Basic Concepts If you are not yet familiar with what basic concepts are and why they are important, be sure to check out THIS BLOG POST. Below you will find 3 groups of basic concepts that are often targeted in speech therapy. Temporal Concepts Temporal concepts are those related to time: before, after, first, next, l
What is Cariboo? If you don’t have a Cariboo game, you probably have been wondering how this game is played and why speech pathologists love it. I made a how to video so that you can see what the hype is all about. The video will walk you through the mechanics of the game, but ... Read More about How to Play Cariboo in Speech Therapy
Create measurable goals, monitor cues and prompts, and learn more about foundational skills to track in AAC data collection.
Simple, everyday reinforcers and mini trinkets can make therapy motivating and engaging. So read these ideas, and start collecting!
You’ve got older students, and you’ve been working with these kids for a while. You’ve probably made a ton of progress. You may have even started years ago with a sound in isolation, or single words with models. And here you are, working on conversation or reading. Congrats! You’re a rockstar! Wait, what’s that? Your...
It’s time for another edition of Theme Thursday! Today, I’ll be sharing some of my favorite books and ideas for an ocean theme. Summer is quickly winding down, so I want to squeeze in a little beach fun! This is definitely one of my favorite themes! *This post contains Amazon Affiliate links* Let’s start by ... Read More about Ocean Theme in Speech Therapy!
It's that time of the school year. If you are like me you have been using many of the same therapy activities to target your goals. Your kid's are getting tired of the same old Super Duper cards and quite frankly you are too! If this sounds familiar, then this post is for you. I tried an activity called What is this? in therapy recently and it was a big hit. The idea originally came from childcareland, but I adapted it to work on describing. On the outside of the folder is a clue. Read this to the child without showing him/her the picture. If they have trouble guessing show them the clue in the "window." Last you can reveal the main picture in the folder. This is great game because you can model the ways to describe the pictures (i.e, colors, animal/person, what it does, how it tastes etc.) and then give the child a chance for you to guess. Here is the printable document I created for this activity, sorry there are no pictures to go with. The other tool I have been using when working on describing is the Texture Hand. I found this on good ol' Pinterest, but linked me to Mrs. Bainbridge's Class who has the pdf of the hand for FREE. I have found that it really helps kids with describing how something feels and is also great because it gets their tactile senses involved in language. You really can use whatever you have around the house, but here is what I used for the different textures. 1. Soft: cotton ball (you can see that it has already gotten a lot of love :) 2. Smooth: wrapped part of a Ziploc bag around card stock 3. Rough: sandpaper 4. Hard: glass stone (one of those stones you put at the bottom of a fish bowl) 5. Bumpy: sticker (I happened to have a sticker with raised letters on it) Like I said anything works and the main point is teaching the meaning of the word so that they can use it when they are describing objects. Well I hope this gets your creative juices flowing! I know these ideas helped spark some language in my therapy room. How are you all working on describing in therapy?
Use busy picture scenes in speech therapy! Download a free language scene and use a free Pinterest board with over 100 scenes.
Check out the 14 speech and language goals to target in speech therapy using the classic picture book, Where's Spot by Eric Hill
I am so excited to share this new activity with all of you! I just finished the first installment in my Articulation BINGO series targeting...
Are you a speech pathologist that works with 4th and 5th graders? Do you need tips on how to work best with your upper elementary students? This is the ultimate SLP Guide for working with 4th and 5th grade in a school setting! In this blog post, I'm going to share some of my favorite
Okay so I know that Easter is this weekend but I'm pretty sure kids like opening Easter eggs year round! So this is one of the activities I have been using in therapy this past week. I gathered items around my house that were small and that my client would be able to guess or would know how to describe. I hammed it up when I brought it out and we both "knocked" on the egg carton to wake up the eggs. Then we both took turns peeking into the egg. The person peeking would describe the item using it's color, shape, how it feels, what you use it for and what its made of. The other person would try and guess what was in the egg. My client loved this and is always asking to play with the eggs. For homework I sent home three empty Easter eggs that my client filled with small items from his home. When he returned we played the same describing activity. We had to do it in the first five minutes of the session because he was bursting at the seams to tell me what was in his eggs! Here is the document I sent home for the homework assignment "What's in the Egg?". Still new at posting documents on the blog, so the font isn't as fun as it was when I originally made it but you can have fun customizing it for you! What kind of Spring activities have you all been using in therapy??
