camping speech therapy activities to help SLPs plan lessons. Craft ideas for kids, book recommendations, lesson plan ideas & materials to use in speech.
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Most of us are familiar with the Expanding Expressive Tool (EET) Program, designed to build students' describing skills by assigning colored circles to a specific property of an item. I use this program a lot with my students, and this week came up with a different way of using it with my cognitively lower functioning Special Day Class kids. A lot of my SDC students have difficulty constructing more complex grammatically correct sentences and have grammar/syntax goals along with conceptual (e.g., category, function) goals. Most of them know basic sight words and respond very well to carrier phrases, so I thought of using EET within the context of a modeled sentence. In our teacher workroom I found these long paper strips (about 1.5') with handwriting lines on them. After snagging a few, I created the following visuals: EET carrier sentences. I also own a box of noun picture cards from Language Builder that I like to use when working with EET, so I picked a few suitable cards for our session. I presented each stimulus item as follows: "Group" & "Do" Students were expected to fill in the "group" (green circle) and the "do" (blue circle) independently. For this example, an acceptable response would have been, "A fish is an animal that swims." This was a great way to work on 3rd person singular "-s" morphological markers, too! We also practiced this activity with other aspects of EET. "An apple is a fruit that is red." While my students often needed a couple of initial examples for each sentence strip, they caught on quickly! "A sea gull is an animal that has feathers." "A table is a furniture made of wood." "A swimsuit is a clothing that you see at the beach." We even combined multiple aspects of EET to build even more complex sentences: "A tiger is an animal that roars in the jungle" This level of support was exactly what my students needed to successfully build grammatically correct sentences and work on their conceptual language skills, as well. I'll be hanging on to these sentence strips and probably make a few more! The best part: This activity was practically free! ~Viola
Learn how to create your own digital AAC symbol library so you can easily use icons to create materials for your students!
Choicemaking and requesting may be the most frequently targeted areas for beginning communicators who are starting out with their AAC systems. That makes sense for some learners because making choi…
One of the biggest challenges for speech pathologists treating kids with language disorders is knowing how “normal” language development looks over the school-age years. We have a lot of language developmental milestones charts out there, but most of them end around age 6. After that, you’ll be hard pressed to find a neat little chart...
October is International AAC Awareness Month and giving us the perfect opportunity to go beyond our normal therapy-assessment-paperwork routine to spread awareness of AAC. Here are some thoughts fo…
This resource is filled with color-coded supports for basic addition. There are 2 full sets within this pack; one set of materials for sums up to 5 and another set for sums from 6-10. All of the materials can be used with any set of classroom manipulatives. Included in each set: -Color Coded Addition Mat w/Numberline -Large Flashcards -Worksheets (color & black and white) -Task Box -File Folder Activity -Clip Cards -Interactive Flip Book ⭐Download the preview to see the ENTIRE Color Block Addition pack⭐ Looking for more Color Block resources? Check these out! Subtraction ⇨ Color Block Subtraction Pack Digital ⇨ Digital Color Block Addition Boom Deck Bundle Bundle ⇨Color Block Addition and Subtraction Bundle ••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••• Click the green star next to my picture to follow my store. All products are discounted for the first 48 hours after being listed. You don't want to miss it! ••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••• If you like this product, you may also be interested in: Easy Data Collection for Special Education - Forever Growing Bundle The Ultimate Visual Schedule Pack Resources for Supporting IEP Goals at Home Positive Behavior Intervention Flipbook The Ultimate Set of Student Labels Monthly Math Family Letters - Differentiated Activities for Special Education Alternative Pencil Flipbook - Writing Tool for Special Education Seasonal Counting Bundle
Looking for ideas on how to strengthen language learning by students with AAC needs in the classroom? Here are some presentation handouts that may spur your thinking. Start Talking in Class: Helpin…
It stings to write this, but the truth is that in our country, students studying to become SLPs can graduate with little to no experience in AAC. While we’ve made some progress in getting mor…
Enjoy these free speech therapy graduation certificates. There are 4 colored certificates and 4 black and white options. Simply print and go when you're ready to dismiss a student. ****Click the links below for more GREAT products!**** Articulation Word Search MEGA Bundle School Themed Spe...
Learn how to create functional speech room decor with interactive bulletin boards that you can utilize throughout your therapy sessions.
Let's think Social. Friend Files are a great topic for supporting children when developing their friendship skills.The process isn't always straightforward.
