Tip Tuesday: Going Places (book review)

I found this book at our local library and read it to my son. I fell in love with it and found it to be a perfect book not just for my own child but also a great book for speech therapy for a number of reasons.

Firstly, the book is quite interesting for both boys and girls and it has great illustrations. But beyond the obvious I really like this book as a means to target social skills and higher level reasoning skills.

The book is about a boy who teams up with a classmate to make a special creation in order to enter into a race. The book encourages discussions about: teamwork, cooperation, compromise, personal inspiration, inventions and "outside of the box" thinking. The end of this book provides students with an opportunity to use context to predict what invention they will create next and through illustration only can a student determine if their "prediction" is correct. What a great way to work on predictions and inferences with our children with ASD!

In addition, there is a moment when a fellow classmate criticizes the two main characters' creation. What a great opportunity to target social skills and talk about the ways in which we are different from each other and how we can accept others with our differences!

This is a simple book but one worth checking out at your local library.

Happy talking and reading!

Giveaway: Learning to Read is a Ball

You have read my review of this amazing book on Tuesday.  Now it's time for a giveaway!  Kimberly Scanlon will generously be giving away one copy of her latest book, Learning to Read is a Ball, for FREE to one lucky winner!  All you have to do is comment below and tell me why you want to win this book.  

You have until midnight tonight to comment.  I will use a random numbers generator (corresponding each comment by the number in which it is received; e.g. first comment is number 1, second comment number 2, and so on.) to choose which person will win a free copy.

The winner will be announced ON THIS BLOG POST TOMORROW, Saturday May 16th, 2015.  So come on back tomorrow to find out if you are the lucky winner!  Good luck!

May 16, 2015 Update:

Before I announce the winner let me just say for those of you who have not won, you can still grab this awesome book at a GREAT deal but ONLY during BSHM!  It's on sale for UNDER $10 on Amazon.com and the kindle version, under $4!!!!  GRAB IT before it goes back to regular price.  Ok now to announce the winner!

Ok I added in all the comments that I received until this morning.  I noted that one comment was added twice below so that was counted at 1 single comment.  The total number of comments were 8 for this giveaway.  I used the number generator at random.org and, our winner is....

Comment #6!!!  Congratulations to Stephanie!  I need you to either reply below or email me (at communicationstationspeechtx@gmail.com) with  your email address so I can pass it along to Kimberly Scanlon to get in touch with you regarding your prize!!!

Thank you to all who entered the giveaway!  

Book Review: Learning to Read is a Ball

Kimberly Scanlon, M. A., CCC-SLP, author of My Toddler Talks and owner of Scanlon Speech Therapy does it AGAIN!!!  She authored another great family resource for communication development, Learning to Read is a Ball.

Ok SLPs, am I very excited about sharing this book review with you today!  As you all know I am an SLP who loves to work closely with parents, to educate and effectively train parents on communication facilitation techniques and this book is RIGHT UP MY ALLEY!

Learning to Read is a Ball is a one of a kind book! It's not only a fun, engaging, colorful and highly entertaining children's book, but it's also a wonderful resource for parents as it explains EXACTLY what a parent can do to faciliate oral language, phonological awareness and print awareness.

What I love about this book:

1. It's parent friendly!

2. It explains in simple terms what oral language, phonological awareness and print awareness is and several ways (techniques, games, etc.) a parent can facilitate these skills.

3.  It's the perfect "cheat sheet" for parents, educators, developmental interventionists, pediatricians, speech-pathologists, etc. (anyone who serves young children) to refer to when attempting to facilitate these skills with this book as well as other books.

4.  All techniques suggested are backed by research. How much do we love evidence-based practices?!

5.  ALL this great information is in ONE BOOK!

6.  And the BEST part? It's AFFORDABLE (discounted prices for rest of this month...under $11 for the book, under $5 on Kindle, so act fast)!!!

For some time, I have been trying to find a concise way to educate parents within my therapy sessions regarding how to get the most out of book reading with their children.  Now I have this wonderful resource to do this very thing for/with me!

