Today I'd like to share a fun and inexpensive speech and language activity that would definitely be a classroom hit but could also be reproduced at home as well! ''Springtime Mystery Box'' This is an idea that one of the teachers I work with and I concocted to help the children in our preschool classrooms to IMAGINE, DESCRIBE, GUESS and of ...

Today's post is a focus on the ''S'' sound and a favorite wintertime book named The Snowy Day, by Ezra Jack Keats. The letter ''S'' was last week's letter of the week at our school and in order to support the curriculum, we read The Snowy Day as part of our speech and language group sessions. Here is the layout of the lesson, as well as some ...

Although it has been a few years since my days as a home care therapist because I am now a mother of two with a 5-month old of my own, I am once again focused on the delightful language of babies. Recently, while discussing the communication habits of infants and toddlers, a close friend and colleague of mine said to me, ''babies really speak to ...

Last week I posted the first half of my question and answer session with Gina, a mom whose son Nicholas was born with severe oral and verbal apraxia, hypotonia and sensory processing disorder. Last week's post discussed how their journey began focusing on the beginning stages, starting with homecare. Now Nicholas is 7 ½ years old, in second grade ...

  The CCELS is a screening tool similar to other early language screeners on the market, but priced much lower at $29.99. It's based on the Common Core Standards that are now making their way into the school systems (Is your school using them yet?). I am not an SLP in the schools so I am not totally up to speed on everything common core. ...

This week at school the letter of the week was ''Q.'' Now of course, we could honor the letter Q with a homemade quiche or by sampling a succulent quince; however, the occupational therapist I often co-treat with had an exciting idea that involved actually making the letter Q. She suggested we prepare no-cook edible dough that the children could ...

I SSSSSSPY! The year is drawing to a close, and my ideas for therapy are dwindling. The other day I pulled out a favorite software program that hadn't seen the light of day for a long time. I'm not sure why I haven't used it lately; it is the perfect therapy activity for the under 6 set: Scholastic's ...

Toca Boca has done it again! An amazing free app for the iPhone, iPod and iPad called Toca Monsters. How it works: Begin by selecting your monster. Gomez is the brown monster, and Nebula is the blue monster. Choose from 8 ingredients to feed to your hungry monster. Prepare the food by choosing to cut, blend, boil, fry, mix or ...

In my last blog entry, I presented a dilemma and wondered what SLPs would do in a situation in which they witnessed a staff member behaving inappropriately with a student (based on a newspaper article I read). I didn't get much feedback; I think the answer is obvious - in a situation like this, the SLP should go to an administrator. As SLPs ...

Last time, I blogged about being a member of a state speech-language-hearing association. In that blog I mentioned my state association's upcoming annual convention. Today's post is about some of my experiences at the PSHA Convention. I'll write about the other presentations I attended in my next post. My time at the convention was split among ...