Speech Therapy Folders Pros and Cons – Ep 101

Speech Therapy Folders Pros and Cons – Ep 101

by | Jun 20, 2023 | organizational tips, Uncategorized

If you are new to being an SLP in the school setting or have been trying to find an organizational system for managing all your students therapy materials and logs this episode is for you! I will be sharing the pros and cons of making speech therapy folders for your caseload, so that you can figure out if investing the time to make these will be worth it!

 

Digital Speech Therapy Folders

For SLPs that do teletherapy or want to make less trips to the copier, you need to check out the digital speech therapy folders that use Google Slide templates to help you create a speech folder for sessions. You can see a step-by-step tutorial for how to make a digital speech folder. Check out all the digital speech folders for minimal pairs and different individual sounds.

Pros for Making Speech Therapy Folders for Your Caseload

speech-therapy-student-folders
  1. You have a system to find everything you need for the student, including data sheets, worksheets, and visuals that are specific to the student. You have a spot, so keeping things organized is easier.
  2. If you want to set up a home program with the family, having a speech folder to send back and forth is easy for updating the family.
  3. Students can take ownership of their speech or language therapy practice, and you can have them help with maintaining their speech therapy folder.
  4. It helps with revisiting previously taught concepts or using activities from the previous week as a warm-up.

Cons for Making Speech Therapy Student Folders for Your Caseload

  1. It can be time consuming to set up 50+ speech therapy student folders with the individual needs of the students. Having a checklist of things you want to include in all the folders does help such as data sheets, IEP goals, parent contact form, and certain visual supports.
  2. Making speech therapy folders for your entire caseload can also be expensive especially if you don’t get any money from your school. For example, if you have a caseload of 60 kids, and get a durable folder, you are looking at spending $60 plus dollars for your caseload.
  3. Finding your student’s folder when that group walks in can distract from getting started with the lesson.
100-trials-for-speech-therapy

Tips for Setting Up Speech Therapy Student Folders:

speech-therapy-student-folders
  1. Instead of using folders for every student, make folders for similar skills or goals. For example, if you have a lot of students with consonant cluster speech sound goals, create a folder with everything you need to target that goal. That way you can pull the activities, visuals and tools out whenever you target that speech therapy goal. I moved towards using a therapy data binder and then having folders for specific groups or skills.
  2. Use book holders to keep track of folders by your group times so that you can easily find the folders you need.
  3. The folders can get bulky quick with activities and work from the student. It can become a burden to clean out the folders and send things home with the student.
  4. Taking data can be tricky because you have to open each students folder to get to their data sheet. A solution to that is to use group data sheets, allot time at the start of the session to take data, so you don’t have to flip back and forth, or implement a progress monitoring approach for updating progress on goals.

Blog posts mentioned about Setting Up Speech Folders:

How to Set Up Your Articulation Speech Folders

SLP Caseload Organization 

Creating Behavior Routines and Expectations

 

Ep 101 Speech Therapy Folders Pros and Cons

by The Dabbling Speechie

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Speech Articulation Disorders with Themes – Tips for How to Do It!

Speech Articulation Disorders with Themes – Tips for How to Do It!

by | Jun 19, 2023 | articulation, Speech Sound Disorders, Themed Speech Therapy

It can feel relatively easy to come up with language-based activities using speech therapy themes. When it comes to theme planning with speech sound disorders, it can be tricky to brainstorm target words, get enough trials and keep your students engaged. There are lots of pros and cons when using a theme-based approach for articulation-based activities. You can listen to more about these pros and cons on this podcast episode. 

I do have some tricks up my sleeve for using themes with speech sound disorders! I’ve already shared my FREE-themed word lists for Back to School, All About Me, and Pumpkins to give some ideas but that’s just a starting point to making this therapy easier, more effective, and more fun. So today, I am sharing my best tips for using themes with speech sound disorders.

Click here to get your free themed speech sound word lists

Tip #1: Picking the Right Themes for Speech Articulation Disorders

Get 5 tips for how to use themes with your speech sound disorder goals!

Pick themes that have a lot of vocabulary options so that you can adapt to various speech sounds. For example, food is an excellent theme because you can target a LOT of different sounds…recipe, ingredients, pot, mix, hot, cook, oven, stove, vegetables, fruits, chef, restaurant, kitchen, juice, wheat, healthy, knife, bake, taste, delicious, sugar, sour, measure and so many more. The Themed SLP Membership includes a food theme in June with lists of articulation and phonology words, lists of target words in food-related books, and more.

 

Another option when picking a theme for articulation and phonology is being more specific in your choice of a theme. You can choose a theme that has its sound in its name. For example, a Superhero or Spider theme would be great for kids working on /s/ or /r/. A Picnic theme would be great for kids working on /p/ or /k/.

