Back Again, Making Time for Me, AND a New Blog Recommendation

Well, I am going to try this again. I enjoyed blogging. I felt I was contributing to my profession, but life and work seemed to get in the way these last two years. 

So, why blog if time is an issue? I like to blog, it's a creative outlet for me, and I want it to be part of a "new me" - someone who takes time for herself to do what she wants to do. Here is my first 2018 post. 

After my first summer off in seven years, balancing my home life and work is something often on my mind. I have been working for my local school division for many, many years (this will be my 40th). I love my job and know I have accomplished much in my career, but have I gone overboard? How much has the stress of my job affected my health and resulted in missed family time?  My son once told me he would never work in a school. He said, "You never go to work. You always go to school. And, you always have homework!"

He was right. I always had homework - reports, lesson plans, and IEPs. I rarely came home without a bag or two. For 30 years, I spent almost every Sunday night finishing lesson plans and creating materials. 

For the last 10 years, I have worked in the Assistive Technology Department. Sunday nights are usually my own and I only bring home something to do one or two nights a week. Nonetheless, I continue to put in very long hours. During the last two weeks, I worked at least three hours beyond dismissal time on 7 of the 10 work days. Home late and too tired to cook made food choices less than healthy and physical exercise was not an option.  

When does this stop? Is it too late for me? I certainly hope not! My short-term goal is to leave at dismissal for four of the next five workdays. That's a start. Let's see what happens. 

My inspiration for this post is Worth the Wage, a new blog written by an SLP in my school division. Meredith's posts are short and insightful. She makes some very good points about having a definitive end to the workday and includes the resources she uses to help achieve her goal. The post, Perfect vs. Perfectly Adequate, had my needs written all over it. Read Racing the Clock to find out how she quickly and easily sets up her speech schedule. 

For more thoughts and tips to help SLPs balance work and life, check out the following links.  

I am Not Superpowered! at Doyle Speech Works, Musings on blending speech-language pathology and life

THE 4 MOST IMPORTANT STEPS FOR WORK/HOME BALANCE at Super Power Speech

10 Terrific Time-Saving Tips and Tricks for Busy SLPs at Sublime Speech

SLPs, Save time. 10 tips for fast reports at The SLP Burnout Coach

Diana

© 2018

Do You Use Mini-Schedules?

Use core words on your mini-schedule to increase the use of functional language. My student
is going to "talk" about the calendar, "see" a YouTube clip, "find" matching pictures, "read"
 books and "play" games on the iPad. 

Do you have a mini-schedule within each therapy session? And, are your students privy to that schedule?  

Think about those professional learning activities that you attend. Isn't it nice to have a schedule provided so that you will know when each speaker will be ending presenting, how long you will have to complete that team building exercise, and when you will be able to stretch or take a bathroom break?

Your students will appreciate the schedule and it may just make your sessions run a little smoother. 

Introduce the session's activities with a picture schedule. 

• Make a PowerPoint and present the schedule on your whiteboard or print it as a handout to create small visual schedule pictures. 

• For those with transition issues, a pull-off schedule would benefit. See how Kristin at Simply Speech tamed some behaviors with her visual schedule. 

• Make a FREE picture schedule at ConnectABILITY.ca. Use the provided photos and Boardmaker pictures or upload your own. 

• I like the FREE Daily Schedule Cards by Miss B SLP at Teachers Pay Teachers. 

• The Lesson Pix site has nice examples of visual schedules and a free sample of tasks in a Flap Schedule - the perfect size for most speech therapy sessions. 
• This for That: Visual Schedules,  
• by Center for Autism and Related Disorders, 
a FREE app to create schedules in just minutes using the camera on your iPad. 

For your readers and older students, try a written agenda  or schedule. 

• Use a dry erase board or something like the To Do List at Can Do Kinders. 

• Look at the free Plan of the Day Posters for Speech-Language Pathologists at Teacher Pay Teachers. 

• Who wouldn't like schedules made with comic strips? There are several FREE websites and apps. I made the one on the right at Bitstrips.  Or, try the kid friendly, ReadWriteThink Comic Creator.  

