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2nd Year Blogiversary- Raffle Day # 4

It is an exciting week celebrating my 2nd year anniversary of Building Successful Lives Speech & Language Services!!!  I truly enjoy writing articles and creating resources for all of you!! Thanks for following me along this journey on my blog. I am glad that you are here again for another awesome opportunity to enter the raffle to win MORE resources. There are 3 speech-language pathologists who contributed these prizes:

Figuratively Speeching SLP
Articulation Placemats

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Articulation-Placemats-Homework-Sheets-and-Drill-Activities-Bundle-2-1039778

Speech Sanity
Articulation Visual Supports for Consonant Blends

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/The-Friendly-Sounds-Articulation-Visual-Supports-for-Consonant-Blends-1549318


SLP Talk
Talk The Plank Matey ! Bundle- Articulation, Common Core Vocab & Sight Words

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Talk-The-Plank-Matey-BUNDLE-Common-Core-Sight-Words-924479


BSL Speech Language
Winter Land Game- English/Language Arts Activities
*Categorization practice with tier I and tier III vocabulary

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Winter-Land-EnglishLanguage-Arts-Activities-1057356

Enter the raffle here:
a Rafflecopter giveaway

Thanks again to the generous SLPs who donated prizes! 

Sincerely,

Tamara Anderson

The Celebration Continues!! 2nd Year Blogiversary- Raffle Day # 3

Thanks for joining day # 3 of my 2nd year Blogiversary! It is my gift to you to have an opportunity to add awesome speech-language therapy resources to your speech-language toolkit. 

Pediatric SLPs are constantly selecting materials that will captivate the interest of the precious little ones, tweens, and adolescents we provide services for while addressing the specific learning goals & objectives. 

I know this first hand because I have worked with a range of children from toddlers to middle school aged students. Today’s specially selected time-saving products will assist you in keeping your therapy sessions engaging, fun, and curriculum relevant! 

The products for today’s raffle are:
BSL Speech Language
ELA Comprehensive Categorization Bundle

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/ELA-Comprehensive-Categorization-Bundle-1111028

Looks Like Language
Multiple Meanings Game

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Multiple-Meanings-Game-When-Penguins-Fly-753987

Speech Sprouts
Snowmen at Night Book Companion

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Snowmen-at-Night-Speech-Therapy-Book-Companion-1051454

Speech a Saurus
Social Problem Solving

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Social-Problem-Solving-974452

Enter the raffle for your chance to win here:

a Rafflecopter giveaway

I truly appreciate today’s sponsors of fantastic products:

You don’t want to miss a chance to win articulation resources tomorrow! 

Tamara Anderson

2nd Year Blogiversary- Raffle Day # 2

Hey everyone! Today’s raffle includes the following great products. You have until Sunday, January 18th to enter. 

1) BSL Speech Language
Guess What? Types of Literature, Story Elements, Text Features

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Guess-What-Types-of-Literature-Story-Elements-Text-Features-1623298

Winter Word Associations

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Winter-Word-Associations-1005333

2) Activity Tailor
Zig Zag for Language Associations

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Zig-Zags-for-Language-Associations-1635087

3) The Pedi Speechie

Ahoy! Following Directions with Embedded Concepts

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Ahoy-Following-Directions-with-Embedded-Concepts-435177

Enter the raffle here. Good luck!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Thank you to today’s sponsors of SLP products! 🙂

Sincerely, 

Tamara Anderson

2nd Year Blogiversary- Raffle Day # 1

I am grateful that I have completed 2 years of writing articles for my Building Successful Lives (BSL) Speech Language blog readers. The time has gone by so quickly. I decided to blog to share resources, speech-language therapy best practices, and educational strategies as well. Thank you to those who have read my blog since 2013, those that started reading it in 2014, and any newbies who recently learned about BSL Speech Language. I do this for you!! 

I desire to enrich the lives of not only children but also speech-language pathologists, educators, and families. Now for the amazing part, 16 exceptional speech-language pathologist are helping me celebrate my 2 year blog milestone!They have donated great SLP products from their Teachers Pay Teachers (TPT) stores to include in raffles this week. I will also raffle off time-saving products from my TPT store as well. There will be 5 days of giveaways and you do NOT want to miss out on your chance to win these fantastic resources! 

