If Only I Could Get Professional Development Hours For Following Blogs: PHONOLOGICAL AWARENESS!

I cannot believe today is the last day!!  Have you had fun so far? I know I have!  It has been a blast gathering ideas and hosting giveaways!  If only we could count these hours towards ASHA CEUs! Haha!  Today's topic: phonological awareness!

Many of our speech students are struggling readers.  They could have articulation or auditory processing difficulties impacting their reading skills.  How do I work on this goal in my therapy room?

• I use colored blocks, M&Ms, or Skittles!  I use each color to represent a sound in a word.  I use these "blocks" to segment, blend, manipulate and sound out sounds in words.  It helps students visualize the sounds and it also makes the activities multi-sensory.  If there are are two of the same sound in words, we use the same color twice!
• Minimal pairs: just like you would use minimal pairs to teach articulation, I use them to show students when reading/spelling, if you change a letter or sound it can change the meaning of the word.
• Elkonin Boxes:  Have you heard of these before?  All you need to do is put boxes below an image to represent the amount of different sounds.  Students can tap or write the sounds in each box to learn how to spell/read.  There are many resources available to make or easily print these.  Click HERE and HERE to see some examples and learn more!
• Where do you hear it?  I give students three index cards with the following written on it: beginning, middle, last.  I will provide students with a CVC word and have them tell me where they hear specific sounds.  I may create a dice with the free Make Dice app which will contain common sounds found in CVC words.  Once rolled, I will provide students with a CVC word and they must hold up the index card with the location of that sound.  
• Using the same app, I will use 3 dice, 2 with consonants and 1 with vowels. We will roll to create CVC words.  We will fold a paper in half and on one side write the CVC words that are real words and on the other side write the nonsense words.

I have created and posted in a previous post a handout for teachers on strategies to use in the classroom.  Click HERE to access it!

Are you wondering what your other favorite SLP bloggers/TpT sellers do in their therapy rooms?!

• "For rhyming, I love,"There's a Wocket in my Pocket." I also like to play "Hickety Pickety Bumblebee" "~Carrie from Carrie's Speech Corner
• "When targeting segmenting sentences into words, I like to use small square blocks. I have the students line up the # of blocks needed to equal one block per word of the sentence. When targeting segmenting words into syllables, we do clapping or stomping or beating a drum -- I try to make it very physical/active activity."~LyndaSLP
• " I love to use Dr. Seuss books for rhyming skills. I have students use blocks or pacing mars to segment syllables. My favorite go-to product is Super Duper's phonological awareness chipper chat."~Figuratively Speeching
• "This is a skills I LOVE to work on with parents, because they really understand it. I love to send home a list of apps so practice on mom and dad's phone!"~Jenna from Speech Room News
• " I've used tap lights to target segmenting before! (Pretty sure I got that idea from Jenna over at Speech Room News) You have out a row of tap lights and for each sound in a word or word in a sentence you tap one of the lights. I also love good old pacing mats, they are so easy to make yourself!"~Speech With Sharon
• " I really like to use nursery rhymes with younger students. Many children are not exposed to nursery rhymes anymore. This is a great way to begin targeting rhyming skills. Children who have delays in phonology, particularly need an extra jump start in phonological awareness."~Megan Moyer
• " Working on phonological awareness is my absolute favorite! This is a review I wrote about one of my "go to" games.   I wouldn't be without it for the older ones. It bridges the gap between speech and literacy.  For the earlier skills I use my rhyme and syllables packs."~Kids Games for Speech Therapy

How about another giveaway!  To win a copy of my Phonological Awareness Detectives Fun, enter below!

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If Only I Could Get Professional Development Hours For Following Blogs: SEMANTICS!

Welcome to day 4!!  Are you having fun yet?  Is this the best way to get "professional development?!"  I have been having a blast gathering information, resources, and ideas just for you!!  Today's topic, building vocabulary or semantics.

