Rise & Grind {+ summer multipurpose "Go-Fish" freebie}

Hello, hello. Wakey wakey! It's Thursday and we only have one more day left this week; almost there!

I literally have 15 minutes to type this before I have to start getting ready to be out the door for sessions so here was yesterday in a nutshell.

I did 7 sessions and spent the morning starting to organize my ish at home. Which consists of about a bazillion worksheets and resource materials that are finally starting to have a place in their own labeled file folders, making life way easier for me.

Protocols and artic materials.

Soon enough, as it always happens, I ran out of time and jolted for the door, where I had some new stickers, a PLS-5 Spanish and my favorite chocolate chip, bunny-shaped graham crackers by Annie's Organics waiting for me. I literally shove these in my mouth as I'm driving around town. 

Today I have 6 kiddos and a lot of different goals to target; that's why I made these new multi-purpose Summer "Go Fish" cards. You can target color recognition, bilabial/alveolar/velar letter and sound recognition (or letter recognition), "do" questions, social interaction skills, blah blah blah. And I made 'em free in my TpT if you'd like to give 'em a try! Let me know how they work out for you. Click the pic below to find them in my store. 

Multi-Purpose Summer "Go Fish" Cards

That's all I got for ya today! Stay cool out there. 

- LD

Sank/Sunk, Whatever

Okay I'm back for a second post of the day with a really easy activity and FREE printable you can do to work on summertime verbs and past tense!

Sometimes you get really excited about an activity and then begin second-guessing it completely, like I did today. Whew. Dodged a bullet there.

The game is basically the whole "throw stuff in a bucket and see whether it sinks or floats" situation, and very simple to tote around.

All you'll need is:

A bucket
Water
A "surprise" bag filled with various age-appropriate toys; I included balls of different weights, cars, plastic eggs, pennies, etc.

I first introduced the visuals (flashcards included in the download) for "sank" and "floated" and explained the difference, how some things stay at the top of the water and some go to the bottom. We talked about how generally things that are heavy will sink and things that are lighter will float. Which led me to a very philosophical question...am I holding on to things that are too heavy that one day may cause me to sink? 

Alright, LD. Let's take a moment. Refocus.

Anyways, my kids thought it was hilarious to drop things into the bowl and pull them back out while getting their hands and clothes a little wet (which I attempted to minimize). I mostly focused on language scripting with my little ones such as "put it in", or with a more advanced kiddo, "I put it in the bowl." I also let them play in the water with the object and just have fun while exploring the different properties going on in there.

For my oldest kid (who is exiting kindergarten), we filled in the following worksheet and then read each sentence back. He loved being able to spell several of the words independently (car, ball, etc.) and then it was great to work on sight words/sound correspondences as part of targeting past tense for my own purposes. Triple/quadtruple win!

Grab the visuals and sentence structuring worksheet for free HERE in my TpT store! 

*Updated June 3rd to include Spanish versions of both the worksheet and visuals!*

And just for the record, it's definitely "sank". 

Guess Who's Back, Back Again

It's not Eminem. It's me!

Yes, I know you can hardly believe your screen but it is I, LD, CCC-SLP, coming to you in the flesh...in the form of a blog post. I took a self-imposed blog vacation because simply I was burned out. And that's okay, and to be honest I don't feel bad about it. As all of you home-health therapists know, end-of-the-month is a little bit cray. Here are some of the things I have been doing therapy-wise lately:

Watermelon Week
- Classic color, cut/glue seeds to a watermelon slice found on Google images;
- Integrated language and fine motor activity of scooping watermelon "seeds" from a bag using a spoon and walking them across the room to put them in a bowl without spilling them;
- Language activities related to "Mouse's First Summer", in which they eat a giant slice of watermelon.

During one session, I experienced this little gem:

"Uh oh! What did she do?"

"She's drowning!" 

Lol I mean let's not get ahead of ourselves, I'm not sure the situation is that serious.

Other than that I've been piecing together the most random activities, from using alphabet puzzles to target final consonant deletion by sorting them into groups of final sounds, to frantically searching for Barney songs online during a session on my phone to quiet a screaming child. It's been fun.

