Fantastic Football!

I'm a sports girl.  Give me a field and a ball and I'll play!  So, I love to integrate sports into my sessions.  (It helps that the majority of my caseload is boys though most of my girls enjoy the activities too)  The NFL draft was just a few weeks ago and then this weekend as I was perusing the dollar spot at my favorite store with a bulls-eye logo I found a great little item that I've  turned into a football game.  So, if you're interested, go pick it up for $2.50 while it's in stock! If you can't find it or don't want to spend $2.50 for this sturdy (chalk)board, there is a paper copy on the cards document for you!

This reinforcer game is simple.  You start on the 20 Yard-Line and then begin drawing cards.  The cards are passes, runs, and fouls for positive yardage as well as turnovers and fouls for negative consequences.  The object is to get your pawn to the 0 yard line (TOUCHDOWN!) and score.  Each time you do this, you may credit yourself/your team with 7 points and/or take a brown football "Touchdown Chip" provided in the document.  The team/person with the most points/chips at the end of the game is declared the victor!  

As usual, there are two links provided.  One, of course, is the free document.  However, as taking time to create and post materials adds up, I've begun uploading some documents to "Teachers Pay Teachers".  If you are willing to "purchase" that version instead of the freebie, I would greatly appreciate it.  If not, the freebie is available to you as well.  Either way, thanks for coming to visit Sublime Speech!

Grab the freebie here!

Support Sublime Speech by purchasing this resource here! (Thank you!!!)

Do you see other ways to use this material and/or the board?  Please share with us!

It “Sounds” Like Love: Learning to love articulation/phonology therapy and how to keep it fresh and fun for students and for you!

Prior to the position I currently hold in an elementary school, I had very little experience with true articulation and phonology therapy.  Honestly, it was the furthest thing from my mind when I went into this field because I became a Speech-Language Pathologist to work with students with severe needs, AAC, and the like.  I was not artic’s biggest fan.  So, when I accepted my current position I was incredibly excited until I realized that the artic monster would most likely be chasing me throughout the school.  I felt underprepared and lacking in knowledge and skill, and had very few tricks in my bag.

I was greeted by a caseload of mostly language students with a few articulation-only students mixed in, and a Response to Intervention model of sorts.  I went back to my grad school materials and books (the ones I had deemed keepers and had not sold back) and began at square one.  Of course, my grad program did a great job of preparing us for every type of client we might see.  However, I admit that I wasn’t the best at listening with intent during my phonology classes and with articulation clients on some days.   I first looked into what RtI model might work best within our school and accidently stumbled into piloting a program.  (That’s a post for a different day!)  Then, before I knew it, the year was upon me and I had students to help.  We pulled out the artic cards and played anything from Go Fish to Crazy 8’s but I could see that my students were quickly tiring of the same activities.  Luckily for me, SLPs were about to have some new friends, Pinterest and Bloggers!

Now, I will say, that not all of what I came up with for therapy this year came from Pinterest and my Blogger friends.  But, the crafty side of me woke up and off I went!  I quickly learned that craft sticks, permanent markers, and dot paints are some of my favorite items.  I created an Artic Sticks game to add an element of competition and something new to my groups.  Then, I took it a bit further with Silly Speech Sound Sticks.  These portable options are a great change up to worksheets and cards.  I also fell in love with the cup stackingideas and modified it for speech sounds.  Each of my students who has participated in this has requested it regularly since!  I also take cues from my students’ favorite reinforcer games.  From that I created the Artic Battle Boats game and Jumbling/Tumbling/Jengatowers.  I found that it’s so easy to take an activity like this and modify it for your articulation students!  They definitely appreciate the change of pace and will be more involved in therapy if you keep it fresh and exciting!

I also started looking at options for going techie in speech.  Now, having an AAC background means that I am already enamored with technology and its ability to help students achieve great things!  We love to grab the iPad during speech and laugh over a MadLib full of their speech sounds or go on a speechhunt throughout our building for items which contain their sound.  I can also take pictures of and use worksheets on the iPad that my students would not typically do in paper form.  There are also so many apps for targeting articulation that I cannot wait to begin using in the future!

Now, as we are approaching our final weeks of the school year, I look back at how much fun I have had with my articulation students.  We’ve laughed over everything from mad libs full of speech sounds to using a flashlight in a dark room to make our speech words sound eerie.  We’ve had competitions for cup-stacking, tower tumbling, and speech sound hunting.  We have worked on “Do-At-Homes” (homework has such a negative connotation with them it seems!) and so much more. 