Vocabulary: such a BROAD topic and so many ways to tackle it!  I think it is very important to use information from standardized tests or screening materials to decide where to begin.  Below is a list of standardized tests that I prefer to use in my therapy room to decide where to begin with building vocabulary:

The Word Test-2

CREVT-3 Comprehensive Receptive and Expressive Vocabulary Test Third Edition

TOSS-P Test Of Semantic Skills Primary

ROWPVT-4 Receptive One-Word Picture Vocabulary Test Fourth Edition

Now we know if the student has weak or strong vocabulary.  We also now know if they can identify and express categories, associations, synonyms, antonyms, homophones, and multiple meaning words.  But if they cannot, we can work on building vocabulary using those skills just mentioned.

Categorization: I like to do sorting and naming activities with this area.  Use classroom curriculum/themes to decide on vocabulary targets.  Can students identify which items go together as a group?  It helps them make meaning of the vocabulary words.

Associations: I like to play memory matching games with this area.  Can students identify which items go together and why?

Synonyms:  I like to start out with memory matching games.  I use graphics from Boardmaker, Smarty Symbols, or Google Images to represent the words.  I use the same image for both synonym pairs to help illustrate the concept to students.  For example, for "happy" and "glad" I will use a smiley face on both cards.

Antonyms: I also like to use memory matching games.  I also like to use file folder sorts to show what words can represent the different antonym pairs.  For example, students can sort things that are "wet" and "dry."

Homophones: Teaching homophones can be tricky if students are poor/weak readers/spellers.  It is mainly important that students understand that words can have more than one meaning.  I like to just drill the popular/common/most mistaken homophones such as: write/right, too/two/to, there/their/they're, and ate/eight.

Multiple Meaning Words:  I like to use different images with the same word across the top to illustrate concept.  Now that you show them to students, can they use each version in a sentence?  Once they understand that there are words that can be used in different ways, I like to have them sort the meanings into parts of speech to help them "categorize" them.  Click HERE to see a DIY idea I've previously posted.  I also like to provide cloze sentences to students and see if they can determine which word can complete all sentences due to its multiple meanings.

Are you wondering what your favorite speech bloggers/TpT sellers do to teach vocabulary skills?!

• "I always target seasonal/thematic vocabulary in the context of language activities for my preschool students. Many of them have goals for identification/naming of thematic vocabulary so I created thematic vocabulary pages using Lesson Pix. When we're done with a unit I have a quick way to see which words they can understand and use."~ Carrie from Carrie's Speech Corner
• " I use children's books to target Tier 2 vocabulary words from the story, using the strategies in Bringing Words to Life: Robust Vocabulary Instruction by Beck. Helping kids come up with their own definitions, exploring caveats in meanings, and practice using during language activities. "~Jenn from Crazy Speech World
• " I make flip books for vocabulary. The students put the word on the bottom of each page and use the top of the page to illustrate the word and create their own sentences. I also use graphic organizers or word webs."~Jess from Figuratively Speeching
• "I like to show you tube videos when trying to introduce concepts and vocabulary. I also use pictures from books to teach vocabulary, so that they can SEE the word. I also work on describing things by using an attribute wheel."~The Dabbling Speechie
• "When I teach vocabulary to children who are readers I usually do it via a 4 step approach 
  1. Say the word and ensure the students can pronounce it 
  2. Provide a dictionary definition and a "student-friendly" explanation
  3. Give examples of the definition in a sentence
  4. Have the students practice using the word with each other in sentences. I teach students how to figure out unfamiliar words based on context clues. I also teach the students how to use parts of a word (and sentence) to determine its meaning."~Smart Speech Therapy
• " I use LINCS a lot for older kiddos and the EET for my younger ones. Having the students bring their vocabulary from class also works with my caseload."~Nicole from Allison Speech Peeps
• " I use the LinguiSystems Language Builder Picture Cards all of the time with my students with Autism. We use them to build basic vocabulary. I write out sentence starters on pieces of paper to expand the use of the words into sentences."~Speech Universe
• "We use a 5-part sequence for vocabulary instruction and this post kind of gives an overview.  We did a whole month on teaching vocabulary in November and fleshed out the specifics. Thanks for this great series. I've really enjoyed reading the different posts that you mention in your articles and exploring the links."~PracticalAAC
• "With preschoolers/early elementary students, I use children's repetitive-wording thematic vocabulary books as well as figurines. I keep my figurines in labeled drawers for different themes as well (farm animals, vehicles, sports, etc.). I do a lot of auditory bombardment and repetitive play with labeling/cuing with the figurines."~Jessica from Consonantly Speaking
• " I like to use activities from The Bridge of Vocabulary. This product is tied to evidenced based research, and has activities for preschool through high school. There is a wide variety of vocabulary topics and activities in this program. This is a great resource to have!"~Megan Moyer
• " I tend to teach vocabulary strategies vs. specific vocabulary items for my older students (multiple meanings, prefix/suffixes, etc.) I really like some of the Flocabulary raps to help kids understand the concepts I'm teaching."~Speech2U
• " I like to expand vocabulary by working on comparing and contrasting, synonyms, antonyms, multiple meaning words, etc! I usually do this within an activity, like a book. I LOVE Grannie's Candies for this!"~TeachSpeech365

