Ladybug Artic

Hi, guys! This is just going to be a quick post while I sip my green tea and listen to Ava (my cat) cry in the kitchen because I won't let her eat leftover pizza. It's a hard life.

This week (lol "week", it's Wednesday already) I'm going to start a ladybug theme. I only have three kiddos this morning so I wanted to find a quick printable for this and found it.

Bilingual Ladybug Worksheet

I'm planning on using this for artic today two ways:

1) Having the kids glue on spots for productions; and

2) Placing pennies on top of their spots afterwards for a fun "cover-up" game.

Yes folks, gettin real fancy with the therapy activities today. Sometimes simple is best!

Hope you all have a fabulous Wednesday. 

"Sometimes you just have to put on lipgloss and pretend to be psyched." - Mindy Kaling

Friday Favorites

My spur-of-the-moment Easter treats for my kiddos today. 

Getting to wake up one more day next to the person I love.

Making banana nut muffins for breakfast. 

My hair finally having all of the dead ends cut off. Even though I ended up with a bit darker strands then I intended, at least my hair is healthier. Also, I love being a cat mama. Even though she is truly cray cray. 

This. 

~

Happy Friday everyone! Have a blessed Easter. :) 

What A Crazy World

Good morning, guys!

It has been a crazy week so far and I am starting my day a bit later today, albeit with green tea in hand, like I always do. I was pleasantly surprised to get on Blogger this morning and see some surprising traffic on my dear blog here and it warmed my heart. So thank you!

Today I'll be going to see my most furthest away kiddos and ironically, they all are toddlers or younger, so many of the Easter activities I've been using lately just won't cut it. I'm mourning the loss of a couple pieces of Mr. Potato Head's body but the kids don't seem to care. I think this is maybe the fifth Mr. Potato Head that has been a part of my traveling therapy circus since 2011. :)

Anyways, yesterday was one of those days that I didn't have anything *new* for therapy really but I was proud to be able to make a few things "work" for my kiddos in a new way.

Take the cult favorite, "Articulation Chipper Chat" from Super Duper- I used it with a kindergarten friend who is working on an odd goal in my opinion, word-finding. We played a version of "I Spy" in which she both had to work at using descriptive terms to help me find objects and vice-versa, and then had to name all of the objects suggested. I purposely picked non-everyday vocabulary in each photo scene. Yes, it is struck me as very odd that I have found myself using some of the same strategies I used in grad school for my adult Wernicke's patients with a 5 year-old and it's actually been working. I might do a little more research into this as time goes on.

For the rest of my kiddos, we played with the Articulation Easter Basket Hunt game again, this time looking for the carrots. I'm for real, this game has been a hit and I can't believe I've already gotten 2-3 sessions out of it. I even was able to use it for grammar and language goals.

I also decided to make a visual for one of my kids working on using appropriate volume at home...it has a picture of a "loud lion" and "quiet mouse" to help them learn to self-identify their own vocal behaviors. You can get it for free right now for download in my Teachers Pay Teachers store!

                                                         Mouse/Lion Voice Poster 

I just want to encourage you guys, wherever you are, to keep doing what you can, with what you have, where you are, to quote one of my favorite sayings. If you are anything like me, your heart may be feeling a little heavy right now, but it is not anything you are not equipped to handle, no matter how much you may feel otherwise. Dig in your heels, do some killer therapy, and worry about the rest later.

The only things I can really control are my songs, and my behavior. The rest? If I focused on it, that would lead to insanity.” — Taylor Swift, in Glamour UK

The Train Ticket

I think some of you could agree with me that change is often just as hard for adults as it is for some of our kiddos. The only difference is that when they cry and throw a fit because something happened they didn't see coming, we let them off (sometimes) with the statement, "Well, it's a change in routine. It's hard for little guys."

Truth is, it can be hard for adults, too, especially when it is at least somewhat outside of our control.

And let me tell you, I hate not being in control.

I'm mad at the sun, I'm mad at the people who try and tell me to be okay with it, and I'm mad that I apparently can't self-regulate well enough to have faith that it will turn out like I'm told it will.

I'm questioning whether this is happening because of some fault inside myself and whether this is all my fault. Or if none of it is.

I'm questioning if God is punishing me in some sadistic way. And reassuring myself that this is not the case. And that I still believe He has good planned for me.

I'm trying to tell myself not to be sorry or apologize or suppress the feelings of the things I need and want.

People love to distract themselves in times of change and pain. Why? Because it offers them some sense of control. But right now, I don't care about getting a beach body, or taking up a new hobby, at least not for distraction purposes. I'm not trying to run my heart into the ground. I'm not interested in "proving" something to myself or anybody else for that matter.

Maybe in times of uncertainty the best thing to do is what I try and teach my kids to do: identify and accept that you're feeling afraid. Offer those feelings of helplessness up to God and let me tell you, He knows. He already knows. He will give you the strength you need at exactly the moment you need it.

