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Wednesday 29 January 2014

February Calendar

February Language Calendar

I love freebies, I may have told you that already!
Anyway here is my freebie February Calendar- use it for homework for your students with language goals. 


You can find it in a few places here and here!



Enjoy!

Cheers, 
Mindy


Monday 27 January 2014

Therapy Ideas for Valentine's Day!

Hey Everyone!


Using themes and upcoming holidays is a great way to plan for therapy. I don't know about you but I sure get tired of the same old therapy materials. Basing therapy around themes and upcoming holidays is a great way to switch things up.   :)
I am going to post some great ideas I've found for Valentine's day.

1. Valentine's Day Craftivity






Valentine Craftivity & Worksheets (especially for SLPs!)   
This package includes
- following directions
- sequencing activities
- vocabulary
- verb tense
- basic concepts
- asking & answering questions
- social skills.
So excited to try this one out.




2. Valentines Spatial Concepts Heart
Valentines Spatial Concepts Hearts Freebie
This is a free one from Speech Room News. Use the hearts around your room to demonstrate understanding of the concepts.

3. Valentine's Day Pragmatics Activity



Valentine's Day Pragmatics Activity (FREE)

 Free and very simple! You have the kids choose a scenario and then decide if it goes on a sad heart or happy heart. You can extend it to give alternatives to that behavior! Love it, great idea!

4. Valentine Game Board

  Free!!! Valentine game board to target any skill!!! RePinned by SOS Inc. Resources.  Follow all our boards at http://pinterest.com/sostherapy  for therapy resources.
 Use this game board to target and goal you want! Articulation, language, fluency more. Just write on your board with dry erase markers, after you have laminated it, and away you go!


I would love it if you would check out my Facebook page and  Pinterest board- Creating Communicators


Hope these give you a few ideas that you can try!



Cheers,
Mindy


Friday 24 January 2014

Love it & List it Linky









This month the love it and list it linky with Jenna from Speech Room News is dedicated to social skills. To be honest, I don't work on pragmatics much. I am not too sure why, but my guess is that maybe some of the kids I work with have more severe language skills....? I just do what the SLP tells me. :)

http://speechroomnews.blogspot.ca/2014/01/love-it-and-list-it-january.html


I did look into some activities on Teacherspayteachers because my son is having some difficulty with peers in his classroom. I thought what an excellent opportunity to try out some of these activities with him! I bought 2 activities the first one is Think it or Say it? from The Word Shop. 
Think It or Say It- Pragmatic Skills

 

 
This activity was so easy to use, set up, print, and get ready! I always a fan of easy resources!!! My daughter, son and I played it and definitely thought it was fun and we had a good laugh at the Silent but Violent phrase!!! I won't tell you too much more- but I am sure you get the picture. Be sure to check this one out! This activity really hit home because of my children's age- it was clear and to the point and I really feel like they got a lot out if it! Thank You THE WORD SHOP! :)


The second activity I purchased was Winter Village- Social Language Activities by Speech Room News.This one was a bit more tedious to cut out, download and set up. With that being said, it did target more skills. You can use the game board for groups and target different goals for each child. This makes it so easy and practical for busy people with large case loads. My kids did enjoy playing this game though I think it was a bit above their skill level.

Winter Village: Social Language Activities


Until next month, 
Cheers!
Mindy



3rd Annual Treaty 6 Educators' Conference

I am so excited to announce that I will be presenting at the 3rd Annual Treaty 6 Conference. YAYY!





I will be presenting to educators on how to target speech and language in the classroom. When I talk to teachers I get the same question over and over- How can I target speech and language in the classroom? This is a great question for places where there are limited speech and language services for children and also for carry over for the children who are receiving services.
Here is a sneak peak at a few of my ideas.

  • know what skills the age of your students should have. If it is recommended that your students have regular plurals - don't fuss over them not using irregular plurals.
  • sounds- same idea, if your students don't have to be using the 'r' sound then don't worry about hearing "wabbit".
  • if they are using incorrect grammar or sounds- don't make a big deal of it just model it back for them correctly.
  • Use books to model and bombard the correct sounds and correct language targets.
  • Have fun!
Just  a few quick tips!
See some of you at the Conference I will be presenting on January 30th! 

www.teachersfirst.ca








Cheers, Mindy

Sunday 5 January 2014

Speech Therapy and Technology!

Happy Sunday!

This post contains affiliate links.

I wanted to give you all some tips to save time and make life easier so I looked into some "tech" things to lessen your load (at work at least!) Now keep in mind I am not a tech guru. I have a hard enough time with my blog, Facebook page and creating materials! I want to know how everyone does it!? lol But I do love things that make my job a little easier so I went looking for some information on "tech stuff" and apps that are all in one place to help you out.

First of all here is a little blurb from ASHA on their list of advantages of using mobile devices and Apps.

Here is what I came up with:

For Childcare Providers:

Healthy Beginnings- this is a great website. You just click on the age of the children you are working with and it will tell you ideas to get language going and activities to go with them! Yes, that's right- activity planner, downloads, and developmental charts.  This site is so cool and foolproof!


 For SLPs and Assistants


  • SpeechPathologyApps has a great list of apps for SLP's, parents, reading, early intervention and more. Check out their site.
  • Pocket SLP has some really great apps! I personally love and use Category Carousel and One Step Two Step. Go give it a look and I am sure some of their apps will save you time.
  • The Speech Techie has a nice list of apps and other information on interactive technologies you can use for language.
  • icommunicate has some info on how to use iPad Air and tablets to promote communication and education.
  • Smarty Ears has some really good apps. I like preposition remix- I use it  a lot to teach concepts and following directions. 
  • The Virtual Speech Center has some great apps! I have used Magical Concepts and Expedition with Plurals. I liked them both! Expedition with Plurals was really great at targeting the goals both receptively and expressively.
  • Pinterest has so much on it- here are some great boards you can take a look at SLP Apps, and
  • Speech Therapy Apps just to name a few.


I hope this lightens your load for 2014!

 

IF you have a minute to spare check out my 
Cheers,
Mindy


Thursday 2 January 2014

Freebies for January!

Check out some of my freebies! 
I have made a free calendar of activities for January- send it home with your kids to promote carryover at home! 
Enjoy!

Cheers!
And again, all the best in 2014!!!
Mindy