Don't have visual support software? Check out my post No Software Needed - Free Visual Supports. 

Find more about mini-schedules at PrAACtical AAC, The Autism Helper, and Autism Classroom Resources.  

Diana

© 2016

The Best Story Props for Winter's Literature Activities

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Last week, as I was cleaning up the links on some of my older posts, I noticed that Kizclub.com's newest Story Patterns are for The Snowy Day by Ezra Jack Keats. This is my favorite winter literature selection for speech/language groups and the story patterns by Kizclub illustrate some of the more unfamiliar vocabulary words found in the book.  Use beautifully drawn pictures as story props to retell the story, define vocabulary, or create a PowerPoint book or game.  And, check out my earlier post The Snowy Day for Speech and Language Therapy.

Here are more story patterns suitable for winter's literature activities. 

Under My Hood I Have a Hat 

The Jacket I Wear in the Snow

Three Little Kittens 

Froggy Gets Dressed

Polar Bear, Polar Bear, What Do You Hear?

The Mitten 

The Hat

Diana

© 2016

Snow, Mittens, Penguins, Groundhog Day, Valentine's Day, and More - Updated and Free

Three years of winter themed posts have been updated. Visit these posts for FREE downloads and links to FREE activities featuring snow, penguins, mittens, Groundhog's Day, Valentine's Day and more.

  30+ Free Wintry Resources for Speech and Language Therapy

The Snowy Day for Speech and Language Therapy

35 + Mitten Links and Activities for Speech and Language

Snow Day! - Apps and More 

Increase Utterance Length with Winter Bingo for Early Childhood 

At Least Three Weeks of Penguins for Speech and Language 

Free App February: Apps for this Winter Season

10+ Speech and Language Resources for Groundhog Day  

Hearts, Hearts, Hearts! Speech and Language Activities for Valentine's Day

Diana

© 2016

Fire Safety

Updated October 2018

Fire Safety week begins tomorrow and I noticed that my 2012 post, Therapy in the Classroom: Part I, was getting many hits. It's not in the title, but the language activities involve fire safety and fire trucks. Find FREE PowerPoint books, a preposition activity, and much more - all links have been updated. 

At Teachers Pay Teachers, find almost 200 FREE items with a search for "fire safety." Check out the Fire Safety Vocabulary Cards from Teaching Talking and the Fire Safety - What ifs from Elementary Matters. 

There are many FREE fire safety apps in the iTunes App Store. Sparky's Match Game is a great activity to remind children to leave the house when they hear the smoke alarm.  

Sparky's Firehouse and Operation Edith are good apps to project onto a whiteboard. To maximize student language, you control the apps and students direct the actions. 

Sparky's apps, videos, and much more can also be played on any computer! Visit Sparky.org at the National Fire Protection Association's site for kids. 

Diana

© 2015

Back to School with the Mouse

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Most of you are back in school or thinking about returning soon. I started back to work this week and am putting together some language activities for Laura Numeroff's book, If you Take a Mouse to School. Here are some links to great budget priced (FREE) activities to pair with this book. 

Your students will love this animated version of If you Take a Mouse to School on YouTube. Check out Andrew Ghio's other animated books as well. 

At Teachers Pay Teachers find FREE If You Take a Mouse to School Visuals and If You Take a Mouse to School Spatial Concept Flashcards. 

Find more visual supports at Boardmaker Online  and look at my Why Question - Companion Activity for If You Take a Mouse to the Movies. It can easily be used with If You Take a Mouse to School. 

Kristen, at Pinning With a Purpose, used this book to teach her children the setting of a story. Her activity could be adapted to use in therapy to teach setting or where questions. 

Visit Kinder Gals to see their version of If You Take a Mouse to School. They use the book to introduce their students to school personnel and locations. 

Find free word cards (with visuals), a snack idea, and mouse craft at 1st Grade hip hip Hooray.


2 Teaching Mommies offers a free printable "school supply unit." The pictures can be printed and used for numerous classroom activities. The Which is Different Activity would make a nice why/how question activity. 


