Blog Archive

Friday, October 27, 2017

5 Great Thanksgiving Read Alouds for Speech Therapy

It's about time to put away the jack-o-lanterns and bats and pull out your turkey books and Thanksgiving therapy materials. There are several different themes you can incorporate in your lessons, including: gratitude, family, the first Thanksgiving, save the turkey, and MORE! In this post, I want to share with you my favorite read alouds for speech therapy. These great books are perfect for mixed groups (articulation, language, fluency, social skills) as well as for connecting the curriculum to your students' communication goals.


Friday, October 13, 2017

Why do SLPs Focus on Categorizing Skills?



Have you written a goal like this: "Given the name of a familiar category, student will name at least 3 items in the category (ex: vegetables, fruits, pets, etc.) on 7/10 trials." or "Given 3 related items, student will identify the category (ex: cow, horse, pig) on 7/10 trials." As a speech-language pathologist, I know that students with weak vocabulary skills may exhibit difficulty categorizing pictures, objects, words and concepts. So when a child demonstrates difficulty grouping like items together, further assessment and intervention may be warranted. So why do speech-language pathologists need to focus on categorizing skills? At an early age, young children begin to recognize shapes, colors, and familiar people. The ability to sort, add order and create working systems is key to developing a rich language foundation. In this post, I want to explain 3 reasons why speech-language pathologists and classroom teachers should strategically focus on categorizing skills as part of their instruction and intervention.

Tuesday, October 3, 2017

Speech and Language Activities for "Room on the Broom"

One of my favorite books to read with students in October is Room on the Broom. This wonderfully illustrated book with repetitive lyrical text is widely popular among teachers, parents and speech-language pathologists. The classic "defeat evil with kindness" theme appeals to all students. 

As a speech-language pathologist, I am always  on the lookout for fiction and non-fiction books that can be used to target multiple speech and language goals. Room on the Broom is one of those books that can be differentiated to target multiple receptive and expressive communication goals. 

In this post, I want to share 14 ways to use Room on the Broom in your speech therapy sessions, as well as direct you to the author's website for more resources to incorporate in your therapy sessions.