The majority of children on my caseload have a mixed receptive and expressive language disorder. They struggle with both language comprehension and oral expression. They also have language based learning disabilities with challenges in reading and written expression. In order to remediate their difficulties, it is important to remember the hierarchy of language processing skills …
I love any reason to use markers in speech-language therapy sessions with my students. When I demonstrate how to make semantic maps, I naturally use markers to make the terms more appealing. Who doesn’t like colorful work samples anyhow? Plus, it is a great memory aid as well. Semantic maps are visual representations of key …
As you may know, I love using literacy during my speech-language therapy lessons like most SLPs. I have many students who have speech objectives to verbally retell stories and answer literal/inferential questions from fiction text. My younger elementary school aged students enjoy the Froggy series books by Jonathan London. The stories are engaging and the …
Apparently tomorrow, September 19th, is International Talk Like a Pirate Day. Say what?! This is certainly news to me because this day has always been and will forever be my dad’s birthday! Happy Birthday to an extraordinary man, a.k.a. Mr. Retiree, who I love dearly! This week, I decided to introduce pirate themed fiction stories …
Hey there! The official beginning of fall will be here in a few days. For you football lovers out there, I am sure that you have happily immersed yourself into cheering on your favorite team on GAME DAY!! I know there are plenty of die hard college football and/or professional football fans. I live in …
I am constantly adding new grade level fiction and non-fiction text to my speech-language therapy resources. It is critical that speech-language pathologists support developing children’s literacy skills on a regular basis. I do this by addressing listening comprehension and vocabulary IEP objectives related to text at students’ instructional reading level. An instructional reading level is the …
Last school year, a friend of mine told me about roythezebra.com, a website that has an engaging fiction story, literacy worksheets, and interactive reading games. The story is divided into nine parts and features the main character, Roy the zebra. This is great to use as a group language therapy activity in the classroom. This year, …
I love using children’s books in my speech-language therapy sessions with my students. I enjoy reading aloud to my students and popping in that oh so lovely CD to play an audio book for different group sessions. Either way it is a win win situation because students are typically engaged in the story and there …
*Stay Calm and Teach On!* 1. Build relationships with students, parents, and staff. 2. Keep focused on the academic & social successes of your students. 3. Communicate kindly with colleagues. 4. Keep calm and learn to juggle! 5. Coffee is your friend! 6. Flexibility is key. 7. It is okay to laugh out loud!
*Stay Calm and Parent On!* 1. Get to know your child’s teacher. 2. Encourage your child to work hard and ask questions. 3. Enroll your child in non-academic activities (e.g. sports, music, dance). 4. Listen to your child. 5. Join the Parent Teacher Association (PTA) …