Click here to get your free themed speech sound word lists

Tip #2 Drill First, Play Later with Speech Sounds

Structure your sessions strategically when using speech therapy themes. 

Students can start their sessions by doing structured drills for a set amount of time, like 5-10 minutes. The second half of your session will involve a themed activity such as a sensory bin, pretend play, toy, or hands-on activity in which you can embed more natural practice with the student. 

When you do drills as your first activity, you can get a burst of high trials, so you aren’t as stressed about getting the repetitions during the second activity.

Click here to get your free themed speech sound word lists
You can use themes with your speech articulation disorders and we give 5 tips for how to do it!

Tip #3 Find Sound Loaded Materials within your Theme

Get free theme speech therapy sound word lists for back to school, all about me, and pumpkins

Find YouTube videos, and non-fiction passages or create stories related to a theme with words that have their speech sound. For example, if doing a summer theme, find a reading passage on NewsELA about lemonade for /l/ sounds, or use a themed word list to have students create short stories. For a list of summer-themed YouTube videos to use in speech, you will find a bunch in this free download. 

Another activity I love is going on a sound hunt with my students using different themed materials. Go on a sound hunt in themed pictures scenes. You can also go on sound hunts in themed books. 

For example, students can go on a sound hunt while reading “At the Supermarket.” A student can look through pictures and listen to the story while searching for pictures or words with their /l/ sound. They’d find the words roll, like, lettuce, loaf, little, laundry, cold, vanilla, yellow, all, bottle, and full! 

If you’re looking for books with specific speech sounds, try using Ashley Rossi’s book search feature. 

Recently, an SLP shared in the FREE Themed Therapy SLP Facebook group that she will switch out some of the words in the text that has the child’s sound to maximize opportunities for auditory bombardment and practice. This is a great way to adapt materials so it’s more suited to your student’s needs!

Tip #4 Give Challenge Words Related to the Themed Activity

If you are doing a speech therapy theme activity that doesn’t feel aligned with your student’s speech sounds, make a short list of challenge words that they could use during the activity.

For example, if you’re playing a treasure hunt game or with a pirate sensory bin, and your student is working on r-blends, have them say “treasure” or “I found a treasure, I didn’t find a treasure.” when playing.

If you’re doing a beach theme and targeting “CH,” have a “beach bag” and play a mystery game to work on inference. Every round, the child could say “What’s in the beach bag?” or explaining if you can or can’t take the item to the beach.

Get tips for how to use themes with articulationspeech disorders

Tip #5 Use Themed Open-Ended Reinforcers with Your Speech Articulation Disorder Students

Learn how to use speech therapy themes for your articulation and phonology disorders

Like many (if not most) SLPs know, many of our groups are mixed with students with language goals, speech sound disorders, and phonological disorders. Planning for all these different goals can be challenging. While using speech therapy themes can be helpful, sometimes you might find that you’re using an approach that doesn’t have many targets aligned with your theme. Try using themed open-ended reinforcers that have themed vocabulary. You can easily adapt these with different speech words! This could be a beach-related board game or a pirate ship game.

Overall, speech therapy themes can be a game changer when it comes to planning sessions. It can feel challenging when planning for themed sessions when working with articulation or phonological disorders. Start by picking the right theme with the target sounds in mind, then choose how you want your students to practice their sounds. 

What are your tips for using themes with speech articulation disorders? Share with us on social media!

100 Trials for Speech Therapy – Tools You Need Ep 100

100 Trials for Speech Therapy – Tools You Need Ep 100

by | Jun 6, 2023 | Real Talk SLP, Uncategorized

Whether you work in the school or private practice setting, many SLPs serve students with a speech sound disorder diagnosis. For many approaches for apraxia, articulation, and phonology, you need to get a high dose of trials in your sessions to see improvements in producing the correct sound in spontaneous speech. But let’s face it. Keeping students motivated to practice 100 trials for speech therapy sessions can be hard. Kids can get easily bored or frustrated with getting 100 trials or more in a session. So, this episode is here to help you learn about some new articulation therapy tools and materials to ensure you get 100 trials for your speech sessions every time!

Amazon affiliate links are provided for your convenience. When you purchase an item with my affiliate link, I receive a small commission.

100 Trials Speech Therapy Materials Mentioned in the Episode:

100-trials-for-speech-therapy
  1. Abacus or DIY version to get 100 trials for speech sound goals
  2. Magnetic wand
  3. High number die – play the points game and set certain numbers as bonus points, or amounts the child loses, multiples, etc. Whoever has the most points at the end of the session wins.
  4. Challenge sheets and timer – use a piece of paper with a timer and count how many trials the child gets in a minute. Then, do it for another minute to see if they can beat their score. If you need articulation worksheets, check out the sentence challenge worksheets.
  5. Tally clickers – if you don’t want to hear clicking noises, get the digital set.
  6. Race to 100 game (free printable) or use the Race to 100 trials for speech games in the digital speech folders.
  7. Ultra fine dry-erase markers with any of your articulation therapy worksheets. Just place the page in a page protector and use it with the dry-erase markers. Students love using these articulation flipbooks. You can try the L articulation flipbook for free.