There are many activity suggestions for this book to elicit oral language at Promoting Success for You and and Your Students. Here are just a few.

• Look at the illustrations of the boy and mouse getting ready for school. Ask your students to tell what they do to get ready for school each morning. 
• Create a pretend story of a stuffed animal's adventures in school. 
• Do a simple science experiment (Adapt this for therapy by taking photos of the steps and allowing students to tell the procedure using the photos for support.). 

The interactive, printable book In My Backpack can be found at 4GASLPs. Recite "Backpack, backpack, what is in the backpack?" as you pull items out of a backpack. Students can name the items and answer questions about the functions of the objects.  I created a simple PowerPoint book to go along with the activity. You can download Backpack, Backpack here. 

Take pictures of student's backpacks and lunchboxes. Students can respond to the questions, "Whose backpack is this?" or "Whose lunchbox is this?" Responses might include mine, my, pointing to self or others, or possessive nouns such Mary's backpack.  

At MouseCookieBooks.com find activities, games, songs, printables and a teaching guide with over 40 activity ideas to use with Laura Numeroff's books. 

This book and other Laura Numeroff books are easily used for discussing wants and needs.

Have fun describing school supplies.  Use magnifying glasses or a document camera to inspect a variety of school supplies.

I hope that you found this post useful. My posts will occur about once each month - minus summer break of course. However, I am always looking for freebies and new therapy ideas and will share these weekly on my Facebook Page. 

Diana

© 2015

Hop into Better Speech and Language Month with these 40+ Frog Themed Links to Activities

Frogs can live in most habitats and climates, lay hundreds of eggs, breathe through their skin, and make very long jumps. AND, frogs can be found, as the main characters, in numerous children's literature selections making them the perfect candidates for thematic lessons.  

All About Frogs

The life cycle of the frog pairs well with sequencing, retelling, verb tense, and more. Search for "frogs" at We Give Books.org to find three online books about the frogs and their life cycle. 

Both Make Learning Fun and A Child's Place have free frog life cycle sequence cards in color and black and white. Carrie Manchester, at Carrie's Speech Corner has FREE Frog Life Cycle booklets in her TpT store. Find a Frog Life Cycle Craft at DLTK's Crafts for Kids.

Mrs. T, an incredibly creative first grade teacher, created a "frog facts" book on the iPad using, her student's frog pictures,  ChatterPix Kids, and Book Creator. Check out the video at her post, Frog Facts in Story Form on the iPad. Your students will love making a similar book. ChatterPix Kids is FREE, but Book Creator is $4.99. Save the $4.99 and a little time by using only ChatterPix along with the Photos app for no cost. Just create a album in your Photos app, and show as a slide show.  

If you are reading any of Arnold Lobel's Frog and Toad books, visit The Virtual Vine for a good comparison of frogs and toads. You will learn some new facts and find many frog themed activities as well. 

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Jump, Frog, Jump

See how Speech Gadget uses Jump, Frog, Jump in therapy.

I like the Jump, Frog, Jump stick puppets and word walls at Make Learning Fun. 

Teach color matching at Learning and Teaching Preschoolers' Jump Frog Jump Color Floor Game

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There was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Frog

The Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Frog {Book Pictures and Questions} from Autism Helper's TpT store. 

There Was an Old Lady who Swallowed a Frog story props by Curly Q Speech. 

Froggy

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Froggy is everyone's favorite! Did you know that he went to Hawaii? Read the FREE online version of Froggy Goes to Hawaii at We Give Books.org. Find a good wh-question activity for this book at the Utah Education Network and a FREE comparison printable for this book at Wise Owl Factory. 

Rebecca Bond does a nice job of reading Froggy Goes to Hawaii on You Tube. This might be a great way for students to review the book at home or in a center.

There are over 20 Froggy books. Here are links to activities to use with some of these books. 

• Pizza Hut's Book It site has Read and Do Activities for eight of the Froggy books. Vocabulary words, definitions, and wh questions are presented for each book. 
• FREE printable for Froggy Builds a Tree House at The Wise Owl Factory.com
• Story props for Froggy Gets Dressed at Kizclub.com. 
• Froggy Gets Dressed Lotto. 