This book could be an amazing resource in your speech arsenal as well.  It could also be a great gift to new parents.  I know what I'm buying for the next book-themed baby shower I plan on attending!

So check out Learning to Read is a Ball (grab it on Amazon here) as well as Kimberly Scanlon's other great gem, My Toddler Talks (this is another great book I use for parent education). I promise you, you won't regret it!

Tip Tuesday: Halloween Themed Books You CAN Read in Schools!

Working in the public school system is always a challenge when it come to holidays.  As speech pathologists we want to talk about the appropriate vocabulary and culturally appropriate experiences children participate within their homes and communities.  However, in this day and age, political correctness (and in my humble opinion over sensitivity to these matters) many times ties our hands and we are stuck with discussing "fall harvest" rather than Halloween.  I don't know about you, but teaching my students with ASD how to knock on someone's door, and appropriately say "trick or treat" and "thank you" is so much more functional than talking about scarecrows and corn mazes.  I, of course, believe we need to respect others' beliefs, but I feel all of this can be balanced better in a more tolerable nature than what we current have.  With that said, I am one person and cannot change the laws or district policies out there for many of you.  BUT, I can try and give you an alternative way to discuss much of that same vocabulary via books that are "Halloween" themed without any mention of Halloween.  

So, here are my go to books when I cannot discuss "Halloween" but I still want my students to come away with real culturally appropriate vocabulary:

The Legend of Spookley the Square Pumpkin:  I LOVE this book for the fall season!  (You WILL see this again in October...hint, hint...there's a Freebie Friday post with Spookley's name on it) This book has a great moral message about accepting others even when they are different than us.  And of course a square pumpkin is super cute too!

The Little Old Lady Who Was Not Afraid of Anything:  Who doesn't love this book????  Oh the actions, sound words, repetition, sequencing activities that can be done just by reading this fun little book about a very brave old lady!

I Spy Pumpkins:  You know I love my "I Spy" books from my previous post (if you haven't read it, you can check that post out here).  This is no exception.  Looks creepy from the outside, but children with have lots of fun trying to spy some pumpkins in the midst of these "busy" pictures!

The Pumpkin Mystery:  This book is a great chapter book.  It's simple but discusses how we plant and harvest pumpkins disguised in a fun, kid-friendly "mystery".  Great for predicting and inferencing as well as for retelling, discussing main idea, etc.

Five Little Bats Flying in the Night:  This book is just like the 5 little Monkeys book but super fun for the fall!  These silly bats will keep young children entertained while incorporating language and math in one!

Where's My Mummy?: This a sweet book about a baby Mummy who's looking for his mama.  Of course you meet a few crazy characters (e.g. skeleton, vampire, etc.) along the way who teach us all about bedtime routine and in the end, our baby finds his mama!

Of course we can't forget Eric Carle's The Very Busy Spider!:  Last year I wrote a few posts about using a spider theme in therapy and creating a human spider web.  You can check them out here and here if you missed them!

The Spider and the Fly:  I also like to use this book (my picture did not come out well on my camera so I had to use a pic from amazon) for my older students.  It's actually a poem about a Spider who tricks a fly to come into his "parlor" and he of course eats her.  It is a bit dark, but my older students love to look at the illustrations and make predictions as to whether this fly will be fooled by the spider.  This book is also good for my students with ASD as the spider says he wants the fly to come in for one reason or another, but of course that is not true.  I like to teach my students to "listen to the spider's voice" (as I read it in a "creepy" voice) and see if they can really figure out why the spider wants the fly to come inside.  Sometimes it takes a while for our literal kiddos to really understand the true meaning of the spiders words.

Ok so that is my list of books you CAN read in the schools.  You CAN discuss some really great culturally relevant vocabulary while skirting around the idea of "Halloween" and still teach some great language skills!

What do you think of my list?  What are your favorite "Halloween" themed books you CAN read in school?  Share below so we may all benefit!

