Picnic Themed Language Activities for Speech Therapy
Step into spring or summer with picnic themed language activities in your speech room! I see students year round and this year I kicked off my summer sessions with a picnic theme. By using themed based activities across the board, it simplifies my planning and how much stuff I need to travel with. Check out these easy-to-implement activities below and be sure to scroll all the way to the bottom for some free printables! Links provided may be Amazon affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases. Thank you for supporting my blog! If you love play
End of year activities for speech therapy
May is not the time to get fancy with end of year speech activities. It’s a time to make it easier on yourself. The trouble is the kids are not cooperating. They seem to be overloaded with end-of-the-year fidgets and silliness. Another “typical” round of speech therapy is not going to hold their attention. Here are a few quick end of year activity ideas that make it easy on you and provide enough fun and novelty for your speech students to keep them engaged: Special friend day: Allow students to bring a favorite stuffed animal to the speech room and
Tips for communicating with speech families
Staying in touch with caregivers doesn’t need to be difficult or time-consuming. Here are five tips for communicating with speech families that won’t overwhelm you. I contract with private schools, so when the pandemic arrived and I was no longer permitted on campuses, I began doing home visits. It was a big adjustment. Not only was there the uncertainty of virus exposure (despite all precautions), but driving from house to house was time-consuming. So, I was delighted when I could return to the school setting this past October. I feel so much more efficient! However, there were some definite advantages
Decrease stress with a Sunday checklist
SLPs have always had a stressful job and the past year has added to the issue. Taking five minutes to look over your Sunday checklist can decrease your stress. I love the feeling of starting Monday morning with a clear list of to-dos and activities planned and printed for all of my students. I just wish it happened more often. But even when I’m barely keeping my head above water, I can take 5 minutes on Sunday to mentally prepare for the week and decrease my stress with a Sunday checklist. That quick pause does just as much for my
5 Types of Communication Intents
Early language is more about communication intents than vocabulary. Let’s take a look at 5 types we see in early language. Requests When little ones need support with language skills, we tend to focus on requests. This is because: They’re usually very motivating They’re naturally reinforcing It’s easier to set up situations that encourage these interactions They make our days more manageable “Late talkers” have more frequent and bigger tantrums because they’re frustrated by their lack of language (aka their ability to tell you what they want). Helping them learn to express their wants and needs can decrease these outbursts.
Language and Stages of Play
What are the stages of play? We often say the goal of talking is that we want our children to be able to communicate their wants and needs to make their lives, and our lives, easier, but that just covers the basics! What we’re really moving towards is their ability to use language to communicate ideas and feelings and develop relationships with others. For children, this happens through play. “Play is often talked about as if it were a relief from serious learning, but for children, play is serious learning.” Fred Rogers There are many stages of play beginning in
This SLP Life
Who else uses December to take stock and plan for the upcoming year? How many times have you vowed to bring more balance into this SLP life? Educators are at such high risk for burnout normally and this year has pushed everyone to the edge. For me, it’s been an opportunity to reflect on what I really want to be doing, especially now that the kids are both in college, and what I want this next chapter of my speech career to look like. I knew I’d need some help. This SLP Life I’d met Melissa Page online several years
How to Raise Compassionate Kids
Empathy is the ability to take another person’s perspective and imagine how they feel even if we haven’t experienced the same circumstance. It’s a sophisticated skill that needs to be modeled and taught if we’re hoping to raise kind and compassionate kids. These suggestions are designed for children 4-10 years old and can be adapted to accommodate the whole family. Laying a foundation To start raising kind kids, we need to help our children develop a robust vocabulary of emotion words so they can label their own feelings as well as identify those of others. Here are a few words
Why is early intervention important?
