Spring Into Speech Blog Hop!

Have you been having fun "springing" around all of these fabulous blogs?  Well, you've only got a couple more stops before the big giveaway!!  In case you're just joining, let me briefly fill you in!

Just hop through all of the Spring Into Speech blog posts and collect the letters along the way.  Unscramble them to reveal a phrase that will give you access to the raffle at your last stop!

Prizes include:  A $50 giftcard to TPT, a $30 giftcard to TPT, and a $20 giftcard to TPT!

Click on the flowers below if you'd like to go back to the beginning or skip to the last stop!  :)

Every blogger is going to have a spring themed freebie for you, so you'll definitely want to hop through each and every post!!








For my freebie today, I've got a fun and springy fluency activity for you!

Check out Fluency Pinwheels!

Kids practice their strategies by drawing a pinwheel card and moving across the game board.  There are 32 pinwheel cards that target words, phrases, and describing and 8 wild cards.

I've also included 2 pinwheels for kids to write words that tell how they are feeling about their speech.

You can even make your own pinwheels using this template!  All you need to add is a push pin and a pencil.










You can download this freebie at my TPT store HERE!

And here is my secret letter for you!

Is the phrase beginning to come together yet??  ;)  Click on the flower below to hop to the next blog! 

Have fun!  Thanks to all of the participating bloggers!  

FAQ Friday: Effects of Articulation Problems on Academics

It's FAQ Friday time!  Don't forget to send me your questions!  Or maybe you don't get asked questions as much as I do.  Lol.  I might just be surrounded by curious people.  ;)

Today's question is brought to you by some worried parents.  I often get asked this question when I give results of an artic eval or at an initial IEP meeting.  Parents are often worried what an articulation disorder means for their child and what are the long term effects.

Let's dig a little deeper into this one.

According to this article by Everything Speech, there is no scientific evidence that articulation deficits in general cause academic problems in students.  Articulation errors can occur in conjunction with giftedness, learning disorders, or even mental disabilities.

I have actually had quite a few students that I shared with the gifted teacher over the course of my job.  Having articulation problems does not necessarily mean the child will have academic problems.   Educational issues that can occur, however, are things like difficulty participating orally in class, difficulty with social interactions, and being understood in general.

On the other hand, a child with a phonological disorder is a little different.  This article by ASHA suggests that kids with phonological disorders are at risk for reading and writing difficulties.  It goes on to say that if the disorder is left untreated, it could interfere with the child's social, academic, and vocational well-being in the long run.  :/

In case some of you might be wondering, the main difference between articulation and phonological disorders is that phonological disorders involve patterns of errors.  They might leave out ending sounds in words or shorten words or say sounds in the wrong place in their mouths (i.e. t/k, d/g).  These patterns usually make these kiddos a lot more difficult to understand.

Here and Here are a couple more interesting articles about phonological disorders that have some good information as well.

For both of these, early intervention is key.  The earlier kids begin to remediate speech sound errors, the less they will have to overcome later on when learning to read and write.

Here are a few articles that ASHA references for the treatment of phonological disorders in case you wanted some more info.

• Phonological treatment efficacy and developmental norms (article abstract)
• Treatment efficacy: Functional phonological disorders in children (article abstract)
• Treatment efficacy summary on phonological disorders [PDF]

 Thoughts??  Was any of this helpful?  :)

Er. mah. gersh. Berks!!

Ok, I seriously cannot stop laughing at this girl!  I have no idea why I think it's seerrr furrnnny!!  lol  Look her up on google and pinterest for a laugh.  People have made tons of different memes.  haha...ermahgersh!

"My favorite books!"

Today, I just wanted to share some of the books that I like to use on a regular basis in therapy.  I mostly use these with my preK and younger grades or even my mentally disabled students.  I've also included any activities or companion packs that I could find around blogland to go with them!

Check out my top 10 anytime books for the little bitties!  {Besides Biscuit books, of course}

1.  Polar Bear, Polar Bear

This book is probably my non-verbal student's favorite!  He always goes to find it when he comes into my room.  Naturally if it motivates him to communicate, I'm more than willing to use it!  Here are some cool links for ideas on how to incorporate it into therapy:
Companion pack from Speech Room News
I Spy Polar Bear Style from Just Wright Speech
I also have this set from Lakeshore.  Unfortunately, it's discontinued.  I love it because the books are big and come with lots of little props.