Easy to Implement Articulation Therapy Activities for 100 Trials

 

    1. Picture scenes – Do I spy hunts for their sound and then have your students practice their sound in words or sentences.
    2. Jar and pom pom balls
    3. Popsicle sticks – Zap it game, stickers, dots that’s how many you productions you do
    4. Dixie paper cups – build towers while you have students practice their speech sounds.
    5. Tiny decisions App – you can add your students speech sounds in words, and the spinner tells them which word they will practice next.
    6. Dot markers – use with crafts or on paper – draw their sound as a bubble letter, and then they dot mark it.
    7. Legos or blocks
    8. Cars and cardboard
100-trials-for-speech-therapy

What Articulation Therapy Activities Do You Plan?

Do you have any articulation therapy activities or tools that you use to help keep your students motivated to practice their speech sounds? Share your favorite tools and activities for 100 trials speech therapy sessions to help out other SLPs. Check out this system for how to keep your manipulatives and tools together in one spot with a speech sound container.

EP.100 One Hundred Trials for Speech Therapy - Tools You Need

by The Dabbling Speechie

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Speech Therapy S Sound Activities and Articulation Games

Speech Therapy S Sound Activities and Articulation Games

by | Jun 4, 2023 | articulation, Speech Sound Disorders

I still remember my first client in graduate school working on the /s/ sound. I spent hours preparing S Sound activities for our sessions. It’s genuinely wild to think about how long I’d spend planning for these sessions compared to the time I spend planning sessions now! Looking back at it now, this was just the start of my SLP Toolbox, and it will never stop growing. I’ve compiled a speech therapy S Sound activity list from my toolkit in this blog post! 

This blog post contains Amazon affiliate links for your convenience. I receive a small commission at no additional cost to you.

 

Speech Therapy S Sound Resources for Elicitation

Learn about resources for the s and z articulation sounds to use in therapy!

The goal of the very first treatment session? Elicit the /s/ sound in isolation. I spent so much time preparing activities and lists of cues to help him produce it! I still use the cue “lock your tongue up behind your teeth!” when helping my current students. Here are even more ideas.

 

  • You can find tips for elicitation and picture cards for the S Sound on Speech & Language at Home. 
  • Check out the The Marshalla Guide for loads of tips for producing many sounds including the S sound. 
  • If you need visuals, word lists and tips for eliciting the S sound, check out this Speech Sound Handbook from Peachie Speechie
  • Watch this video to show your students how to say S from Peachie Speechie.
  • When working with lateral lisps, watch this video from Peachie Speechie and read this blog post from Amy Graham.
  • Another favorite of mine for /s/ sound in isolation is super simple-yarn and space! Hold the spool of yarn while your students hold the end of it. As students make and hold the /s/ sound, walk and un-roll the spool of yarn. See how long your student can make the /s/ sound by cutting the yarn when they finish and measure the length of the yarn.  

S Syllable and Word Speech Therapy Activities

Once established in isolation, it’s time to think about S words for speech therapy. Here are some ideas to help you with sessions with your students.

Get speech therapy s sound activities to help you get high trials and keep sessions fun!

S Words for Speech Therapy

Get speech therapy s sound activities to help you get high trials and keep sessions fun!

Here are even more activities for S words articulation practice.

  • Home Speech Home has a word list for S for words to use during your sessions.  
  • Another activity is to make sound-loaded phrases with your students on paper that you can practice in the session and then take home for the weekly homework.
    • For example, you can use the phrase “I see  ______.” Then, students think of different words. They don’t have to have an S because the word your student will be working on is “see.” When using mixed groups, give them a category group to name items. 
    • If you’re doing a theme-based approach, you can do this activity but use the theme’s vocabulary. See this IG for more details. 
    • Here are more examples for sound loaded phrases:
      • Sam wants ________
      • _____ is in the recipe.
      • Pass _____ to _____.
      • Put ____ on your face.
  • Harre SLP has a free Fun zoo articulation map. Students can talk about what they see and like at the Zoo. You can pair this with fun toys to make it more interactive!

S Articulation Sentence Worksheets and Activities

  • Compare and contrast similar nouns that contain the S sound. For example, soccer, baseball, popsicle, and ice cream would be great S words to compare. Check out the S and Z articulation carryover set if you need pre-selected compare-and-contrast flashcards. 
  • Play a sentence articulation challenge game that keeps the student motivated to practice high trials in a short amount of time. 
  • Have your students create tongue twisters with your word lists that they can practice. You can even have them illustrate their tongue twister to make a fun speech sound book. For example, you could use “The snake slithered silently through the grass” or “Sam’s silly socks are stylish.”
  • Make alliteration S poems, and then students can draw their poems. 
  • Play guessing games for secret words that only have the S sound. Add in carrier phrases for students to use, like “My best guess is…” or “Listen carefully before you answer.” 
Get your kids excited to practice their s sounds with ideas for s articulation worksheets and activities.