I also put together a new all-in-one articulation and language packet for the Summer! Rather than re-state myself completely, here's what I had to say about it on TpT:

On the Road Again! (Beach Edition)

This summertime speech packet is part of a vacation series! In this "Beach Edition", you'll receive 10 pages of easy-to-implement themed activities for preschool and elementary including:

- Visuals for transportation/locations: "what", "where", and "how" questions;- "What Should I Pack?" cut/paste game for categories, wh- questions, different/same/sorting, attributes, negatives;

- "Beach Ball Past Tense Flashcards" for regular/irregular verbs related to playing with beach balls (easy functional activity) along with matching for colors or requesting using 1-2 attributes in a Go-Fish-style game;

- "Shell Search"- Using a shovel for a "viewfinder", kids can search for shells in the sand and then produce their target word the number of X pictured on the shell;

- Cut/Paste Bucket for corresponding cut/paste to "Shell Search"; provides choices for the child to analyze their own speech and need for prompting such as: "I feel like using my speech sounds was ___ easy ___ a little hard ____ tough today." Great for /sh/ kiddos, obviously. :)"Shell Search" can also be used as a simple cut/paste activity. I recommend laminating it, however, if it will not be used in that fashion.

Stay tuned for the "Camping Edition" coming soon!:)

Yes, I was quite excited upon putting together the packet. Hence the exclamation marks. But for real, this packet will stretch me all week and I hope at least one of you can get some use out of it, too.

In non-speech news, I have been:

- Working out more frequently. I just joined FitFusion.com which is a subscription-based service that is essentially Netlfix for workouts. And I love it. All of Jillian Michael's workout DVDs are there, including her new "1-Week Shred." I did the strength workout for the first time last night and it kicked my ass.

- Eating enchiladas like they're going out of style. I just learned how to make them. I won't shut up about them. Ask my roommate. 

Grass-fed beef enchiladas and a very frozen margarita. My manifesto.

- Enjoying these screen caps/quotes from "How To Lose a Guy in 10 Days". One of my all-time favorite movies that I would integrate more in daily conversations if I could.

- Feeling this tweet. Even though the handle "The God Light" is a little much.

And that's all I got. For now. :) Have a great week, ya'll. 

There's More To This Brave Adventure

I'm going to be honest here, I haven't felt much like blogging the past couple days. I've been fairly overwhelmed with work and general feelings of apathy. If there's one thing I feel sometimes as a therapist it is isolated, or alone. Home health has its perks but the constant time to oneself can get old.

Yesterday I had 10 sessions planned for which I came up with 2-3 activities I could use for the majority of them. I decided to go with an early "summer" theme consisting of these adorable Articulation/Language Sandcastles from Crazy Speech World and Summer Pronouns card game, which is a freebie download over at Speech is Sweet. Thanks ladies for the great ideas!

Articulation Sandcastles

Summer Pronouns

I also brought my "Under the Sea" lacing cards for some integrated fine motor and language work. The kids loved all the activities tied together. Here's a picture of one of my kiddos showing off his activities:) My phone camera quality clearly leaves much to be desired.














In the afternoon I had to make a notably long drive to and from a particular session. As I mentioned earlier, the time you have with yourself as a home health therapist is great for introspection but can get you bummed out from time to time. No matter what people say, interacting with people via text and over the Internet is just not the same as face-to-face interaction. And while I appreciate being invited to activities after work, not many people understand that if will take me more than ten minutes to get there, I just won't go. I've been in the car all day! So catch-22.

Anyways, I had my iPod linked up to my car speakers and just as I was starting to let myself get down about things, a certain song popped up. A song that I listened to my first day of grad school. I remember putting on my cutest outfit for orientation, binders in hand, and pulling out of my parent's driveway while packing the goofiest smile, thinking, "I'm going to be a speech pathologist. It's actually happening." I was nervous but damn, was I excited.

May 2011 - Prepping for week 1 of SLP grad school 

In fact, here's me looking a little too excited. I'm one of those girls who gets excited about school supplies.

Anyways, I remember starting my first practicum with a fun, amazing group of girls and feeling those exact same feelings as we all stood there, waiting to see our clients for the first time, armed with bubbles and a visual schedule, which never really worked, but it made us feel prepared. We chased those kiddos around, analyzed our own behaviors, and by the time we got to closing circle time looked at each other with exhausted "omg" faces and smirking eyes that said, "Whew. Thank goodness that's over!" But we loved every single second.

As I listened to this song I was reminded of the passion I started this journey with, and that's something I never want to lose. I formed relationships back in grad school without knowing that eventually I would choose the home health setting and that these relationships would be invaluable. I have continued to form new relationships since grad school but the point is- I didn't go through all of that to be alone. I don't have to be. And I didn't go through all of that to let myself become preoccupied with things that aren't of primary importance, even this blog, for example.

I remember posting a Facebook status one day in the midst of my first year of grad school chaos that said, "At the end of the day, I just want to be a good speech language-pathologist."

