Draw Something

How many of you have played the popular app Draw Something?  If not, you're missing out!  It's totally addicting and lots of fun!  It has gained popularity quick and my kids have been talking about it- alot.  So today, the students and I made our own version of Draw Something that can be played in the speech room.  I divided my dry erase board into equal sections and assigned a section to each student.  We discussed what speech target they would be working on.  When I said "Draw Something", they drew as many pictures as they could that contained their target sound.  When the timer went off (7 minutes later), the kids sat down.  As a group, we tried to guess the drawings.  If the drawing was guessed by the group AND it contained the correct target sound, a point was awarded to the artist.  The artist with the most points won! I had each artist name all of their pictures for maximum speech practice. 

I only used this game for students who were working on articulation at the conversation level.  There was lots of spontaneous speech production which allowed me to track the targets in conversation. 

Happy Friday : )

Talk it up!
Ashley

Get More Use Out of Artic Flashcards

Every speech-language pathologist has articulation flashcards.  Right?  Mine were starting to get dusty after the purchase of flashcard apps on my iPad.  However, if you think outside the box, there are some great ways to use these flashcards besides basic drill.  Here are some creative ways I like to use them:

Artic Toss
Spread the flashcards out on the floor.  The child has to throw a koosh ball and have it land on a flashcard.  If the child is at the word level, they flip the card over and say it 5 times.  If they are on the phrase or sentences level, they make up a phrase/sentence containing the word. 

Guess That Flashcard
This game works great played in groups with mixed skill levels.  One student is the clue giver and one student is the guesser.  If the names didn't give it away, the clue giver gives clues about artic cards to the guesser. I choose the deck of flashcards based on the goals of the guesser.  Once the card is correctly guessed, the guesser repeats the word 5 times.  I always choose clue givers who are at the conversational level of articulation therapy.

Silly Stories
Each student gets 10 flashcards relating to their targeted speech sounds.  They must use each word to make a silly story.  They read their story to the group using their best speech sounds.  I save these stories for later use during reading level speech therapy. 

How do you use your articulation flashcards???

Talk it up!
Ashley

Bullseye!

I like to use a magnetic dart board for a visual while working on the /r/ sound in speech therapy.  I tape an /r/ to the center of the dart board and explain that a perfect /r/ sound is a bullseye.  The old sound (Check out old sound/new sound here) is like hitting the dart board on the outer most edge.  A distorted /r/ can land anywhere in between. As the child produces /r/ words/syllables, I show them how close they were to a bullseye.  I also use this activity for auditory discrimination.  The child listens to my /r/ and shows me how close I came to getting a bullseye.  Don't have a dart board?  A picture works just as well! I hope you enjoy this mid-week quickie! 

Talk it up!
Ashley

Bulletin Board

Happy Monday everyone!  Check out my new bulletin board that's inside my classroom.  Does anyone have any ideas for bulletin boards outside the classroom?  I'm not allowed to write student names or anything about speech and/or language.  I hate to admit this but.... my outside board has said "We are here to shine" since August!  I need to do something about that quick!

Talk it up!

Ashley

Diary of a Speech Kid- Part 2

My students were begging for more Diary of a Wimpy Kid activities so I created a few more.  These worksheets cover syntax skills.  Although they are set up in the worksheet format, I never hand my students a piece of paper and tell them to get to work.  I usually project the worksheets onto the whiteboard and we work on them together.  Or, I read the question aloud and have them write their answers on a small dry erase board.  These techniques are so much more motivating than traditional pencil and paper work!  Some of my students required a graphic organizer before the journal write.  We wrote "Monday" in the center of the web and then wrote things such as "I got an "f" on my math test" in the outside bubbles.  Here is the graphic organizer I used.

Check out the Diary of a Speech Kid syntax pages here and the journal page here.

Congrats to Ms. Cheryl for winning A Day with A Difference app!

Talk it up!
Ashley

Giveaway! A Day with A Difference

 I recently had the opportunity to use the new iPad app, A Day with  A Difference.  It is a great interactive story book that teaches basic concepts.  The main characters, Mr. Big and Mr. Small, guide you through a series of events where basic concepts are encountered in natural situations.  For example, there was only one washer left at the laundromat, so Mr. Big and Mr. Small had to share.  Oh no!  Their clothes are all mixed up.  Will you help them sort their clothes?  My students loved the interactive games in this story!  Basic concepts targeted include bigger and smaller, longer and shorter, same and different, more and less.  After reading the story, there is an option to play bonus games.  It was possible to collect a lot of data in a short amount of time during these games. Overall, this would be a good addition to your therapy tool box if you work with preschool aged children. 

Mr. Big and Mr. Small

Basic Concept Game

I have one of these apps to giveaway!  Leave a comment with your e-mail address to enter.  The winner will be chosen on Friday, March 2.

Talk it up!

Ashley

Life Skills Questions

What are the most important questions for a child to be able to answer? Children need to be able to answer so many questions to function in life/school that it is quite difficult to narrow it down to a short list.  However, many students with langauge impairments have an extremely difficult time answering any questions.  Even the simple ones like, "What is your name?"  prove too difficult to answer for some langauge impaired children.  I've compiled a list of questions that relate to safety and basic life skills.  Here is the list I came up with:

1.       What is your name?
2.       What is your last name?
3.       What is your address?
4.       What is your dad’s phone number?
5.       What is your mom’s phone number?
6.       What city do you live in?
7.       What street do you live on?
8.       What is your zip code?
9.       What state do you live in?
10.   Where do you live?
11.   How old are you?
12.   What school do you go to?
13.   What number do you call for an emergency?
14.   What do you do if you see a fire?
15.   What are your parents’ names?
16.   Who are your parents?
17.   What do you say if you need help?
18.  When is your birthday?
19.  Who can you ask if you need help at school?
20.  Who can you ask if you need help at a store?
21.  Who can you ask if you need help at the library?

You will notice that some questions are asked several times but are worded differently.  This is important to teach flexibility to the language impaired child.  Am I missing any key questions? 

Next, I went to Flashcard Machine to generate a set of flashcards based on the question list.  Flashcard machine is FREE!  You do have to create an account though. You can review the flashcards online, on your iPad, or print them out.   Now we will drill, drill, drill until these important questions are mastered!

Talk it up!
Ashley