Angry Bird Articulation and Language Activities

by Holly F. Speech Therapy Techniques
angry birds character descriptions

Source: chlorophyllblog.com

 

A lot of speech therapy is adult directed. The speech pathologist decides the task, how to play, how long it will take, and the end reward  (if there is one) leaving little control to the student over their topics of interests. Every once in a while it is important to incorporate highly motivating and even “hot” topics into speech therapy to engage children and even leverage a little more “buy in” from sometimes reluctant participants. One clever way to do that is with Angry Birds. Angry Birds is a popular (12 million downloads can’t be wrong) and relatively new (introduced in 2009) digital game. The goal doesn’t have much at all to do with speech and language and is based on the premise of using a slingshot to launch some colorful birds at pigs stationed in various structures. While the content leaves SLPs little to work with in the way of content for articulation therapy, the characters and premise of “launching” is an easy one to work with in speech therapy.

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Using an iPad for Data Collection in Speech Therapy

by Holly F. Speech Therapy Techniques

 

iPad with graphs

Source: omnigroup.com

Any speech pathologist will tell you that one of the biggest headaches of being a treatment provider is documentation. Whether it be IEPs, data collection, progress reports or evaluations, documentation can be a big burden on an SLP’s time; often taking away from material making or treatment time. But have no fear; luckily new technology is making it easier for SLPs and educators to track not just one but multiple children’s progress in an easy and streamlined fashion. But how and where to start can be a big daunting, or even freighting for a technophobe.

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Picking the Prime Providers of Speech Therapy in Virginia

by Holly F. State Resources
Virginia facts

Source: padoyle.com

Virginia might be for lovers, but its also for speech pathologists. Some people might travel to this state, considered the gateway to the south, to visit the great beaches and historical sites, while others might go in search of great speech therapy. But you don’t have to fix the transmission just yet, instead of driving too far, check out some prime picks for speech therapy in Virginia across the state:

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The Best Storytelling Apps for Speech Therapy

by Holly F. Speech Therapy Techniques
the perfect story guidelines

Source: the-cma.com

What you did this weekend, the best movie you ever saw and the story of The Three Little Pigs. What do these three things have in common? They are all narratives. They are stories you might tell a friend, as a child to tell you or share with a child. Stories are an important part of speech and language. Children need to develop the ability to logically and accurately recall details and the timely of events in addition to meaningful descriptions of what occurred. Children working on articulation need to move from saying sounds at the syllable level to within a short sentence and eventually, in connected speech. Storytelling is an important area to target in speech therapy and there are some great new tools to do it. Using the iPad, some great storytelling apps help children develop and engage with their narrative while providing multisensory feedback. They are engaging, easy to save and share and return to later for editing or expanding.

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Three Ways to Use Dress Up Games to Target Speech Therapy Goals

by Holly F. Speech Therapy Techniques
dress up stats for children

Source: supportimagination.com

 

Every so often you meet a child that just loves costumes and characters. You know, the ones who will enviably grow up to be awared-winning entertainers? While it might seem like just a playful child activity, there is a lot of language that can be targeted during an afternoon of dress up. Both boys and girls seem to enjoy the experience of wearing funny hats and high heels while sometimes sporting accents or crazy stories about their characters. This also, as you can imagine, involves a great deal of pretend play, which we know is important to language development. Here are three ways to use dress up games to target speech therapy goals:

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