What a Character! Conversation Starters for Speech & Language

Oh my goodness! What a busy year this is turning out to be.  I'm not alone in that, right?  I feel as though I barely have time to sit at a computer to get my school paperwork done, never mind create new materials. But, I did get into a creative mood the other night!  I started looking at some clip-art I had purchased a while ago, but never did anything with and here's the result...

I had purchased some fairy tale clip-art from Scrappin' Doodles and thought to myself "What would happen if those fairy tales got mixed together (think the TV show "Once Upon a Time")?  What would their conversations look/sound like?  

Of course, as an SLP, I thought about the pragmatic implications of the conversations, but really there is so much more that could be targeted here! 

*Pragmatic language/Conversation skills
*Perspective Taking
*Grammar/Syntax/Semantics
*Carry-over for articulation, voice, fluency
*Narrative skills

In this free download, there are several mixed-up story conversation starters. Read the situations on the cards and have students discuss how the conversation might continue. You could also discuss the appropriateness of the actions of the characters within each scene. Here's a sample scene:

Head on over to my Teachers Pay Teachers store to download!  Thanks for stopping by!

Bubble Categories

Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links to Amazon.com for your convenience.

Hey Everyone!

Time for my monthly (or so) check-in. ;)  Boy have I been busy with Jamberry work and end of the school year goings-on, but I wanted to share some fun books and another activity for those of you who are still in school or working summer school!

Summer is a great time to play with Bubbles!  I found these adorable books on Amazon and I've been using them in some of my sessions:

I've noticed that my students this year have really struggled with categories - especially naming a category when given members of the category. So, I developed this activity.

There are bubble wand cards that each have 3 category members each:

Then there are bubble container cards with a category name:

There are a few different ways you can use this activity.

1. First, you can use the bubble wand cards separately. Shuffle and have students draw a card. They can read the three members and try to come up with the category.
2. You could also use the bubble container cards separately. Shuffle and have students draw a card. They can read the category name and try to name a specified number of members.
3. Another way to use the bubble container cards would be to divide students into teams.  One card is drawn and teams take turns naming a member of the category until one team can no longer think of a member. Once that happens, the other team gets the point.
4. Use both sets of cards together, mix them up and play a Memory Game.

There is also a game board to increase motivation during your sessions:

My kids love bubbles and I've been using actual bubbles as a reinforcement for this activity.  You can download for FREE in my TPT store! As always, please leave feedback if you download! :)

Easter Roll & Color

Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links to Amazon.com for your convenience.

Hi everyone!

Did you happen to catch the Acorn Roll & Color that I posted in the fall?  Well, one of the teachers in my school loved it so much that she asked me to create an Easter Version!

Here it is:

I'm using this activity along with the book Easter Eggs Everywhere! by Steve Metzger in my language groups. I love that I can use roll and colors to target a variety of objectives!

You can grab a copy of this freebie HERE.  Let me know what you think about Roll and Color worksheets. Would you like to see more?

Educator Evaluation for SLPs: Student Learning and Professional Practice Goals

Background for graphics provided by: Cutesy Clickables by Collaboration Cuties

I’ve done a few posts now where I’ve mentioned my student learning goal and professional practice goals for the Educator Evaluation that many districts have adopted. A decent number of people have asked me to share some information regarding my SLG and PPG. Last year was the first year my district used this evaluation method. In effort to stagger plans, some of us were to develop 1-year plans and others developed 2-year plans. I was on the one-year plan. This is good for you because I’ve now had to write TWO plans!

If you’re new to my page, I just want you to be aware that the majority of my caseload consists of preschool students. Because of that, you might not choose to work on the same goals, but they should give you an idea for your own goals!

For the 2012-2013 school year, I had a number of preschool students who had significantly reduced Mean Length of Utterance (MLU).  I decided to select a cohort of students who had an MLU of less than or equal to 2.0 for my SLG.  I'm not sure if other districts have the same type of plan, but we are required to submit our SLG and PLG for approval, then create a plan that includes action steps. This is a basic outline of that plan. The "due dates" of the steps are included in parenthesis.

Student Learning Goal:

By June 2013, 80% of an identified cohort of students with a BOY Mean Length of Utterance in Morphemes (MLU-M) of less than or equal to 2.0 will increase their MLU-M to 3.5 or greater as measured by language sampling.

Action Steps:

1. Obtain language samples and calculate BOY MLU (By 9/30/12). 

     *BOY = Beginning Of Year

2. Identify cohort of students with MLU of less than or equal to 2.0 (By 10/30/12)

3. Implement activities to target the following morphological structures/sentence types:

a. Plural -s (by 12/31/12 )
b. Subject-Verb (by 1/31/13)
c. Subject-Verb-Object  (by 3/31/13)
d.Prepositional Phrases (by 5/31/13)

4. To demonstrate effectiveness, by Progress Reporting Period 2 (March 2013), 80% of students in the cohort should see an increase in MLU to 2.75 or greater. 

