I'm counting down 'til summer vacation! 4 more work days! 2 more IEP meetings! Woohoo! Granted I'm going to work 3 jobs this summer - but it's nice to do something different for a bit!
I wanted to share a new activity called Grammar Sweets with you today! I've got some kids who are really struggling with subject/verb agreement! I was getting sick of my is/are and was/were activities so I made this quick gumball game.
The game uses sentences on gumballs. Students need to sort their gumballs onto the correct gumball machine (IS/ARE and WAS/WERE.)
I always try to give you dozens ideas each month for free! Since I had to purchase this clipart I am selling this item on my (new) TPT store. Just follow the link to purchase!
One of my favorite education stores in Lakeshore Learning. I have one of these stores just down the road from me in Columbus and I could spend all day in there! They create materials for teachers, but you know we can adapt things for an SLP slant! Lakeshore let me review some of their materials for you!
The first activity is a Plinko Game for Nonfiction Reading Comprehension, that leaves you feeling like you're a game show host! The game comes in a few versions, but I selected grades 1-2 since that meets my current caseload needs the best! The students watch their chips bounce down the giant-sized game board—then answer challenging comprehension questions in 4 skill-building categories (main idea, diagrams, details, cause/effect.) The game includes 80 question cards in a compartmentalized storage tray, plus 4 plastic chips and 40 game pieces.
Now - if you know me at all! You know I'm going to set this up and use it for every group all day long! I pulled out the post it notes out so that I could modify the game as the day went on! All that fun and I didn't get an amazing picture but here's a quick picture of the post it notes I used to adapt the game.
You can adapt the game for ANY goal - but I just made an articulation, grammar and language version.
The articulation version was made up of the following areas: rhyme (so great for vocalic /r/ - bear, chair, dare, scare, etc!), say 3, say 5, and sentence.
The grammar version included, plurals, verbs, conjunctions and negation.
The language version included synonyms, antonyms, definition and compare/contrast.
I think you get the idea here - you could make a post it for ANY goal. I love flexible games like this! If I could make any changes to the Plinko game - it would be with the comprehension cards. I think the skills are mostly at a first grade readability level. I ordered the game with my second/third graders (who are mostly reading one year behind) in mind. The cards were really quite easy for them, likely because the passages are so short.
I knew that my students would love this because of the quiz cards come with awesome pens that provide feedback every time they answer! The complete set comes with 6 boxes. Each pack includes 100 different questions that focus on a specific skill. The packs include identifying synonyms, antonyms, homonyms, prefix/suffix, context cues and using multiple-meaning words.
Children just touch an answer with the talking Hot Dots pen and it instantly tells them if they’re right or wrong!
I was pleasantly surprised at the humor in these decks! Each card is set up as a riddle or joke. It was a really great for my kids who don't understand non-literal humor!
The set of six retails for $55.00. Each pen is sold separately for $10.95
The items in this review were provided by Lakeshore, the opinions and review are strictly mine. No other compensation was provided.
It's the end of the year! One of the perks for my students at the end of the year is getting to finally pick their own game choice. Last week a few little guys chose Twister. After I thought for a second this is what we came up with! Twister for artic/phonology students!
We only used the colors on the spinner board for the first part.
Each student chose a color and they needed to cover each of their dots. We spun our spinner board and each said the word multiple trials, before we covered the appropriate dot!
It was 'super fun' as my little guys said.
Our board was big so it gave us a lot of chances to say our good sounds!
We needed to work on some following directions in this group too. So we removed our cards and used our 'jumping feet' to listen for directions. We spun for colors and listened for extra directions like "Jump to blue and clap." My friends were getting very excited, making listening for both directions really difficult!
Any ideas on how you can use Twister in your speech rooms?
Adapting games for therapy is something therapist do all the time! My friend Megan and I have the same favorite game which is Cariboo! Enjoy this guest post by Megan Exner, MA, CCC-SLP, on using the game for articulation therapy.
Cariboo is one of my favorite games to use in therapy sessions. I've had the most stubborn of kids participate in therapy, thanks to this game! However, I rarely use the cards that come with the game. I create insert cards (usually made with Boardmaker) to use, instead! This allows me to change the game depending on the goals my client is working on.
I use the old Cariboo version, with the bouncy balls. I ordered one online back in grad school, and recently I found one at Salvation Army for a mere $2. It was missing the balls, but a quick trip to Target fixed that. [If you find one that is missing a key, you can use a pencil, end of a paintbrush, etc.]
One easy way to edit the game for use in therapy is to make your own insert cards. Here are a few examples of articulation/phonology cards I've made:
I recommend laminating the cards. It makes it much easier to slide them in quickly before a kid comes for therapy. If you laminate the cards they do get a bit slippery. You might want to just put them on cardstock! Or tape the ones that slip!
