EP 98 Easy Outdoor Speech Therapy Activities for Elementary

EP 98 Easy Outdoor Speech Therapy Activities for Elementary

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

    EP 97 Iconic Gestures Strategy for Coaching Teachers During Reading

    EP 97 Iconic Gestures Strategy for Coaching Teachers During Reading

    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
    Ep 96 Easy Tips for Collecting Language Samples

    Ep 96 Easy Tips for Collecting Language Samples

    Taking a language sample for your speech therapy assessments can feel daunting because you are on a time crunch to get all your assessments done. And, if your students aren’t the most chatty, it can be really difficult to get those 50-100 utterances. Even though informal language samples can feel like a pain, it is a great assessment tool that can give you valuable information about your student’s language development. Today on the Real Talk SLP podcast, I have Allison Fors on the podcast to share her best tips for collecting a language sample!

    Language Sample Tips Discussed in This Episode:

    language-samples
    • Language samples are critical for assessing one’s speech and they allow us to gather a variety of data to look at a student’s syntax, morphology, semantics, comprehension and narrative language. 
    • Tips for taking language samples
    • How to encourage student participation during a language sample
    • Tools and materials for collecting language samples
    •  

    Need Support with Grammar Intervention for Your Prek-5th Grade Caseload?

     

    If you have been struggling with where to begin with grammar intervention and how to embed evidence-based strategies into your therapy activities, come attend the LIVE webinar “Effective Grammar Strategies for Language Therapy” with Allison Fors and myself! You will get one hour of Clinical Maintainance Hours, resources and tools for where to start in therapy, and LOTS of therapy ideas you can implement tomorrow (we are giving you ready-to-go resources with your ticket.) Get on the waitlist for the webinar and receive a promo code for $5 off when ticket sales open up.

      language-samples

      Blog Posts and Resources Mentioned in This Episode:

      How to Stay Connected with Allison Fors

       

      Instagram

      Website

      Facebook

      SLP Inspirational Quote When Overwhelmed

      SLP Inspirational Quote When Overwhelmed

      As SLPs, we are juggling A LOT! Especially if we work in the school setting. Between the high caseloads, piles of paperwork, and trying to stay up-to-date with best practices, it’s easy to get overwhelmed with the job. And, staying inspired about being an SLP when you feel ineffective with the giant workload given to you is real. In today’s episode of the Real Talk SLP podcast, I will break down an SLP inspirational quote by Arthur Ash that helped me push through when things were rough in my job.

       

      I hope that this helps bring new inspiration in dealing with some very difficult work environments. 

      Here are some points I share in the episode:

      SLP-inspirational-quote-overwhelmed
      • Start where you are

        1. It’s okay to be a beginner at something. 
        2. Working with staff on a new collaborative service model or trying to get them on board with trying a strategy takes time. It’s okay to start small.

        Use what you have

        1. Don’t go prepping tons of materials when you are overwhelmed. Use what you already have prepped. Then, use it over and over again. Join the Themed Therapy SLP membership if you need Prek-5th grade themed-based materials to help you plan with less stress. 
        2. Use your abilities to bring to life your sessions. Your students come to see you above all else.

        Do what you can

        1. When we serve high caseloads or heavy workloads with many different needs, it’s easy to think you aren’t doing enough for your students. Find small ways to make a difference in your students’ lives.
        2. Sometimes we must think outside the box for creative ways to serve our students well.
        3. Advocate for your students, your workload, your space, etc., but during the process of that, remember that small steps lead to big leaps. The change will happen if you keep moving forward, no matter how small the step is.

      Do what you can

      1. When we serve high caseloads or heavy workloads with many different needs, it’s easy to think you aren’t doing enough for your students. Find small ways to make a difference in your students’ lives.
      2. Sometimes we must think outside the box for creative ways to serve our students well.
      3. Advocate for your students, your workload, your space, etc., but during the process of that, remember that small steps lead to big leaps. The change will happen if you keep moving forward, no matter how small the step is.
      SLP-inspirational-quote

      Need Support with Grammar Intervention for Your Prek-5th Grade Caseload?

      language-samples

      If you have been struggling with where to begin with grammar intervention and how to embed evidence-based strategies into your therapy activities, come attend the LIVE webinar “Effective Grammar Strategies for Language Therapy” with Allison Fors and myself! You will get one hour of Clinical Maintainance Hours, resources and tools for where to start in therapy, and LOTS of therapy ideas you can implement tomorrow (we are giving you ready-to-go resources with your ticket.) Get on the waitlist for the webinar and receive a promo code for $5 off when ticket sales open up.