And that's still true. Sometimes you just have to remind yourself to forget all the B.S., and remember why you started this journey.

"To The Sky" - Owl City

And here's the song that reminds me. So what if it's from an animated movie about owls. :)

Managing Bilingual Therapy: Part 3 {+ Spanish GIVEAWAY!}

Here we are, at the final installment of "Managing Bilingual Therapy". Time to talk treatment!

What language should I treat in?
Many people believe that once you've identified the child's "home language", or language of greatest exposure, you should be targeting that language in intervention. I believe this to generally true, for example, in the case in which a child primarily is exposed to Spanish during the day and hears English only via television shows, music, etc. However, in the case in which a child truly receives bilingual exposure to both English and Spanish, such as they hear both spoken in the home (with integrated codeswitching) or they a bilingual preschool or classroom, I will conduct therapy in both languages.

How does that work, conducting therapy in two languages? 
There are several ways to do this, however, my favorite way to do so is through an integrated child-led and adult-led approach. It incorporates several factors:

1) Beginning the session in the language which you would like to target language concepts primarily that day;
2) Codeswitching between languages as appropriate to aid in comprehension and carryover of learning from one language to the other;
3) Alternating between languages based on the child's desire to do so; for instance, if I ask a child a question in Spanish and they answer me in English, I will reinforcement their response in English. I may also repeat the answer in Spanish for good measure, but I never force the child to respond in only one language during the session. As a non-disordered individual and dual language learner they must learn that it is their attempts at communication that matter most to us, not their language choice, and that for bilingual speakers, real fluency is demonstrated in the ease of transition between one and the other.

How do you know which goals to target?
Typically, I look what is most functionally important in both- the ability to request, comment, use basic verbs, present progressives, pronouns, etc. Typically, if a child is truly bilingual, at least one of their main caregivers (or teachers) is bilingual as well, and so if they master a concept in one language, they can at least use that for communication purposes, regardless. I do not target each goal to mastery in both languages, unless it is a skill that it is functionally non-negotiable. I expose my kids to vocabulary in both, and with little guys ages 3 and under, I am always choosing the word that is use most often in the home. If the child's milk is always referred to as "lechita", I will use and target this term exclusively. That being said, if the choice is up to me, I will typically choose the word that is most articulatory "saliable" if that makes any sense- that being words that start with early sounds (bilabials, alveolars, etc.) and contain less syllables than their translated counterparts. For exmple, I am much more likely to teach a bilingual child the word "head" than "cabeza", although I will always provide the translation just in case the child surprises me and latches onto that one instead.

What if the child switches preference for their dominant language?
I once had a bilingual child that although he received bilingual exposure at home, demonstrated a strong desire to use English-only with me. One day, after six months or so of services, I came to see him and was shocked to find him running off at the mouth in Spanish only, after starting preschool in a bilingual classroom only a few weeks earlier. And I ran with it. Switched to Spanish in treatment, while providing supports in English as needed and to check for bilingual comprehension and expression skills. That being said, bilingual treatment is often like bilingual assessment, in that you begin with a target language in mind but you allow room to move in and out of both languages as necessary.

What are some useful bilingual treatment tools, i.e. websites, games, etc.?
Some of my favorite resources come from none other than Super Duper and Linguisystems, but also I've found a plethora of great downloads for Spanish resources on Teachers Pay Teachers and even just simple Google searches for, "Spanish preschool worksheet (target skill). Some of my most beloved apps include:

1) "Llama Llama Red Pajama" Story App- translated in both Spanish AND English! Great for Early Intervention through kindergarten.
2) "Five Little Monkeys Jumping On The Bed" App- English only, but simple enough to be translated back and forth.
3) "My PlayHome" App- a realistic, functional app in which kids can create families and make them do fun things like eating food, playing outside, taking a bath, etc. Great for language treatment no matter what the language.
4) "Bunny Fun: Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes" App- Sings the classic song in FIVE world languages.
5) "Peek-a-Boo Barn" App- Farm animals in both English and Spanish...the ultimate farm animal app in my opinion. I also use it target early vocabulary such as "bye", "night night", "open", etc. Just get it.

Almost anything you use for English language therapy can be used for Spanish and bilingual therapy, unless you plan on using written materials or providing Home Exercise Programs (HEPs) for parents in a language other than the child's dominant language. Right now I have a great HEP Packet available in my TpT store with multiple recommendations for carryover activities in English; would anyone be interested in the Spanish counterpart?

That being said, I wanted to finish this off this series by doing a giveaway for you awesome speechies out there doing bilingual or Spanish therapy!

