Word searches are a versatile activity for patients of various levels and abilities. I use them almost daily for expressive and receptive language skills, attention, errors awareness, reasoning, following directions, and visual scanning/ tracking. Many residents recognize and understand how to complete word searches with little direction needed; ...

Introduce AAC more effectively! Here are 3 tips to help you do just that: No. 1 - When you are using AAC apps on an iPad, iPod, or iPhone, always utilize Guided Access. When enabled, Guided Access prevents the students from exiting within an app. This helps them focus on communication instead of trying to exit from the app to explore other apps — ...

Teaching core words is an important and essential part of the AAC process. To learn more about core words you can read my previous blog post.  Recently, I discovered a free app that I love using when teaching core words, it's called Sight Words for Reading HD by Rock n Learn. This free app is available on both the iTunes and ...

As an SLP are you ever asked for suggestions for holiday gift giving? I have been asked on occasion, and in this blog I'm going to give a few suggestions for the language disordered (and neuro typical) children in your life! Since I've written a lot lately about the iPad I use at work with my students, you may (or may not!) be surprised to learn ...

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 ...

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 ...

This week I'd like to continue with specific therapy material suggestions for new graduates and the books and manuals that have worked for me, with a focus on cognitive-linguistic resources. Cognitive-linguistic therapy is a very important aspect of our work in geriatrics and long-term care (LTC). At the very least, we should be supporting ...

When do you elicit a language sample? Certainly when you first see a child you would want to take a language sample. However, if the child is not comfortable on the initial assessment, there is nothing written in stone that says that it has to be completed the first time around. That in itself should tell you something. I feel that ...