Enjoy and happy talking!

Tip Tuesday! Why I love "I Spy" Books!

I have a LOVE-LOVE relationship with the "I Spy" book series.  When they began publishing their toddler series AND began offering them at discounted rates on Scholastic Books, I wanted to kiss someone!

"I Spy" books are SO GREAT for the younger population for many reasons:

1.  Vocabulary development: Oh the things we can see in these books!!!  The wide variety of objects pictured on each page lends itself for some great vocabulary expansion for object labels (i.e. object names).

2.  Prepositions: I LOVE working on prepositions (i.e. location words) once the objects are found on each page.  A simple "Oh where is the (object name)?" or "Where was that (object name) hiding?" is a great way to work on prepositions (next to, above/below, over/under, behind, in, on).


3.  Visual and Auditory Memory: How great is the page with the list of pictures your child needs to find?  I love to read it, have the child point to the pictured objects on THAT page (while I have the "spy" page covered up)...then cover up the prompt page and have the child try to recall (using visual and auditory memory skills) and find the objects.  It's a great way to train the auditory processing skills of listening and recalling key words early on in development (you can focus on the same processing skills for older populations using the "I spy" older series).

4.  Phonological Awareness and Rhyming: I love that every two pages completes a rhyme!  Great early phonological awareness skill and helps in predicting the end of the sentence.

5.  Adjective development: For many of these rhymes to be completed, several adjectives are used which I just LOVE!  It's a great way to expose a child to adjectives and a fun way to talk about descriptions of objects.  I always expand it by finding a different object on the "spy" page and provide a similar adjective (color, texture, size, etc.).  It doesn't have to be one of the objects located.

Anyway, these are 5 of the reasons why I love, love, love using "I spy" books in therapy as well as with my own child.

Happy talking...and spying!!!

Tip Tuesday: My Top 10 Books for Early Language Learning!

I LOVE books so much, this was a difficult blog to write.  But here is a list of my Top 10 Early Language Learning Books (in no particular order(pictures in this blog are courtesy of Amazon.com unless otherwise specified)):










1.  Brown Bear, Brown Bear by Eric Carle:  I love using this book to introduce and teach animals, colors, sequencing, and rhyming. 





2.  The Big Red Barn by Margaret Wise Brown:  This is a wonderful farm themed book.  It talks about numerous animals of varying sizes, their sounds, where they live, what they do.  It has wonderful rhymes and rhythms.

3.  Boo, Ma, La, La, La and/or The Going to Bed Book, both by Sandra Boynton:  I LOVE all of her books!  She has a great sense of what is auditorally and visually pleasing to very young children.  Great rhyming and rhythm and cute illustrations.






4.  5 Little Monkeys (Pumkins, Ducklings, etc.) (all by various authors):  Any of these early counting books are so great for early math concepts.  They are catchy and fun to add some finger plays with them and are repetitive. (picture courtesy of: www.centerusd.k12.ca.us)






5.  My Many Colored Days by Dr. Seuss:  I LOVE this book so, so much because in is a great early language book that talks about emotions and associates colors with emotions!  Its a great way to visually introduce feelings to young children.




6.Hand, Hand, Fingers, Thumb by Dr. Seuss:  This book has GREAT rhyming and a wonderful rhythm.  This is a great early phonological awareness book and the illustrations are entertaining and fun...and super fun to act out with musical instruments (homemade or real).  P.S. It was one of my favorites as a child too!!! :)





7.  I Spy Toddler Book Series!:  I have a post coming about why I LOVE these books so much but I still have to add them to my list of top 10 b/c I use them so often and love them so much!  Want to know why I love this series so much?  Keep your eyes peeled for my upcoming post on the "I spy" books!!!



8.  Picture books:  Any picture books are GREAT for facilitating a language sample, assessing child's ability to use picture cues to narrate a story, make inferences and predictions and retell a story!