Speech Therapy Crafts for the S Sound

Need some s words speech therapy activities? This blog post has lots of easy activities for your speech therapy sessions.

Crafts are a great way to keep kids engaged during sessions, get repetition of their sounds, and a great way to show their caregivers what they’re working on in speech! Here are some craft ideas for S sound articulation.

 

Articulation Games with the S Sound

“Are we going to play a game today?” is a phrase every pediatric SLP hears quite often. Here are some ideas for you when your students ask this golden question. 

Have s and z words for your speech therapy sessions and activities to do that will get high trials in your sessions!

S Sound Conversation Activities

Speech Therapy S sound activities for easy planning to work on S in conversation.

At last, it’s time to work on the /s/ sound in conversation. The /s/ sound occurs so frequently in our language so ideas for this level are endless! Here are some more ideas for speech therapy s sound. 

  • Try these S and Z Sound conversation activities to save yourself prep time and provide your students with a fun way to practice the /s/ sound. 
  • Use sound-loaded non-fiction articles to read aloud and discuss. 
  • Make sound loaded questions or play “Would You Rather?”
    • Have students answer questions “Would you try…” and they can answer “Yes” or “pass.”
  • Have students read the directions of a game, or read the cards while playing a game like Bubble Talk. 
  • Create a list of words that start with the S sound (city, sand, race, messy, whistle, mouse, sick) then have students make silly sentences or create a story trying to get the sound-loaded words in the story.

It’s safe to say my toolbox s sound activities has expanded since my first client in graduate school, and of course it just keeps growing! What are some of your favorite activities when working on the /s/ sound? Leave a comment or tag us on social media!

EP 99 Easy Water Play Speech Therapy Activities

EP 99 Easy Water Play Speech Therapy Activities

by | May 30, 2023 | Real Talk SLP, Uncategorized

During the summer,  you can have your speech therapy sessions outside to get some vitamin D. Plus, there are lots of great, easy water play speech therapy activities that keep kids engaged and cooled off from the hot sun. And if you are implementing a coaching model with parents or educators on the IEP team, doing water-themed speech therapy activities can be a great way to teach communication strategies. Kids are always entertained with water; in the summer, they are around water activities often! In this Real Talk SLP podcast episode, you will learn 3 Easy Water play speech therapy activities that will inspire your students to communicate!

Join the Themed Therapy SLP Membership for Your Summer Speech Therapy Units

summer-speech-therapy-activities-preschool

So many kids LOVE anything with water. And I have that on my brain because the July themes for the Themed Therapy SLP membership are ice cream and water activities.

 

If you are interested in having someone take lesson planning off your plate, check out the Themed Therapy SLP membership. You get access to a variety of digital and printable themed therapy materials to cover your Prek-5th grade caseload. Between book cheat sheets, speech sound word lists, task cards, themed vocabulary, and verb flashcards, along with a lot of great digital materials, you won’t run out of fresh ideas for your themes.

Join the Themed Therapy SLP Membership for Your Summer Speech Therapy Units

water-play-speech-therapy-activities

Here are the 3 water play activities you can use with your preschool through 3rd-grade caseload:

  • Water squirters can knock things down, such as plastic cups, bowling pins, or inflatables. Or, you can try to hit a target, or play tag and cooperative games.
  • Grab different-sized cars and vehicles, add soapy water, and throw in some sponges to have carwash. You can adapt this for a pet and farm-themed unit by having the animals get dirty and need a wash!
  • Teach the science about why some items sink and other items float using this YouTube video as an example. Then, let your students do the sink or float experiment with a tub, water, and items around your home. 

Blog Post and Resource Mentions for Water Play Speech Therapy Activities

 

Water squirter activity

Carwash Sensory Bin

Pool Party Sink or Float activity

EP 99 Easy Water Play Speech Therapy Activities

by The Dabbling Speechie

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Engaging Ice Cream Speech Therapy Activities

Engaging Ice Cream Speech Therapy Activities

by | May 28, 2023 | Themed Speech Therapy, Therapy Materials, Uncategorized

During the summer months, planning an ice cream speech therapy unit for your elementary caseload is the BEST! There are lots of ways to adapt this theme for younger and older students. You won’t regret planning ice cream activities because your students will stay engaged while they practice their speech and language. I mean, what kid doesn’t love talking about ice cream? It’s seriously the best summer treat.

Ice Cream Activities with Toy Sets & Dramatic Play

Learn tips for ice cream speech therapy toys and activities to plan therapy with ease!