2.  Silly Sally

Silly Sally is great for teaching kids sequencing, verbs, vocabulary, and concepts like upside down.  I have the props for this one that came in the Lakeshore pack as well.  However, I am definitely in need of a preschool companion pack for this book.  (Hmm...I think I smell a new activity brewing!)  You can also check out these cute freebie ideas for Silly Sally from SpeechTimeFun.  Love these!

3.  Where's Spot

Who doesn't love Spot?  This is a favorite of lots of my little ones.  They especially love lifting the flaps and finding the animals.  I like to work on yes/no questions, prepositions, vocabulary, and following directions.  Linguisystems has a great activity book for several different stories and it includes a unit for Where's Spot.
You can also check out this post from Carrie's Speech Corner for some more awesome ideas on how to incorporate this book into your sessions!  :)

4.  If You Give a Mouse a Cookie (of course)

This is an obvious one because it's a common go-to book to teach basic concepts, cause and effect, conditional phrases, answering questions, and just about anything.  Check out these fabulous activities and ideas to go along with this book:
THIS post and THIS companion pack from Speech Room News
THIS companion pack from MoLo's Speech Blog
THIS companion pack from Speech Time Fun
THIS companion pack from Speech Universe that's centered around phonemic awareness

5.  The Very Hungry Caterpillar

This is another popular one by Eric Carle.  Kids absolutely love this one and it's perfect for spring time!   It's great for sequencing, vocabulary, categories (bugs, plants, fruit, etc.), and simple cause/effect.  Here are some cutesie activities to go along with this fun book:
Ideas from The Speech Ladies
Fun ideas from Speech Lady Liz
Activities from Speech Room News
This companion pack from Putting Words in Your Mouth

6.  The Very Busy Spider

I love The Very Busy Spider!  It's probably my favorite Eric Carle book.  I know I know...but it's just so cute and I can manipulate it to target several goals.  It's great for teaching animal vocab, verbs, sequencing, and wh questions.  I also have the kids find the "fly" on each page and tell me where it is using prepositions.  There aren't too many packs for this one out there, so I'm putting it on my to-do list for sure!
Making Learning Fun has a few printables to go along with this book.
There are also some cute little activities from Communication Station :)

7.  Sheep in a Jeep

I really like using Sheep in a Jeep to work on phonological awareness.  It's got lots of rhyming words and kids can really interact well with it.  We talk about the different words and I try and get them to manipulate some of the sounds (i.e. say "sheep" now change the "sh" to "J").  You can also work on answering questions and talk about new vocabulary.
Here is a cute packet from Speech Room News that can go along with this book.
Here are more ideas for this book from If I Only Had Superpowers.
This book is also one that is included in Linguisystems Activities for Young Learners.

8.  Rosie's Walk

I started using Rosie's Walk in grad school when my preschool supervisor had us make speech/language companion props and materials to accompany it.  It's such a cute little book and perfect for teaching prepositions, naming farm vocabulary, and naming verbs.  I just have some little make-shift props to use with it, but check out a couple of great ideas from my fellow bloggers:
Lots of cute ideas from Speech Room News
Here is a really cute craft from First Grade Parade

9.  Go Away Big Green Monster

If you have students that are working on identifying body parts, you've got to find a copy of this book.  It specifically targets facial and head features.  It's also really good for interaction and eliciting words.  I encourage my kiddos to "talk" to the monster and tell him to "go away" or say "bye-bye" to the different body parts.  There are lots of adjectives and color concepts that can be targeted as well.  I actually own THIS cute puppet kit from Lakeshore that we use to retell the story and talk about vocab.
Here are some awesome ideas on how to use this book in your sessions:
Activities from Carrie's Speech Corner
Ideas from [simply speech] 
Cute craft from Speech Therapy with Miss Nicole
A few activities from Making Learning Fun

10.  Dinosaurs, Dinosaurs

My little preK boys absolutely adore this book.  That is fine with me because they are both targeting basic concepts, which Dinosaurs, Dinosaurs is just full of.  I also use it to focus on naming verbs and answering simple wh questions.  One good thing about it is you could really pair any dinosaur themed activity with it, and it'd be appropriate.  I like THIS activity from communication station that works on wh questions and THESE cute artic cards from Liz's Speech Therapy.

What do you think?  I'd love to hear some of your favorite therapy books...or even how you use some of these books in your rooms!  :)  

Tangled Tuesday

I'm excited to be teaming up with Amy from Major Speech Pathology Fun by a Minor Girl today!  She is reviewing one of my products over at her blog, so you can sneak on over and check out which one.  :)  Today I am reviewing her Language Envelopes Activity!  It's jammed packed with games and activities for several different areas of language.  Plus, it's geared toward your 2nd-6th graders, so it's appropriate for your older elementary kiddos.  Check it!