I see kids individually in a clinic setting, but you can also adapt the game when working with a group of children with different goals by inserting a mixture selected cards.
I've also created cards to address language goals, including verbs/actions, categories, descriptions, and prepositions. The possibilities are endless! I plan on sharing cards for those targets in the near future, as well.
Thanks Megan! Please note that they don't make this exact version of Cariboo anymore, but you can still find it out there! It's simply the best! I bought 3 this year at Goodwill and the parts added up to two full sets!
Do you guys color in speech? I found this great giant coloring book for free in a garage sale pile last year.
I've used it a few times this year. It's perfect in case you are needing something new for May days when your schedule gets crazy and you might only get 10 minutes with your group so you can run to a meeting!
This little one was coloring and naming synonyms.
This child was coloring TH words in each section. In the past I have used regular sized coloring books. Then you can run them through the copier with your learning objectives written in, and send them for homework!
One of the most challenging domains of language therapy to address effectively and efficiently is pragmatic language. It’s difficult to treat the nuisances of social language in a natural format. Social groups spend a lot of time practicing and using modeling for conversational situations, but there’s a wonderful app called Conversation Builder, which lets the therapist and student work on conversations even when not in a group setting! The Mobile Education Store provided me with a code in order to complete the review, but the opinions in this review are mine.
ConversationBuilder is a Conversation Simulator designed to help elementary aged children learn how to have multi-exchange conversations with their peers in a variety of social settings.The auditory pattern of conversation is presented in a visual format to help students recognize and master the flow of conversation. For my students, initiating conversation is one particular area that is hard to practice without a verbal prompt from the clinician. That’s where I have found Conversation Builder to be a great help! It makes eliciting opportunities for initiation a breeze!
One of the best choices made by the developer of this app is the answers vary just slightly. Many times our students who have difficulty with social conversation, say something that is close to the topic but not quite right, leaving their listener confused. Therapists will be happy that the differences between answers are subtle, requiring students to weigh possible choices to select the most appropriate response. This gave us a chance to talk about why an answer might be a possible/on topic but not the best choice.
Students learn when it is appropriate to introduce themselves, ask questions, make observations and change the subject of the conversation. Let’s move to the nitty gritty of what you actually get for your $9.99. The settings allow the SLP to decide how many conversational exchanges will take place (4 or 8). The SLP decides if the student will initiate, respond or a variety of both. As a student (or group if you choose that setting) play they see a visual interface which shows a picture. The students then see 3 sentences. They chose the best answer to either respond or initiate in the conversation. The next step is recording their side of the conversation. At this point in my group we paused and talked about intonation for questions versus comments. It also gives you a chance to talk about prosody of speech and how that impacts a listener. If you say “Hey what are you doing.” in a flat monotone voice – that sends a message to your listener. Next the student hears a pre-recorded audio response to their answer to create a complete conversation.
A few more bonus items in the app are that the student’s name, age, primary interest and city of residence are used in conversations to personalize play. The conversations may be archived and emailed to the SLP or parents.
Check out this video to get an even better idea before you buy:
Negatives: Many of the children I completed this app with use a lot of scripted or echolalic speech in general.
If you just stick with the conversations available you will want to be careful about repeating scenarious multiple times. While we want our students to practice conversations we don’t want them to just memorize scripts. That’s a major component of conversational exhanges! You need to listen to the speaker and decide what comment is appropriate. I found that once my students had cycled through they were just memorizing, instead of evaluating and adjusting to the conversation. The app offers in-app purchases to expand the conversation scenarios.
Sometimes fun ideas are born out of less than awesome times. This spring, my (amazingly patient) office mate Elaine and I have had a string of colds mixed with some serious allergy issues. That has left us with lots of tissue boxes laying around. Which led me to making an articulation activity out of it! Some kiddos thought it looked like an Artic Jack in the Box and some thought it was more like a magic show gag! Either way we said a ton of words for practice!
We made these Jack in the Box activities using the Jumbo Webber Articulation book. We taped sheets together in order to get a strand that keeps on going and going!
I pre cut these sheets into strips of three words with their target sounds. Then the kids taped them end for end as they made of sentences using the 3 words.
Next we folded them accordion style. We repeated the words again to ourselves as we folded the strips!
After we got the strips completed, we put the strip into the tissue box. We tried to say each word, super fast, as we pulled out the strips! It was hard to keep up!
Our strips started getting REALLY long, so we just ran with it! How fun is it to make a strip as tall as my wall!? Of course we had to recite all our words again on the wall!
Who knew we could make some speech fashion! They were long enough to make scarves!