If you are working with preschool through 2nd grade, investing in a pretend play ice cream toy set is worth it! I got the Melissa and Doug ice cream toy set, and LOTS of my 4th-5th graders begged me to play with it when they saw it from a previous speech session.

You can target many speech and language goals using a play-based speech therapy approach with an ice cream toy set. 

Here are a few recommendations for an ice cream set:

You can turn your speech room into an extra cool therapy space and make a dramatic play ice cream shop. Get more preschool ice cream speech therapy activities for easy planning. 

 

Ice Cream Speech Therapy Activities You Can Eat

Teach your students science and cover speech therapy goals while making ice cream in a bag! Your students will be engaged to learn because, in the end, they get to taste a yummy ice cream treat that they made.

To learn more about how to make the ice cream in the bag, here is a recipe. Plus, you can use the SciShow Video to discuss the process, answer wh-questions, and teach tier II vocabulary words such as crave, flavor, measure, or melt. 

For articulation and phonology goals, you can have students use challenge words or phrases with their sound, such as “flavor” for l-blends or R, “three, ice cream, ingredients, and cream” for r-blends, “shake” for SH or “salt” for s.

Because you have to use different-sized bags, you can target big/little as well as vocabulary for cooking!

When targeting language goals, you can work on sequencing the steps for making the ice cream focusing on transition words, verbs, sentence structure, and vocabulary. If you need visual supports for this activity, my ice cream push-in language unit has some! 

If you need some visual recipes for ice cream in a bag or milkshakes, Live Love Speech has a great set for your push-in whole-class lessons or small groups.

Get some ice cream preschool activities to use in your speech therapy sessions.

Ice Cream Speech Therapy Sensory Bins

Check out these ice cream activities you can use with your speech therapy students

Work on verbs such as scoop, sprinkle, eat, give, and melt with an ice cream sensory bin. To make your sensory bin, you can use the kinetic sand kit from Lakeshore Learning or add the following to your container (Amazon affiliate links are included):

 

You can incorporate the following basic concepts:

  • big/little
  • more/less
  • full/empty
  • in/out
  • hot/cold
  • colors
  • first/last
  • open/close

Think about the goals on your caseload and come up with a little cheat sheet list of words or concepts you can target while playing with the bin!

Click here to get your FREE Ice Cream Cone Reinforcer Mats

Ice Cream Sequencing Activities for Language Goals

Sequencing the steps for making ice cream in a bag, creating an ice cream sundae, or root beer float is a great way to incorporate a variety of language goals such as sentence structure, transition words, vocabulary, answering wh-questions, morphology, and speech sounds in sentences. Use the Ice Cream Sequencing Boom Cards and sequencing short stories from the Themed Therapy Membership to cover goals easily!

Click here to get your FREE Ice Cream Cone Reinforcer Mats
Get some ideas for your ice cream speech therapy unit that you can use to increase engagement and target a LOT of goals.

Ice Cream Lesson Plan With STEAM 3D Shapes

Ice cream speech therapy lesson plan ideas for your elementary caseload.

Anytime you can do an easy hands-on activity to cover speech and language goals,  you should do it! Kids are way more engaged when they have something they can create. This STEAM 3D ice cream lesson plan can help you cover 2D and 3D shapes but also target lots more skills. You can get all the printables for FREE and target tier II vocabulary for predicting, adjusting, formulating, and hypothesizing.

Naturally, practice adding suffixes for ‘est’ to discuss the weakest or strongest spheres. Make a list of words to target while doing the activity with your student’s speech sound. And use the 3D cone to fill with pom pom balls for every production. How else could you use this 3D shapes ice cream lesson plan with your caseload? Let me know in the comments.

What Ice Cream Activities Do You Plan With Your Caseload?

If you have a website, activity, or resource you love using with your ice cream speech therapy lesson plans, let me know in the comments. Sharing what you are doing with your students gives SLPs ideas for what they can do too! Loving an ice cream theme and want to save time planning? Check out this list on Amazon (affiliate links) of ice cream books, activities, games, and props to make your ice cream speech therapy lesson planning easier!

Click here to get your FREE Ice Cream Cone Reinforcer Mats ats
Ice cream activities for your Prek-5th grade speech therapy caseload.
EP 98 Easy Outdoor Speech Therapy Activities for Elementary

EP 98 Easy Outdoor Speech Therapy Activities for Elementary

by | May 23, 2023 | Real Talk SLP

If the weather is nice in the spring and summer months, taking speech therapy outside can be just what you need to re-engage your students! In today’s Real Talk SLP podcast, I am sharing LOTS of easy outdoor speech therapy activities you can do that don’t scrimp on targeting speech and language goals. It’s okay to ditch the worksheets and target goals outside in a naturalistic setting. I hope you find some new outdoor speech therapy activities you can use with your Prek-5th grade caseload!

