Freebie Friday: K and G CVC, CVCC, CVCV word building!

It's FREEBIE FRIDAY so you know what that means...a freebie for you!  This is from me personally.

I am working on K and G so I thought I'd make a word building activity to support phonological awareness while working on articulation.  So...of course, if I make it, you get it!  That's how it works!  Anyway, check out the pages and grab your freebie at the bottom of this blog!  

You will notice, I didn't like many 3 letter initial /g/ words for initial so I created an final /g/ page for 3 letter words and initial /g/ for 4 letter words.  It still achieves the velar practice I'm going for so there you have it!

Also on 3 letter words I did put a line next to the flowers, the child could attempt to write out the word after pasting the letters in the flowers.  For my final consonant deleters (ha!) I'm actually going to have all the other letters BUT the final consonant glued on, and when they say the final consonant they will get to glue on that final letter.  Just a fun way to incorporate literacy into articulation therapy :)

Enjoy!  Grab your free copy at the bottom of this blog!

Grab your freebie by clicking below:

K and G Syllable Word Building

Happy talking!

Tip Tuesday! The Nonverbal Child Part 2: Determining a Functional Communication System

This is the second installment in my Nonverbal Child series.  Remember this series focuses on the Nonverbal child under 5 years old with typical hearing and vision.  With that said I have used the same techniques for older children with age-appropriate toys and activities.  So some of these techniques can be generalized to other ages with appropriate modifications.

These presentations are based on my own clinical experience with evidence-based research I've read over the years and are meant as a guide.  The definitions in this presentation are my own and the process to determine a functional communication system is one I have trialed over the years and have come to conclude works best for my clients.  Again this is to be used as a guide!

Also take note of the additional information I add between a few slides below.  This is information I felt was important to explain but not necessarily within the presentation itself.

Disclaimer:  These presentations are based on my clinical experience and should be used as a guide only.  I understand there are many ways to perform evaluations and therapy and I am just sharing how I do it.  These presentations are not comprehensive in nature and you may add or use different testing materials, strategies or techniques.  Feel free to share your experiences below.  However, when commenting please do so with respect and common courtesy.  Thank you.

This presentation has been removed from this site! You can find Parts 1-4 of this series here!

Happy Talking!

Giveaway: No Tresspassing: This is My Body!

 

I am super excited to announce that Pattie Fitzgerald, child safety advocate and founder of Safely Ever After, Inc. has given me a signed copy of her book NO Trespassing-This is MY Body! for this giveaway to celebrate Better Speech and Hearing Month.

This book is GREAT for parents, educators and SLPs when talking about child safety for children 3 years and up!

Want to know why I LOVE Pattie Fitzgerald's information so much?  Check out my May's Kid Confidential ASHAspere article to find out.  Oh and make sure you check out Safely Ever After, Inc.'s website for more great information.

The winner will be announced this Friday so enter today! Reminder:  The winner will have to privately share their mailing address with me (via email) so I can mail this book to them.  Entries from continental US only please.  


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Freebie Friday: Palm Tree Match Up!

 It's that time again!  Freebie Friday brings us to another fun language activity with my cute monkey clip are I got at www.graphico.com.  Check it out!

Palm Tree Match Up is a match up game between objects and their attributes.  I also added some blank trees and bunches of bananas so you can make your own if you want!

Grab your freebie here!

Happy talking!

Tip Tuesday! The Nonverbal Child Part 1: Assessment!

I have been performing early childhood assessments for the last decade and particularly over the last 5 years have encountered more nonverbal children between the ages of 3-5 than I have in my previous 5 years of therapy.  I wonder if there is a trend in the severity of disabilities we are able to diagnose at earlier ages or if parents are just being referred more often.  Maybe it is a little bit of both.

Since I've had quite a bit of experience with nonverbal children, I thought I'd put together some presentations and share some things that have worked in the past and continue to work for me and how I move that child from nonverbal to verbal communication.  

Disclaimer:  These presentations are based on my clinical experience and should be used as a guide only.  I understand there are many ways to perform evaluations and therapy and I am just sharing how I do it.  These presentations are not comprehensive in nature and you may add or use different testing materials, strategies or techniques.  Feel free to share your experiences below.  However, when commenting please do so with respect and common courtesy.  Thank you.

This presentation has been removed from this site.  You can find Parts 1-4 of this series here!

Happy talking :)

FREEBIE Friday! I Live on a Farm: An interactive book!

I saw this cute clip art from Lilly Bimble Digitals and knew I had to make some farm themed activity for my PK and K kiddos.  So I made this interactive book about living on a farm.  

It targets several things:

• expressive vocabulary,
• discussion of a single category (farm animals),
• rhyming,
• making predictions to fill in the blank, etc.

It is made to be printed front to back so you can save paper or you can cut the pages and order them as you wish.  

Check it out and see for yourself!

Grab your FREE copy here!

Enjoy and happy talking!

Wild Wednesday! ASD: STOP TALKING!

Today I'm writing about something one of my ASD kiddos taught me.  I had been working with a client who was nonverbal for quiet a while with very little progress despite using every trick of the trade and every fun toy I had up my "speech sleeve".  I had tried EVERY reinforcer known to man when one day I just threw many hands up in the air and decided I needed a break.  So I sat back, watched quietly, and did absolutely nothing.

For 5 LONG minutes I watched as my client sat on the floor in the W position playing with the same sensory toy when it happened.  A miracle!  A wonder of wonders!  Speech therapy magic!  The most beautiful word  I had every heard came out of his mouth and floated ever so slowly to my ears, "This".  That was it.  "This".  Was there every a more beautiful word heard in your life?  At that moment I didn't think so.

I slipped out of my seat and joined my newly verbal friend on the floor playing with toys.  It didn't matter what I was doing really, it just mattered that I was on the sidelines.  I commented on what the child was doing and waited.  Waited.  And waited some more.  Then a second word, "On".  YES!  That toy was turned on! You know got it buddy! 

I realized at that moment that the reason my client wasn't "talking" was because I was doing too much of it already.  Why did he even have to?  And how could he possibly think with me throwing one comment after another at him?  Sometimes we are just giving our clients TOO much auditory stimulation and we need to just zip our lips!  

Our therapy sessions continued like this week after week and those verbalizations began to occur more and more often, until he was speaking in phrases and sentences!

I think of that day often when I feel like I am getting in a rut and I remember the best lesson that student ever taught me...sometimes I need to just STOP TALKING!

Happy (in this case) NOT talking!