Story Retell Goal Ideas Read more about my goals here. Teaching Story Retell Before working on story retell skills, your learners should have foundational skills in Sequencing, WH Questions, and Story Elements. Once they do, working on story retell is a great way to practice all of those skills in one activity! If your learner […]
camping speech therapy activities to help SLPs plan lessons. Craft ideas for kids, book recommendations, lesson plan ideas & materials to use in speech.
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...
Couples therapy and couples counseling books, exercises, & worksheets.
Check out the 18 speech and language goals you can target in your speech therapy sessions using the picture book Terrible Tim by Katie Haworth.
One of my biggest pet peeves is when students do not know why they come to speech therapy. "To play games" just doesn't cut it in my book. Do we ever play games in my room? Absolutely. Not every session, but it does happen. However, that game is a medium to address the specific goals, not the goal itself. Now, I know that you all know that so you're probably thinking I'm preaching to the choir, right? My point is that WE know what the purpose of that game or activity is but do our students? Having students know what they target in speech-language has always been an important factor for me but a couple years ago I had to take a good hard look at HOW I was doing that. As a token of congratulations for being nominated educator of the year, my sweet SLP colleague compiled a book for me with responses from my students about what they love about coming to speech. The responses truly touched my heart (I may have shed a tear or twenty) but responses that referenced the WHY they came to speech were in the minority. I am a big proponent of self-reflection so I had to take a step back and really think about what I could do to make sure that was in the forefront of their thinking about speech. My challenge? It was important to me to address that in a way that would not sacrifice the strong interpersonal relationships with my students that I hold near and dear to my heart. Flash forward to the next year... our SLP assignments were changed and I was now tasked to ensure that my self-reflection of increasing goal awareness took place while also establishing authentic relationships with new students. The solution that worked for me was using Speech Therapy Goal Tags. I'll be honest here... they weren't just helpful for my students but for me as well! Not only were my students learning what their speech therapy targets were, but I was learning what their specific targets were. Particularly for my students targeting language skills, this can be a difficult task. What I didn't anticipate was how much the students would LOVE the tags. I intentionally made the goal tags in landscape orientation so they would be easy to discern from brag tags that we added. To the students, the tags were regarded as an ID badge. I included a schedule badge to encourage students to come down to therapy independently at their scheduled time. I had to hide my giggles when I would spot a student testing out their badge to see if it would gain them access to the elevator like staff badges do. How did they work? Students were active participants in assembling their goal badges onto their lanyards. This was a great opportunity to talk about what they were working on in speech in a relevant project based manner that held relevance. The badges then traveled with students back and forth from class. They were also a helpful reminder to teachers about what each student was targeting in student friendly "I can" terms. Students took pride in them and would often ask for special permission to take them home and show their parents (ummm... absolutely!). I highly recommend trying it out to see how it works for you and your students. You can create your own tags with index cards/cardstock or use the Speech Therapy Goal Tags that I made if you want a print and go option. I added a customizable option as well so you can taylor them to meet your specific needs. What works for you? I'd love to hear. Shoot me a message or let me know in the comments below! UPDATE: Do you want to hear more about using Goal Tags? Check them out in the video below! (Don't mind the awkward screen shot... thanks YouTube!)
Easy crafts for speech and language that you can incorporate student's therapy goals. These holiday and seasonal activities are perfect for school!
Tips for Speech therapists in a school. Use these speech and language therapy tips for speech therapy data collection, data sheets, data tracking for IEP goals, baselines and progress monitoring, and speech and language activities. How to use speech therapy caseload management forms and templates
Teaching rhetorical analysis is one of my absolute favorite units to complete with my students. I love teaching my students about rhetorical strategies and devices, analyzing what makes an effective and persuasive argument, and reading critical speeches with my students. Here is a quick list of some of my favorite speeches for rhetorical analysis.
A new school year means new kids, and new kids means language screenings! Check out my custom take on a classic screening guide here.
This style data sheet is useful for speech therapy groups of up to 5 kiddos. You are able to record basic information, the activity for the session, as well as each child's goal/focus for the day and notes about the session. This product includes 1 printable copy and 1 editable copy for you to use over and over for your whole caseload. I hope this comes in handy and makes your life a little easier! Check out my store for an individual version of this data sheet :)
Make a windsock craft for kids in your speech therapy sessions and cover a lot of speech and language goals for your younger and older students.
