Wrapping Up 2015! Thanks For Your Support!

Another year is quickly coming to a close! I truly appreciate the support of my fellow speech-language pathologists, educators, and parents who have read my blog this year. I share my ideas so that others will have strategies and activities to use in speech-language therapy, in the classroom, and at home to improve communication skills of children with special needs. 

It has been almost three years since I started this Building Successful Lives blog! I can't wait for all the things that are in store in 2016! I would love for those who purchased curriculum material to leave feedback in my TPT store. I am going to give away some complimentary resources to a few lucky winners! The amount of prizes are TBD! :) I am committed to making quality informal assessments, speech-language therapy activities, and E/LA common core aligned instructional materials. 

Enjoy the rest of 2015 and I wish you all the best in 2016! 

Tamara Anderson

Five Ways to Practice Speech-Language Skills Over Winter Break

Hey there everyone! Today is the last day of school for 2015 in my district and I am beyond excited about being on winter break for 2 weeks! I am sure that all the students are as well. Although the students will be on break from school, there are so many ways that they can practice their communication skills in their daily routines. I know that some of you will have private practice clients or a few days of work next week as school-based speech language pathologists. Make sure that you share these tips with parents.

5 Ways to Practice Speech-Language Skills Over Winter Break: 

1) Retell events and experiences
*Children should practice describing specific family outings, activities, and experiences with as much detail as possible. They should try their best to recall and retell information in the correct sequence of events whether it is going to the ice skating rink or to grandma's house. 

2) Answer questions after listening to fiction or non-fiction story read by parents
*Children and families can visit the public library and check out books appropriate for their age. Parents should read aloud to their kids and ask them who, what, where, when, and why questions about the text. 

3) Play speech-language games on interactive websites
*There are many websites that children can enjoy practicing their speech-language skills. Some of my top recommendations are
spellingcity.com, jacobslessons.com, do2learn.com, learninggamesforkids.com, and pbskids.org

You can access a more comprehensive list in Parent Handouts for Communication Disorders in my TPT store.

4) Play speech-language games on iPad
*Many children have either an iPad or android tablet. They can practice a variety of skills such as speech articulation, following directions, vocabulary, grammar, sequencing, and overall comprehension on apps. Parents can search for related apps in the app store by companies such as Speech with Milo, Super Duper, PocketSLP, Hamaguchi, I Can Do Apps, Smarty Ears and so many more! Many companies have free trial versions that enable kids to practice many skills while others will need to be purchased. 

5) Use speech articulation and fluency strategies 
*At home and in the community, children should practice using their best pronunciation of the sounds they are working on in speech-language therapy. Parents can remind their children to use the correct placement of speech muscles when asking questions, answering questions, and speaking to family and friends.

Overall, children can practice their speech-language skills in everyday routines! I hope you found these 5 tips beneficial. Have a great rest of 2015!

Tamara Anderson

Pete the Cat Holiday Freebie

My speech language students LOVE when I read Pete the Cat stories to them. The holiday themed book, Pete the Cat Saves Christmas is no exception! This book is great to read aloud with preschool and elementary school aged kids on your speech language caseload. I created a quick "wh" questions comprehension check that has a field of 4 choices.  You can access it in my TPT curriculum store.

Many of my students have IEP objectives that require them to answer literal questions from fiction text so this FREEBIE will be a great practice and work sample for that! I know many SLPs like having fun book companions with numerous activities, but I have found that sometimes it's best to KISS.  With this complimentary worksheet, you can keep it simple by having a quick and functional activity after your read aloud in a 30 minute session.  I even used it with success in my moderate intellectual disability speech-language therapy groups! 

I appreciate you reading my blog today. When you download this resource, kindly leave feedback in my TPT curriculum store. Thanks in advance! 

Tamara Anderson

Cyber Sale 2015

Hey everyone! I hope you had a great Thanksgiving with your family. I certainly enjoyed my week long break here in Atlanta and my family visiting from Florida. 

There is just one month left of 2015 so it's a great time to stock up on speech-language therapy and educator resources for December and 2016! I have 2 winter themed products that target Tier I and Tier III English/Language Arts vocabulary. 

I also highly recommend my progress monitoring tools and bundles available in my TPT store. 

I also recently revised my FREE Parent Handouts for Communication Disorders. I also suggest you download my FREE Communication Success Tips for Colleagues to make sure that you maintain effective relationships at work. 

Have a great week! 

Tamara Anderson
Building Successful Lives

Building the communication, literacy, & life success of children

 

Parent Information for Communication Disorders {Free Resource Guide}

There are many times when parents ask me about communication disorders. They want to know if their child's speech-language skills are where they should be developmentally. Recently, a friend of mind told me that her daughter received a speech language screening at her preschool. The results indicated that she needed further evaluation. I was concerned when she shared with me that the therapist expressed concern that a 3 year old was not pronouncing sounds such as /l/ and /r/. I immediately saw red flags because it is developmentally appropriate that not all kids will correctly pronounce these sounds at age 3. In fact, there are research based age ranges of typical speech sound development. Yes, some children may correctly pronounce sounds earlier and that's great. However, the following are developmentally acceptable ages of sound acquisition.

Age 3- w, b, p, h, m, n       

Age 4-  k, g, t, d, y, f         

Age 5- all 3 & 4 year old sounds

Age 7- l

Age 8- j, ch, sh, r, th, s, z, v

Please note that different school districts also implement different eligibility criteria for providing speech therapy for speech sounds in error. If you have questions about if your child needs an evaluation, I suggest that you consult directly with a licensed speech-language pathologist in your area. 

I also often get questions about what language skills are expected of children at certain ages. You can access more information about my recommendations from a previous blog post about developmental milestones. Click here.

