Do you want to find motivating games for the older students on your caseload? Although I do not work with that age group now, I have worked with them in the past. It is a very difficult group to work with. Curriculum expectations are getting more intense, self awareness kicks in, and planning can be a nigh ...
Speech therapy for older children with articulation disorders can be challenging. Here are some tips for assessment, treatment, and carryover.
No more guessing about what themes your older speech therapy students will love! Get tons of specific ideas for themed therapy with your middle and high school students.
5 ways to help keep your middle and high school aged students engaged while working on conversational skills in speech therapy.
Using wordless videos in speech therapy is a great way to increase engagement and hit IEP goals. Use wordless videos for inferencing too
Check out these middle school (and high school) speech therapy activities and materials for effective and motivating sessions in secondary!
Looking for engaging articulation activities for older students in your teletherapy sessions? Discover 10 ideas to motivate and facilitate progress in virtual speech therapy sessions.
These six ideas will keep your older speech students engaged in their work!
Check out these middle school (and high school) speech therapy activities and materials for effective and motivating sessions in secondary!
Using non-fiction passages to address speech and language skills has been my saving grace lately! Non-fiction passages are perfect for my mixed groups with older elementary, middle school, and high school students. I’m joining The Frenzied SLPs to bring you some products and tips from a few of your favorite SLPs. As some of you know, I mostly see middle school and high school students in the school system (I have a few younger kids at school and I see some younger kids in a private practice). It can be very difficult to engage these older students and keep them interested in activities and tasks you are working on in therapy! Last year I wrote a few nonfiction passages and brought them in for therapy...all of a sudden my 8th grade boys, who complained all the time about having speech and language services, wouldn’t leave my room. They (along with some of my high school boys) started begging me to bring more nonfiction passages. We would read the passages, learn important vocabulary, answer comprehension questions, talk about main ideas, and research related events and people. Their favorite nonfiction passages were about U.S. presidents. Another topic my kids are interested in are animals. This summer I worked hard to create a huge product (over 150 pages) for endangered animals. I added even more to this product than I had the others. Once it was close to ready, I took it with me to see some private clients...it was again a HUGE hit! Let me show you all the ways we use these fun nonfiction passages!!! Here is a little secret....I can use the same themes and often the same passages across all of my caseload with just a little tweaking (many of my students have a reading disability). Since my students are currently loving the endangered animal passages, I thought I would show you how we use them. Make sure you scroll all the way to the bottom to find links to some of my favorite nonfiction resources! This product includes 12 endangered animals. Each animal has activities to help us address reading comprehension, listening comprehension, vocabulary, context clues, research, informational text writing, main idea and details, summarizing, comparing and contrasting information, articulation and more! We use a Venn Diagram (included in the packet) to compare and contrast the animals we have studied. We use the information we obtain throughout the lesson to complete the diagram. We use a K-W-L Chart to help anchor the information. We use this chart to determine what the students already know about each animal, what they want to know (so we can do further research), and to sum up the information they learned. We also love reading the "Did You Know? Fun Fact" sheet. We read over this sheet and the students determine what information they will share with their family when they get home. We love learning fun facts about each animal! We read the comprehension questions, then we read the passages and highlight the important information. For my students with more severe language and reading difficulties (or my younger students) we use the level 1 passage and questions. This passage is shorter than the level 2 passage and uses less complex language. (Having two levels of passages is perfect if you see students across a range of grades and/or ability levels.) For my students with less severe language and reading difficulties (or my older students) we do the same thing with the Level 2 Passage. This passage is longer and more complex than the Level 1 passage and there is an additional page with comprehension questions related to the passage. We preview the vocabulary before we read, but we focus on the vocabulary more in-depth after we answer the comprehension questions. My students who need more direct vocabulary instruction we use the Level 1 vocabulary sheet. Level 1 includes definitions and a word bank for the students to write the correct word in the blank with supports. My students who are practicing context clues use the Level 2 vocabulary sheets. Level 2 includes words listed in context sentences. We underline or highlight the context clues and then write our best definition of the word. I gave myself an answer key! (I'm all about things to make my life easier!) We use graphic organizers to help us determine the main idea and details, to organize thoughts for writing or comparing and contrasting information, and to summarize information. These are all skills that are extremely difficult for my students. If we have time, we complete a flip book for each animal. This helps my students to sum up the information they learned as well as research new/additional information. When we finish they can take the flip book home to share with their families. BONUS TIP: We also use these passages to work on articulation. We go through the passages/information and highlight or underline words that contain target sounds. My articulation students help me out by reading portions of the information aloud focusing on producing their speech sounds accurately. This makes having mixed groups a little easier on all of us and no one is jealous that "he/she gets to do that instead". See...it’s fun, it’s engaging, and there is enough material to cover weeks of therapy sessions! Click the following link to grab these endangered animal passage. Non-Fiction Endangered Animal Passages I hope you will think about using more nonfiction texts in your therapy sessions and I would love to help you with that! Here are several nonfiction passages you may want to check out: Non-Fiction American Symbol Passages, Non-Fiction Inventor Passages, Non-Fiction Black History Passages, Non-Fiction Bundle Now head back over to the linky party and see what other great products and tips are waiting for you! An InLinkz Link-up
My last blog post gave you 8 tips for working with high school students, but you may still be wondering where to find engaging and age-appropriate materials for secondary speech therapy. I've scoured my therapy room, social media, and the internet to find some of the best materials for high school
Social skills blog post about perspective-taking activities with middle high school students, including youtube links and a Halloween freebie!