Today’s raffle includes the following:
1) BSL Speech Language
3rd Grade Common Core Standards Vocabulary

2) Twin Speech Language and Literacy 
Martin Luther King Jr. Day Speech, Language & Literacy Unit

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/MARTIN-LUTHER-KING-JR-DAY-SPEECH-LANGUAGE-LITERACY-UNIT-1043152

3) SLP Runner
Snow Day! Sentence Scramble

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Snow-Day-Sentence-Scramble-2-levels-985682

4) Tech N’ Talk
Speech Sounds Using Sing Along Posters

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Introducing-Speech-Sounds-using-Sing-Along-Posters-1361496

Enter the raffle here:

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Thanks to SLP sponsors joining BSL Speech Language’s celebration! 

Thanks for reading the blog and entering the raffle! You have until Sunday January 18th to enter Day # 1 raffle. Make sure you subscribe by entering your email on the top right of this page so you don’t miss an article. Stay connected to BSL Speech Language!  🙂

Speech Language Success Stories

I am very excited to tell you about a new series on the blog, Speech Language Success Stories. During the first quarter of this year, I will highlight success stories of children who improved their communication skills as a result of speech-language therapy. You will even read stories from guest bloggers as well. This is one of the missions of BSL Speech & Language Services to share the benefits of these services.

I love being a speech-language pathologist because I enjoy having the opportunity to identify a child’s challenges, develop a therapy plan to improve them, provide direct instruction, and watch how a child responds to the interventions.

SLPs are great at diagnosing children with communication disorders. This skill comes naturally to those who have been working with children for a while. It takes more time to perfect the craft of selecting, implementing, and tweaking interventions that will enable kids to learn speech-language skills. The true joy and success from speech-language therapy is when you, the child, and the family can hear the growth in communication.

The first success story goes back to my first love, early intervention. My first experiences working as a licensed SLP was providing individual speech-language therapy for toddlers and preschool aged children.  For many of the children, I was their first experience with any kind of structured learning as they were not yet attending day care or preschool.

I remember a sweet and active little girl that I evaluated when she was about 3 ½ years old. At that time, she would say “hmm” when I asked her a question. She had a very limited receptive/expressive vocabulary and definitely did not use the words she knew to make requests or comment. She would point to or grab whatever item she wanted. I recall getting case history information from her parent and completing my usual play based language assessment with The Rossetti Infant-Toddler Language Scale.  The results confirmed that she had a significant receptive and expressive language delay.

I worked with this little girl for the next 2 ½ years and gave her parent plenty of home program materials. I remember teaching her social greetings, basic concepts, verbs, object functions, how to categorize/sort basic items, and how to build phrases and then simple sentences. During therapy sessions, she began learning to name nouns during play, identify concepts from objects/pictures, ask questions such as “what’s this?”, and even made a few requests using the “I want” carrier phrase that I taught her. However, her overall spontaneous communication skills were not typical. She was very echolalic as she would repeat noises and phrases that she heard from others or television.

I also recall her challenges following directions, difficulty with some motor skills, short attention span, and sensory concerns. After a short time of working with her, I referred her for an occupational therapy evaluation that confirmed fine motor, low muscle tone, and sensory integration challenges. I think she had visual-perceptual difficulties too. Within 6 months of starting speech-language and occupational therapy, my co-worker and I documented our concerns and recommended to her referring pediatrician that our client receive a comprehensive developmental evaluation by a neurodevelopmental pediatrician and multidisciplinary team. Although there was a waiting list for the clinic that did those assessments in my area, my sweet and active little girl received the additional evaluation that she needed. The results confirmed that she had an Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD).

It was not easy for her parent to understand what this diagnosis meant for her child, but she was happy that her daughter was getting all the help that she needed. During the course of me working with her, she started preschool and then a special needs kindergarten class. I think she had just turned six the summer that I last worked with her. She made lots of gains in her receptive language, expressive language, and social skills. Although she was still echolalic, she learned how to make requests and comments. A friend/co-worker of mine continued to provide speech-language therapy for her when I changed work settings.

One of my precious memories of her is the day she brought me a vanilla milkshake. She frequently had these before her sessions with me and one day she told her mom that Ms. Tamara needed one too! Of course, I couldn’t resist and had a big smile on my face. 🙂

Join the Celebration! 2nd year Blogiversary!

Hey there. Thanks for taking the time to read the blog today and join in the fun! January 21st 2015 will mark the 2nd year since I wrote my first BSL Speech Language blog post and it has been a great experience writing articles for my readers! In August of 2012, I started reading SLP blogs and discovered Teacher’s Pay Teachers (TPT) while I was working on my Education Specialist degree (Ed.S.) in curriculum and instruction. In December of 2012, I made it a professional goal for myself to start a blog to share my knowledge as a SLP and also to specially create speech-language therapy and language arts resources for others. I have made products for years to use with children on my caseload so when I learned about TPT, I thought it would be an ideal avenue to share new resources with others. To celebrate my blogiversary, I will have raffles of speech-language resources from my store and other bloggers as well! You’ll have to read future posts for more details.

