Clinical Skills Confidence: Baselines

I have all new students this year, so I knew that I wanted something that would be quick and easy to get some baselines. I find it easy to obtain baselines for articulation students, but it's somewhat more difficult to get them for language students. I decided to make my life a little easier and make something that some of you might get some use out of as well! Click the picture to grab your copy!

Note: I see students in preschool-6th grade. I realize not all of these areas are appropriate for all grades, but I just chose sections that were appropriate for each student to get a general idea of where everyone was functioning. 

How do you go about getting baselines for your students?

Love It and List It Linky: Vocabulary Activities

Disclaimer: Affiliate links are included in this post for your convenience.

This month, Jenna Rayburn's Love It and List It Linky features vocabulary activities. Check out her post here.

Here's what I use on a pretty regular basis:

1. Books: This is a no-brainer. I like to use books to discuss new vocabulary! It's quick and can quickly generate conversations in small groups, as the students discuss what they know and hear what others have to say.

2. Super Duper Sentence Building Fun Deck: These pictures are actually designed for sentence building, but I found that the pictures are pretty "busy" which leaves a great opportunity for discussing different vocabulary words (nouns, adjectives, etc). Some of my students really need visual pictures, so this is great.

3. Learning Games For Kids website: This website has a multitude of vocabulary games, including synonyms, antonyms, and homophones.

4. Teachers Pay Teachers activities: My fellow SLPs are enormously talented and creative, so why not use some of theirs and some of mine? Below are my favorites:

Out of This World Context Clues from Carrie's Speech Corner

Bug Out: A Multiple Meaning Word Activity from Let's Talk Speech Therapy

Secret Word from Sublime Speech

Don't Say It Describing Dash and Mirror-SYNANT are some of my most used products from my store 

Reader Response: Lateral Lisp

Disclaimer: This post may contain affiliate links for your convenience. I am an Amazon affiliate. 

Recently, I asked my Facebook fans what their tips were for the dreaded lateral lisp. As always, people came up with a bunch of different tips!! See below:

Most people swore by the following techniques:

1. Straight Up Speech by Jane Folk: You can search this on Amazon.com; however, it's currently unavailable. From what other SLPs have said, this program involves shaping a rapid /t/ into a correct production of /s/.

2. Straw technique: This is similar to the technique described above. You place a straw in the front teeth and when the student can hear the air through the straw, it's correct. If s/he cannot hear it, it is still lateralized. 

3. Magic Slide visual: This is created by a fellow SLP named Mia and her product can be found here.

Stay tuned for the next installment of Reader Response! Let me know via email at teachspeech365@gmail.com if there's a question you'd like me to pose! 

Peek At My Week: First Full Week

Decided to start a new blog feature called Peek At My Week. No promises that it will happen EVERY week, as life can sometimes get in the way. I will do my very best though!

This was the first full week of students. I was going strong until this morning when all energy seemed to just disappear. I mean, like nowhere to be found. I did manage to make it through the day, but by the time I left at 4PM, I was beat. I'm sure many of you can relate to this feeling!

My week went like this:

Monday: Students are let out around 1pm, so I didn't have as many students/groups to see. That was a nice ease-in to the week. Everything seemed to go smoothly, which sort of freaked me out.

Tuesday: I did several schedule changes as I went to pick up kids, realized different times weren't working, etc. Had fun meeting more students and putting faces to names to goals. I tend to start associating kids with goals early on, so that I'm not constantly checking my excel sheet with names/goals. Sharing a space also means figuring out what I need to bring and where I can take students when I'm not in that space!

Wednesday: More schedule changes. I realized that some kids that I had originally put together may not work well together, which resulted in more schedule changes. 

Thursday: M.S.C. It has now become an acronym in my head. I write on post-its, scribble on my clipboard, etc. in a desperate effort to keep it all straight! I met some more of my students and kept linking faces to names. Participated in a couple meetings, which helped to see how things are run at my school. 

Friday: Hit the wall. As in, brick wall to the face. Done. I did see some students today, though not as many and made M.S.C. It's all good. It's Friday, people!!

Good things: I loved meeting all the kids. When asked what they did in speech last year, I got a variety of answers...some of which made me laugh. One thing is for sure: I love working with kids and figuring out new and different ways to address all their goals. It's sure going to be a rollercoaster of a year!

Reader Response: Push In Speech Services

Time for something new! I love posting a question on my Facebook page and getting responses from SLPs across the country. I decided to start a new blog feature called Reader Response. If a question becomes a longer discussion, I will then do a blog post with all the fabulous responses. This way, you'll be able to reference it later on. 

 A couple days ago, the question focused on push-in service delivery:

Here were all the wonderful responses:

Excited about the next discussion!! 

September 2013 SLP Link Up

Laura has a new September SLP Link Up started here! Join the link up fun!

This year, September meant a new school for me!

School-ing: new students! I have a brand new (to me) caseload, so I'll soon be having fun learning new names and goals. I can't wait to find out what makes my students tick.

Excited: I love all things pumpkin when fall rolls around. Pumpkin cookies, pumpkin pie, pumpkin bread. I love to bake, so these tend to show up quite a lot!

Prepping: I don't have a real therapy room, so I'm needing to rethink my therapy strategy. I want grab and go things, so that I can stay on schedule. 

Trying: more push in. My school this year likes inclusion, so I'll be pushing into the classroom a lot more than I have in the past. I'm excited about the possibility of co-teaching and getting creative with how I work in speech/language goals!

How is your September shaping up?! :)

School Is Back In Session (and a new APP COMPANION PACKET)!

And breatheeeeee a big sigh of relief that the first day of school is OVER! I thought I was so prepared: my (8th) schedule was set, I'd ventured outside of my "room" without the school map a few times, I remembered some teachers' names, and I was ready to go. Right?! 

Well, maybe not so much...

The day went quickly and it was fun to see all the kids excited about coming back to school. But I didn't really accomplish anything other than going into some of the classrooms to at least put faces to names. I have to complete kindergarten screenings this week, so I will do the dry run of my schedule next week. Good thing this week is only 4 days!!!

It will get better. I did want to share something exciting that I finally finished up last week. If you remember my speech/language companion packet for the My PlayHome app, then you'll love the latest addition to my TpT store: My PlayHome STORES Companion Packet! I received permission from the author to create this one too! This one has all the same pages as the original one, plus a few different ones. Take a peek at some of the pages below:

It includes:

•pg. 3-6: vocabulary for each store

•pg. 7-10: 1 step directions separated by store

•pg. 11-13: 2 step directions

•pg. 14: 3 step directions

•pg. 15-18: concepts that can be targeted by store

•pg. 20: receptive clue activity

•pg. 21: expressive activity

•pg. 21-24: life skills questions targeted by store

•pg. 25-28: price lists – Give your students play money and have them purchase items.

•pg. 29: additional activity ideas

I hope you'll try this one out! I'm giving one away for free, so enter below:

a Rafflecopter giveaway