9.  My first words books:  There are many different kinds of these books published by different companies.  But they are so great for early vocabulary development.  Many times these books are organized by categories of objects (so you have a page of "foods, clothing, transportation, farm animals, jungle animals", etc.) and is a GREAT way to facilitate semantic organization (i.e. organization of vocabulary words) by categories.





10.  The Very Hungry Caterpillar:  I know I already have an Eric Carle book on this list but I had to add this one as well because I using this book many times as a child's first science book!  Science?  Yes, I said science!  This book is so great in that it is repetitive, has tons of pictures to label, introduces days of the week...BUT the BEST part of this book is the last few pages that explain the cocoon the caterpillar makes and stays in for 2 weeks before he pops out as....you guessed it...a butterfly!

  

 Honorable Mention:  Pete the Cat (book series):  I love the Pete the Cat book series.  Every book has a song that goes with it and they focus on early concepts (colors, numbers, going to school, etc.).  It also has a nice element to teach coping strategies in each book (Pete's feathers never get ruffled when things go wrong; rather he loves to say "It's all good!" and he keeps moving forward).  This is my honorable mention, NOT because I like these books any less but b/c these books are really appropriate for those PK age kiddos rather than the Birth-3 years that we've been focusing on BUT they are just so so good that your younger kids will love to listen the you reading and singing their songs too!  (picture courtsey:  iwema.edublogs.org )

So that's it for my list!  What are your favorite books for early language learning?  I bet those of you that are parents and teachers out there have a TON of favorites!  Please share!

And as always, happy talking!

FREEBIE Friday: Summer Reading Packet!

This week I've been talking all about summer reading so I thought it would be fun to make some summer reading materials for your kiddos to use to track the books they are currently reading and the ones that have already read.  So check out my packet below!

Grab your freebie here!

Here are a few signs your children can use to hang on their bedroom doors and let you know what books they are currently reading.  If you laminate or place in plastic protector and use erasable markers, your children will only need to use on sign all summer!

 I made a cute zebra and purple one for girls, a green paw print one for boys and an orange sign for girls or boys!

I added this page so you and your child can track each book as they are read.  Just write the book name the crayon.  If you child reads more than ten books, just print off another sheet to continue keeping track!

At the end of the summer you can celebrate your child's reading achievements by giving him/her a certificate for reading.  What a celebration it could be!!!!

I hope you take advantage of these summer months to snuggle up with your kiddos and read!  Do you have a plan to celebrate summer reading?  Please share below.

Enjoy and Happy talking...and reading!

My Summer 2013 Reading List!

Busy Bee Speech posted her summer reading list last week (you can find her post here).  As you all know I am a BIG fan of reading and LOVE summer because of all the reading I usually get to enjoy.  I loved Lauren's post so much that I decided to share my own summer reading list!

Keep in mind all of these books on my list are for pure enjoyment!!!  I do have a few professional books I am reading but this post is about the fun books I am looking forward to reading this summer.  So...here goes nothing:







1.  What Alice Forgot by Liane Moriarty:  My book club is reading this book this month and will be discussing it the beginning of July so its my number one book on my list!

Synopsis from Amazon.com:  Alice Love is twenty-nine, crazy about her husband, and pregnant with her first child.

So imagine Alice’s surprise when she comes to on the floor of a gym (a gym! She HATES the gym) and is whisked off to the hospital where she discovers the honeymoon is truly over — she’s getting divorced, , she has three kids, and she’s actually 39 years old. Alice must reconstruct the events of a lost decade, and find out whether it’s possible to reconstruct her life at the same time. She has to figure out why her sister hardly talks to her, and how is it that she’s become one of those super skinny moms with really expensive clothes. Ultimately, Alice must discover whether forgetting is a blessing or a curse, and whether it’s possible to start over…

2.  The Queen's Fool by Phillipa Gregory:  This was one of my book club books a few months ago that I didn't get a chance to read as I was unable to attend book club that night.  But I have it waiting in on my nightstand for me to crack it open.  If you LOVE reading about the Tudors and you LOVE historical fiction...you'll LOVE Phillipa Gregory.  She's so great!

