hands up and to the front, lifted up knees, moved to the side, punched to the side, kicked to the side

The above are simply suggestions! It might be fun to hear how your students describe the very fabulous moves! Basically, this gets your kids up and moving (if they want to try the moves) and that's always a plus for me! 

What do you think? Will you try to use this in your therapy room?

Double Sided Flip Book

This week, I posted this picture on my Facebook page (follow me for giveaways, sales, news, and fun):

So I promised to do a blog post on this happy accident. This is how I made it. I took a sheet of construction paper (regular 9x11 or whatever, it doesn't matter) and cut it into 4 strips. You can do more if you want. 

Then I lined them up in a downward staggered pile, like this:

Then I cut the stack in half. You can see the staggered side on the right here. It's the same on the left, just turned over: 

I flipped one side so that you can see the staggered portions on both sides and stapled it twice at the top. You can use this for anything - I used it for categories this week. 

I love those happy accidents!