Welcome to my first blog post about "Simple Speech Therapy Ideas". Now, having been a Speech Therapist for 20+ years, I know that "speech therapy is not simple". It's not an easy job. It can be stressful and demanding. It can also be fun and very, very rewarding. I love finding simple, rewarding, fun activities to do with my elementary age students. The purpose of this blog post is to share simple activities I've used with my students that they loved.
Sometimes the simplest activities turn into the most fun therapy sessions. Just like the box is more fun than the present inside the box.
At the last Carson Dellosa warehouse sale, I picked up a few of these frogs.
Isn't he cute? Doesn't he look fun? SAY WHAT am I going to do with him in speech therapy? I truly didn't know when I bought him, but he was too cute to leave at the store.
After printing out some bug graphics, I decided to use Mr. Frog as an incentive for my students. Earn and glue a bug on the paper for Mr. Frog to eat. Hands on fun and they could take it home at the end of the session.
My students LOVED this activity. Simple yet fun and it kept them busy as their peers had their turns. Some of them even asked if they could draw a tongue coming out of Mr. Frog's mouth to show he was actually trying to eat all of the bugs.
My favorite activity with Mr. Frog was the one below:
My student was working on saying all syllables in 2-3 syllable words. For this session, we were practicing clapping the syllables. He would choose a sticker, I would label it and he would clap the syllables while repeating what I said. He would do this 3x before being able to put the sticker on his paper. Now, before you comment below and tell me, "Lynda...'frog' and 'fish' both have one syllable; let me clarify. This student speaks Spanish in his home, so we were practicing "pescado" (fish) and "rana" (frog); but after earning 20 stickers, I changed the task to labeling a page of pictures and clapping the syllables for those items. He was so excited to take Señor Rana home to show his mom.
Now, you don't need my fancy-shmancy honeycombed-belly Mr. Frog to use in your speech therapy sessions. If your school has an Ellison machine and a frog die, then you can cut out a frog with that machine. Or you could print a frog from a coloring page website to use.
That said, the purpose over the next few blog posts is to share simple ideas in order to help you realize that not every therapy session needs tons of planning or tons of materials. Sometimes the simplest activities bring lots of joy to your speech students.
Until next time,
Hello! Another school year is almost under wraps. I'm not counting the days yet, but I can see the end in sight.
During the last 2-3 weeks of school, my focus with my articulation students is finding a way to help them maintain and/or carry over skills during the summer. Yes, I'm the Speech Therapist who sends home summer homework!
I bet you're wondering, "Why go through all of the extra work when most of your students won't practice their articulation skills over the summer?" Well, it isn't extra work for me. Say What?? Not extra work?? How?
1) I send speech homework during the school year. Whether it's done or not, when it's returned to me, I keep it. I file it by grade level in my homework hanging file bin. Before school lets out for the summer, I sort the returned speech homework by student and send it home as "summer review" in their speech folder. Easy peasy.
2) During the last few sessions, my articulation students make "Artic-On-The-Go" Lapbooks. Lapbooks are an inexpensive way to display material that targets a central topic. They're easy to make and my students love the coloring and cutting and gluing needed to make them - and we practice our target sounds while we are creating them. What I love about them is that they are very portable. This allows my students a way to practice their speech sound(s) while "on-the-go" -- traveling to the beach, traveling to soccer practice, driving to the grocery store, going to grandma's.
Interested in making Artic-On-The-Go Lapbooks with your students? You can find all of the printable materials for the insides of the lapbooks for a wide range of speech sound targets in my TPT store.
Check out what other suggestions for Summer Carryover Activities from my SLP friends. Click a link below!