5. For each student in the established cohort, I will provide home activities for parents to complete to facilitate carry-over of skills at least 4x/student during the 2012-2013 school year.

*2 activities sent by 2/28/13
*1 activity sent by 4/30/13
*1 activity sent by 6/20/13

Professional Practice Goal:

I will increase my content knowledge of Evidence Based Practice in the area of increasing MLU in preschool students by researching methods and establishing 4 different activities based on those methods by June 2013.

Action Steps:

1. Research evidence-based instructional strategies that target increasing MLU in preschool-aged students. Identify a minimum of two instructional strategies for use in therapy.

*By 12/31/12, search the American Speech-Language Hearing Association’s online database for articles related to preschool MLU.
*By 2/28/13, compile binder of resources for increasing preschool MLU containing at least 5 articles from journals or websites.

2. Develop/create activities to target the following morphological structures/sentence types:

a. Plural -s (by 12/31/12)
b. Subject-Verb (by 1/31/13)
c. Subject-Verb-Object (3/31/13)
d. Prepositional Phrases (5/31/13)

3. Research/trial at least 5 different iPad applications that are designed to (or can be adapted to) target morphology/sentence structure using the FIVES criteria.

*2 apps by 2/28/13
*2 apps by 4/30/13
*1 app by 5/31/13

I did share some of the activities I created for this project in previous posts. You can find them below.

• Penguin Plurals
• Penguin Plurals Home Practice Sheet
• I used the Leprechaun's Prepositions cards from my St. Patrick's Day Preschool Language Pack to target prepositional phrases.
• Also, you can find information on the FIVES criteria on Speech Techie's site.

I'm on a 2-year plan now, so my timelines will look a little bit different.  However, my caseload does change every year, so I wanted to reflect that!  For this go-around, I chose a cohort of students on an IEP for language delays/disorders (e.g., NOT articulation).  I also selected students in the 4-year old program that will be going to kindergarten in the next school year.

Student Learning Goal:

By the end of each academic year, 75% of students in an identified cohort (language delayed/disordered students in the 4-year old preschool program) will demonstrate an increase in vocabulary and describing skills (using the Expanding Expression Tool) to be able to state 5 or more attributes/features of 6 pictured objects.

Action Steps:
1. Identify cohort of students. (By 11/27/13) 

*We had a late start getting our plans in this year!

2. Obtain baseline data through the informal assessment (students will name and identify characteristics of 6 familiar objects presented in pictures) (By 11/27/13 )

3. Become familiar with the Expanding Expression Tool by reviewing manual (Ongoing)

4. Implement activities to target the individual beads on the EET strand:

a. Green (by 12/31/13)
b. Blue (by 1/31/14)
c. Eye  (by 3/31/14)
d. Wood (6/20/14)
e. Pink (1/31/15)
f. White (6/20/15)

5. To demonstrate effectiveness, by Progress Reporting Period 3 (June 2014), 75% of students in the cohort should be able to state 3 or more attributes/features of 6 pictured objects.
*Obtain informal assessments 4x/year (BOY, Progress Report 1, Progress Report 2, EOY).

Professional Practice Goal:

I will increase my content knowledge of Evidence Based Practice in the area of vocabulary skills in preschool students by researching developmental norms and the Expanding Expression Tool (EET), as well as creating/finding and implementing 6 different activities related to the beads on the EET strand by June 2015.

Action Steps:

1. Research evidence-based instructional strategies that target vocabulary development in preschool-aged students, including the Expanding Expression Tool.

*By 12/31/13, search the American Speech-Language Hearing Association’s online database for articles related to preschool vocabulary development.
*By 6/19/14, compile binder of resources for increasing preschool vocabulary containing at least 5 articles from journals or websites.

2. Develop/identify activities to target the individual beads on the EET strand:

a. Green (by by 12/31/13)
b. Blue (by 1/31/14)
c. Eye (by 3/31/14)
d. Wood (by 6/20/14)
e. Pink (by 1/31/15)
f. White (by 6/20/15)

Freebie Alert:
The informal assessment sheets I am using to track student performance can be downloaded as a freebie HERE.  My plan is to have students describe 6 different objects 4x in the year...Beginning of the Year (BOY), Progress Report 1 (PR1), Progress Report 2 (PR2), and End of the Year (EOY).  My plan is to repeat the first 6 words at the end of the year to get a good estimate of progress.  My prompt is "Tell me everything you know about a ___" and I give the student the EET strand. The sheets look like this:

For those of you who are new to the evaluation system, I hope this information is helpful!  I think once you have one evaluation cycle "under your belt," it will be easier to write and implement new plans!