 Amazon affiliate links are provided for your convenience. I receive a small commission for purchases made with my link. 

Summer Speech Therapy Activities for Prek-5th

Iconic-gestures-coaching

 For SLPs working this summer with private clients or during ESY services (summer school) make therapy planning easier with ready-to-go summer speech therapy activities you can use with Prek-5th grade. 

 

If you need push-in lessons to rock ESY services, this language lesson plan bundle has everything you need to love working summer school without stress!

The Themed Therapy SLP Membership has themes for pets, beach, food, water activities, sports, and ice cream for June and July!

Outdoor Speech Therapy Activities Shared in the Episode:

 

  1. Go on an I spy nature walk or a bug hunt (look for real bugs or toss some fake ones in the grass). Get some I Spy speech and language activities that you can do outside on the playground or yard. Get your free I Spy language games to use in therapy and to coach parents. 
  2. Play Red light, Green light outside and work on fast/slow, AAC CORE words go/stop, teach colors, or pick words that have your student’s speech sounds. For more variations, Empowered Parents has some good suggestions. 
  3. Do art projects you can take outdoors to work on speech and language goals like this –windsock craft
  4. Use sidewalk chalk to do hopscotch, play chalk Boggle, write answer choices to hop to when asked, and more!
  5. Head to the school’s playground to do beach ball prepositions, make an obstacle course and target basic and spatial concepts with the playground equipment. 
  6. Who doesn’t LOVE bubbles? There are many ways to adapt bubbles, and it’s a lot more fun under the sun. Relay races or challenges to target basic concepts, wh-questions, spatial concepts
  7. Bring your toys outside. Do therapy at a picnic table or on the grass. You can do the same toy activities but just change up the scenery.
  8. Plan a pretend or real picnic for a whole class lesson.
  9. Go visit the school’s garden or plant flowers outside. For more info on how to teach the plant life cycle, check out this blog post.   
  10. Do pool noodle tag to work on social communication, “who questions” such as “Who is it?” or every time someone tags a person, they have to say their challenge word that has their speech sound.
    <br /> Go on an I spy nature walk or a bug hunt (look for real bugs or toss some fake ones in the grass). Get some I Spy speech and language activities that you can do outside on the playground or yard. Get your free I Spy language games to use in therapy and to coach parents.<br /> Play Red light, Green light outside and work on fast/slow, AAC CORE words go/stop, teach colors, or pick words that have your student’s speech sounds. For more variations, Empowered Parents has some good suggestions.<br /> Do art projects you can take outdoors to work on speech and language goals like this -windsock craft<br /> Use sidewalk chalk to do hopscotch, play chalk Boggle, write answer choices to hop to when asked, and more!<br /> Head to the school’s playground to do beach ball prepositions, make an obstacle course and target basic and spatial concepts with the playground equipment.<br /> Who doesn’t LOVE bubbles? There are many ways to adapt bubbles, and it’s a lot more fun under the sun. Relay races or challenges to target basic concepts, wh-questions, spatial concepts<br /> Bring your toys outside. Do therapy at a picnic table or on the grass. You can do the same toy activities but just change up the scenery.<br /> Plan a pretend or real picnic for a whole class lesson.<br /> Go visit the school’s garden or plant flowers outside. For more info on how to teach the plant life cycle, check out this blog post.<br /> Do pool noodle tag to work on social communication, “who questions” such as “Who is it?” or every time someone tags a person, they have to say their challenge word that has their speech sound.<br />
    Go on an I spy nature walk or a bug hunt (look for real bugs or toss some fake ones in the grass). Get some I Spy speech and language activities that you can do outside on the playground or yard. Get your free I Spy language games to use in therapy and to coach parents. Play Red light, Green light outside and work on fast/slow, AAC CORE words go/stop, teach colors, or pick words that have your student’s speech sounds. For more variations, Empowered Parents has some good suggestions. Do art projects you can take outdoors to work on speech and language goals like this -windsock craft Use sidewalk chalk to do hopscotch, play chalk Boggle, write answer choices to hop to when asked, and more! Head to the school’s playground to do beach ball prepositions, make an obstacle course and target basic and spatial concepts with the playground equipment. Who doesn’t LOVE bubbles? There are many ways to adapt bubbles, and it’s a lot more fun under the sun. Relay races or challenges to target basic concepts, wh-questions, spatial concepts Bring your toys outside. Do therapy at a picnic table or on the grass. You can do the same toy activities but just change up the scenery. Plan a pretend or real picnic for a whole class lesson. Go visit the school’s garden or plant flowers outside. For more info on how to teach the plant life cycle, check out this blog post. Do pool noodle tag to work on social communication, “who questions” such as “Who is it?” or every time someone tags a person, they have to say their challenge word that has their speech sound.

    What Outside Speech Therapy Activities Could You Plan?