Below are some resources and products available for working on vocabulary:


I have SOOO many products in my TpT store that work on all of the skills I've mentioned above.  I have FINALLY added Custom Categories to my TpT store.  You can find all of my vocabulary building activities by clicking "vocabulary!"  One product has several of them in one.  Enter below to win my Vocabulary Uno-Like Game!

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If Only I Could Get Professional Development Hours For Following Blogs: ANSWERING QUESTIONS!!

How many of your students have goals to work on answering basic wh- questions or higher level thinking questions?!  Working in the schools, it is VERY common since it impacts academic performance tremendously.  In today's post, I will touch upon answering basic questions since most are working on this goal!

How to I address answering basic wh- questions:

• Visual aids: I always have visual cues available.  Click HERE to view my previous post with a visual I use (and freebie!)
• Sort: have students sort answers to questions to the correct question form.  This will help them discriminate the different types.
• Practice!! It is important to constantly drill and practice.  Do your students understand the vocabulary concepts included in the question?!  It may be important to teach the vocabulary first.  I like to use the classroom curriculum/theme vocabulary with the question probes.  This way it tackles two goals at once but it also ensures that students have already been exposed to the vocabulary.
• Give choices: while teaching the concepts, give students choices of answers.  First start off with two choices, one that answers the specific question form and another that would answer a different one.  For example, if you ask "Who teaches students how to read and write?"  you can give students the two examples "teachers" and "school."  This way you are not working on the vocabulary of teacher but the question form "who."  As students improve, add more choices and then eliminate them!
• Give answer stems or carrier phrases.  Click HERE to see a previous post on how I teach how to respond to "why" questions.

Are you wondering how your other favorite bloggers/TpT sellers work on answering questions?

•  "I love using picture books & using one type of question to "train" the skill (ex, who is that? Who is in the barn? Who is..., etc.). Start simple and add complexity as the student is able. Use cues (visial-pictures and pointing; verbal-modeling the answer, etc) & fade as they get the hang of it."~Chatterbox Speech
• " I like using Chipper Chat for wh-questions from super duper. I also like reading children's stories and asking questions throughout the story so the kids have visuals. If they are having trouble I will give choices to choose from for the answers."~TheDabblingSpeechie
• " I like to use a visual poster as a support when working on WH questions. The poster gives visuals of the type of answers that could help them answer. So for example, the WHEN symbols include a clock and calendar."~Jenna from Speech Room News
• "I love using books, magazine articles, or newspaper articles. Everyone has at least one of these things in their speech room! Just read a small (or large passage depending on the age) and ask WH- questions about it. I like to have some sort of visual out in case my students need some help in figuring out how to answer."~Speech with Sharon
• "I like to use simple children's stories. They're great for asking/answering questions. For commercial products, I love WH- Chipper Chat from Super Duper!"~ Carrie from Carrie's Speech Corner
•  "I also like to use books to address asking/answering questions. The biggest thing is to make sure that students understand the meaning behind the wh- question words as I run into many students who don't. I use a visual story rope to teach them the meaning behind the questions as well as a reference when we're going through the story."~The Thrifty SLP