After a specific checklist is returned to me, I make decisions regarding whether part of my testing will be devoted to assessment of the child’s social pragmatic language skills and if so, what type of testing will be appropriate in such case? If social pragmatic assessment is needed, the latter becomes fairly apparent after I observe the child (e.g., in the classroom, during free period) as well as during the administration of the comprehensive language testing. So what are some useful standardized and non standardized assessments of Social Pragmatic Language? There are quite a few, but for the purposes of this post, I’ll just mention some of the ones that I use on daily basis for children whose ages range from preschool through adolescence. For preschoolers ages 4 and up, the Children’s Communication Checklist-2 U.S. Edition (CCC-2) is quite useful. This 70 item norm referenced instrument (given to the parent to rate) is divided into 10 scales, 4 of which (E, F, G & H) address pragmatic aspects of communication, while another two (I & J) assess behaviors commonly impaired in children with Autism Spectrum Disorders (Bishop, 2006; 2000). For school aged children 6-12 years of age, the following standardized instruments tend to be fairly effective in teasing out social pragmatic language deficits:
Steve Silberman talks about how Nazi extermination plans and a discredited scientific paper about childhood vaccines shaped our current understanding of autism.
This month we have talked about core words and teaching strategies & considerations for facilitating USING core language. We have talked about aided language input, creating frequent opportuni…
Keiran has a new AAC app that is well-populated with core vocabulary. Gabbie has had an SGD for awhile but doesn’t use it as frequently as her team had hoped. Hudson is transitioning from PECS to a…
Of all the things that I did expect upon completing grad school, managing complex and challenging behavior was NOT one of them. I did not take a single class on students with trauma or emotional disturbance. I was never trained in how to write a functional behavior assessment or restrain a child. I LEFT the
Beating yourself up after a tough session? Stop it. Instead, ask yourself these five questions and see what you can learn.
Like many of you, the best part of the work week is when I get to teach language. As amazing as it is to help people with AAC needs become more linguistically competent, we have to be sure not to s…
As speech language pathologists, we have a wide variety of tools and materials we use to help us facilitate effective speech therapy. But, sometimes those tools aren't the most effective. This blog post shares 21 tools that every school-based SLP should keep in their speech rooms. Click through to find out all of them!
Looking for a functional Halloween Speech Therapy craft? Candy corn, ghost and pumpkin craft templates will engage your students and also give you something to display or send home to parents this Halloween season! This Halloween craft prints black & white - option to use colored cardstock as shown in pictures! Get more mileage out of the Battle Style Dice and Dot activities while showing off your student's hard work in speech therapy! This resource includes: - candy corn, ghost, AND pumpkin craft - letters for creating Halloween themed phrases: "OUR SPEECH IS SWEET" "SWEET WORK IN SPEECH" "BEST SPEECH IN THE PATCH" "OUR SPEECH IS BOO-TIFUL" ***Dice and Dot is NOT included with this craft and bulletin board kit - must purchase separately. Get this in the DISCOUNTED Speech Therapy Bulletin Board Kit Bundle DOWNLOAD several FREE crafts on my blog www.sweetsouthernspeech.com as examples Letters print 2 or 3 to a page when full size. email me with any questions prior to purchasing: [email protected]
2012 was full of a lot of new experiences for me. I was approached at the beginning of the year to begin speaking on dysphagia for PESI. My first speaking engagements were in North Carolina in December.
When my grand-daughter was born, I made a conscious decision to visit her every month. Not only did I want to observe her development on a regular basis, I also wanted her to interact with me consistently so we could build a close and loving relationship.
Need information on selecting vocabulary for someone with AAC needs? You can’t go wrong with Lauren Enders’ Pinterest board on this topic. She’s collected some wonderful posts, documents, and video…
Glass Man is the Unthinkable that makes you have BIG reactions to small problems. Check him out. We introduce the lesson with Ginny very ...
Building Functional Pretend Play Centers in an Pre-K Classroom
It stings to write this, but the truth is that in our country, students studying to become SLPs can graduate with little to no experience in AAC. While we’ve made some progress in getting mor…
This month, we’ve been talking about how to support individuals who are at the earliest levels of communication: the perlocutionary or pre-intentional stage. Although everyone goes through a stage …
Today, we head to Oklahoma for a chart that comes in handy when comparing SGDs during the feature match process. I especially love the distinction between features on the ‘Must Have’ list and those…
Do you have mixed therapy groups? No need to fear, with some of my tips and tricks, you will master this challenge in no time! Here are a few of my favorite ways to deal with mixed groups (whether it is a group of articulation, language, fluency, and/or social skills OR one type just different levels!) Pla ...
Have you ever thought of making short videos to illustrate the meaning of the core words you are teaching to your AAC learners? If so, this post is right up your alley. Teacher Angie Sheets and SLP…
Reading is such a great activity to build language skills in AAC learners, but it takes some practice to get the hang of how to engage our partners, model language, and create communication opportu…
The Time Timer is an excellent way to motivate students and stay on track. Read about 10 ways to use the Time Timer in Speech Therapy.
Getting Vocalic R in just one session- in only 5 steps! This can be a frustrating skill for students, so these tips can help.
I’ve rounded up some of my favorite speech related TED talks!