Synopsis from Amazon.com:  A young woman caught in the rivalry between Queen Mary and her half sister, Elizabeth, must find her true destiny amid treason, poisonous rivalries, loss of faith, and unrequited love.

It is winter, 1553. Pursued by the Inquisition, Hannah Green, a fourteen-year-old Jewish girl, is forced to flee Spain with her father. But Hannah is no ordinary refugee. Her gift of "Sight," the ability to foresee the future, is priceless in the troubled times of the Tudor court. Hannah is adopted by the glamorous Robert Dudley, the charismatic son of King Edward's protector, who brings her to court as a "holy fool" for Queen Mary and, ultimately, Queen Elizabeth. Hired as a fool but working as a spy; promised in wedlock but in love with her master; endangered by the laws against heresy, treason, and witchcraft, Hannah must choose between the safe life of a commoner and the dangerous intrigues of the royal family that are inextricably bound up in her own yearnings and desires.

Teeming with vibrant period detail and peopled by characters seamlessly woven into the sweeping tapestry of history, The Queen's Fool is another rich and emotionally resonant gem from this wonderful storyteller.

3.  Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs:  This is a young adult book that seems just creepy enough to keep my attention.  Hmmm....we'll see!

Synopsis from Amazon.com: A mysterious island. An abandoned orphanage. A strange collection of very curious photographs.

It all waits to be discovered in Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children, an unforgettable novel that mixes fiction and photography in a thrilling reading experience. As our story opens, a horrific family tragedy sets sixteen-year-old Jacob journeying to a remote island off the coast of Wales, where he discovers the crumbling ruins of Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children. As Jacob explores its abandoned bedrooms and hallways, it becomes clear that the children were more than just peculiar. They may have been dangerous. They may have been quarantined on a deserted island for good reason. And somehow—impossible though it seems—they may still be alive.

A spine-tingling fantasy illustrated with haunting vintage photography, Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children will delight adults, teens, and anyone who relishes an adventure in the shadows.

4.  Divergent by Veronica Roth:  This is the first book in Roth's trilogy and I'm hoping that if I like book #1 I'll read all three.  It has the same feel as Hunger Games but I haven't read it yet so the jury is still out.


Synopsis from Amazon.com:  In Beatrice Prior’s dystopian Chicago world, society is divided into five factions, each dedicated to the cultivation of a particular virtue—Candor (the honest), Abnegation (the selfless), Dauntless (the brave), Amity (the peaceful), and Erudite (the intelligent). On an appointed day of every year, all sixteen-year-olds must select the faction to which they will devote the rest of their lives. For Beatrice, the decision is between staying with her family and being who she really is—she can’t have both. So she makes a choice that surprises everyone, including herself.

During the highly competitive initiation that follows, Beatrice renames herself Tris and struggles alongside her fellow initiates to live out the choice they have made. Together they must undergo extreme physical tests of endurance and intense psychological simulations, some with devastating consequences. As initiation transforms them all, Tris must determine who her friends really are—and where, exactly, a romance with a sometimes fascinating, sometimes exasperating boy fits into the life she's chosen. But Tris also has a secret, one she's kept hidden from everyone because she's been warned it can mean death. And as she discovers unrest and growing conflict that threaten to unravel her seemingly perfect society, she also learns that her secret might help her save those she loves . . . or it might destroy her.

Debut author Veronica Roth bursts onto the YA scene with the first book in the Divergent series—dystopian thrillers filled with electrifying decisions, heartbreaking betrayals, stunning consequences, and unexpected romance.

5. 6. 7.  10th Anniversary, 11th Hour, and 12th of Never by James Patterson:  I have been a fan of the Women's Murder Club series for years but since my move last year I have become sadly very far behind and I have 3 books to catch up on!!! I won't put each synopsis below but you can click on their pictures to read more about each book

   




8.  Miles to Go by Richard Paul Evans:  I love all of Richard Paul Evans books and this series is no exception!  This is book number 2 of the series but I am looking forward to continuing the journey with Alan.