Below is a list of my favorite books to use to work on answering questions!

Are you looking for an activity that has many of my strategies included in one packet?!  You can enter to win a copy of my Wh- Question Trains Fun pack below!

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If Only I Could Get Professional Development Hours For Following Blogs: Auditory Comprehension!

One area of weakness which impacts academic performance tremendously is auditory comprehension.  The teachers in my school often contact me due to concerns in this area.  I have held workshops in my school to show classroom teachers the strategies that I teach my speech & language students and how to implement them in their classrooms.

Weaknesses in this area can impact:

• Ability to follow classroom instructions
• Attend to lectures and oral presentation of information
• Ignore and filter background noise/distractions
• Listen and comprehend stories read out loud
• Participate in class discussions
• Take notes based on information presented orally
• Respond to higher level thinking questions based on information presented orally

I have previously posted a flyer of strategies to give to teachers.  You can access this flyer and post by clicking HERE!

I design all of my speech lessons and activities to help promote listening skills and strategies:

• VISUALS!!  By providing students with a way to tap into another way to process information it will help them!
• Check for understanding: ask for students to repeat and rephrase auditory information.  
• Repeat!  As the auditory information becomes more complex or longer in length, provide your students with even more chances to listen.
• Encourage students to be advocates for themselves!  Let them raise their hands and ask for repetition or clarification.  The more comfortable they are doing this in your rooms, the easier it will be to transfer it over into the classroom.
• PRACTICE!  Practice classroom skills in your therapy rooms.  Practice note taking, practice listening for key words, practice using a multi-sensory approach to listening and learning.

Wondering what your other favorite bloggers/TpT sellers say?

• "Active Listening skills are so important for auditory comprehension. I teach students skills to link personal experience with what they hear, use appropriate body language: face the speaker, give verbal and non-verbal feedback, etc. Students also learn to pay attention by focusing on what is being said not what they want to say."~SLPRunner
• "When I teach school aged children listening comprehension skills I like to focus on the following components: Main Idea, Context Clues, Inferring, Predicting Outcomes, Compare and Contrast, Cause and Effect, Fact and Opinion, Sequencing, Order of Events, Steps in a Problem, Paraphrasing, Summarizing, and Drawing Conclusions.  Generalizing I also like to utilize and adapt the following materials: Comprehension Plus Books (Grades 1-6), Focus on monitoring and understanding complex text as well as books from  Continental Press Reading for Comprehension (Grades 1-8) and Content Reading (Grades 2-8) " ~Smart Speech Therapy
• "Barrier games are PERFECT for targeting auditory comprehension! I also like to set up a craft (have all the pieces cut out and ready to go), but I DON'T tell kids what they're making! They'll know they followed all the directions correctly if their finished product is the same as the model that is revealed at the end!" ~ Carrie's Speech Corner
•  "My students enjoy "Look Who's Listening" board game from SuperDuper."~LyndaSLP
• "I try to use the Visualizing and Verbalizing program with my students. We work on making pictures in there head to help with recalling information. I also have my students draw a picture for each line of a story to help with story retell."~The Dabbling Speechie
• "Auditory Comprehension is best addressed in context - which to me means using BOOKS! I like to target include sequencing, predicting, following directions, answering questions, identifying key words, paraphrasing to name a few. These can be addressed while reading and/or after reading."~ Tracy GoldCountrySLP 
• "I use a lot of visual supports as a way to aid understanding. They function both as a compensatory strategy and also to help build comprehension. Here are the visual supports that I've been using to help kids learn better ways of dealing with disappointment, responding when people ignore them, taking personal responsibility, coping when something is unfair, and what to do instead of repeating the same thing over and over. There is a free download in THIS post and also some examples of anchor charts that have been effective."~PracticalAAC
• I love using Super Duper's MagneTalk set to work on following directions and building receptive vocabulary. I also love using simple FUN games, like Simon Says and I Spy.....Here is my post."~Katie from Playing With Words 355
• " I like doing story mapping. And...it's evidence-based! Boulineau T, Fore III C, Hagan-Burke S, Burke MD. (2004)."~Nicole from Allison Speech Peeps
• "With elementary aged students, I like to get them to use "wait time" (wait 3 seconds before answering a question), which seems to improve recall of information and decreases "I don't knows." Article that describes this: CLICK HERE"~TeachSpeech365
• "I use all kinds of different story telling/sequencing cards or a book depending on the students' level. Then, for elementary students, I use Super Duper's Story Builder Chart or the Story Grammar Maker. For secondary students, I use graphic organizers."~Jessica from Consonantly Speaking

