organization

 

update

 I wonder if I’ve come out the other side of all this. In May, I resigned as Lead SLP for my district and stayed on as an SLP. I was surprised by how I’ve grieved it. But I knew I had to. Honsetly I felt I was expected to do more than I had time for. And that was messing with my mental health. My youngest son is autistic with adhd. It’s been hard. I have two other sons and a husband… being on lockdown shown me that their childhood was going by quicker than I liked and being Lead took my attention from cherishing those fleeting moments. Everyone looked at me like I had two heads when I made the announcement. But I was diagnosed with high blood pressure and I knew I needed a change. “you’re a ticking time bomb” I was told. I worked in the hospitals before I went to the schools… I knew what the nurse meant. My doctor said my decision about my job would save my life. 

I think I grieve because so much about our field is sad and frustrating. Along with grieving my son’s medical needs… 

but I have to stop myself because I went into this field because there was so much hope too… These last few weeks I’ve been reminded of that hope… a student who would be categorized as difficult picked this flower and presented it to me with a smile and eye contact. Another student graduated from therapy. My son is surrounded by an amazing group of educators and therapists at school who work their butts off. 

I’m still trying to undo some bad habits I picked up during my time as Lead… but those are falling away slowly, one at a time. I hope I find new inspiration to do the things that bring me joy- like singing, painting and writing… So I’m giving myself grace to heal while noticing all the good things along the way… 

I hope you are taking care of yourself, dear SLP… the world needs you… so you need to take care of yourself. 

jelly beans

I found jelly beans half off at Walgreens after Easter! My son had fun sorting them out into colors. I took a couple and had his ask for more (signing and saying). Before I handed one to him, I told him what color they were.

Easy language activity with things found at home! What are some things around your home that you can turn into a quick 5 minute language lesson?

F word lists

F word lists

YouTube video by The Peachie Speechie on how to make the /F/ sound:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0VFJLEymCC8&feature=youtu.be

F at the beginning of words
1. face
2. fan
3. farm
4. feed
5. feet
6. fence
7. phone
8. fire
9. fingers
10. food

F in the middle of words
1. elephant
2. telephone
3. waffle
4. coffee
5. breakfast
6. dolphin
7. muffin
8. rainfall
9. buffet
10. bonfire

F at the end of words
1. cough
2. elf
3. roof
4. laugh
5. safe
6. cuff
7. beef
8. life
9. leaf
10. hoof

L words

L sound production

This YouTube video by The Peachie Speechie on how to make the /L/ sound:

https://youtu.be/MmdNEn5P5-0

Here are some words so you can practice your L sound:

L at the beginning of words
1. lake
2. lamb
3. lamp
4. laugh
5. lawn
6. leaf
7. leak
8. legs
9. limb
10. long

L in the middle of the words
1. baloon
2. bowling
3. dollar
4. elbow
5. jelly
6. pillow
7. pilot
8. silly
9. eleven
10. elephant

L at the end of the words
1. ball
2. bell
3. bowl
4. bull
5. doll
6. gull
7. mail
8. pool
9. stool
10. whale

R word lists

R sound production

This YouTube video by The Peachie Speechie on how to make the /r/ sound:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5F-qKn_x59I

Practice saying these words each day. Email Mrs. Buffy if you have questions.

/r/ at the beginning of words
1. Rat
2. Rabbit
3. Ring
4. Rose
5. Run
6. Roof
7. River
8. Rope
9. Read
10. Rain

/r/ in the middle of words
1. Airplane
2. Arm
3. Bird
4. Carrots
5. Earrings
6. Cherries
7. Giraffe
8. Iron
9. Horse
10. Fairy

/r/ at the end of words
1. Bear
2. Car
3. Chair
4. Deer
5. Door
6. Ear
7. Fire
8. Floor
9. Four
10. Hair

If you can say the /r/ sound correctly in these words, practice making a sentence :) 

school's out

https://www.wilbooks.com/wilbooks-free-resources

GoNoodle : https://family.gonoodle.com/

Discovery Education: https://www.discoveryeducation.com/

Storyline Online: https://www.storylineonline.net/

https://soundsofspeech.uiowa.edu/main/english

reason no. 245

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!

to the mommas and daddies of kiddos with special needs

I see you.

I see you lean against the waiting room wall- sighing as your child and I go to the speech therapy room- sighing for the 30 minutes that might be your respite for the day.

I see you across the table at the initial IEP meeting nervously twisting the tissue trying not to cry.

I see you - so stressed that you lash out in exhaustion.

I see you - and your marriage strained because your attention is required by your special needs child.

I see you- tear up as I say "it's not your fault- let's talk solutions."

I see you- mourning missed milestones; missed play dates; missed interactions.

I see you.

I see you.

I stand by you. For a short amount of time. But I am cheering for you.

I see you- smile as we talk about his progress.

I see you- comment about how her grandparents say they understand her more.

I see you- as you tell me about his report card...

I see you.

You were made for this.

So was I.

what do you call your speech therapy room at school?

Humans of ASHA

http://www.asha.org/Humans/Jennifer-Williamson/

auditory feedback

So I worked with this kid this week who COULD NOT HEAR HIMSELF PRODUCE /r/ INCORRECTLY... 

I whipped out my iPhone and pulled up the Voice Memo app. I recorded his production of /r/ in the initial position of words in sentences. When I played back his recording, his eye grew big and he quietly said "oh."

BREAKTHROUGH!!!

if you were on a deserted island...

If you were on a deserted island and could only bring ONE item to use for speech therapy, what would it be?  

THIS book- I would bring this book-  it is super versatile and can cover just about any speech, language or fluency goal out there.  I've used it so much that the binding is coming off... I hope I can find a new one at the conference I am attending this week!

What's the ONE item you can't do speech therapy without?