3 Ways I Use My Movement Dice in Speech Therapy

I LOVE a good Dollar Tree haul. I found these foam dry erase dice and immediately thought of the endless possibilities for my preschool and elementary students. I needed an activity that would engage all my students, and could be adapted to target several different goals. I also wanted a go-to activity that could be adapted and repeated throughout the year. In this post I am going to share with you 3 different ways I use my movement dice in speech therapy.

What I came up with, was the idea of creating movement dice. The first thing I needed to do was create the 6 exercises to attach to each side of the die. My favorite resource for picture symbols with a vast library of content is Smarty Symbols. Under the category of "exercises" and "actions" I found "squat, clap, marching (I renamed knee lifts), hop, jumping jacks," and "arm circles." Each dry erase spot measured 2-1/2 inches in diameter. I printed the circles on cardstock, laminated them and glued them to the die. 

How I Use "Lucky Ducks" in Speech Therapy

Who's the lucky duck in your classroom?
Parents, speech-language pathologists, and classroom teachers can target color and shape recognition, social skills, and critical thinking skills with the moveable memory game Lucky Ducks ™ (Amazon affiliate link) by Goliath Games U.S. This game is appropriate for children ages 3 and up and includes a motorized pond with 12 ducks.  The game requires 2-AA batteries for the “pond” to rotate clockwise. Players choose which shape they want to look for (circle, square, triangle, star) and take turns picking a duck from the pond to see if it matches the shape they are looking for.

In this post, I want to share with you how I use Lucky Ducks™ in my speech therapy sessions, as well as ways to differentiate instruction to meet students' needs.

Growing Up with Dyslexia: A Teen's Struggle to Learn

I've been working on this blog for several weeks now. I had planned on the post going live during the month of May in honor of Better Hearing and Speech Month. But because of the style and topic, it took me a little longer to release it. 

If you've read the "About Me" section from my blog, you know that I have three children. What you may not know is that two of my children have dyslexia. Over the years, I watched my children struggle with their learning disabilities. I advocated for their educational rights, and I dried many tears. In this blog, my daughter shares her story of growing up with dyslexia. She recounts her elementary years, talks about her struggles, and reveals her personal understanding of dyslexia. She also offers advice to other teens living with dyslexia. 

Grab Your Students' Attention with Button Nail Art

I first heard of Button Art from my ABA SLP friend Rose Griffin. After I ordered this play set from Amazon, I was thrilled with the bright colors and motivating pictures. After using it a few times with my preschoolers, I wanted to share this engaging activity kit with you as well as highlight a few speech therapy goals that you can target with your young learners.(Amazon affiliate link). Toddlers and preschoolers will be highly motivated by the Allas Button Nail Art Play Set.  This product has 46 chunky plastic buttons, 10 pictures and a storage tray. I'ts appropriate for ages 2 years and up and requires supervision for toddlers who still put small toys in their mouths since the buttons could be a choking hazard. I love the variety of picture cards. The set includes common objects (umbrella, tree, house), animals (ladybug, frog, dinosaur, bird), and transportation (boat, underwater submarine, truck). The bright colored mushroom-shaped buttons are the perfect size for little hands to grip and snap into place. The cards and buttons fit inside a storage tray and can be easily stored with or without the box.

Top 10 Gifts for Young Children

The holidays are just around the corner and we made it through the Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales in one piece. But for many of us, there is still a list to check and shopping to finish.  As a speech-language pathologist, I am always looking for toys that stimulate language and literacy development in young children. Young children learn through play. Play stimulates speech and language, social-emotional, cognitive, and motor development. Since play primarily revolves around toys and a child's imagination, I wanted to share with you my top 10 gift recommendations for the holidays. 

Speech Therapy Goals and Activities for "Boo Hoo Bird"

I wanted to sit down and write this post today to share an amazing children's book I found that can be used to target a variety of speech and language IEP goals. While searching for books to teach social skills, I came across this sweet book by Jeremy Tankard, Boo Hoo Bird, that I honestly had never heard of and now absolutely adore. In Boo Hoo Bird by Jeremy Tankard, Bird gets bonked on the head with a ball while playing catch with his friend Raccoon. "Boo Hoo Hoo," Bird cries. Raccoon, Rabbit, Sheep, and Fox try to cheer him up. What will make Bird feel better? This story is ideal for students in PreK through second grade.

Part 4: Read the Nonverbal Communication

(Part 4: Read the Nonverbal Communication)  This is the fourth part of my series on  Highly Effective Strategies for Managing Behavior. I encourage you to read the first three posts in the series, including: 

Part 1: Why is He Acting That Way?
Part 2: Create Routines
 Part 3: Structure for Success

The previous posts in the series provide the background information to understanding the communication intent behind behaviors, the importance of routines, and tips and ideas for structuring the environment for success.

Part 3: Highly Effective Strategies for Managing Behavior

(Part 3: Structure for Success) This is the third part of my series on managing difficult behaviors in language impaired children. I encourage you to read both the Introductory Post and Part 2: Create Routines for some background information in this series on managing difficult behavior in your classroom or speech therapy room. In this post, I am want to outline 3 ways you can structure your speech room for success.

1. Eliminate Unnecessary Visual Stimuli

As much as I love colorful and stimulating classroom decor, some of our special needs students just cannot handle the visual stimuli. In a recent study by Carnegie Mellon University, kindergarten students in brightly decorated classrooms were found to spend more time off task and made less academic gains than those in sparsely decorated classroom. For special needs students, systematic structure, visual schedules, behavior charts and anchor charts for learning can be useful decorations. Think about your speech room, is your classroom decor structured for success? You can download my Wh-Question Anchor Charts FREEBIES HERE.

Part 2: Highly Effective Strategies for Managing Behavior

(Part 2: Create Routines) This is the second blog post in the series "Highly Effective Strategies for Managing Behavior."  You can link here to read the introductory post. 

How is your day structured? Do you have a morning routine that involves drinking coffee or hot tea? It is widely known that students thrive on routines. If we consider our busy lifestyles, we can admit that we all feel more successful when we work with a routine. For students with communication impairments time concepts are often very difficult to understand. Knowing what is coming next may decrease anxiety and increases focus and endurance for longer periods of work time.

Part 1: Highly Effective Stragegies for Managing Behavior

(Part 1: Why is He Acting That Way?)  Have you ever had one of those days when you felt like that thirty-minute therapy session was a “total waste of time?” Be honest, we’ve all felt that way. Do you remember that session where little “Johnny” just couldn’t sit still? He couldn’t follow directions, stay on task, sit in a chair, stop making noises, and a sticker just would not motivate him. There are some days I feel like we don’t get anything accomplished in our therapy groups. Those are the days I am ready to just take those little friends back to class and hand them off.

Then, I take a deep breath and remind myself that all I am seeing is BEHAVIOR, but the intended message is COMMUNICATION. That behavior IS communication, and my job is to help students reshape that behavior into an appropriate form of communication.