I'm curious...Is your district following this evaluation system or are you doing something different? If you are doing a similar evaluation system, what are your SLGs and PPGs?

Hello, 2014!

Happy New Year!  

I hope everyone had a fantastic ending of 2013 and I wish you nothing but wonderful things for 2014!  If you are back to work this week and need something quick to do with your kiddos, here's a simple worksheet...

First we talked about our time away from school and I asked the kids to tell me about their Christmas (for the ones who celebrate).  Inevitably, this lead to a discussion about their presents, so I had each child tell me about their favorite gift and the reasons they liked the gift.  Finally, they drew a picture of the gift.

Here are some examples: 

I did this with preschool kids, so I wrote in their answers. If you work with older children, you can have them write their own responses. You can download a copy of the worksheet HERE.

Enjoy!

Acorn Craftivity

This week, we're sticking with the theme of squirrels and acorns.  On Tuesday, I posted about the book "Acorns Everywhere" and included a free Roll & Cover activity. (You can find that post HERE.)  I had mentioned that I run a group with an Occupational Therapist.  We came up with this activity to promote fine motor objectives after reading "Acorns Everywhere."  Well, some of my groups absolutely LOVE doing crafts so I adapted the activity to meet the needs of my students!

I printed the acorn top and bottom on cardstock and had kids color them in and cut them out. Then I punched holes along the adjoining edges and had them lace together with yarn:

You could modify this activity for pretty much any target:

• Articulation: Write sound on the top portion and have students brainstorm words to write on the bottom.
• Categorization: Write a category on the top and have students brainstorm members of that category to write on the bottom.
• Describing:  Write a word at the top. Have students write describing words on the bottom.  OR...
• EET:  Write a target vocabulary word on the top. Use your EET stickers along the bottom and have students follow the strand to describe the word.

You can find the acorn pattern HERE.

Let me know what you think! What other ideas do you have for using the acorns?

Book of the Week: Acorns Everywhere!

Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links to Amazon.com for your convenience.

One of the books I'm using this week is "Acorns Everywhere!" by Kevin Sherry.  This is a VERY simple book that I picked up from one of the Scholastic flyers for $1.00 last year. There really aren't a lot of words, so this is a great book for having students "read" the pictures!

We discussed why the squirrel is burying acorns, whether or not students have seen squirrels gathering food in their yards, as well as the emotions of the different animals we see on the pages.  After we were finished, we worked on following directions using acorns (put them in the the cup, give three acorns to Mrs. Smith, put one one your toes, etc.).

In my next sessions with the kids, we used this Roll & Cover Game to target their individual language and articulation goals:

If you'd like a copy of this game, you can download it HERE.

Enjoy!

Thanksgiving Round Up!

I can't believe Thanksgiving is only three weeks away!  I had every intention to finish all of my Christmas shopping before Thanksgiving this year, but I'm not sure that's going to happen!  I digress...I know many of  you may be prepping for your therapy sessions and want to include some fun Thanksgiving themed items, so I figured I'd share a round-up of my Thanksgiving posts from last year:

• I Know an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Pie:  This is one of my favorite books for Thanksgiving! This post has links to some fun free activities from other blogs that you can use to accompany the book.

• Articulation Turkeys:  This is a FREE printable to target single word articulation skills. I included blank pages as well so that you can use the turkeys to address other sounds as well as language targets.

• Thanksgiving Bingo:  This is another FREEBIE designed to target Thanksgiving vocabulary in a fun way!

I will be adding some new posts about Thanksgiving this year, but I wanted to make sure you didn't miss the old ones!

Happy November!

Skeleton S-Blends {Freebie included}

Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links to Amazon.com for your convenience.

I've been working on a skeleton-themed activity to accompany the book Skeleton Hiccups by Margery Cuyler.  

Do you remember me mentioning that I'm running an OT/Speech group this year with our wonderful OT?  Well, we chose this book because she has an awesome skeleton craft (similar to this one on Pinterest) and I came up with this activity since many of my kids are working on /s/ blends:

The design has a fun skeleton/chalkboard theme. Graphics are by Scrappin Doodles.  There are 12 target words for each of the following blends: /sk/, /sl/, /sm/, /sn/, /sp/, /st/, and /sw/ for a total of 84 target words.

Here are some of the /sk/ words:

You can use the words for articulation or for sentence formulation.  I tried to include as many Halloween themed words as I could (scare, slimy, skeleton, etc.).  I also added two dot-reinforcer pages (one girl, one boy) :

and a writing page:

You can find this item in my TPT store.  Download the Preview file and get the /sk/ words for free!