Looking for engaging articulation activities for older students in your teletherapy sessions? Discover 10 ideas to motivate and facilitate progress in virtual speech therapy sessions.
FREE Getting to Know You Activities for Middle & High School SLPs
We all have our favorite population with which to work. My personal favorite group is preschool and elementary aged kids. I love their enth...
I know many of you have told me that you struggle with finding age-appropriate materials for your middle school students. I know, because I struggle with this too! You can check out some great
I know many of you have told me that you struggle with finding age-appropriate materials for your middle school students. I know, because I struggle with this too! You can check out some great paid
Includes SEVEN Middle/High School Speech Therapy Resources! This bundle provides LOTS of speech therapy activities for mixed groups and multiple communication goals at the middle/high school level. This bundle addresses expressive language, receptive language, pragmatic language skills, and fluency skills for middle/high school students. This bundle targets interpersonal, social, workplace, and life communication skills for middle/high school students. GREAT for in person sessions AND teletherapy/distance learning sessions. Check out the seven products below. For full in-depth descriptions of ALL seven products, refer to individual product previews. 1.) Middle & High School Speech Therapy Activities & Task Cards for Mixed Groups This product includes 32 task cards, including a real-life picture and corresponding activity card, in total. Each task card contains a real-life picture and a corresponding activity card that targets 5 to 8 communication goal areas. The communication goal areas included are: Inferences/Social Inferences Nonverbal Communication Problem Solving Perspective Taking Emotions Self-Advocating/Advocating Conversation Skills Executive Functioning Following Directions Formulating Questions Descriptive Language Category Vocabulary Compare and Contrast There are 32 task cards, including a real-life picture and corresponding activity card, in total. The task cards focus on the following communication settings: School/Online School Athletics/Activities Grocery Store/Cooking Restaurant/Takeout/Delivery Coffee Shop/Ice Cream Shop Workplace/Job Interview Bank/Money/Credit Card Home/Independent Living/Cleaning/Laundry 2.) Vocabulary Strategies with LOTS of Visuals for Middle & High School Students This product includes the following items: Research-Based Vocabulary Strategies LOTS of Visuals Visual List of Vocabulary Strategies Visual Explanations of ALL 8 Vocabulary Strategies Multiple Bookmarks 3.) Middle & High School Speech Therapy Vocabulary Activities This product includes the following items: Details about the product Blank vocabulary graphic organizer How to choose vocabulary words How to use the vocabulary graphic organizer 40 pre-made vocabulary graphic organizers with tier two words to use in intervention sessions How to use the vocabulary graphic organizer with tier two words in reading passages Research + references 4.) Two Middle & High School Speech Therapy Vocabulary Graphic Organizers 5.) 51 Middle & High School Speech Therapy Self-Advocating Task Cards & Role-Play Scenarios This product includes the following items: Self-Advocating in the School Setting Accommodations in the School Setting Academically in the School Setting Online Learning/Homework in the School Setting Socially in the School Setting Graduation in the School Setting Activities/Athletics in the School Setting Self-Advocating in the Workplace Setting Self-Advocating in the Real World (4 additional) BLANK Self-Advocating Task Cards & Role-Play Scenarios 6.) Middle & High School Fluency Shaping Resource Packet (Easy Onsets) This product includes the following items: Visual Strategy Page: Easy Onsets Activities/Worksheet for Easy Onsets at the Word Level Activities/Worksheet for Easy Onsets at the Sentence Level Activities/Worksheet for Easy Onsets at the Conversation Level 7.) Middle & High School Fluency Shaping Resource Packet (Phrasing/Pausing) This product includes the following items: Visual Strategy Page: Phrasing/Pausing Activities/Worksheet for Phrasing/Pausing at the Single Sentence Level Activities/Worksheet for Phrasing/Pausing at the Multiple Sentence Level Activities/Worksheet for Phrasing/Pausing at the Paragraph Level Activities/Worksheet for Phrasing/Pausing at the Conversation Level
Older speech students have been through it for a long time and sometimes lost motivation. Learn how I keep them engaged and motivated in this blog post!
