Brain Building Concepts

Brain Building Concepts

 

I recently purchased my the Brain Building Concepts Binder. Included in it are a variety of concepts that all children need to know for school. I like it for some of my special ed caseloads. You can print it off and let the students work on it in the classroom or for homework, as a center, the ideas are endless.  

AAC Information for Parents!

 


Hey Guys, and Gals! 

This is the first year that I have worked extensively with clients who are using AAC's. I had to jump right in, didn't know much! Now I have one child at every one of my 5 schools and a couple of private clients. 
I found some really great handouts for parents and teachers from Let's Talk Speech Therapy. She also has some freebies. If you have any kids who use AAC's on your caseload, I suggest you take a look. 
:)


 

Executive Functioning

What is executive functioning?


The executive functions are a set of processes that all have to do with managing oneself and one's resources in order to achieve a goal. It is an umbrella term for the neurologically-based skills involving mental control and self-regulation.




How does it affect us in speech?




I have teachers who come to me with a kid that is having difficulty but they just can't put their finger on the problem. He doesn't pay attention, he has difficulty following directions, etc. Well Exec. Fun could be the answer.


I am no expert but I did go and find a few resources to help on TPT
If you do have some concerns with a kids- go see your OT for a little help!






 

Free OT products

With Creating Communicators, I have started providing more OT services to schools. Recently, I have been working with an OT that has lots of experience, and she has been giving me information that I can pass on to teachers. Now, we all know that OT skills are so crucial for all kids and in every classroom. They need to work on writing skills, scissors, self-regulation, gross motor skills, and so much more. Not only are OT skills important for our general classrooms, but many of these skills are essential for our speech caseload too. Please don't get me wrong, I am not trying to take the place of the OT. We definitely need them! But sometimes educating us can help us to make better referrals to OT and help teachers (and definitely our kids!) Once in a while you have kids, and you go "hmmm!? What is going on here?!" ( I know I do!) Having a little bit of background knowledge in OT can help the kids, help the teachers, and help OT's. When you see kids, you can say-  I think they may be having troubles in this area...

While I was looking for some OT products, I found Tiny Tackers Therapy Store on TPT. WOW! What a great store! They have some really great products, and I thought I would share some of my favorite free products that they have!

  

"This activity is designed to assist students learning emotion recognition skills, emotion regulation, feels behavior management, etc.
This product contains:
1 x counting I spy (i.e., how many happy faces can you find?)
1 x coloring I spy (i.e., color all the happy faces red)
Being an 'I Spy' product, students are also working on visual perceptual skills. This refers to the brain's ability to make sense of what the eyes see. Visual perception is needed in the classroom for copying from the board and discriminating between different letters of the alphabet."

  

"Handout for parents and teachers on hand and finger strength.
Hand and finger strength is important for lots of everyday activities including doing up buttons and zips, handwriting, using scissors, etc
List lots of different activity ideas and provides examples and pictures on how to assist your child at home and school to develop their hand and finger strength!"

"Parent/student information sheet to assist children to develop emotion regulation skills.
Includes:
- What is emotion regulation?
- Why is it important?
- How can I help? - strategies to help students/children
- List of emotion words grouped into similar feeling groups."

Sale

#jun2018slpmusthave

~June SLP MUST HAVE 2018~

Everything you need to work on the Vocabulary Goal!

Welcome! I am so excited to be guiding you along the way to targeting the Vocabulary Goal with your students. In this binder is everything you will need to carry out the vocabulary goal in therapy properly.
Included are forms, and instructions to carry out each part of the vocabulary goal- including associations, opposites, sorting, labeling categories, name items in a group, attributes, and functions.
There are 12 of my products:

 

**Category Clips
**Classroom Vocabulary
**Coloring for Language- Vocabulary Edition
**Jar Categories
**Match it! An Associations Game
**Opposite Clip Cards
**Play-Doh Associations
**Play-Doh Categories
**Robot Association Puzzles
**Vocabulary- Associations, Sorting & Categorizing
**What Am I?
The total of all products separately is more than $20, so you are getting this is a steal at $7.50~

Fluency Strategies

 

I have an older student who is working on fluency.

Keep in mind, younger kids commonly go through a period of having disfluent speech. 

 "Normal disfluency is stuttering that begins during a child's intensive language-learning years and resolves on its own sometime before puberty. It is considered a normal phase of language development. About 75 out of 100 children who stutter get better without treatment."

According to ASHA:

Characteristics of Typical Disfluency and Stuttering

Differentiating typical disfluencies and stuttering is a critical piece of assessment, particularly for preschool children. Without proper intervention, children who exhibit signs of early stuttering are more at risk for continued stuttering. The chart below describes some characteristics of "typical disfluency" and "stuttering" (Adapted from Coleman, 2013).

Typical Disfluency	Stuttering
Speech Characteristics Multisyllabic whole-word and phrase repetitions Interjections Revisions	Speech Characteristics Sound or syllable repetitions Prolongations Blocks
Other Behaviors No physical tension or struggle No secondary behaviors  No negative reaction or frustration No family history of stuttering	Other Behaviors Associated physical tension or struggle Secondary behaviors (e.g., eye blinks, facial grimacing, changes in pitch or loudness) Negative reaction or frustration Avoidance behaviors (e.g., reduced verbal output or word/situational avoidances) Family history of stuttering

 




I really wanted something simple and clear to give her to remind her to have smoothe speech. I went looking and found this.

I really like these visual strategies for fluency.

Easy to print, easy to use and really great for my older students. We can post them in the speech room, or they can take a copy and post where they would like them.

They are only a $1, and all of the strategies are very useful!

Thanks!