It has been a year full of an incredible amount of learning, trial and error, and creativity.  I now see the importance of keeping a balance of productivity and fun in therapy sessions and encourage all SLPs to do the same by seeking out materials that are available and experimenting with your own ideas.  There are so many amazing blogs, free materials, and resources available to us now.  I can see the positive effect of my extra effort with my students this year and it has been very rewarding.  Now, if I could just get them excited about completing their Summer Homework!



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I'd love to now direct you to this post on PediaStaff as it is my FIRST time being featured on their blog!  Thanks PediaStaff, y'all rock!

TxTools Review

PediaStaff has released their very first app into the world this week.  And... (insert drumroll)... it's free!  It has several nice features rolled up into a nice, neat, and simple package:

This is the initial screen for the app. The icon for the app has the same "tx" but is a green background.  I found it in the app store by searching for "PediaStaff" but I'm sure a "txtools" or similar search will reveal the same results!

The first available option is "Tally This" which is a simple tally marker system.  I'm a huge fan of anything that keeps me from having to make those annoying "tic" marks on paper.  My kiddos become over-interested in their marks and percentages when they should be concentrating on the task.  So, this tally system is nice when you just want to keep track of how many times something has happened, how many are left, etc.

Percent Right is a great feature for SLPs.  We are notorious for knowing what 17/23 is off the top of our heads  (did you just pull out a calculator to figure that one out?) and live by percentages!  We have to and Percent Right helps out.  Now, I may be missing something, but I'm not seeing the possibility to switch between kiddos during a session.  I've briefly reviewed SuperDuper's Data Tracker app and you are able to store student data and switch between several students to track their percentage correct on particular goals.  However, that app is not free so no complaints there.  This feature is great for one on one situations - particularly artic.

This handy little Age Finder is as it says.  It takes the guesswork out of how many years, months, and days a student is - especially helpful during  evaluations.  Nothing fancy here but it negates the need for multiple age calculator apps as it is included within this app.

Finally, the IEP Scheduler app.  I admit, I'm not really sure if I would use this app as our IEP system keeps track of when we need to hold the next meeting.  It might be helpful for figuring out when I need to send notices home, schedule with parents, etc.  During evals it could be useful for calculating our meeting dates with parents.

Overall I am impressed by this first app by PediaStaff .  It's a no-frills freebie with 4 great features.  I can definitely see myself pulling this out in therapy.  I am pretty attached to my Data Tracker app at this point and if this app had that component... done deal!  I'm excited to see what may be coming our way from PediaStaff and their list of crafty contributors.

What did you think of the app?

Phineas and VERB!

Is it just here in Kansas City that kiddos are generally CRAZY about 2 things... Angry Birds and Phineas and Ferb.  They think the step-brothers, their projects, tattling sister, secret Agent P (Perry the Platypus) and show are HILARIOUS!  After many requests for P&F, I had a mini-pun pop in my head.  Ferb and Verb rhyme... PERFECTION!  So, without further ado.... Phineas and Verb:

This is a card game with 2 available levels.  Level one is a sentence about Phineas or Ferb which contains a past tense verb (irregular).  There are 3 choices provided.  I find that this works best with 1st-2nd grades.  Level 2 contains a sentence about Phineas or Ferb which contains an irregular past tense verb as well.  However, in Level 2, the student is only provided the present tense verb and must correctly change it to fit in the sentence.  There are also Perry/Agent P cards, Dr Doofenshmirtz lose all cards, and Candace Lose a turn cards.  The object of the game is to have the most cards in your deck.   

As usual, there are two links provided.  One, of course, is the free document.  However, as taking time to create and post materials adds up, I've begun uploading some documents to "Teachers Pay Teachers".  If you are willing to "purchase" that version instead of the freebie, I would greatly appreciate it.  If not, the freebie is available to you as well.  Either way, thanks for coming to visit Sublime Speech!

Grab the freebie here!

Support Sublime Speech by purchasing this resource here! (Thank you!!!)

Please let me know if you spot any inaccuracies... it's been a long week :)

Don't forget to "follow" Sublime Speech on Twitter, Pinterest and Teachers Pay Teachers and to "like" Sublime Speech on Facebook!  The links are on the left side of the page!

**AWESOME NEW WEBSITE ALERT!***

I just found a great resource for curricular vocabulary goals.  It looks like it's currently in a beta version (the testing version before it is finalized and launched) but is user-friendly and is looking to be something I will use with my language kiddos!