SLPs know that older students in speech therapy often need fresh, new activities to stay engaged. Using logic is a great strategy to draw in middle school and high school students into articulation practice.
Speech therapy compare and contrast examples, worksheets, and teaching tips, plus my best speech therapy IEP goals for classroom success!
No more guessing about what themes your older speech therapy students will love! Get tons of specific ideas for themed therapy with your middle and high school students.
Looking for engaging speech therapy activities for older students? Discover novel ideas that spark creativity and beat boredom!
When you hear about SLPs using themes in speech therapy, you may envision crafts, picture books, and preschoolers.... not middle and high school students. I totally get it. The truth is that the majority of theme-specific speech therapy activities include cartoon graphics and building early language.But that's not the only way to do themed therapy. Ironically, as my interest in using themes grew, so did my caseload of older students. Around the time that I started doing teletherapy full time, I
Hi! So, if you have been following me, you know that I have stepped into the world of middle school this year. Two days a week I hang out with the "I'm too cool for school" crowd... just kidding... sort of. While my middle school students are mostly sweet and funny, sometimes I am just one more person trying to make them do work and speech is just one more thing taking away their study hall time. Some days, I can tell that speech is just NOT where they want to be. I get it. Many of them have to have extra reading classes, constantly have working lunch instead of getting to just hang out with their friends like other students, their study halls are taken away to go receive extra help (or speech), and some even have after school resource time. On days where I can tell that my students have just had too much, I set my plans aside and pull out something a little less stressful: a board game. Now mind you, the games still allow the students to practice their language skills - it's just a little more low key and more fun. Here are some games that I have found to be a hit with my middle schoolers while still focusing on language and pragmatic skills. {Affiliate links provided for your convenience} I play this game the traditional way, as well as backwards by having the students give adjectives to label the noun. It's a great game for working on descriptions as well as defending opinions. I love In a Pickle! It's a fun way to talk about word relationships as well as more defending opinions. Keep your eyes peeled fro Cranium's Whoonu at a thrift shop - it is a fun game for a social skills group. It helps students get to know each other and gets them talking about topics other than Minecraft and video games (which I now know far more about than I ever wanted to know). Bubble Talk is a fantastic game for students working on understanding facial expression, perspective taking, and making inferences. Definitely an essential for your middle school supply arsenal. You've Been Sentenced was another great thrift shop find. Students must use the words on the pentagon shaped cards to make a grammatically correct coherent sentence. The other players act as judges and must give a yay or nay to the sentence, which means everybody is actively involved. I first played Man Bites Dog when another SLP brought it into the office at the rehab facility I work at part time. After playing it, I had to have it for my middle schoolers! Students work on creating headlines using the cards they are given. It is great for targeting word order and vocabulary. I also add a rule that the students must state 3 details that could be included to target main idea vs details. I recently purchased Funglish and it has been a big hit with my competitive students. Students must use word tiles to describe a word while others attempt to guess the word. The only thing I don't like about this game is the timer can be a little short for some of my students who are low readers. I just used the timer on my cell phone to give them a little bit more time. I lucked out and found Moods already in my therapy room at school. It is great for my students working on understanding and expressing emotions. Students are given a sentence and must say it with a given emotion (which usually the sentence does not match the expected emotion). The other students try to guess the emotion based on the student's tone of voice and body language. Another lucky find from the SLP who was at my middle school before me: Blurt. This game is great for word finding and vocabulary building. Students are given a definition and then must come up with a word to match the definition. I take away the racing component and have all students write down an answer they think works and then give points. Otherwise I find that some of my students just cannot keep up. Say the Word is a different style game in that it is a cooperative game. The students must work together to win the game instead of playing against each other. I like this because it forces my students to communicate with each other and work together as a team. In this game, students must create a story using words on a cards that are drawn. Each person must start from the beginning of the story and then add on a part of the story when it gets to their turn. If they forget a part of the story, the other students can give clues (the directions say to act out the clues, but you know - its speech. I have the students give clues without saying the word). I also add a rule that the students must include story grammar elements to form a complete story instead of random events with no clear story line. This game is great for working as a team, auditory memory, and narrative language. Do you work with older students? Comment and share what your favorite language games are! ~Erin Follow
Conversation scripts in social language therapy improve conversation skills & gives students time to analyze & dissect conversations before practicing them!
Check out these middle school (and high school) speech therapy activities and materials for effective and motivating sessions in secondary!