Synopsis from Amazon.com: Alan Christoffersen, a once-successful advertising executive, wakes one morning to find himself injured, alone, and confined to a hospital bed in Spokane, Washington. Sixteen days earlier, reeling from the sudden loss of his wife, his home, and his business, Alan left everything he knew behind and set off on an extraordinary cross-country journey. Carrying only a backpack, he planned to walk to Key West, the farthest destination on his map. But a vicious roadside stabbing has interrupted Alan's trek and robbed him of his one source of solace: the ability to walk. Homeless and facing months of difficult recovery, Alan has nowhere to turn 'until a mysterious woman enters his life and invites him into her home. Generous and kind, Angel seems almost too good to be true, but all is not as it appears. Alan soon realizes that before he can return to his own journey, he must first help Angel with hers. From one of America's most beloved and bestselling storytellers comes an astonishing tale of life and death, love and second chances, and why sometimes the best way to heal your own suffering is by helping to heal someone else's. Inspiring, moving, and full of wisdom, Miles to Go picks up where the bestseller The Walk left off, continuing the unforgettable series about one man's unrelenting search for hope.



9.  Dark Places by Gillian Flynn:  I have read Flynn's Sharp Objects and Gone Girl novels and they are fantastic psychological thriller/mysteries.  They are dark at times but I very much love the twists and turns in her books.  And yes, her books are the kind of books that stick with you for days after reading them.

Synopsis from Amazon.com:    I have a meanness inside me, real as an organ.

Libby Day was seven when her mother and two sisters were murdered in “The Satan Sacrifice of Kinnakee, Kansas.” As her family lay dying, little Libby fled their tiny farmhouse into the freezing January snow. She lost some fingers and toes, but she survived–and famously testified that her fifteen-year-old brother, Ben, was the killer. Twenty-five years later, Ben sits in prison, and troubled Libby lives off the dregs of a trust created by well-wishers who’ve long forgotten her. 

The Kill Club is a macabre secret society obsessed with notorious crimes. When they locate Libby and pump her for details–proof they hope may free Ben–Libby hatches a plan to profit off her tragic history. For a fee, she’ll reconnect with the players from that night and report her findings to the club . . . and maybe she’ll admit her testimony wasn’t so solid after all.

As Libby’s search takes her from shabby Missouri strip clubs to abandoned Oklahoma tourist towns, the narrative flashes back to January 2, 1985. The events of that day are relayed through the eyes of Libby’s doomed family members–including Ben, a loner whose rage over his shiftless father and their failing farm have driven him into a disturbing friendship with the new girl in town. Piece by piece, the unimaginable truth emerges, and Libby finds herself right back where she started–on the run from a killer.

10.  Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen:  I know it's cliche' but I don't care...Pride and Preducide is my favorite book of all time!  I have it on book format, on my kindle and on my kindle app on my phone and guess what?  I've started reading it all over again!  I can't help it.  I just love it so much!!!  In fact, I love anything by Jane Austen but NOTHING beats Pride and Prejudice in my opinion! :)

Synopsis from Amazon.com:  In one of the most universally loved and admired English novels, a country squire of no great means must marry off his five vivacious daughters. Jane Austen's art transformed this effervescent tale of rural romance into a witty, shrewdly observed satire of English country life. A selection of the Common Core State Standards Initiative.



A few more classics I have on my Kindle already that I have yet to read but are on my list....(I know what you are thinking...how have I gone all my life without reading these classics?  I know, I know...no judgments please.  At least they are on my list, right?!):

  

   



Ok so that is my list! Maybe a bit ambitious but I like to have tons of options!  And all of these books look so so so good!!!!  As I said, I love me some summer reading :)

So what are some of the books on your summer reading list?  Please share!  I'm always looking for good books to read!!!

Enjoy and happy talking...and of course, reading!