Five Green and Speckled Frogs

Itsy Bitsy Spider and Green Speckled Frogs, visual supports for familiar preschool songs made by SLP Overloaded.

Find very cute story props (complete with a log) and a mini-book for Five Green and Speckled Frogs at Kizclub.com.

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Another cute printable to use as story props for Five Green Speckled Frogs can be found at Activity Village.co.uk. 

Here's a Poster for Five Green and Speckled Frogs from Make Learning Fun. 

Directions at Preschool Speechie's Green Speckled Frogs suggest that wikki stix be used as tongues so that the flies will stick to the tongues.

For Articulation

Nina McKenzie, at TpT, made this FREE, 39 page, Articulation Frog Toss Game  to use with s, sh, and s-blends. 

Feed the frog as you say the words with Final Consonant Flies from Kari Radovich (Rock Chalk Speech Talk). 

This portable Frog and Friends Virtual Hangman, from Tech 'n Talk SLPs, was designed for use in group articulation therapy, but can easily be adapted to any activity in which students take turns. 

AND, MORE!!! 

Where is Little Frog? - A book for Positional Concepts from Jessica Finch (The Speech Peach).

Leaping Lily Pads for Object Function from Kari Radovich (Rock Chalk Speech Talk). 

Look at all the frog themed ideas found at The Busy Speech Path's Pinterest Board - All About Pond Life. 

Hoppin' on Multiple Meaning Words from Pitner's Potpourri.

Emergent Readers Who am I? and Five Buzzing Flies are found at MakeLearning Fun. These will match goals involving sentence length, verb tense, descriptive words, and the concept "around."

Frogs and Flies: Quantity Concepts More, Less, Altogether from Speech Sprouts' TpT store. 

Frog Hop Barrier Game from Speech Path Track.

Build a Frog and Friends - Rainy Day Rewards is a no-print interactive activity designed for use on a computer or iPad. Use with an individual or small group as reinforcement with almost any lesson.

The Lost Button Story Sequencing Cards to use with Arnold Lobel's Frog and Toad are Friends: The Lost Button. 

Word World: Frog’s Rhyming Machine at PBS. 

I saw this old fountain with traditional ceramic Andalucian
frogs (Spanish tree frogs) at the Plaza de Espana in beautiful
Vejer de la Frontera while on my extended Spring Break.

Diana

© 2015

Six Weeks of Summer - Interactive Speech and Language Practice Activities

I have just updated my page, Six Weeks of Summer - Interactive Speech and Language Practice Activities. This page includes links and free apps easily available to parents with Internet access and/or mobile technology. 

Customize summer activities for your students by choosing apps and links to add to a calender, make a hotlist, or post the links to your web page. 

Enjoy!

Diana

© 2015

What's that Smell?

This is not a typical post for the Budget SLP, but something that needs to be passed on to all educators. And, maybe not just educators . . . 

I have a chemical sensitivity usually triggered by, but not limited to, fragrances. When exposed, my eyes and nose burn and I can often taste the chemicals in the fragrance. Extended exposure causes headaches and sometimes nausea.  In my home, most detergents, cleaning products, and personal care products are fragrance free.

I work in the special education world and have been overpowered by fragrances in classrooms, conference rooms, therapy rooms, and restrooms. Culprits include cologne or perfume (worn by parents, SLPs, teachers, and administrators), air fresheners, cleaning supplies, and insecticides. 

If these fragrances cause me such physical discomfort, how do they affect our young students with allergies and asthma? What about our students with sensory issues? 

Students with autism can be hypersensitive to odors. These students may also have difficulty communicating their discomfort. Inappropriate behaviors may occur as they resist being with a person or in a place due to what is perceived as an intense smell. Undesirable smells can even cause toileting issues, difficulty eating, and nausea. 

For your students' comfort (and possibly your co-workers’), consider removing air fresheners, take home the flowery soaps and lotions, and save your perfume for date night. 

Diana

© 2015