Tricks of the Trade Blog Hop

Welcome to the Tricks of the Trade Blog Hop!  I'm super excited to be your first stop and share what great things we have in store for you!  :)  I hope you will have fun hopping through all of our blogs, learning some new tips, and entering a big giveaway at the end.

If you've never done a blog hop before, all you have to do is click from blog to blog using the links and images provided.  At each stop, there will be a letter clue.  Write these down because you'll need to know the "magic" phrase they spell in order to enter the giveaway at the end of the hop.

You'll have a chance to win a $50 TPT gift card or one of two $15 TPT gift cards!  Yay!

Now onto my "trick."  Today I'm going to show you how I do a little fluency therapy with popsicle sticks.  ;)  Lol I feel like I've been talking a lot about fluency lately.  But, hey, we all need more tips in this area, right?

This can actually be used for more than just fluency (like apraxia, for example), because we like to use popsicle sticks as pacing charts.  I find that this is a great way to teach the kids to slow down and perfect for practicing slow rate or the pausing strategy.  The great thing about a popsicle stick is it's cheap and portable so the kids can take them home for extra practice.

There are a couple of ways you can use these sticks.  The first is as pacing boards.  All you need to make these are a bunch of jumbo craft sticks and some small stickers.

You can let the kids design their own or make a few yourself.  I like to have a variety of different amounts of stickers on them so I can use them at different levels.  If you aren't familiar with how to use a pacing board, it's great for helping kids track their rate or learn to cluster.

They can point to and say a word or phrase for each sticker, depending on what you want them to practice.  

You can also turn the sticks over and use them as pause marks when teaching them where to put their pauses when they speak.  In the pic below, I used a giant piece of paper on the floor to have them practice.  You could also use a white board or just write on the table with dry erase markers.

I let my kiddos decorate one for home and a few for school.  To store them, I used a wafer can that I'd gotten as a gift.  I just wrapped it in washi tape, made a cutesie label for it, and voila!

The sticks fit perfectly!  I hope you can use this "trick" in your therapy rooms as well!

Aaand now for your first letter clue:

It's "L" for Lauren!  Ok not really.  But be sure to keep track of these letters for the "magic words" you'll need at the end.
Click the image below to hop on over to one of my favorite blogs, The Dabbling Speechie, for your next trick and letter clue.  :)  Have fun!

Allison's Speech Peeps	The Dabbling Speechie	Speech Room News	Busy Bee Speech
Live Love Speech	Sublime Speech	Playing with Words 365	Super Power Speech
Speech Room Style	Lets Talk Speech Therapy	Teach Speech 365	Crazy Speech World
Let's Talk	The Speech Bubble	Speech Time Fun	Home Sweet Speech Room

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