Enter the Rafflecopter below for your chance at winning a brand-new copy of "216 Fold & Say 'WH' Question Scenes" by Super Duper! 

I know. Super awesome.

Giveaway ends next Friday, May 16th!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

K.I.S.S. + {Flower Power Superlatives freebie!}

We've all been there. Planned an amazing activity while playing out the session in our minds- the light bulb finally clicking and you beaming with the pride of a job well done.

However, that's not the way the universe always works. Instead its more like, "LOL." - The Speech Pathology Universe.

That's what happened yesterday. I brought two of my newest activities to therapy today, along with a new one I'm putting together- my Spring Grammar Scenes and Information Detective Game.

Oh dear. You know that look on a kid's face where you realize you're losing them? Eyes glancing side to side, trying to find an exit out of this activity that you've incorrectly assumed is appropriate for their skill level. Even after you trying to simplify the activity, they're still stressing and you feel like a big, fat failure.

Well, I'm not a failure. And neither is anyone else in my position. I just got a little too excited and tried to make something work that was not meant to work. Or just needed some modifying.

Now that I've implemented these activities, let me just say- I love them both. But in all honesty, here's what I learned:

"Information Detective" should be used with kids first grade and older and ideally with children who have basic reading skills. My pre-kindergardener had a hard time without visuals for the "clues" in the game, and has a difficult time with auditory memory which made the activity that much more difficult.

In using the "Spring Grammar Scenes", it may be helpful to separate the preposition visuals from the visual sentence structure. My kiddos had a little bit of difficulty finding the object on one page, then identifying the preposition visual and then plugging it into the sentence structure. Slight modification needed.

Moral of the story is, it is okay if your kid got more excited to color in a picture of a flower you took two seconds to print off than the extensive arts and crafts project you had such high hopes for. That's the nature of children. They like SIMPLE! They like cut and dry. I need to stop stressing out so much and trying to make things complicated.

In other words, K.I.S.S- Keep It Simple Stupid. :) And have fun!

Here's the activity I used yesterday that actually did hit a home run- I call it "Flower Power Superlatives"! It works great for targeting shapes, superlatives (biggest square, smallest square, etc.) and following directions. I would recommend it for late preschoolers onward.

It's free in my Teachers Pay Teachers store now!





Today I am linking up with Speechie Freebies again, be sure to check them out for more great downloads from awesome speech bloggers!

Happy Sunday! {what I'm loving & new expressive language game!}

Oh this weekend. I've been literally going non-stop, I don't know what has me so full of energy but I'm going to roll with it. Maybe it's my morning green tea but something's pumping through my system making me want to be productive. Who would've thought?:) Maybe it's my #slp bracelet...

I bought this customizable bracelet (made by BCBG Generation) from Macy's in December. It comes with a bazillion gold letters and symbols that you can arrange in any way you'd like; I decided to rep SLP life. I've worn it off and on to sessions but I've been wearing it this weekend and getting a kick of motivation out of it. So cute, right?

Yesterday my roommate and I ran a few errands and then I kicked out a re-eval report, all before 12pm. This is not my usually way. I am the hugest procrastinator but I think I'm starting to realize that that method doesn't do me any favors. Afterwards I got a workout in and did some grocery shopping at Whole Foods. My favorite find was the fajita meal combo they have going on right now- buy the fajita meat and get the veggies, salsa, and tortillas for free! So that's what we cooked up last night. I also tried out a new flavor of kombucha, Green Apple Ginger by holykombucha:

Yum. I actually blended that up with a bit of the that delicious coconut-pineapple juice next to it, added some ice and made a kombucha-rita with a pina colada flair! It was a great addition to our fajitas.

I'm really feeling coconut lately, that's probably why I love this shower cream from The Body Shop.

It is not a "soap" and therefore not drying; instead it's incredibly creamy, moisturizing and has me dreaming about a beach vacation.

Later that night my roommate and I just kicked around and I decided to get to work making a new game for some of my older language kiddos:

"Information Detective: Wh-at's Missing?"

I have a few kids who continue to struggle to provide crucial and relevant information in their discourse, or who use imprecise language such as, "I went there and then played that game," without giving me the head's up of actually where they went or who they were with. I get no context for their stories. This game puts you kiddos in the role of a detective who has to listen to a friend's statements about their weekend and decide what information is missing. They can then work to devise a wh- question to find out the missing information. A table is also included for them to fill in what they know and what they still need to know. 

What are you guys loving this weekend? Do you like kombucha or do you think it's the grossest thing ever? Most people fall on one side of the spectrum or the other, haha.:)