Word Dynamo is a website from dictionary.com!  It allows you to pick grade levels, standardized tests, academic subjects, and different languages with word games including matching, listen and pick the answer, and flashcard studying.  There are other great games that are worth exploring.  You can also do the "Word Dynamo Challenge" (seen above in the photo) which allows you to pick your grade (Elementary/Middle/High/Beyond High) and then identify the definition of given words and it "estimates" the number of words you know.  This can be fun for students and may give you an interesting look into their vocabulary skills (without photo cues).

Overall this looks like a useful and interesting site that can be utilized for curricular vocabulary goals.  I'll check for iPad compatibility ASAP and edit this with the answer - unless somebody beats me to it!

As a side not, please "Like" us on Facebook for additional information and benefits as we expand!

Art and Inferencing/Predicting Collide!

I appreciate and love art but have noticed that my students have very little knowledge about famous paintings/artwork (much unlike their insane knowledge of cartoons, video games, and apps).  So, it's difficult to find things that they do not have prior knowledge of to use for inferences/predictions.  I was browsing my photos of artwork that I took at the Art Institute of Chicago from when I lived there last year and thought that perhaps merging paintings and language therapy could yield interesting results!

I preface this material by saying that I have not yet used this with my students and therefore don't know how it will turn out.  (Isn't therapy all about trying new and different ideas though?!?)  So, I'd love your suggestions, reactions, and therapy stories... If I need to make adjustments to the document to make it more useable in your sessions, please let me know as I've only made the PDF available for this material.

I hope this is useful for you and that it is enjoyable and challenging for your students!

Download the PDF of the Artwork Inferences and Predictions document now!

Splendid Summer!

For those of you in the school setting, summer is a wonderful time that we look forward to!  However, we know that oftentimes, our students do not continue to work as diligently on their speech and language skills during these weeks off.  I'm a huge believer in providing parents/guardians with the resources they need during those months to continue to work on speech and language skills at home with their children.  There are many resources for summer activity packets/calendars available throughout the web but many of those are out-dated or not exactly as open-ended as I would like.  Others are tailored to much younger children and therefore not appropriate for my kiddos.  So... I made my own for the coming summer.  What I like about this is that it is broken up into two 5-week calendars without specific dates.  I also created a letter and resource guide for parents/guardians.  Many of my parents have already begun asking for these documents to continue working on skills and to keep the kids a bit busier over the summer!

There are two links provided.  One, of course, is the free documents.  However, as taking time to create and post materials can add up, I've begun uploading some documents to "Teachers Pay Teachers".  If you are willing to "purchase" that version instead of the freebie, I would greatly appreciate it.  If not, the freebie is available to you as well.  Thanks for coming to visit Sublime Speech!

Free Summer Homework Packet

Teachers Pay Teachers Full Summer Homework Packet (Only $2!)

What summer activities do you send home with your students?

Batter Up!

It's baseball season and here in Kansas City, we have the All-Star game to host this year.  So, in the spirit of another "promising" season of baseball throughout the country, I made up an all-purpose  All-Star baseball game for use as a reinforcement activity in the classroom, speech room, and at home!  You could use it as a file-folder game (cover included) or you can even upload it to your iPad and play!  Enjoy!
 
To Play:
Start at the Season Opener and move clockwise around the board.  If you land by EXACT roll next to a "Make the Playoffs" space, you may move to that space.  Otherwise, you must continue moving around the board.
When you are at the "Make the Playoffs" space, you then move counterclockwise around the inner board.  If you land by EXACT roll on the "Win World Series!" space, you win the game.  Otherwise, you must continue around the inner board.

Also, just a quick note:

Sublime Speech is now on Facebook!  Like us today!

 And while you're at it, Follow us on Twitter as well!

Thanks for your continued support and enthusiasm.  I have a huge "To Blog" list going and can't wait to have time to start those ideas/articles!

Any suggestions, topics, materials you'd like to see?

DIY of the Week: Silly Speech Sound Sticks

It's standardized testing time in Missouri which means that my mornings are consumed with testing and my weeks packed with sessions and meetings.  So, new materials have been on the back burner.  I did think of one material and have started making the /r/ version of it first and will move to other sounds as I can.  But, I didn't want to delay sharing it with you until completion so here are the basics of Silly Speech Sound Sticks:

What you will need:

40 sticks for each artic sound - for carrier phrases.

30 sticks for each position of a sound - 10 nouns, 10 adjectives, 10 verbs for each position of each sound.

Sharpie

Paint/Markers for color-coordinating

 What to do:

Take your 40 sticks and write carrier phrases on them (list of these will be provided below as they are completed).  Use your marker/paint to identify what type of word will fill in the blank.  I used red for nouns, green for adjectives and pink for verbs.  (You will use the same color to identify the word sticks)  Then write words on the front and back of 10 sticks per part of speech per sound position (e.g. 10 sticks with initial /r/ nouns on each side - total of 20 initial /r/ nouns).