Must have apps for the SLP in middle school Let’s face it, you often feel as if all speech therapy apps were created for the elementary school children. As an SLP service older student you feel left out of the technology revolution that came sweeping our profession. Over the years, Smarty Ears hear from hundreds of speech-language-pathologists just like you. We have created some of the best speech therapy apps to overcome the speech sound disorders that not only have the feel as if they were meant to be used by older students, but they actually were created specifically for areas where middle schoolers are struggling with.We compiled a list of our favorite apps for speech impaired to be used by your middle schoolers. Check them out: 1. PrepPositions Prep Positions by [...]
Hi! So, if you have been following me, you know that I have stepped into the world of middle school this year. Two days a week I hang out with the "I'm too cool for school" crowd... just kidding... sort of. While my middle school students are mostly sweet and funny, sometimes I am just one more person trying to make them do work and speech is just one more thing taking away their study hall time. Some days, I can tell that speech is just NOT where they want to be. I get it. Many of them have to have extra reading classes, constantly have working lunch instead of getting to just hang out with their friends like other students, their study halls are taken away to go receive extra help (or speech), and some even have after school resource time. On days where I can tell that my students have just had too much, I set my plans aside and pull out something a little less stressful: a board game. Now mind you, the games still allow the students to practice their language skills - it's just a little more low key and more fun. Here are some games that I have found to be a hit with my middle schoolers while still focusing on language and pragmatic skills. {Affiliate links provided for your convenience} I play this game the traditional way, as well as backwards by having the students give adjectives to label the noun. It's a great game for working on descriptions as well as defending opinions. I love In a Pickle! It's a fun way to talk about word relationships as well as more defending opinions. Keep your eyes peeled fro Cranium's Whoonu at a thrift shop - it is a fun game for a social skills group. It helps students get to know each other and gets them talking about topics other than Minecraft and video games (which I now know far more about than I ever wanted to know). Bubble Talk is a fantastic game for students working on understanding facial expression, perspective taking, and making inferences. Definitely an essential for your middle school supply arsenal. You've Been Sentenced was another great thrift shop find. Students must use the words on the pentagon shaped cards to make a grammatically correct coherent sentence. The other players act as judges and must give a yay or nay to the sentence, which means everybody is actively involved. I first played Man Bites Dog when another SLP brought it into the office at the rehab facility I work at part time. After playing it, I had to have it for my middle schoolers! Students work on creating headlines using the cards they are given. It is great for targeting word order and vocabulary. I also add a rule that the students must state 3 details that could be included to target main idea vs details. I recently purchased Funglish and it has been a big hit with my competitive students. Students must use word tiles to describe a word while others attempt to guess the word. The only thing I don't like about this game is the timer can be a little short for some of my students who are low readers. I just used the timer on my cell phone to give them a little bit more time. I lucked out and found Moods already in my therapy room at school. It is great for my students working on understanding and expressing emotions. Students are given a sentence and must say it with a given emotion (which usually the sentence does not match the expected emotion). The other students try to guess the emotion based on the student's tone of voice and body language. Another lucky find from the SLP who was at my middle school before me: Blurt. This game is great for word finding and vocabulary building. Students are given a definition and then must come up with a word to match the definition. I take away the racing component and have all students write down an answer they think works and then give points. Otherwise I find that some of my students just cannot keep up. Say the Word is a different style game in that it is a cooperative game. The students must work together to win the game instead of playing against each other. I like this because it forces my students to communicate with each other and work together as a team. In this game, students must create a story using words on a cards that are drawn. Each person must start from the beginning of the story and then add on a part of the story when it gets to their turn. If they forget a part of the story, the other students can give clues (the directions say to act out the clues, but you know - its speech. I have the students give clues without saying the word). I also add a rule that the students must include story grammar elements to form a complete story instead of random events with no clear story line. This game is great for working as a team, auditory memory, and narrative language. Do you work with older students? Comment and share what your favorite language games are! ~Erin Follow
Social skills homework or therapy activities for middle and high school students to work on multiple social communication skills in printable or digital format.
Check out these middle school (and high school) speech therapy activities and materials for effective and motivating sessions in secondary!
Check out these middle school (and high school) speech therapy activities and materials for effective and motivating sessions in secondary!
Working on conversation skills with older students? The January social skills lesson plan for middle and high school students is full of activities for speech therapy!
Speech therapy compare and contrast examples, worksheets, and teaching tips, plus my best speech therapy IEP goals for classroom success!
Looking for middle school teletherapy resources for speech therapy? Check out this list of resources to help you plan during distance learning.
I've recently got an opportunity to use the Social Quest App by Smarty Ears with my clients. After using the app for a while I decided to write a review because I really like what the app has to offer, especially because there aren't that many apps targeting social pragmatic skills in upper elementary, middle school and
