4 Reasons You Should Follow Me on Bloglovin'

Do you follow several educational and lifestyle blogs? Is your inbox full of weekly blog posts you wish you had time to catch up on? Do you have posts bookmarked for later to read in your "free time?" As the internet explodes with bloggers, I have found the most efficient platform for managing blogs is Bloglovin' This site allows readers a single platform to view thousands of blogs on any subject.

As a blogger and entrepreneur, I enjoy sharing my experiences, ideas, and resources with my customers, readers and followers. I have become part of a greater community of professionals. Bloglovin' offers easy access and organization of blogs and posts by subject or feeds.

Speech Therapy Organization Ideas: Plastic Zipper Envelopes

Are you looking for a way to keep your thematic books and book companion materials organized and stored neatly? For years I kept my thematic materials stored in file folders. It worked for a while, until my material resources started to multiply. I found myself loosing items such as sentence strips, task cards, vocabulary visuals, manipulatives, and craft samples. That's when I decided to try out plastic zipper envelopes for a few book companions. This has been an organizational transformation for my materials. I wanted to share with you what I have found to be an organizational gem.

In this post, I will show you three different ways I use plastic zipper envelopes to organize my thematic books and book companions.

What You Need to Know About Boosting Tier 2 Vocabulary

Vocabulary is a key component to learning. Not only is it an important part of communication, but it is one of the essential layers for establishing literacy. The National Reading Panel, 2001 identified Vocabulary as one of the 5 key components for learning to read (Phonemic Awareness, Phonics, Vocabulary, Fluency, Text Comprehension). In addition, vocabulary is learned indirectly through conversation, life experiences, media, and listening to stories, as well as through direct instruction such as: word studies, frequent exposure and use, and a systematic approach. Vocabulary is essential for academic success, and both RtI (Response to Intervention) and speech-language therapy can be an important factor in remediation for vocabulary deficits. 
In this post I will outline what you need to know about Tier 2 Vocabulary, offer 8 fun intervention activities, and provide you with my Tier 2 Vocabulary FREEBIE!

Speech Room Organization with Bins

Do you have piles of therapy materials set aside for the week? Are your piles and stacks of materials getting mixed up and disorganized? I have found an organizational strategy that works to keep the stacks and piles organized. In a previous post, I talked about organizing your speech therapy room using Command Hooks. You can read about how to utilize that vertical space in your therapy room HERE. 

In this post, I am going to show you how I organize my grade-level group materials in different bins.

3 New Vocabulary Games using Apples to Apples

Apples to Apples is a FUN word game of matching adjective cards (green cards) to noun cards (red cards). The winner is the player with the most matches.  Speech-language pathologists are known for being creative with materials and adapting what we have to meet our students' needs. Apples to Apples can be adapted to address target goals in articulation, language, fluency and social skills. 
For months, this game sat in my closet untouched. My students were not successful playing this game as it was originally designed and I knew it needed to be adapted. I especially wanted to add visual support to target semantic features and language flexibility in a way my students would be successful. 

In this post, I am going to teach you how to play 3 of my favorite fast and fun games using Apples to Apples to target academic and functional vocabulary skills.

5 Reasons to Use Graphic Organizers in Speech Therapy

When do you use graphic organizers? Do you use them to pre-teach concepts, or during brainstorming activities? Do you use them during lessons to target specific skills such as comparing and contrasting with a Venn Diagram? Do you use them at the end of a thematic unit to assess comprehension? I hope the answer is all of the above. Graphic organizers use symbolic language to communicate and connect visual information in the brain. Once I understood that graphic organizers use visual language to represent concepts, I knew they needed to be incorporated into my lessons regularly.

In this post, I will give you 5 reasons why you should be using graphic organizers in your speech therapy sessions, PLUS I am offering my Graphic Organizer FREEBIE through this blog post.

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.

Speech Therapy Room Organization with Command Hooks

One thing I really try to do for myself is stay as organized as possible. For me, I am a more effective therapist when I am organized. In our profession, we have resources for multiple ages and grade levels, various levels of disabilities, specialized curriculum, and tools and toys for just about every holiday.

I think if there was one organizational MUST HAVE for your speech room, I would suggest you invest in Command Hooks. You can find Command Hooks HERE on Amazon, or other stores such as Michaels, Wal-Mart, and Target.

In this post, I want to share three different ways you can organize your speech room with Command Hooks.

Teacher Appreciation

There is one week out of the school year that being called the "Speech Teacher" has it's perks. Teacher Appreciation Week has always been something to look forward to in my district. In the past we have had fun things like an extra planning time; free appetizer and drink coupons in our mailboxes; snacks and dessert bars; lunch provided and jean passes. It's usually something everyday from Monday through Friday. Teachers are the pillars of the community. Everyday I trust educators to take care of my own children. I trust them to keep them safe, to love on them, teach them and mentor them. As a speech-language pathologist, I have worked in many different settings. Education is where my HEART is!

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.