Red Rover, Red Rover: Carry My Artic Over!

Who remembers playing the game "Red Rover, Red Rover" as a kid? Well, we all know how difficult it can be to find new and motivating ways to work on carryover skills for articulation when a student has mastered words, phrases, and sentences.

This is a game that needs to played with a group. Divide students up into teams and have them stand across the room from each other. Depending on their sound(s), each student may have a different "chant" in order to take their turn in the game. Begin by giving each student 10-20 Super Duper or other articulation cards with their sound. Then let the fun begin!

For example, if the student is working on the /s/ sound, he/she would start by saying, "Silly Susie, Silly Susie, send a _____ over." The student has to fill in the blank with a word from one of their cards. If said correctly, they drop the card on the floor. Students take turns in a round-about fashion. The goal is to be the first one to drop all their cards. You don't actually "send" anyone over, but it should still be fun!

To save you time (who has enough anyway?), I have put together a free download with the "chants" for every sound!  

Send yourself over and grab it! 

Chipper Chat & WH Questions = Better Attention?

One of the first (and favorite) TPT items that I've created is the WHO, WHAT, WHERE, WHEN questions with visuals.  I was using these cards the other day in a therapy session with a student whose attention span sometimes impacts his ability to answer questions. Suddenly, I got the idea to haul out the chipper chat chips and the wand. I put a chip on each answer choice like this:

I told him to pick up the chip that was on the answer. IT WORKED LIKE A CHARM! He was instantly engaged and his accuracy went up. Something about that "magic wand" gets kids so excited!

How do YOU use those lovable magnetic chips and wand in your therapy room?

Can I Take Your Order?

I have several young students working on following directions and receptive language. With this age group, we also do A LOT of pretend play. I decided to create a restaurant/food themed receptive language activity that I dubbed "Can I Take Your Order?"

First, print a "tray" for each student:

Then cut and laminate the food item cards and place all face-up in the center of the table or room. You can print a copy of the food items for each student if you're just beginning to work on these skills or use only one set to make it more challenging. There are a total of 16 different food items. 

 The SLP can act as the "customer" and tell the students which 3 items to grab and put on their tray. I also put the pictures on the cards, so that younger non-readers can take turns being the customer. This can serve to work on expressive language or articulation!

Grab this game HERE! 

To win a copy, enter below:

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Chain Letter Link-Up ROUND-UP

In early December, I decided to see if any speech bloggers would be willing to participate in a "chain letter" in which I interviewed 4 bloggers. They then were asked to interview 2 other bloggers to continue the chain. I thought it would be a good idea to try "round-up" all the interviews to have in one central place. These are the links that I've received so far:

1. Carissa (Home Sweet Speech Room) interviewed Rachel Jones (Let's Talk SLP): http://homesweetspeechroom.blogspot.com/2012/12/chain-letter-link-up.html 

2. Carrie (Carrie's Speech Corner) interviewed Jenn (Crazy Speech World) and Brea (Let's Talk Speech Language Pathology): 
http://carriesspeechcorner.blogspot.com/2012/12/chain-letter-link-up.html

3. The Speech Ladies interviewed Natalie (Just Wright Speech) and Leslie Lindsay (Leslie 4 Kids) 

http://www.thespeechladies.blogspot.com/2013/01/chain-letter-link-up.html?m=1

4. Amy (Major Speech Pathology by a Minor Girl) interviewed Danielle (Sublime Speech) and Whitney (Let's Talk)

http://majorspeechminorgirl.blogspot.com/2012/12/thank-goodness-forthe-chain-letter-link.html

5. Lindsay (Word Nerd Speech Teach) interviewed Tej (Let's Talk Speech Language) and Amy (Major Speech Pathology by a Minor Girl)
http://wordnerdspeechteach.blogspot.com/2012/12/chain-letter-link-up.html

6. Speechy Musings interviewed Lauren (Busy Bee Speech) and Felice (The Dabbling Speechie):

http://speechymusings.wordpress.com/tag/chain-letter-link-up/

7. Kristine (Live Love Speech) interviewed Tatyana (Smart Speech Therapy) and Jennifer (Speech Universe):

http://livelovespeechkl.blogspot.com/2012/12/chain-letter-link-up.html

8. Brea (Let's Talk Speech Language Pathology) interviewed Communication Station and Alexis (Practically Speeching):

http://www.letstalkslp.blogspot.com/2012/12/chain-letter-link-up.html

9. Lauren (Busy Bee Speech) interviewed Kristina and Cindy (The Speech Ladies) and Mia (Putting Words In Your Mouth):
http://www.busybeespeech.blogspot.com/2013/01/chain-letter-link-up.html