I have tons of products in my TpT store to help practice strategies for  improving auditory comprehension.  Many of them are aligned with the common core standards (which help in incorporating classroom curriculum into the therapy room).  To continue this "professional development" week, I am giving away a copy of my Following Complex Directions Carnival activity pack!

Enter to win below!

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If Only I Could Get Professional Development Hours For Following Blogs: SYNTAX!

Welcome to day #1 of "SLP Professional Development."  Today's topic is syntax!  

If you work in a school setting or with school-aged students, you probably have students that have syntax goals.  If not, you address syntax informally while working on vocabulary, verbal/written expression, and answering questions.

Over the last year+, I have posted TONS of freebies and TpT products that can be used to address syntax goals.  Here is a list of them if you do not recall:

Groovy Grammar

Lunch Bag Books and Say & Color Worksheet Freebies

Noun Nick & Verb Vicky file folder freebie

Teaching Past, Present, & Future Verbs

Noun-Verb Agreement Freebie

Ice Cream Parts of Speech Sort Idea

Using Tap Lights to Teach Past, Present, & Future

Grammar Uno-Like Game

Movie Parts of Speech

and so much more!

What are some strategies I use in my speech room to address difficulties using grammatical structures?

• Model!  It is so important for students to hear and see visually the correct grammatical structures.  
• Restate!  Restate their messages using the correct grammatical structures.  You can spend every session correcting your students.  If you are not working directly on grammar skills, just restate what they say with the correct forms to model it for them.
• When working on written expression, point out their errors.  Make them say it out loud so they can hear it for themselves.  Make them re-write using the correct structures.  Use dry erase boards to let them practice using that exact grammatical structure in a variety of ways.

What are some DIY activities you can use to teach, practice, introduce, or reinforce syntax goals?

• Have students practice identifying correct and incorrect grammatical concepts/structures.  Use buzzers/bells/signs or just let them raise their hands when they hear incorrect sentences.  
• Take a reading passage and substitute all nouns and/or verbs with the incorrect tenses.  Can your students identify what you did?  Can they fix the errors?  Let them rewrite/type the passage with the correct forms.
• Sort!  Have students read sentences or words and sort singular/plural, noun/verb/adjective, past/present/future, conjunction/article, etc.
• Visuals!  It can be on poster paper, dry erase board, or even on a post-it on the table!  Remind your students of the rules/strategies to assist them in recall!  Once they start mastering, remove the visuals and see how they do!

Are you wondering what your other favorite bloggers do and use in their speech rooms?

