I love October! Although it's still 89 degrees in Texas, I am official celebrating all things fall. From pumpkin spice lattes to visiting pumpkin patches, I LOVE FALL! This month I wanted to bring you activities that are an easy alternative topic to Halloween and engaging for all of your students. As always, all the activities in this post are FREE! Anchor Chart: Who says anchor charts needs to be on rectangular poster paper? Creating an anchor chart with your students allows them to take ownership of their learning and provides a visual reference that they can use throughout the unit. A ..read more

Pumpkins, leaves and APPLES! Fall is around the corner and to kick off my favorite season, I am launching a new monthly series packed with free resources and therapy ideas. For September, the theme is "apples!" Anchor Chart: Creating an anchor chart with your students allows them to take ownership of their learning and provides a visual reference that they can use throughout the unit. Reading Comprehension Passage with Vocabulary Cards: Prior to reading the passage, review the vocabulary words with your students. A "teacher copy" is also included for the reading passage to compare compreh ..read more

Data. Collection. Two words that may make you cringe or feel a little overwhelmed. There are hundreds of way to collect data and track student progress, but bottom line, it has to be done! I'm here to share with you the system I use. You can definitely modify it to meet your needs and caseload. Last year, I did a trial run using Google Forms during my speech therapy sessions and this year, I am going all in! This system has been very successful for me. Developing any data collection system takes a little time in the beginning, but once I created the forms for my students, my data collection ..read more

Before the start of every school year, I find myself excited to map out my next classroom theme and design new "decor" to fill the space. Given that my space is significantly smaller than an average classroom, it's important for me to get creative with my design. With everything I add, I ask myself, "what's the purpose?" Of course, I allow myself to respond with, "because it's cute," on occasion, but overall, I try to ensure that the space is functional for my students. This year, I wanted all of my bulletin boards to be interactive and have a specific purpose that would allow me to ta ..read more

If you are like me, you spend the first 10 minutes of each day making the rounds to collect paperwork. It's that time of year when assessment referrals peak and you are collecting parent and teacher information forms daily. Here are 5 ways to ensure that the forms are completed and returned quickly.   TIP #1: My first suggestion is to let parents and teachers know that their input in valued and that they are an important member of the assessment team. Communicate to parents and teachers that their knowledge and feedback is critical in developing the optim ..read more

I am all about making cute crafts, elaborate book companion activities that require hours of cutting and laminating and room transformations to match your monthly theme. However, these can often distract us from the main focus of our sessions- providing functional strategies that lead to communication and language growth. Sometimes, it's important to take a step back and go back to the basics. Sometimes, we need to cut the fluff. I am going to share with you five basic items for speech therapy and challenge you to only use these for an entire day! Lose the board games and the elaborate crafts ..read more

I LOVE BOOKS! Reading pictures books is a frequent, even weekly, activity in my speech therapy room. The pictures provide the perfect visuals for my early language learners and the themes or morals support high level thinkers working on metalinguistic skills. I often pull books that have a central theme and develop my therapy lessons around that topic. Of course, the lesson itself is more than just reading the story. It's asking comprehension questions, illustrating and discussing new vocabulary and incorporating the student's individualized therapy goals. To help fully incorporate literat ..read more

Communication is a powerful tool. Helping a student access functional communication is extremely rewarding. Assistive technology can help students with disabilities increase independence as well as access their education. For some teachers and SLPs, working with non-verbal students or students with limited verbal abilities can often be challenging and at times, overwhelming. Selecting the appropriate aided communication system or device is important in promoting daily use and implementation from the user and communication partners involved. There are numerous levels of technology from low to ..read more

"Can I go first?" "Can I be blue?" How many times do you find yourself defusing an argument over who will be the first player in the game or who will be the blue game piece? Value instruction time is often lost when these disputes arise and distract students from the focus of the session. I am excited to share 5 tips to eliminate these arguments and allow you to regain valuable time. Customize Game Pieces Each year I create "customized" game pieces by selecting clipart that resembles each student. Allowing your students to participate in the selection process of their game piece will instill o ..read more

How many times are you away from your computer, had a great idea and wish that you access to your favorite fonts on your phone? As a busy wife, mom and educator, I don't always have time to be at my computer to create images and videos for social media. With an app called Phonto, that all changes. I am able to add my fonts that align with my brand to create beautiful images while sitting by the pool or waiting in line at the grocery store. Phonto is quick and very user-friendly, making your creations on-the-go look like computer designed images.   This first step is to download the P ..read more