As a part of Mental Wellness Month I wanted to share my favorite self-care ideas. “Self-care” is a hot topic these days, but I often find myself debating about what it really is. Sometimes I relate it to regulation so that I think of self-care as “doing things that keep me at my most regulated, …
Category: students
My Favorite Activities for Following Directions
Following directions is a common goal for my patients of all ages. I try to keep these activities fun and play-based, but for the older kids that’s an especially challenging endeavor. Here are some of my favorite activities for working on following directions… You can find more ideas for using Toca Life World in speech …
ADHD & Speech-Language Pathology
October is ADHD awareness month! I actually learned very little about ADHD’s effects on communication as a graduate student and it wasn’t until I began seeing lots of patients with ADHD that I started to wonder about the connection between the disorder and speech and langauge. Since then I’ve had the opportunity to work with …
AAI Activities for Speech & Language Treatment
I met my first therapy dog when I was volunteering at the New Mexico Preschool for the Deaf – the dog was named Jackson and he belonged to one of the audiologists at the preschool. This started my interest in using a therapy dog in my future treatment. The first thing to know about therapy …
Using Toca Pet Doctor for Speech & Language Treatment
I’m constantly looking for new and fun naturalistic activities. One of my favorite apps is Toca Pet Doctor. This app isn’t one of the free ones from Toca Boca – it costs $3.99, but my patients love it (many request it for their reward activity) and it’s quite versatile! Here are some more naturalistic activities for …
My Favorite Regulation Tools
I love the Zones of Regulation! The curriculum has taught me so much about regulation and the tools have helped so many of my patients engage in speech and language treatment! I have colleagues who hate the Zones of Regulation because it gets confusing for kids whose teachers use the color-coded behavior charts. to be …
Using Disney Shorts in Speech & Language Treatment
Disney shorts are the secret to my success with telehealth. When the word switched to online treatment due to the COVID-19 pandemic I started using these videos as an unstructured activity for grammar, pragmatic langauge, and narratives. Since then I’ve done lots of research about attention and brain waves during video calls and I find …
Play-Based Activities for Articulation/Phonology Skills
When I was in graduate school there was a lot of information about the difference between an “articulation disorder” and a “phonological disorder.” Then I started my internship and found that in order for an insurance company to pay for speech & langauge treatment the child needs a medical diagnosis and that these are found …
My Favorite Narrative Activities & Tools
Whether I’m working on narrative creation, narrative retell, or using correct language structures during narratives I like to keep the activity as fun as possible. I find that this can be one of the hardest tasks for kids and giving them a fun way to work on it (with Disney videos, video games, or story …
Using Calico Critters & Li’l Woodzeez in Speech & Language Treatment
My patients love using Calico Critters and Li’l Woodzeez during treatment! And I love that the kids are motivated to do their work while we play with them. There are so many less expensive dollhouse sets! Yet, these are the most motivating that I’ve found. My patients have always tired of the other dollhouse sets …