    If you have any fun games or activity ideas for doing speech therapy outside, share them in the comments. It’s always great to get more ideas for increasing engagement with your students. There is something about going outside that is motivating for kids. Plus, you can’t beat the vitamin D, either!

    EP 98 Easy Outdoor Speech Therapy Activities for Elementary

    by The Dabbling Speechie

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    Dog Themed Games for Speech Therapy

    Dog Themed Games for Speech Therapy

    by | May 19, 2023 | Themed Speech Therapy, Toys for Speech

    A pet or dog theme is one of the best themes you can plan for your speech therapy caseload! Kids love dogs, and it’s an easy theme to adapt to. Plus, there are LOTS of dog-themed game and toy options, making planning for mixed groups easier! Today, I want to share a round-up of all the best dog-themed games and toys you can use with preschool and elementary students. 

    The cool thing about using a dog theme is that you can plan it anytime! If you need more year-round preschool themes, I got you covered in this blog post. 

    How Many Themed Games and Toys Do I Need For My Speech Therapy Caseload?

    dog-speech-therapy-toys

    If you are just getting started with planning by themes, do not read this blog post and think you have to purchase EVERY dog toy and game shared. You are likely on a budget and don’t need every toy to make a theme-based approach work well.

    When looking for themed games and toys, you want to consider the price and how adaptable it is for your caseload.

    If it can be used for a wide range of skills and ages, that’s a plus! Or, if it provides fun manipulatives that you can use with the game rules or adapt for other activities like sensory bins, that is something to think about too!

    And, if you score it at a Thrift store, even better!

     I try only to purchase themed toys and games to fill an area on my caseload. For example, if I work with a lot of prek-2nd graders, a dog toy set is something I will probably invest in because it would be used all the time. 

    Dog-Themed Toy Sets for Play-Based Speech Therapy

    You will need a dog toy set if you work with the prek-2nd grade crew!

    Here are some of my faves:

    Struggle with how to use toys in your play-based speech therapy sessions? You will stress less when you have a toy companion cheat sheet guide to reference in your sessions. The toy companions come with a cheat sheet for a dog toy set, and the Pet Vet Hospital set. 

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    Pet Store Dramatic Play Setup

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    For those who love to transform your rooms into a themed dramatic play center, check out how to make a pet store dramatic play from Pocket of Preschool. If you want to make a dramatic Vet play-based activity, Melissa and Doug’s Pet Vet Play Set looks great!

    Or, if you are teaching how to take care of dogs or need props for retelling dog-themed books, this Melissa and Doug Feeding and Grooming Pet Care Play Set would be awesome! Or, grab your dog stuffie and buy dog toys and supplies from Dollar Tree to DIY it!

    Dog-Themed Games for Preschool to Early Elementary

    If you are looking for dog-themed games for your preschool and early elementary caseload, here are some great speech therapy game options:

    Reinforcer Speech Therapy Games for Elementary Ages

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    The life of an elementary SLP is filled with mixed groups! Often it’s nice to have a reinforcer speech therapy game to use in a session. Here are the dog-themed games for elementary ages:

    What Dog-Themed Toys & Games Do You Use?

    Do you have a dog toy or game you love using with students? How do you target speech and language goals? Please share in the comments your favorite dog toys, props, or games and how you use them in your speech therapy sessions!

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    EP 97 Iconic Gestures Strategy for Coaching Teachers During Reading

    EP 97 Iconic Gestures Strategy for Coaching Teachers During Reading

    by | May 16, 2023 | Real Talk SLP

    If you have students on your speech therapy caseload with language disorders, particularly with areas of need in vocabulary development, you can improve vocabulary skills by implementing a coaching model in the classroom setting. Oftentimes SLPs serve students in a pullout model to work on language goals. But, what if you did pullout sessions paired with a weekly or monthly coaching model to help teachers use iconic gestures while reading picture books to their class? In this episode of the Real Talk SLP podcast, I break down iconic gestures as an easy strategy to help students improve their vocabulary skills.

    What You Will Learn About Iconic Gestures in This Episode:

    Iconic-gestures-coaching

     

    • What are iconic gestures?
    • Examples of different types of iconic gestures
    • Why pair iconic gestures with vocabulary words is such an easy and powerful strategy for vocabulary building
    • Discuss the importance of vocabulary development for academic success
    • Explain how iconic gestures can help reinforce vocabulary and comprehension
    • Tips for how you can implement a coaching model in the classroom

    Coaching model Real Talk Episodes Mentioned:

     

    Ep 67 Tips for Implementing a Coaching Model in Teletherapy

    Ep 27 Tips for Parent Coaching

    Ep 41 Collaborative Service Models

    Ep 43 Parent Coaching During Daily Routines

     

    Research Articles Mentioned:

     

    Vogt, S., & Kauschke, C. (2017). Observing iconic gestures enhances word learning in typically developing children and children with specific language impairment. Journal of Child Language. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0305000916000647

      Iconic-gestures-coaching

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      Simple Color Sensory Bins That Are Versatile for Speech Therapy

      Simple Color Sensory Bins That Are Versatile for Speech Therapy

      by | May 9, 2023 | sensory bins, Uncategorized

      If you have been on the struggle bus trying to find activities that keep kids engaged and their hands busy, try sensory bins. Specifically, color sensory bins because these are easy to make, and so, so versatile for targeting speech and language goals. Today, I am going to share how you can teach colors to preschool and kindergarten students as well as a LOT of other speech and language goals.