How to Play:

Students can play individually (I do this during Speech Stations Day) or with partners/group.  The student draws a carrier phrase and identifies which type of word stick they will need.  They then draw a word stick and match it to the carrier phrase.  Then they say the sentence the number of times you would like.  My students like to nominate the "most realistic" and the "craziest of all" sentences.

Please let me know if you have any suggestions, extensions, or questions!  ENJOY!!!

(Links will appear as I am able to complete and upload them)

Carrier Phrases:

/r/ sentences

/s/ sentences

Words:

/r/ words

/s/ words

App Review: Flashcard Apps for iTherapy

If you're a SLP on the go, a parent wanting to have resources handy, or an iPad aficionado you will most likely learn to use a Flashcard app on your  iPad/iPhone/iPod.  There are several free options but it is difficult to know which one will suit you best.  I took a look at the top 5 most downloaded free flashcard apps available for iPad (also available for iTouch/iPhone) and have provided my opinion below.  I am not receiving anything from these companies and the opinions are after using the app for a very short period of time.  I welcome any and all comments/suggestions!

(This is a screenshot of my Flashcards in a folder so that you can see what the icons look like for downloading.  I review them in the same order below.)

"Flashcards+"

 Pros:

Available Text-to-Speech (for an additional fee)

You can mark +/- for easier percentages

Cons:

Pop-up ads are fairly frequent and disruptive

It is pretty hard to "flip" and change the cards on this app.  Swipe up to go to next card, and hit "swap" and then swipe from side to side to turn the card over.

Overall:

2/5 stars: Pretty basic app but nothing exciting.  The ads are annoying and my finger started hurting from trying to swipe the cards.  Just not as user friendly as I'd like.

"Flashcardlet"

 Pros:

Tutorial Available

Quick editing/adding of cards to your decks.

Share decks via e-mail or dropbox.

A lot of session set-ups for studying.

Tap to turn, swipe up for next card - easy to do.

Good, simple graphics.

  Cons:

No +/- available for cards with % given after. (You can check the card at the top but it doesn't seem to do anything).

Not able to add photos from what I see.

Overall:

3/5 stars: This is a good app, just not as GREAT as others.  Perfect for quick decks and if you aren't interested in sharing, adding photos, etc.

"gFlash+"

 Pros:

Multiple fonts

12 different available backgrounds

Quiz mode gives you a % at the end!

Integration with Google Docs if you utilize this (which I suggest you do!)

Multiple choice cards possible with use of Google Docs spreadsheets

Combine/Split sets after they've been made (no need to create new set)

Group cards into sets (helps to find Language/Artic cards faster)

Share sets with others via gWhiz catalog (you can share sets with other SLPs/Parents)

Templates for creating gFlash cards are available on Google Docs under create>template>search "gFlash"

Online Help available

Cons:

Ads constant at top of screen.

Can be overwhelming/unnecessary if you do not use Google Docs.

Not very easy to add photos to cards.

Overall:

4/5 Stars: Great if you use Google Docs, most likely not for those who don't.  If you're serious about creating a complete set of cards to have on hand, the online editing offered is VERY helpful but maybe not for the casual user.

"Flashcards" (Pro)

 Pros:

Easy to edit

Share/download via e-mail and iTunes

Cons:

Have to hit "confirm" and "add" for EACH new card

% given doesn't seem to correlate correctly with number correct during quiz

Free versions only allows THREE decks - this is the biggest downfall.

Overall:

1/5 Stars: If you're only looking for 3 decks and very few features, you'd like this.  But, who are we kidding... nobody likes that!

"A+Pro"

 Pros:

Ability to add photos to cards powered by Bing!

Can hit "know/not know/not sure" in quiz mode - I haven't figured out how/if you can view a % afterwards

Easy to flip between cards.

Easy to edit.

Add sets to "Categories" for easy location.

Share with Quizlet, Email, Anki

Ability to change fonts

Cons:

Can only edit on the app.

% available or not... I don't know

Basic graphics but okay

 Overall:

4/5 Stars: Easy editing and photos make this app one of the best.  The photos are great for language/vocab, artic, and much more!  Plus, it's not hard to find it because the photo search uses what you wrote as the search term which can save you time.

So... Here is the quick and dirty version in order from best to worst:

gFlash+ (if you use Google Docs)

A+Pro (if you don't use Google Docs)

Flashcardlet

Flashcards+

Flashcards (Pro)

Please feel free to leave comments, questions, suggestions below!  Thanks!