3rd Grade Level Fiction- Bing AI Mario and Luigi were taking a walk in the Mushroom Kingdom when they saw a strange portal. They had never seen anything like it before. "What do you think it is?" asked Luigi. "I don't know," said Mario. "But let's go find out!" Mario and Luigi jumped into the portal and disappeared. When they opened their eyes, they were in a strange new world. The sky was purple and the trees were blue. Mario and Luigi had never seen anything like it before. "Where are we?" asked Luigi. "I don't know," said Mario. "But it looks like we're going to have an adventure!" Mario and Luigi started walking through the strange new world. They soon came across a group of friendly creatures called Yoshis. The Yoshis told Mario and Luigi that they were in the Land of Yoshi. "Welcome to the Land of Yoshi!" said one of the Yoshis. "We're so glad you're here." T
Helping Kids Get to Clearer Speech
Syllable deletion is the Lex Luthor to my Superman. The stubbed toe on a walk through a dark room. The extra minute in the microwave that totally toasts my lunch and makes it gross. The really bad cliches to show how much something is unliked- yeah, you get it.
I find that improving syllabification in unintelligible children is a fantastic first step in improving overall intelligibility. Of course, some therapists will disagree with me. Oral-motor concerns, stimulability, and the child’s response to treatment are all valid concerns. However, I find that we talk in long strings of syllables. While the idea of talking in words makes sense, when we are in connected speech, we are in syllable mode. People don’t speak one word at a time, they speak in long groups of words (at least until they run out of breath, but hey, that’s just how we do things in New York!)
Traditional methods of reducing syllable deletion will use pacing and marking of syllables. One of my students has articulation/phonology issues and I am still in love with the Coversation Paceboard from (Aptus). They also make a Turtle Talk which has been helpful with some of my students, but I have found the most success with this one. Turtle Talk is a little more oriented for children, and the ice breaker questions are geared towards kids.
(Tap each button to mark syllables or single words- might be as good as using an egg carton!)
It it is fantastic for helping with slowing rate of speech to help children with overall intelligibility issues. I have found it helpful for “straight” articulation as well because it allows children to slow down and focus on production of their target sounds.
A great part is the open-ended questions that are embedded with the app, it really makes it easy to develop some expressive language while also targeting rate of speech.
(Pull the slider to increase the time per button)
The best part is the ability to slow the time delay. Some of my children like to “play” with it because they like doing using REALLY slow speech for fun.
The adjustable time is also excellent because it allows you to teach the way different rates of speech can affect your intelligibility. By modeling different rates, you can develop the auditory awareness for some children. Even more, you can have children “try” out different ways of speaking to feel some “control” over their speech!
While there are multiple ways to help unintelligible children, I have found focusing on syllables and pacing is the best place to start. Through the use of technology or paper based materials, you can help these students reach their speech goals!
While I don't always do thematic units, I do like to work on bulletin boards within my classroom. I know some of us work in closets (literally), some of us work in the hall, and some of us have actual rooms. I'm not going to brag, but I work in the old art room in my building. 3 SLPs together in a large space. We have to take care of 4 separate bulletin boards- so we try to do themes around the seasons. In previous years, we have done snowflakes and turkeys and flowers with vocabulary words. I love this Word Web and it links up with a good Winter Themed Bulletin Board with only a little prep! I back each one of my webs on construction paper, make a title out of pre-cut letters, and then let the kids get to work on their vocabulary. When each group is done, I put their words up on the boayrd and boom- bulletin board done! Word Web Freebie for Winter Head over to TPT and grab this freebie! For more freebies, visual supports, and fun speech games,
I love Star Wars. Even "The Last Jedi" and "The Phantom Menace." I watch the shows, I watch the movies, and I'm even spreading the love to my own children. While you may not love Star Wars like I do, you can certainly appreciate working on activities that get your students talking and having fun. This freebie will get that job done- think of this as a free Fun Friday activity that you might be able to do with your whole caseload. I put a lot of the favorite characters like Luke and Darth Vader and even some more obscure items like some of the "pets" and animals that were seen in the 9 movies! Many of my students love Star Wars, and these pages are a great way to stimulate conversation in your speech and language therapy groups. Hey, sometimes I have to sub in a classroom, and this is a great activity for breaking the ice or giving the students a "fun" activity to work towards. I hope you have as much fun with this acti
Listening skills are not dead. You can help your students get better at listening. The pacing of classes, especially as students get older require the ability to have fine-tuned listening skills. Understanding sequence and ordering of steps is hugely important when considering word problems in math. Sometimes we need to almost “drag” our students through the work to get the results that we need. How about something that can help shore up these weaknesses and maybe even make them strengths? Keyword Understanding from Aptus can unlock some of these puzzles for you and help these students with improving their listening and language skills. One of the earlier levels in Information Carrying Words First and foremost, you need to check out “Information Carrying Words” within the app. It’s my favorite one to work in right now! This mini-game targets listening for attributes and target words (or adjectives and nouns if you want to get fancy!). While the initial stages can be “
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