      Amazon affiliate links are included for your convenience. I earn a small commission for affiliate links included at no additional cost. 

      Items to Add to Your Color Sensory Bins

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      For your color sensory bins, you can add the colored pom poms you are targeting. If you are doing a rainbow-colored sensory bin, add in rainbow colored rice or popcorn, multi-colored pom poms.

      To combine printables and physical items, go through your play food sets, figurines, and game sets for items with the color you want to target. For color printables, use the flashcards from the color sensory bin companion. 

      If you need mini trinkets or figurines, here are some of my favorites that can be thrown into your bin:

      You can get some organization ideas by reading this post on organizing your sensory bin materials. 

      Books to Pair with the Color Sensory Bins

      One of my favorite ways to use sensory bins is to pair them with books. You can start the session by reading a story and then use the color sensory bin to carry over vocabulary and concepts with your students. Check out all my favorite color books to find one that works best for your speech therapy caseload. 

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      Ways to Teach Colors With the Sensory Bin

      teaching-colors-in-preschool

      Teaching colors to preschool and kindergarten, students is a skill teachers work on with activities in their curriculum. Furthermore, when you teach colors to students, it is a beginning adjective word you can use to describe nouns when working on syntax and morphology goals. Plus, colors are a category group, and you can show how groups of items go together because of their color. You can get all the details about how to teach categories to help your students build their vocabularies. To help students understand how items can be categorized by color, you can put out color printable sorting mats (these are in the color sensory bin printable resource) or colored containers for students to put the item that matches the color.  I love how Play to Learn Preschool used color masking tape with water bottles as a color sorting sensory bin with rainbow pom poms. 

      Hands On As We Grow had a great idea of making tubes out of colored paper with rubber bands as sorting tubes. 

       

      More Tips for Teaching Colors With Sensory Bins

      For students that would benefit from learning one color at a time, have students hunt around for items by giving them cues such as “Find the blue fish.” You can set up two color mats or two colored containers so students can sort all the “blue items” on the blue mat. Having two sorting mats helps you see if the child is associating the items with the correct color.

       

      When students appear to receptively understand the color, introduce expressive language tasks by having the student tell you or another child what to find. For example, the student can say, “Find red cherries.” Pair this activity with a sentence strip and have the child make a sentence at their level. If the child is using 2-word phrases, you can have them try to work on expanding to three to four-word sentences such as “I see red cherries.”

      activities-to-teach-colors-speech-therapy

      Speech Sound Goals to Target with the Color Sensory Bin

      The beauty of color sensory bins is that you can often find items that fit your student’s speech sounds. For example, if you made a yellow-colored sensory bin, you could add items with your student’s sound, such as lemon, school bus, bell pepper, yellow crayon, tennis ball, pineapple, and sunflower, all have the L sound. Or,  you can come up with a sound-loaded phrase such as “I see ____” for /s/, “I like ___” for K, or “I spotted _____” for s-blends.

       

      Students can go on an I Spy sound hunt with the color sensory bin to find items with their sounds. You can also work on auditory awareness and judge if the item has the student’s sound.

      teaching-colors-ESL

      Language Goals You Can Teach With the Sensory Bin

       

      As SLPs, we work on a lot of different language goals. So, a perk of using a color sensory bin is that we can adapt it to target what each student is working on in speech. Here are some ideas for how to use the bins for language goals:

       

      • Describing items by attributes (i.e. category, location, parts, function, texture, size, etc.)
      • Answering wh-questions about the item
      • Target yes/no questions about the color or item
      • Use in a sentence to work on sentence structure and morphology
      • Share opinions if the child likes or doesn’t like the item
      • Expressively name the color of the item
      • Compare and contrast two of the colored items by similarities and differences
      • If you have multiples of items you can work on singular and plurals
      • Work on “who” questions by giving items to students in the group or to stuffies and ask, “Who has the green hose?”
      • Give inference clues to find items in the sensory bin

      What Speech Therapy Goals Would You Target with Color Sensory Bins?

      How would you use this sensory bin to teach colors or other speech and language goals on your caseload? Share your ideas in the comments. Any way we can adapt speech therapy material to cover more goals is a plus!

      teaching-colors-to-kindergarten-speech-therapy
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