We’ve heard family, friends, maybe even pediatricians, say that early intervention is important. But why? Is it that big of a deal to wait six months? When it comes to speech and language skills, waiting six months is not a life or death decision, but it can have a big impact on how big of a mountain you need to scale once you start. Let me explain. We talk a lot about milestones and we should because milestones are exciting! Those are what we add to FB feeds or text to family. It’s what we read in parenting books and
3 Halloween Books and How to Use Them to Build Language Skills
Halloween is one of my favorite seasons. Once the fall air hits, it means apple and pumpkin picking, pumpkin-flavored everything, leaves changing and getting ready for all things Halloween. As a speech pathologist and mom, I’m always looking for fun and creative ways to incorporate the holidays into my therapy sessions and with my kids. The more fun they are having, the less likely they are to get bored or realize that they are actually engaging in educational activities. Halloween books are one of my go-tos! These seasonal choices can be books about Halloween specifically or it can be about
Picnic Themed Language Activities for Speech Therapy
Step into spring or summer with picnic themed language activities in your speech room! I see students year round and this year I kicked off my summer sessions with a picnic theme. By using themed based activities across the board, it simplifies my planning and how much stuff I need to travel with. Check out these easy-to-implement activities below and be sure to scroll all the way to the bottom for some free printables! Links provided may be Amazon affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases. Thank you for supporting my blog! If you love play
End of year activities for speech therapy
May is not the time to get fancy with end of year speech activities. It’s a time to make it easier on yourself. The trouble is the kids are not cooperating. They seem to be overloaded with end-of-the-year fidgets and silliness. Another “typical” round of speech therapy is not going to hold their attention. Here are a few quick end of year activity ideas that make it easy on you and provide enough fun and novelty for your speech students to keep them engaged: Special friend day: Allow students to bring a favorite stuffed animal to the speech room and
Tips for communicating with speech families
Staying in touch with caregivers doesn’t need to be difficult or time-consuming. Here are five tips for communicating with speech families that won’t overwhelm you. I contract with private schools, so when the pandemic arrived and I was no longer permitted on campuses, I began doing home visits. It was a big adjustment. Not only was there the uncertainty of virus exposure (despite all precautions), but driving from house to house was time-consuming. So, I was delighted when I could return to the school setting this past October. I feel so much more efficient! However, there were some definite advantages
Decrease stress with a Sunday checklist
SLPs have always had a stressful job and the past year has added to the issue. Taking five minutes to look over your Sunday checklist can decrease your stress. I love the feeling of starting Monday morning with a clear list of to-dos and activities planned and printed for all of my students. I just wish it happened more often. But even when I’m barely keeping my head above water, I can take 5 minutes on Sunday to mentally prepare for the week and decrease my stress with a Sunday checklist. That quick pause does just as much for my
5 Types of Communication Intents
Early language is more about communication intents than vocabulary. Let’s take a look at 5 types we see in early language. Requests When little ones need support with language skills, we tend to focus on requests. This is because: They’re usually very motivating They’re naturally reinforcing It’s easier to set up situations that encourage these interactions They make our days more manageable “Late talkers” have more frequent and bigger tantrums because they’re frustrated by their lack of language (aka their ability to tell you what they want). Helping them learn to express their wants and needs can decrease these outbursts.
Language and Stages of Play
What are the stages of play? We often say the goal of talking is that we want our children to be able to communicate their wants and needs to make their lives, and our lives, easier, but that just covers the basics! What we’re really moving towards is their ability to use language to communicate ideas and feelings and develop relationships with others. For children, this happens through play. “Play is often talked about as if it were a relief from serious learning, but for children, play is serious learning.” Fred Rogers There are many stages of play beginning in
This SLP Life
Who else uses December to take stock and plan for the upcoming year? How many times have you vowed to bring more balance into this SLP life? Educators are at such high risk for burnout normally and this year has pushed everyone to the edge. For me, it’s been an opportunity to reflect on what I really want to be doing, especially now that the kids are both in college, and what I want this next chapter of my speech career to look like. I knew I’d need some help. This SLP Life I’d met Melissa Page online several years
How to Raise Compassionate Kids
Empathy is the ability to take another person’s perspective and imagine how they feel even if we haven’t experienced the same circumstance. It’s a sophisticated skill that needs to be modeled and taught if we’re hoping to raise kind and compassionate kids. These suggestions are designed for children 4-10 years old and can be adapted to accommodate the whole family. Laying a foundation To start raising kind kids, we need to help our children develop a robust vocabulary of emotion words so they can label their own feelings as well as identify those of others. Here are a few words
Why is early intervention important?
We’ve heard family, friends, maybe even pediatricians, say that early intervention is important. But why? Is it that big of a deal to wait six months? When it comes to speech and language skills, waiting six months is not a life or death decision, but it can have a big impact on how big of a mountain you need to scale once you start. Let me explain. We talk a lot about milestones and we should because milestones are exciting! Those are what we add to FB feeds or text to family. It’s what we read in parenting books and
3 Halloween Books and How to Use Them to Build Language Skills
Halloween is one of my favorite seasons. Once the fall air hits, it means apple and pumpkin picking, pumpkin-flavored everything, leaves changing and getting ready for all things Halloween. As a speech pathologist and mom, I’m always looking for fun and creative ways to incorporate the holidays into my therapy sessions and with my kids. The more fun they are having, the less likely they are to get bored or realize that they are actually engaging in educational activities. Halloween books are one of my go-tos! These seasonal choices can be books about Halloween specifically or it can be about
