you, the SLP

being lead has given me a lot of insights this year to slp's as a whole. By nature, we give. We know the answers so we offer solutions. It's easy to feel like we are all alone with the burden of fixing others' problems.

Maybe you have small kids at home like I do. Maybe you are entering an empty nest season. Maybe it's you and a pet at home. Whatever season of life you are in-

take a minute for yourself.

name three things you like to do outside of work...

name three things that inspire you...

name three songs that keep you going...

name three places you like to go...

Use these questions to help you do a little soul care.

if you don't take care of you, you can't take care of those you need to-- including your caseload.

stuttering

for some SLP's stuttering is not a favorite area... but I LOVE to work with kiddos who stutter.

And here's why: I get to do one of my favorite things during activities to target stuttering-
SING

yep, SING

I get my kiddos to SING during speech therapy.

Guess what we sang ALL SPRING LONG?

Yep, the Frozen catalog.

Pulled up the videos on the internet.  Sang Let It Go until the bell rang.

During the early days of dysfluency treatments, I also pull up the Metronome Online website: [http://www.metronomeonline.com/]
With this website, I pull out some action flash cards, set the tempo low and demonstrate saying one word per beat.  With readers, you can write the words out.  With non-readers, you can clap for each beat/word to be said.  Of course, this isn't the desirable end-goal to have a person speak so rigidly, but this is a great way to demonstrate "bumpy" versus "smooth" speech as well as give the child some success in speaking fluently.  You can also set the words of the sentence to a little tune to promote on-going phonation.  This helps alleviate tension and anxiety for producing "smooth" speech.

overwhlemed

This job can be overwhelming. I need to remember that being overwhelmed does not mean I am doing a bad job. 

bulletin boards

Bulletin boards can be an extra chore unless you use it to display student work. 

With this board, we imagined we were super heroes and drew ourselves as super heroes in a comic book panel. We cut that panel out and stapeled it to the bulletin board. We used our imaginations to take a picture in our head and put it on paper. And then we used attributes to describe our super hero. 

The kids seemed to really enjoy this activity and hopefully they were able to see that they were superheroes!

comic book reading activities

It's no secret that students with speech-language disorders may struggle with reading skills. We know all the theoretical reasons why but sometimes we struggle with the solutions. Between large caseloads and stacks of paperwork, sometimes our creativity suffers and we are left struggling for therapy activities.

Let me introduce you to the comic book:

Comic books have changed drastically in recent years. With the popularity of comic book movies, more universes have stories told in graphic novel format. More age-appropriate stories are being told through comic books.

Comic books offer stories with pictures... For our articulation kids, we can practice target sounds in sentences and conversation.

For our stutterers, we can practice "smooth" speech and other techniques to produce more fluent speech (as well as the confidence to speak).

For our language kids, we can work on defining words, retelling a story with good syntax and morphology and whatever else comes up!

And with this, students can gain strategies of mapping visual images with the words they read while enjoying a story without the pressure to read. 

So I have a new stack of comic books this week and we'll take some time to read them during speech therapy this week!

I'll let y'all know how we progress!

where's the beef?

So since I'm one of the Lead SLPs in my school district, I've been back at work for a while.

But my SLPs just finished their second week of work.

We've all been hustlin' like we have to hustle the first few weeks of school.... oh, who am I kidding? We hustle all year long!

So I've been eating out a lot and need to get some healthy food choices that I can bring to school with me...

This week, I'm making home made brocoli salad and homemade chicken salad.
I've got a large glass bottle for water (gotta stay hydrated since we talk all day long), kombucha and coffee.

[I know coffee contradicts the large water.... but y'all know... no coffee, no Speechie]

So I need your help.... what are some good lunch and snack choices for the school-based- multiple- sites-a-day SLP?

[thanks in advance for your help!]

Uno

Uno is a magical magical game. Since I've been working with more upper elementary, middle school and high school students, I had to find something that would create a face-to-face interaction while giving us a reinforcer for the stagnant (but important) drill work.

Enter Uno - down from Heaven on a unicorn.

So here's how I use Uno so my kids don't think speech is lame-

*for my artic kids: say three target words; take a turn

*for my language kids: answer three questions; take a turn

*for fluency kids: say three sentences using fluent speech; take a turn

(you get the idea)

But there's something extra magical when we SLPs stumble upon something that can work for ANY kid on our caseload- this is where you'll need a parking space for the unicorn because Uno comes to the rescue again!

I have some kiddos who KNOW what to do during social situations but struggle to implement said skills when they are in the heat of the moment. Uno sets up those situations and moments of frustration, need, disappontment and excitement. Especially good for practicing turn taking! All you have to do is talk the kids through it and help them role-play.

Uno's not expensive and I have a stack at every site I serve-

So get a deck and let me know what language and speech treasures you stumble on!