                                                                        ~

“At last we heard Father's footsteps winding up the stairs. It was the best moment in every day, when he came up to tuck us in. We never fell asleep until he had arranged the blankets in his special way and laid his hand for a moment on each head. Then we tried not to move even a toe. 

But that night as he stepped through the door I burst into tears. "I need you!" I sobbed. "You can't die! You can't!"

Father sat down on the edge of the narrow bed. "Corrie," he began gently, "when you and I go to Amsterdam, when do I give you your ticket?" I sniffed a few times, considering this. "Why, just before we get on the train."

"Exactly. And our wise Father in Heaven knows when we're going to need things too. Don't run out ahead of Him, Corrie. When the time comes that some of us will have to die, you will look into your heart and find the strength you need--just in time.” 

― Corrie ten Boom, The Hiding Place

Chips, Ranch, & Easter Articulation Fun

Saturday. I've had a splitting headache since yesterday around 8pm and it has yet to completely go away.

That being said, I just had to make a run to Albertson's a little bit ago and pick up some tortilla chips, salsa and ranch dressing. If you're not from Texas or not from the South, you should know that this trifecta is highly addictive and popular among us women down here. You can find many of us sitting at Chili's just getting our chips and salsa on for hours. Personally, I started craving this yesterday at the onset of my headache and finally just decided to give in.

Now that my craving's been conquered and my head is throbbing just a little bit less, I wanted to let ya'll in on Friday therapy going-on's. All of my kiddos were "afternooner's" which gave me time to put together a fun, new Easter-themed game: "Articulation Easter Basket Hunt"!

Using our articulation words/bunny puppet from "Bunny Body Parts"...

Going on an egg hunt...

It's hard to see through my less-than-professional iPhone photography skills, but the idea is that you cut out the hole in the Easter basket and then the kid can move it across the other page and wait for either a carrot or egg to pop into the "viewfinder", so to speak. Then the kid simply produces their target word as many times as is indicated on the egg or carrot! I slowed the activity down by giving them an actually Easter egg to put in a bag as they produced their target word.

All my kiddos thought it was super fun and enjoyed moving the basket around in search of an egg (we only looked for eggs yesterday). Next week I'll be using the same game but have the kids look for carrots, instead.

You can download "Articulation Easter Basket Hunt" in my TpT for a buck or like & share the link on the blog's Facebook page for a chance to win it free! No one has shared the link yet so I will be extending the giveaway until tomorrow (Sunday) night at 6pm. So go share and be the first to grab it! Facebook page is HERE @ Speech-Love-Texas.

Is there a snack popular to your region that you just crave time to time? Is it my beloved chips and ranch?

Let me know in the comments along with your favorite Easter/Spring themed articulation activity floating around right now. :)

Have a fantastic weekend, ya'll!

Free Spanish Artic download - Final /s/ Easter Egg Hunt/Coloring Page

Final /s/ Easter Egg Hunt/Coloring Page

This coloring page, featuring my amazing Sharpie artwork, is free in my Teachers Pay Teachers store for download!

This activity encourages children to identify the presence of final /s/ in one-syllable Spanish words. 

There are also 2-3 different shapes in each Easter eggs that the children can count for extra practice in producing final /s/ in the words "dos" or "tres" for carryover.

Hope some of you can find use for it!

I'm in a love/hate relationship.

I'm torn, Medicaid.

I love you, but I hate you.

I love your reimbursement rates, but I hate the way you don't listen to anything I say.

Doesn't matter how good my narrative is, you'll glide right over all that functional implication talk and zero in on my standard scores.

I mean, aren't I more than a number to you?

All I want is a little validation here.

The biggest complaint I have is your wishy-washy ways. You change the rules of our relationship faster than I can say compliance.

I guess the biggest elephant in the room would have to be a little something called...Home Exercise Program (HEP). You want me to implement one, document it constantly, and if I don't change things up frequently enough, you get bored with me and slap me on the wrist.

I need a solution. I'm not saying we need to break up...I just need to simplify the process so I can find "me" again.

That being said, here's my new plan:

This 11-page .pdf includes parent/caregiver hand-outs for seven common goal areas for preschool and early receptive/expressive language skills.

I also created a HEP Data Log that can be filled out by you and the caregiver on a session-by-session basis to track weekly HEP implementation. 

These hand-outs include practical suggestions for functional, in-home HEP activities for the following goals:

- Requesting
- Body Parts
- Clothing 
- Early Prepositions (in/out, on/off)
- Advanced Prepositions (under, behind, in front of, next to)
- Vocabulary (Nouns)
- Descriptors (Adjectives) 

All you have to do is make a copy of the data log for each child, give the parent a corresponding hand-out, and circle an activity.

Voila- simplified HEP implementation.  Check it out HERE. 

Please let me know if you check out this hand-out packet or have any questions!:)