Each language activity comes with a title page that includes directions to play (most have several different playing options!), front-facing envelopes, back-facing envelopes, and stamps.  In general, students can receive a stamp if they answer correctly and sort the stamps onto little mailboxes.  Now let's check out each activity that's included.

• First up, Envelope Categories.  Students match the words on the envelopes to the correct category.  She includes 4 different ideas to play.

• Envelope Yes/No Questions:  Students respond appropriately to the question given on the card.  This game can be played expressively by answering the questions aloud.  It can also be played receptively by sorting the cards onto the enclosed yes/no envelopes.

• Envelope WH Questions: Students match the questions to the responses (my favorite way to work on questions).  It contains stimulus cards for who, what, when, and where questions.  You can also sort the cards into the different question types and play using an enclosed game board.

• Envelope Multiple Meaning Words: Included are 4 options to play.  Students can use the sentence and word cards to match the vocabulary word with the appropriate sentences.  They can also use the definition and instruction cards to match the words and definitions.  It can also be played expressively using just the instruction cards or definition cards.

• Envelope Synonyms: Students can draw a sentence card and find the envelope that contains the correct words to fill the blank.  You could also just use the word cards and have students come up with their own sentences. 

• Envelope Antonyms: Each envelope contains 4 words.  Students must correctly identify the antonym pair.  If they respond correctly, they can put their envelope onto their mailbox.

Isn't this a cute activity?  It's a great way to work on vocabulary and allows for you to target multiple goals with the same group of kids.  

You can check out Amy at her blog HERE or her TPT store HERE.  You can also like her on Facebook through her blog.

App Review: Sunny Articulation & Phonology Test

How many of you have tried out this awesome app from Smarty Ears?  I know that several of my bloggy buddies have done some fabulous reviews of it, and now I happily take my turn.  Enter: Sunny Articulation & Phonology Test App!  I'm so excited to be reviewing an actual test!  All of the opinions in this review are my own.

Be sure and click on the screenshot photos if you need a better view of my notes and comments.  When you enter the app, this is the "home" screen.  To get started, just add the student's name and birthday.

Select the student then click "new test" to begin testing.  This app comes with a screening test and a full evaluation.  Just select the one you would like to use.

When you select the screening tool, you can make your way through various slides that contain different target phonemes.  Each word has a phonetic transcription with target phonemes in the different positions.  Check out all of the cool features.

After you've made it through the images, click on an intelligibility level to add to the assessment.  Results for the screening yield a raw score.  You can view the results in a break down of place, manner, words, voicing, and position.

Clicking the settings tab will allow you to turn off sounds like the transition audio.  Every time you tap to go to the next slide, a voice says "good job!" or another positive saying.  You can opt to turn that off by clicking the transition audio tab to "off."

The main difference between the screening and the full assessment is the capability of distinguishing between the types of errors that the student makes.  You can choose deletion, distortion, substitution, assimilation, or cluster reduction.

Tapping on substitution will allow you to choose the phoneme that they subbed for the targeted phoneme.

Another really cool feature is being able to reverse the direction of the toolbar in case the student is sitting across from you.

At the end of the assessment, you again select an overall intelligibility and obtain a raw score.  You can view the results by position, manner, place, voicing, words, and errors.

You have the option to review any notes you took, email the results to yourself, review the audio recordings, or open in another program (like Therapy Report Center).

When you email the results to yourself, you get a nice long write up all ready to go!  

There is also a manual available inside the app.  It's got lots of good information on how to use the test and different data about the tests.  The SAPT is not standardized, but you can use it to gather some really good information about a client's articulation and phonology.  It's a great tool to supplement any eval.

What I dig about this app:

• It's straightforward and easy to maneuver through
• It gives a lot of good data about a student's articulation and phonology skills
• You can reverse the toolbar to test students across from you.
• You are able to email the reports to yourself, giving you a nice long description to add to an evaluation. 
• Because you can use this from you iPad, you are able to give this assessment anywhere without having to lug around a lot of materials
• The price is pretty good if you compare it to other testing measures.

What could make it better:

• It's not standardized, so you are not able to yield a standard score or percentile rank to explain results to parents.  
• Because it isn't standardized, this may not be a good option if you are trying to qualify a client.  

Overall, this is a great app!  You can grab it HERE on iTunes for $59.99