SLPs Hopping Back Into School Blog Hop

Hello, hello, hello!! Welcome to the "SLPs Hopping Back Into School" Blog Hop!! I'm happy to be a part of this!

There are tons of freebies that you can grab, as well as amazing prizes that you could snag!

My Back To School Freebie targets inferring skills and listening comprehension. It's called When Is Your Birthday? It's time to meet the 24 students that go to school in Room 365.  

I've included month labels and cards with descriptions, so your students need to decide which month each student has his/her birthday. There is one girl's and one boy's birthday in each month, for a total of 24 students. 

Time to pull out the calendar and use your listening and problem solving skills! There are 24 students in Room 365 and your job is to figure out when their birthdays are. There is one boy and one girl with a birthday in each month. Get your freebie HERE!

Here's my clue:

So what are the prizes?!?! They are AWESOME!!!

My Back To School Basket

I'm sure everyone heard about the MASSIVE TpT Back To School Sale that happened a few days ago! First, I'd like to say THANK YOU TIMES A MILLION to everyone who purchased activities from my store. I'm super grateful and humbled that people even want to buy my activities and use them in their therapy rooms. 

Want to know what I bought? 

I know it doesn't look like much, but I haven't seen my caseload yet so I'm not sure what I really needed. So I tried to get things that I would definitely use with the elementary aged population. 

1. Social Candy Monsters from Jenn at Crazy Speech World: What could be better than monsters and candy? Monsters and candy that teach social skills!

2. Articulation Menus from Shannon at Speechy Musings: This has been on my wishlist for awhile and I KNOW I'll have some articulation kiddos. Plus, it's just a really awesome idea.

3. License Plate Listening Comprehension from Maureen at The Speech Bubble: I love this product because I can target listening and reading comprehension, vocabulary, and life skills (like travel, etc). 

4. Common Core Standards IEP Goals from Nicole at Allison's Speech Peeps: Example IEP goals that are aligned to the Common Core. Enough said. 

I also bought some clip art for some activities I have in mind...so be on the lookout for those! Did you buy any of these products? What was your favorite purchase?

S...Peachy Feedback Linky Party August 2013

Nicole over at Allison's Speech Peeps started a Linky Party last month featuring one of my favorite things since I embarked on my blogging adventure: FEEDBACK! Her post for this month can be found by clicking the picture above. 

The concept is simple: I look at my feedback from TPT and pick one person who left descriptive feedback and that person wins a free product from my store (bundles excluded). My winner this month is:

If your username is "egspeech," please email me at teachspeech365@gmail.com with your choice of product. I hope everyone has been taking advantage of the sale! 

Back To School Sale!

It's here, it's here! The TpT Back To School Sale!!! My whole store will be 20% (this includes bundles) and don't forget to use code BTS13 to save a total of 28% off! Who's ready to fill up those carts?! 

First things first: here's the link for my store --> Teach Speech 365

I have uploaded several things in the last few months that you may not be aware of, so definitely check these out:

Language Sample Prompts (check out the freebie for a sample)

Daily Lang-Tic Tasks 

QR Stars Verbs

Articulation Phone Book

Candy Coated Expressive Language (part of a bundle - see below)

Prediction Presents (part of a bundle - see below)

Two Peas In A Pod Associations

Bundles (saves you 20% versus buying each activity separately)

Mirror Activities Bundle

Prediction Bundle

Homework SMILES Bundle

Expressive Language Bundle

What are you filling your cart with? I'd love to hear, because it might be something I'd like to purchase too!

Clinical Skills Confidence: Norm Referenced Assessments

Next up in the Clinical Skills Confidence lineup: Norm Referenced Assessments

We all use them! In general, they are our "go-to" methods in order to formally assess our clients. What are they? They are tests that compare your client's performance to that of a norming group. You generally are provided with a standard score that falls somewhere on the bell curve. From these scores, you are able to derive a descriptive rating such as "mild, average, severe, etc."

I'm sure we all have our preferred tests for language, fluency, articulation, social skills, etc. This post will focus on what I do when you're not as familiar with a specific test. There are always new editions of tests coming out with slightly different guidelines and/or stimuli, so it's important that we stay up-to-date on the differences!

1. Read the manual: Things to look for - basal/ceiling (if they are used), entry points for different ages, if and when you can repeat, where to look for percentile ratings and standard scores.

2. Grab a test form and write yourself notes/add post-its: I always use pencil when I'm testing. It makes me feel better to be able to erase if I need to. If necessary, I can go back over it with pen later. I highlight or add a post-it to the subtests I plan to give. This makes it easier for me during the actual testing process.

3. Practice administering the test: Sometimes if it's a new test, I will practice saying the directions out loud, along with the first few stimuli.

4. Plan for the unexpected: That doesn't seem to make sense, right? Testing doesn't always go as planned. There can be a fire drill, your student may be inattentive, you run out of time, etc. It's ok. Usually, you are able to administer a test over several testing sessions. If attention is an issue, check out this post for tips related to how to improve a student's attention. 

What do I have for you? A FREE "quick look" sheet for tests. Print off several copies and make yourself a quick reference folder! You can then grab it for a "refresher" prior to giving the test if it's not one you use all the time. Click the picture below to get your copy!

Of course, these types of tests are not the only tests that we used to assess client performance, but we'll save those for another post!

Daily Lang-Tic Tasks: 180 Tasks to Enhance Language and Articulation

This year in my speech room, I want to have a quick language and/or articulation task that students complete at the beginning or end of the session. Why? This should allow me time to quickly check over homework, while simultaneously fostering independence in my students and giving them more practice with their speech/language skills. 

I realize this might need tweaking throughout the year and won't always happen, but that's ok.

Introducing Daily Lang-Tic Tasks:

(click the picture to be taken to the TPT link)

The concept is simple. There are 180 pages that look like the picture below:

Red pictures frames have a language task, while blue picture frames have an articulation task. 

Display these somewhere in your room. You can print all pages and display one each day OR download and pull one on up on your iPad each day.

Language tasks include: comparing/contrasting, describing, unscrambling sentences, grammar, WH and how questions, inferences, prediction, categories, social skills, multiple meaning words, problem solving, and object functions.  

Articulation tasks require access to articulation decks. There are repeats of these tasks, only because it's difficult to come up with 180 different articulation tasks. The goal of these cards was to get more trials! There is a blank page included for your to add your own. 

I realize that for some students the task of the day might not exactly hit one of their goals/objectives. I tried to make the language tasks broad in nature and tasks that would generate language. You can have your students do the tasks out loud so you can hear them, write them down (language task), or maybe have them record themselves so you can listen later. 

What do you think? Is this something you'd utilize and how?

Back To School Checklist [Freebie]

I promised some goodies and I want to abide by my promise! Today I have a simple SLP Back To School Checklist for you to grab to help you start the school year off on the right foot:

Click on the picture above to grab your copy!

The fun will continue tonight - I will do another flash freebie (10 minutes only) and I will do my best to announce it. Make sure you enter my giveaway for your choice of 5 products from my store (bundles excluded)!