      Ep 94 Easy Speech Therapy Activities for Mixed Groups

      easy-speech-therapy-activities

      Sometimes, all the caseload management tasks come to a head as a school-based SLP. At certain times of the year, everything is due at once for you. Increased assessments and IEP meetings, progress reports, new student transfers, and Medicaid billing due around the same time leave NO time for speech therapy planning. In this Real Talk SLP podcast episode, I will share three easy speech therapy activities for your mixed groups to help you do effective therapy during those seasons of burnout. 

       

      Hopefully, you will walk away from listening to this episode with fresh, easy speech therapy activities that you can use with various ages and goals on your caseload.

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      Chaga-CCino

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      Easy Speech Therapy Activities Using YouTube Videos

      When things are bananas, pulling up a wordless short video or science video to cover speech and language goals is a low-prep speech therapy activity that keeps kids engaged.

      Check out the spring-themed YouTube videos for a free download or using spring Simon’s Cat videos.

      Here are a few of my favorite videos to use during spring or any time of the school year:

       

      Simon's-cat-speech-therapy-pin

      Simon’s Cat Speech Therapy Cheat Sheets

      spring-simons-cat-speech-therapy-cheat-sheet

      Want to take the guess work out of using Simon’s Cat videos with your mixed speech and language groups? I got you covered! Use these Simon’s Cat speech therapy cheat sheets all school year long. There are 3-page lesson plan cheat sheets so you can cover a variety of language goals.  Grab the year-long bundle HERE. If you want to learn more about how to use Simon’s cat videos in therapy, check out this blog post.

      Books Help Plan Low-Prep Speech Therapy Activities

      When you have mixed groups, you often target 3-4 goals in one group. That’s a LOT! And, it prep individual lessons or having flashcards for every goal can be expensive or time-consuming.

       So, when you have to grab something and go into therapy, pick a book! You can use the pictures and text to cover many speech and language goals.

       In this spring speech and language activities blog post, I share a LOT of spring books to use with preschool through 5th grade. 

      Ashley Rossi also has a cool feature on her website that you can search for books based on speech sounds, language goals, narratives, etc.

      easy-speech-therapy-activities

      Themed Therapy SLP Membership

      Themed-Therapy-SLP-Membership

      Need book cheat sheets that help you with pre-selected targets for speech and language goals for your themed units? Join the Themed Therapy SLP Membership, where we provide book cheat sheets for every theme and story maps too. Let someone else take lesson planning off your plate for your Prek-5th grade caseload.

      Leave a Review of the Real Talk SLP Podcast

      If you enjoy the Real Talk SLP podcast, leave a review wherever you get your podcasts! And, reach out @thedabblingspeechie or email me at feliceclark@thedabblingspeechie.com if you have requests for guests or topics you want to hear about on the show.

       

      Speech Therapy Schedule Tips For Staying Productive – EP 93

      If you have ended your day as a school-based SLP and wondered, “What the heck did I do all day?” you are not alone. Between high caseloads, speech therapy referrals coming in every other day, and trying to see all your students on your speech therapy schedule, it feels like we have NO time left to do all the other caseload management tasks.

      How To Use Your Speech Therapy Schedule To Stay Productive

      I am sharing my speech therapy schedule hacks to help you stay focused and productive on the must-dos for the week.

      By taking 20 minutes at the end or start of your week to plan out what you will do with your non-therapy time, you will find pockets of time available for important speech therapy tasks.

      When you write down when you will do your Medicaid billing, IEPs, assessments, etc. you will stay more focused during the non-therapy time. 

      speech-therapy-schedule-caseload-management

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      Here is my affiliate link for Renude! Chaggachino is my favorite new deliciousness to add to my coffee, which is keto-friendly and gives me all the brain energy to crank out work tasks in higher focus mode!

       

      Use code: DRINKUP for 10% off your first purchase

       

      In this Real Talk SLP episode, I share the following:

      You will learn tips for how to up your productivity during the work day so that when you leave, the important things on your to-do list will be done. 

      With this one small switch in how you view your work week, you won’t get distracted by emails, phone calls, or overbooking yourself and actually have time on your schedule to get stuff done!

      How-to use Google Docs to create daily or weekly speech therapy schedules that you can duplicate to adjust your schedule.

      Make your copy here of mine HERE. Use this Google Doc for each of your sites. If you are at one site or need a full weekly schedule view make a copy of this Google Sheet

      Print out your weekly speech therapy schedule after you edit it in Google Docs. I prefer to make a copy of my previous speech schedule and write a new weekly date for digital tracking.

      Once I fill it out, I print out the weekly schedule and keep it on a clipboard to take notes when I go around the school. This way, if I didn’t have a computer on me while co-teaching, I could take attendance for Medicaid billing.

      speech-therapy-schedule-school-SLP

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