Tell us...If you don't use these for articulation, what would you target?

App Review: Fun with R {GIVEAWAY and a FREEBIE}

Today I'm going to be sharing Fun with "R" by the Virtual Speech Center.  Oh that dreaded /r/!  We've all had kids who struggle with that sound, right?  I'm guessing this app will make them a little more motivated in their sessions!

Under the Info tab, there is a video tutorial that you can view to learn how to use the app. You can also watch the tutorial here:

Many times I skip over telling you about the settings of an app because they are generally self-explanatory.  There is one really cool setting in Fun with R that I want to tell you about....Custom Words!  My absolute favorite feature of this app is that you can add your own words!  This is especially cool if there is an /r/ word that is particularly meaningful to a child (sibling name, teacher's name, etc.).  You can add a photo from your  camera roll and record models for word, phrase, and sentence levels:

There are three different activities from which to choose (more on those in a minute).  You can select your students and then their target(s).  As you can see, there are 15 different /r/ contexts:

Under the boxes, you can Edit Words (another great feature!).  From here you can deselect words:

Here's a quick explanation of why I love this feature:  I live in Massachusetts.  I "pahk the cah in Hahvid yahd."  I kid you not, I've gotten emails from people who wonder whether or not SLPs in Massachusetts actually work on /r/.  My answer:  yes, but not all /r/'s.  You can tell the difference between a dialectical difference and a true /r/ distortion.  We work on the distortions (typically "aw"), but not the dialectical differences (typically "eh" or "ah").  Does that make sense?  On to the dialectical differences...If you look at the "air" word list on this app, there are many words included that people in Massachusetts would pronounce differently (e.g., cherries would be "Ch-EH-Reez" not "Chair-eez").  Modifying the word lists can allow for correction of these differences!

Flashcards:
The first activity listed in Fun with R is "Flashcards."  As you might expect, you can scroll through images of words in this activity.  You can also hear the prerecorded model, record a child's response, and score responses as correct, incorrect, or approximate/assisted.  In this mode, you can easily switch between word positions and complexity level (word, phrase, sentence).  This mode is great for initial teaching of a sound.  You can get a lot of trials in and have students judge their own productions.

Here's "run" at the word level...

...at the phrase level...

...and at the sentence level:

Memory Game:
Most articulation apps have this game included.  It really is the perfect game for articulation because students practice 2 words per turn whether they get a match or not!  The app chooses six words from the list, for a total of 12 cards.

When a card is selected, the image pops up large for you to record the child's response:

When a student makes a match, the cards stay turned over on the screen rather than disappear (see below).  This allows you to continue to practice words even after they have been matched.  You can continue to record and play back responses in this game and toggle between word positions and complexity levels.  Note:  If you do change word positions, the pictures will change.

Bingo:
When you start a Bingo game, you are given a card with all the pictures showing.  This is great for practicing all of the words before you even begin the game.  A "call" word is shown on the right of the screen and the student needs to tap the corresponding image on their "card" if they have one.

When you "cover" an image, the image pops up larger so that you can collect data on the student's productions:

In addition, as you make matches, your pictures are covered like so:

I think the best thing about using articulation apps in therapy is that you always get a report at the end of your sessions.  We all need to collect data and apps are great for doing that on the spot with little effort on your part!  Fun with R will store your reports and you can view by data or by goal target.  I can't think of an easier way to document progress!

And there you have Fun with R!  Here are my thoughts...

Pros:

• Ability to add custom words! Great for making an app more meaningful and motivating for students!
• Ability to change/modify word lists (great when working in specific regions of the country).
• Built in data collection.
• Use of real photos

Changes I would make in an update:

• I always try to think of what changes I would make to any app I review.  My initial thought with this one is that I would make the images disappear when a student makes a match in Memory.  Then I decided that VSC got it right by keeping them there....more practice!!!  I guess I would like to see an option of keeping them or removing them as some of our kids can get visually overstimulated

Bottom Line:

Fun with R is a great app for targeting that stubborn /r/ sound!  I love the customization that is available - being able to add your own words and to modify word lists.  If you find yourself frequently working on /r/, this is a must have app!  Fun with R currently sells for $19.99 in the App Store.

BONUS:

I created this quick screen to determine which contexts a child needs to focus on.  Simply have the students repeat the words and target those that they are having difficulty producing accurately.  You can download this freebie HERE.  

Enter to win a copy of Fun with R using the Rafflecopter below!

Disclaimer:  Virtual Speech Center provided a copy of this app for me to review, plus one to give away.  However, the opinions expressed are mine alone.

a Rafflecopter giveaway