10. Maria (Communication Station: Speech Therapy LLC) interviewed Nanette (Speech2Me) and Kristin ([Simply Speech.]):
http://communicationstationspeechtx.blogspot.com/2012/12/slp-blogger-chain-letter-link-up.html

11. Nanette (Speech2Me) interviewed Rose (Speech Snacks) and Liz (Speech Lady Liz):

http://speech2me.blogspot.com/2013/01/slp-chain-letter-featuring-speech.html?m=1

12. Maureen (The Speech Bubble) interviewed Kristin ([simply speech.]):

http://thespeechbubbleslp.blogspot.com/2012/12/chain-letter-link-up.html

If you've participated and want to be added to this list, 

email me a link to your post at 

teachspeech365@gmail.com! Let's keep the chain going!

Conversation Comics

As SLPs, we work on social skills A LOT! I'm always trying to come up with new and exciting ideas to accomplish these goals. Hopefully, some of you will benefit from my latest idea:

Conversation Comics!!

First, we have to meet our characters: Corey, Jasmine, Mark, and Dana:

There are 54 cards with "comic book" like speech bubbles. One character says something and the gray bubble is left blank for the other character's response: 

This activity can be rather open-ended! You can discuss appropriate vs. inappropriate responses, "on" and "off" topic responses, etc. You can even have your students act out the scenarios and add on to them! I wanted something that would act as a starting point that could be taken in several different directions, depending on the needs of your students. 

There are 54 scenario cards, plus 8 blank ones (see below):

If this is something you can use, get it HERE!

Enter below for a chance to win this:

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Auditory Memory Tips

One of my favorite areas to work on is auditory processing skills. I find that a lot of kids (and adults) have difficulty with auditory memory. I often start by focusing on memory for numbers, words and sentences before moving on to paragraphs, etc. 

I like to teach compensatory strategies and then spend some time practicing them, while discussing with the students which strategies work better for them (some students do better with different strategies):

1. Rehearsal: I tell students to practice number/words/sentence under their breath or in their heads. 

1. Elaborative Rehearsal: This strategy works well for remembering words. We practice making up silly sentences with the words to help us remember them. For example, if the words are: flower, rock, pillow. I would say, "I put a flower and a rock under my pillow." 

3. Mnemonics: I teach this strategy using words also. For the above example, I would have the student write "F, R, P." Depending on the words, you could also rearrange the letters to make a word. For example, if the words are: hair, apple, toy = HAT.

4. Visualization: Telling students to "make a movie in your mind" sometimes helps them put meaning to a sentence or words. For example, the sentence might be "The girl with the blue shirt was running." I would tell the student to close his/her eyes and visual a girl with a blue shirt running. For words, I might  tell the student to visualize a table with all the items on top of the table. 

5. Chunking: This strategy works well with numbers. So if you are given: 4, 3, 5, 8 = tell the student to remember 43 and 58. 

When students become adept at using these strategies, I make it more difficult by throwing in an unrelated question before asking them to repeat the numbers, words, or sentence.

An example of this:

SLP: The words are banana, computer, and slide. 

Student: should be using a strategy of their choice to recall the words

SLP: What's your favorite color?

Student: Red.

SLP: Now what were those words I told you?

This shifts their attention and challenges their memory skills! 

Below are some handouts that might be helpful for parents/teachers to help explain auditory processing and auditory memory:

http://www.superduperinc.com/handouts/pdf/243_AuditoryProcessing.pdf

http://www.parent-childservices.com/handouts/classroom_management_capd_.htm

http://www.nathhan.com/audvishowto.htm

http://www.superduperinc.com/handouts/pdf/331_Auditory_Memory.pdf

How do you work on auditory processing/memory skills?

Multisyllabic Shamrocks

I am continually trying to give my followers what they want! I began doing multisyllabic activities with Multisyllabic Reindeer and Multisyllabic Hearts. Some people requested words with more syllables, so I included 4 and 5 syllable words in the heart activity. Some people also requested having pictures for younger kids, so I think I've managed to accomodate all requests with Multisyllabic Shamrocks. 

Word list:

Sorting placemat:

2 syllable words (18 cards):

3 syllable words (18 cards):

4 syllable words (18 cards): 

 5 syllable words (18 cards): 

*Disclaimer: Finding pictures for some of the 5 syllable words was rather difficult, so your students may need help with some of these!*

Point cards that students can draw after saying a word correctly (print 2-3 copies):

Get it HERE!

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