So what does BSL stand for? Building Successful Lives

I believe that speech-language pathologists and educators not only provide therapy and instruction for children, but teach them practical skills to be successful in life. Children learn self-confidence, how to communicate, how to problem solve, how to overcome challenges, how to get along with their peers, and so much more! 

Building Successful Lives Speech & Language Services has been a a vision of mine since I finished my Master’s degree in Speech & Hearing Science from UNC Chapel Hill 10 years ago! I am committed to sharing best practices for speech-language therapy, special education, regular education curriculum/instruction as well providing exemplary pediatric speech-language therapy services. Literacy is also a passion of mine and I believe SLPs have the expertise to assist children with phonological/phonemic awareness, listening comprehension, and oral communication. 

My inspiration for Building Successful Lives Speech & Language Services is my mother, Dr. Jacqueline Anderson. She is a clinical psychologist and the Founder of Building Successful Lives, LLC. She has over 30 years combined experience as an educator, school psychologist, and clinical psychologist working with both children and adults. 

Ed.S. Graduation Picture from December 2013

Keep reading the blog this month to enter to win awesome time-saving resources to enrich your SLP and educator life! 🙂 Subscribe to the blog by entering your email on the right hand side of this page. You will then get BSL’s blog articles and updates sent directly to your email.  

Thanks for your support, 

Tamara Anderson

Setting Goals for Success in 2015

Happy New Year! I am so excited about all that is in store for Building Successful Lives Speech & Language Services  in 2015 and in my personal life! I always love a new year because it is a fresh start for new goals. I am definitely a list person as I especially enjoy reflecting on what I plan to accomplish and writing them down. 

I recommend writing quarterly goals for the year so that you have tangible steps to work towards in three month increments. I did this yesterday on January 1st and I am beyond thrilled about all that is to come! Definitely subscribe to the blog this year so that you will 
not miss a post. Just enter your email at the top right of this page where it says subscribe. I will write lots of new content including information about new products and have guest bloggers as well. 

I have had a wonderful holiday break and I will return to work full time on Monday. It’s time to continue providing quality speech-language evaluation and therapy services for all the elementary school aged children on my caseload. Here is a motivational list that I have posted in my therapy room. I think you will like it too. 

I have one for parents as well that you can share with them. 

You can get a complimentary copy to display in your therapy room, classroom, or speech office in my TPT store. You can also get the complimentary parent version as well. 
http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Seven-Keys-for-a-Successful-School-Year-1626831

All the best in 2015. Remember, you can do all things if you only BELIEVE! 

Tamara Anderson

End of Year SALE-bration!

The end of 2014 is rapidly coming to a close. There are just 3 days left including today! I encourage you to make the most of this remaining time by spending it with those you love most dearly. Here’s a picture collage of some of my recent family moments.

I am having a 20 % sale on all products in my TPT store 
until December 31st! You definitely need my various progress monitoring, English/Language Arts common core standards, and language intervention resources to make your SLP and educator life much easier in 2015! So head on over to teacherspayteachers.com/Store/Tamara-Anderson and access the digital downloads for complimentary products and on sale time-saving resources. 

Tamara Anderson

Happy Holidays – Thanks for Your Support!

Hey everyone. Thanks so much for reading my blog this year. I have enjoyed writing the articles, creating new speech/language products, and getting to know many new SLP bloggers this year. One of my highlights was definitely meeting several bloggers at the ASHA conference in Orlando, FL back in November. I wish you and your family a wonderful holiday season. Happy Hannukah if you are in midst of celebrating this special season of remembrance! Merry Christmas to those who will celebrate this time! I am especially glad that I am able to spend time with family as we reflect on our true reason for celebrating the season, the birth of Jesus Christ! 

Happy Holidays! 

Sincerely, 

Tamara Anderson

Happy Holidays and Summarization {Evidence Based Strategy}

Happy Holidays from Building Successful Lives (BSL) Speech & Language! I am writing from the comforts of home today as I am now on day 3 of recovering from the flu. As the year is quickly coming to an end, this is a great time to naturally reflect on skills that you have taught your students and the progress that they have made.  However, it is equally important that you teach students, especially students with language disorders the evidence based strategy of summarization.