Preschool children :

• 3 & 4 year old's learn best when they are moving. Adults learn best when sitting down and concentrating. This is NOT true for children. If they want to stand, walk, jump, play with a fidget toy, make crafts, listen to stories, and/or sing, let them.

Kids learn best through playing– let kids be kids!
The more senses they use the more they will learn and retain the information. A 3 year old child should not be expected to sit down and be quiet for long periods of time.

• Your 3 year old…

will say 3 to 4 words together - I want juice. Follows 3-part directions, like get the doll, feed it, and put it to bed. Understands and asks questions, like Where is the toy?
Describes activities, feelings and problems, and tells simple stories.

• Your 4 year old…

Uses sentences that are longer and more complete, such as “I want to go to the park.” 
Uses more grammar, like pronouns (I, you, me, she, he, we), past tense (walked), and some question words (what, who, where, why). However there may still be some errors.
Most 4 year old's do not know how to share. It is a skill they are still learning– please be patient.
Articulation

• Your 3 year old…
  Uses sounds like m, p, b, w, t, d, n, h, k, g, f, s, vowels, y as in yes, and ing as in sing.
  Is understood by parents between 75 to 100% of the time. 
• Your 4 year old…
  Uses sounds like m, p, b, w, t, d, n, h, k, g, f, y, l, s, z, vowels, and ing.
  Is understood by parents 100% of the time.
• Your 5 year old…
  Says most sounds correctly except for maybe r, v, ch, and th.
  Uses l blends and s blends, such as blue and stop.
  May say s, z, sh, ch, or j with the tongue sticking out (a lisp).
  Is easily understood by siblings, friends, parents, and strangers.
•  Modeling correct speech and grammar is great tool parents can use when speaking with their kids!

 My Website


Information excerpts taken from www.parentlink.com - talkbox

City, City What Do You See?

Sooo many kids I work with have to work on the vocabulary goal these days; so I started looking for resources. I have a hard time finding resources that work well for younger kids at the beginning of the goal. Normally when I start targeting the vocabulary goal, I start with an associations activity. I will have the children state which items go together, and then explain why they go together?

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Vocabulary-Associations-What-Doesnt-Belong-and-Categorization-578985

However when I am working with preschoolers or children who have significant language delays,  this can be a very difficult task for them. This got me thinking..... What do I need? I started making books based on themes: farm animals, things at school, ocean items, and things in the city. I wrote these books in an easy, repetitions pattern so that children could read them along with their teacher or SLP. They are written in the Brown Bear, Brown Bear format so that non-readers and beginning readers can read them again, and again.  These books are just a beginning point for you to say all of these items in the book belong to a category- the category name is.....  Then you can go on to tell the kids what are some similarities between the items and what are some differences,  what are the parts, where do the items come from, what is their function, etc. 

Here is a copy of my City, City what do you see which includes many services that are found in our communities.

http://pinterest.com/pin/72972456435558212/

Teacherspayteachers- store

My Newest Book Buddy!

I hope you all are enjoying summer, I know I am!
I have been working on a few projects this summer and I have just finished  The Very Hungry Caterpillar! It is packed with phonemic awareness activities that are great for groups or one on one therapy. It also targets plurals, & sequencing!
For teachers it has math and printing practice!

 Check it out in my www.teacherspayteachers.com store or in www.teachersnotebook.com shop!


 P.S.
All of my products are on sale all summer- $1.50 or LESS!
Yay! Just for you! 

Until next time...
Cheers,
Mindy

Don't Mince Words.....

ŁI find it funny that I started a blog. I am the type of person who doesn't mince words. Straight to the point, blunt, that's me! When I see other blogs, they just go on and on. who has time for that? Get to the point, tell me what Ii need to know. It drives me nutty to have to sift through information to get to the meat and potatoes- just give it to me! But here I am, Mindy with a blog! Lol

This is how it came to be...

I had been looking for speech resources, and couldn't find anything. So I thought I would start making my own. I then found TeachersPayTeachers and teachersnotebook and fell in love. The more I poked around the more speech blogs I found, and keep finding! Now don't  get me wrong here, blogging or writing is not my thing. I will be up front about that, I am more of a talker! I write like I speak.  I am not saying I'm a top notch blogger, with a husband, 2 kids, a full time job and then a business in the side, I don't have time....

during this process I realized one thing, not only do I love finding resources, I LOVE making them even more! This summer I am making more items for my store: http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/Mindy-Olson-pizzey and my shop: http://www.teachersnotebook.com/shop/mindyop.   

Check them out, all of my items are either free or drastically marked down all summer! :)

Anyway back to my other point....I do think I have something to offer for parents (information & support), teachers and SLP's (ideas and resources). 

So if you are like me and like information and resources that you don't need to sift through, this is the place to be. I will spoon feed you!

Thanks for reading and enjoy your summer! 

Read with your kids!! & talk!

A little about me....

 I have been working as a speech assistant for my health region for 11 years come November. I love, love, love my job. The kids are great, the games are awesome, and I love seeing the progress they make. 

In our area, Alberta,  First Nations people don't receive speech services from the health region, so there is a large gap in services. First Nations children can be at higher risk for speech and language difficulties as compared to children who are not living on reserve land.  I noticed this need and wanted to do something. I don't think who you are or where you live should dictate the types of services you get. The same for everyone, everywhere. Even more services for children at risk. I also noticed how little information is given to parents and teachers about speech and language. We really need to support parents, teachers teachers aides and get this information out there! And that is how Creating Communicator's was born. My goal for Creating Communicator's is to provide children with academic and social skills in order to be successful and to provide children with a voice!

Creating Communicator's is a speech and language service that goes to first nation schools on reserve land. How does our service model look?

 Well...A contract SLP assesses children that have identified by parents or teachers as having some type  of communication concern. And then  the SLP provides a report and goals I go into the school and provide training, resources and consultation  on how to carry out the goals. I can visit once and twice a month for support-depending on need and caseload size. When I come in I can provide support on how to work on treatment goals through games, and other resources. I also go into classrooms and do group activities that target language and phonemic awareness skills. The speech path. also provides me with supervision throughout the year.

 In the fall we are excited to announce that we will be offering video conferencing support.

Winner!

My first giveaway winner is.......drum roll please!

Joette Hardin

Congratulations on winning the Brown Bear Math & Literacy activity package.

Than you everyone who entered.

Stay tuned for my next giveaway, keep, your eyes peeled for my new products on www.teacherspayteachers.com and on www.teachersnotebook.com!

Thanks again everyone & congratulations Joette!