IEP goals, IEP goal banks, special education, sped goals, writing sped goals
Using mini erasers in Speech: Like many of you, I’m a bit obsessed with the mini erasers found at Target, Five Below, and Party City. I’ve been using them in speech therapy for a while & wanted to share some of the ways you can use them too! I will say my favorite mini erasers ... Read more
Guess Who is a game found in most therapy closets around the country. While Guess Who can be used for many therapy goals independently, one Speech Room News reader Alice Wong sent in an idea
Get practical grammar intervention tips that are aligned with Evidence-based practices with links to research articles.
These sound loaded newspapers are perfect articulation carryover activities! Great for both articulation and language practice!
If you struggle with keeping all of your students engaged in mixed speech and language therapy groups, this blog post is a MUST READ! As an SLP I have faced these same challenges, and share here with you my best activities and tricks to keeping ALL of my students engaged, excited, and learning in mixed groups!
Thanks so everyone for the wonderful feedback about my Clips activities. I have gotten lots of email requests for other activities and have had a blast getting them going. So until those are ready, I thought I would post a Clip freebie for you all so you can take them for a test drive! This articulation clip freebie is in my store now. It targets initial /s/blends and /l/blends. Students get the large, letters and can clip the words onto them. There are nice, bright visuals for each word. There is also a worksheet for each blend too! Once kiddos
SLP Sticker
Bubbles are one of the most engaging toys for kids that is cost effective for the SLP. Learn how to use bubbles in speech therapy to cover lots of goals!
Download and print these free Christmas themed stimulus sentences to target compromised breath support in speech therapy.
Have a look at all the speech and language goals you can target in speech therapy using Tiddler by Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler.
This evidence-based resource addresses the critical preschool and lower elementary WORD STRUCTURE concepts of subject, object, possessive, and reflexive pronouns, irregular past tense verbs, increasing MLU, answering WH (who) questions, subject/verb agreement and more! 230+ pages are included. Target Expressive & Receptive Language skills in Speech Therapy or a regular classroom, tutoring, or homeschool setting. WHAT'S INCLUDED: - Common Core standards chart - Developmental Milestones chart for pronouns and Brown's Morphemes - EBP research and how to implement them with this resource - 12 full and half size pronoun teaching posters - 186 pronoun cards: subject, object, possessive, reflexive (statement & question formats) - 60 full and half size pronoun sorting mats: subject, object, possessive, reflexive (statement & question formats) - data collection/progress monitoring sheet - binder spine and cover PLUS 100+ seasonal sorting mats! (winter, spring, summer, fall, pirates, school, sports) Primary concepts targeted: subject: I, he, she, they object: him, her, their possessive: his, hers, theirs reflexive: himself, herself, themselves This is resource ideal for teaching Speech Therapy pronouns in preschool or early elementary. Secondary concepts targeted: - auxiliary (helping) verbs - copula (linking) verbs - answering WH questions (who) - increasing MLU - have/has confusion Cards are scaffolded for teaching differentiation. Each poster, card, & sorting mat is labeled for easy organization. Cover cards included as well for easy storage. See a full product demonstration saved to my Instagram highlights under "PRONOUNS": @ashleyrossislp Download the preview above to see everything included and up close pictures in use. Any small mini object may be used for the sorting mats (pictures show trinkets from Dinky Doodads on ETSY- another idea is using mini erasers or articulation words on bottle caps). You can also have the student stamp or draw pictures. This resource is color only. Please ask any questions prior to purchasing! [email protected]
Need some new ways to use Zingo in your speech therapy sessions? This blog post will give you ideas for planning mixed groups.
What’s on your mind? Is a terrific way to get to know your students + these make an easy and awesome bulletin board too! Great activity for the first week of school and a nice ice breaker for students to get to know their new classmates. What’s On Your Mind Activity From: TeachWithMe.com Would you ... Read More about What’s On Your Mind?
"In the Tall, Tall Grass" by Denise Fleming is one of my favorite spring books for speech therapy in preschool. You might think that with a caseload of all preschool, lesson planning is pretty easy!