I created a few complimentary parent handouts that explain the difference between speech sound disorders and language disorders. In this resource you will also receive helpful hints for improving receptive and expressive language disorders. These tips are geared towards children in kindergarten-5th grade. This packet also has a list of interactive websites that kids can use to practice improving their language skills. 

I strongly encourage parents to give their children opportunities to practice their communication and language skills at home. I may add to this resource in the future so make sure that you subscribe to my blog by entering your email address in the right hand column of this page. You can access this FREE digital download in my TPT curriculum store.

Have a great week! I hope you have an excellent Thanksgiving holiday with family and friends this Thursday!

Tamara Anderson
Building Successful Lives

Product Feature: Wh Questions Progress Monitoring Tool

In May of this year, I realized that I needed to create a WH Questions Progress Monitoring Tool because so many children on my caseload were working on improving their language processing skills in this area. I provide therapy services for many children who have receptive/expressive language disorder with co-occurring autism, specific learning disability, and/or intellectual disability and struggle immensely with this skill. 

This tool has really enabled me to improve my ability to take data prior to beginning intervention with kids and after several speech-language therapy sessions.  

Last month, I expanded this tool from 6 progress monitoring forms with 75 question probes to 12 progress monitoring forms with 165 question probes to evaluate children's ability to answer who, what, where, when, and why questions about everyday events. This informal assessment is ideal for use in therapy sessions with kids identified with a communication disorder and for children in the Response to Intervention (RTI) process. 

This WH Questions Progress Monitoring Tool includes:

1) 25 Who Questions- 10 questions for baseline data elicitation and post intervention progress check; 5 questions for 2 week interval checks (3 of these) *same for what, where, when, and why Q's
2) 25 What Questions 
3) 25 Where Questions
4) 25 When Questions
5) 25 Why Questions
6) 40 Mixed Wh Questions- 25 questions for baseline data elicitation and post intervention progress check; 5 questions for 2    
week interval checks (3 of these)

It is recommended that this tool is used prior to beginning language therapy or RTI instruction with a child on a targeted comprehension skill. Then, the SLP or teacher should give the included 5 question data check every 2 weeks to monitor progress. Next, the SLP or teacher should repeat the longer wh questions data check after 8 weeks or more to assess a child's comprehension and oral expression skills in the targeted areas. Last, I have included a data summary form to record all data for easy review. 

This essential informal assessment product is available in my TPT store.  Here is what some buyers had to say about it:

"Great product! I am an SLP at an elementary school and we do a lot of "Wh" questions. This is going to be a great way to progress monitor!"

Incredibly helpful assessment tool! :)

Great resource to use in the RTI process!

Thanks for reading the blog today. Make sure you purchase this essential tool to enhance your ability to take data. Click here to access a complimentary digital download of my one page WH questions freebie.

Tamara Anderson

Falling into Good Habits as a School SLP

I don't know about you, but there are days when I certainly need a reminder to deliberately work on building good habits at work. We all know the saying that your thoughts become actions and then habits. However, how often do you really evaluate the impact that your thoughts, habits, and actions have on your work relationships and performance?

I decided to share my three tips that will keep you falling into good habits as a school based SLP. These are the tips that I shared at the beginning of the school year, but I know that we can benefit from a refresher so that we are continuously building successful lives of all our wonderful children with special needs.  

Tip # 1

By now I am sure that you have found your rhythm as far as providing group speech-language therapy sessions. There is always plenty to juggle along with typical direct intervention sessions. Evaluations. Therapy Sessions. Progress Notes. RTI. Progress Monitoring. IEP Meetings. Staff Meetings. SLP Department Meetings. Data Entry. Medicaid Billing. PTA Meetings. Etc. Etc.

I think that is critical to remember that each day as a speech-language pathologist you are called to provide the best therapy services to children and adolescents. Regardless of how many staff meetings you need to attend, bus duty days or extra hours you work, it is important to focus on the purpose that you serve. I believe wholeheartedly that we are all building successful lives of the children that we serve. Communication and language skills are in fact foundations for social, academic, and life success. What an awesome opportunity we have as SLPs to improve the communication and language skills of children with communication disorders! So on those days that seem so overwhelming, please remember to especially focus on the success of children.


Tip # 2 

Colleagues will be more productive collectively when a school culture of positivity is cultivated. You can help create and maintain this culture by your words, actions, and habits. Be mindful about the conversations you have in the staff lounge, email, hallways and in meetings. Yes, I understand that you will have days when something or someone really irks you. However, I recommend making an effort to understand another person's perspective and help find solutions when challenges arise. Do your words build others up or tear them down? I also believe that you will feel refreshed when you refresh others. Everyone can use a little encouragement from time to time whether they think they need it or not. Make having an attitude of gratitude a part of your daily routine. Try it out and you'll see how positivity and kindness can be contagious!  

Tip # 3 


You may help sponsor an extracurricular club, participate in a school fundraiser such as Relay for Life, attend PTA meetings, or school chorus concerts. Your speech-language therapy students and families will be so happy to see you outside of your usually role in the speech-language therapy room or classroom. I believe that doing so not only helps you further build rapport with children and families but also with your school community as a team player. As a speech-language pathologist, we need to educate colleagues and families about our job description but also demonstrate that we care about the success of all children in various avenues of their lives.  

I have some freebies in my TPT curriculum store that will remind you of these tips. Click here to access my 7 Keys for a Successful School Year and Communication Tips for Colleagues.  

I'd love for you to stay connected to me throughout the year. You may subscribe to my blog, follow me on Instagram, Twitter, and/or follow me on Facebook. I look forward to keeping in touch via social media world! :)

Tamara Anderson