•  "I like to use sentence strips with blanks (e.g., "If I had a ___, it would be __" or whatever sentence construct I'm targeting). Then we add picture cards and add them to the blanks (e.g., noun cards for the first, adjectives for the second). Sometimes the sentences make sense and sometimes they're very silly, but that's what makes it fun!  The commercial product I like to use is Grammar Gumballs!"~Carrie from Carrie's Speech Corner and visit her TpT store by clicking HERE!
• "I use "Sentence Workout" app (from Virtual Speech Center) to target sentence structure. My students love and are entertained with this app."~LyndaSLP
• "For my older elementary students, I like to break them up into teams and give them worksheets on a specific skills, such as "conjunctions". Then, they have to work together to figure out how to identify the conjunction, or create grammatically correct sentences. It helps when my groups have varying skills, so I can team up a stronger student with someone who isn't as high. That way I can teach one lesson. By making it a competition to see who can get the most correct, the students are motivated. I also try to find games on Quia.com.  For my little ones preK and K, I try to find ways to play activities or games while bombarding them with grammatical structures such as building with blocks. I can have them say She is building, I am stacking, or I want a blue block."~Felice from The Dabbling Speechie 
• "For teaching question forms, I like to use SPARC for Questions. Using this book, you can address yes/no and wh-question forms."~Gold Country SLP
• " For preschool through elementary, I love doing barrier games. Another favorite of mine, is story wiring. For little ones. I obviously write out the story FOR them as they tell me, while working on the grammatical goals of the child, while older kids do the writing as we work. They then can illustrate the stories either between turns (in groups) or at home, if we run out of time.  I also use barrier games."~Katie from Playing With Words 365
• "For elementary students I've been using the app Grammaropolis. It plays fun songs as an introduction to each featured topic. IE: conjunctions. This is a quick way to pull the kids into the lesson each week and remind them the key ideas. Then we can get into direct instruction and practice."~Jenna from Speech Room News
• "I like to use Grammar Gum Balls and Grannie's Candies from Super Duper. I also use magnetic sentence strips with wet erase markers so the students can't erase them. I have preprogrammed sentences, and the students can fill in the correct responses with a dry erase marker."~Jess from Figuratively Speeching (you can view her TpT store HERE)
•  "I use something reminiscent of the old Fokes Sentence Builder. Many AAC systems use one of two color-coding schemas to organize vocabulary. This comes in handy when teaching syntax because you can teach color patterns (yellow green orange for SVO, for example). There are some visual supports for the two most popular color coding systems in this post (free download)."~PrAACtical AAC
• "I like to use flashcards or pictures of children performing actions along with the sentence cues from speakingofspeech.com ("He is ___/She is ___", "___ are ___", "___ is ___", etc.), then eventually fade the cues."~Jessica from Consonantly Speaking (view her TpT store HERE)
• "I also use the visual cues I printed fromwww.speakingofspeech.com and pictures I printed and laminated using google images...I also eventually fade the cues."~Christy Jones
• "To start, I use a lot of gross motor activities for marking syntax structures. For example, to teach future tense forms I may have a child move forward on a balance beam. To teach the past tense forms I would have them move backwards."~Speech2U (view TpT store by clicking HERE)
• "I use a program called Colorful Semantics to give my students visual supports as they're learning the parts of speech. Once we get through nouns, verbs, and adjectives, I start connecting Colorful Semantics to madlibs and other cloze paragraphs so we can see the color patterns in longer pieces of text."~The Thrifty SLP
• "I like to start by seeing if the kids can identify correct vs. incorrect syntax, so I will provide several examples and we discuss them."~Teach Speech 365 (and check out her TpT store HERE)
•  "I like using Post-Its in different colors for parts of speech to create sentences and then changing them around to form questions. But you can also do it to work on adding details, combining sentences, etc."~Jenn from Crazy Speech World
• "For my elementary kiddos I will have them give me words that I write on index cards, then they have to put them in order to create sentences. I also like using Jumbled Sentences for Kids, it is a free app."~The Speech Bubble

Now you can win a copy of Groovy Grammar for yourself!  

Enter to win below!

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