I wanted to update this post now that I’ve learned even more great uses for Google Keep!  Check it out and let me know how many of YOU are using this?  It’s such a valuable tool!

Has anyone else tried Google Keep as a method of organization/notes?  It’s Ah-mazing.  It’s changed  my life.  Literally.  Go to THIS website and start using it.  I mean.. right NOW!

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It’s that time again!  Summer has arrived!  Are you a parent looking for some language-rich activities to do with your littles this summer?  Here are some ideas of activities to do that can really foster great opportunities for social language, vocabulary, conversation starters, articulation, and language processing skills.  Check out the list below and be sure to add any extra ideas at the end!

Here are some ideas:

• Visit the zoo and label as many animals as you can find
• Go to the park and make a new friend
• Help your child write a note or email to a classmate
• Go on a picnic at a local Forest Preserve
• Cook a new recipe together and discuss “first, next, then”
• Go on a nature hike and enjoy the outdoors
• Make and go on a scavenger hunt outside
• Visit the local pool and start a conversation with a new friend
• Go to the grocery store and sort items into groups (which are fruits, name 3 meats, which items are cold, etc.)
• Let your child watch their favorite TV show and then have them give you a summary of the episode afterwards
• Read a book together in the sunshine and talk about the people and places in the story
• Go on a bike ride and talk about your favorite summer activity
• Roast marshmallows and have your child give step-by-step directions on how to make them

Here is a great list of other ideas too!

Any other ideas or activities that your families love to do in the summer?

Sorry it’s been so long since I have posted here!  I have been a little busy delivering our 9.5lb little sunshine!  Welcome to the world, Charlotte Mae Beckett!

We are all doing well at home!  As of today, she’s 2 months old and has added so much joy to our new family of 4.  Thanks for all the thoughts and prayers!  I’m already back at work full time and loving being with all my students again!  Looking forward to finishing out the year, and hoping to post some resources over the summer for parents to work on speech/language with their littles! 🙂

Happy January and Happy New Year!  I wanted to give some suggestions to parents and other colleagues on ways to encourage our students and kiddos to use accurate speech sounds at home!

When students are learning a new speech pattern and working on specific sounds, it is paramount that they are exposed to reminders and good examples outside of therapy time.  Learning a new speech pattern is hard!  You are essentially re-wiring a neurological and physiological pathway that was developed incorrectly.  It’s hard work!  Be sure and Continue reading →

Well, in case you haven’t heard (or have seen my gi-normous belly!), I am due in just a few short weeks!

Balancing toddler life, working full time and pregnancy has turned out to be pretty tricky (thus the very few blog updates this year! So sorry…).   I am so looking forward to being home with the newest sweet edition to our family, but will be missing my students at school every day!  I love what I do, and I love all my students– my job really is the best. Continue reading →

Is your child forgetful? Can’t remember dates, times or names?  Has no idea what is for homework tonight? Loses things easily?   Continue reading →

I have had not one… but TWO…projects funded through DonorsChoose.org.  Check out my personal page here!  It really is incredible how generous Continue reading →

I am SO ready for school to start back up this fall!  I always enjoy summers off (playing with my son, trips to the zoo, shopping, pool days, etc), but I also equally love getting a fresh slate each school year!  I am in such a unique role, because I get to have the same students for speech from 3rd all the way to 8th grade!!  Some of my students I have serviced all 5 years.  It’s a privilege. 🙂  I ALSO get to welcome my NEW 2nd graders this year, and a sprinkle of fun preschoolers!  I really do have the best job and remind myself how thankful I am to have this opportunity every day.  Life is too short to be anything but thankful!

I decided to go with a “Minion” theme this year!   Continue reading →

Working with students on phonemic awareness can be a blast!  My student was working on sound identification, blending and segmenting!  She’s also Continue reading →

Being a speech pathologist is the best decision I have ever made!

May is Better Speech and Hearing Month! If you know of students with a passion for helping others, encourage them to pursue speech! I have had so many fantastic opportunities with this degree, and I feel incredibly blessed to have played a role in Continue reading →

Here is my monthly speech newsletter!  These are some great ways to incorporate speech sound practice at home!!  Let me know if there are other ways you are working on articulation at home, too!

Check out the newsletter HERE!!

A colleague just shared this speech blog with me and I think it has some really great features.  One of them is the “FREE” worksheets tab!  I just printed a ton of them for myself to use in therapy!  These are great and simple worksheets to use with students of many ages and levels.  They are separated by word level and phrase level.

This would also be a great and easy tool for PARENTS!  Even colleagues with young children at home who are working on some early speech sounds.  They are simple and easy to use.  Check out the rest of this blog too—Let me know what you think!

Again, the blog is: www.heatherspeechtherapy.com!

Hey Speechies!  I made this visual using the CAAP Test articulation norms to use with parents in an attempt to better explain when students should be proficient with each sound.  I think it helps to Continue reading →

Quizlet can be a GREAT resource for teachers, SLPs and students.  If you go to www.quizlet.com, you can sign up with a FREE account!  It’s essentially a way to create online, virtual flashcards.  Parents and students can easily use this at home as a way to practice academic vocabulary.   Students enjoy using the flashcards on the computer, and there are even games to play with them as well!  In addition, you can have the computer read the words and definitions to you.   Great for auditory learners!

This is a great resource for SLPs also!  Therapists can use these for language/vocabulary, multiple meaning words, and even articulation drill practice.   As an idea, you can create a separate account and give the password/sign in to parents.  THEN, parents and students can log in at home, click on the flashcards they need to practice (r sound, sh sound, synonyms, etc.), and complete as “homework”.  It even scores the matches you get correct in each game! (Easy way to track data?)

It’s a fantastic way to hear, see, spell and read these words continuously throughout the school week.  Another great way to prepare students from home!  Check it out and let me know what you think!

I’m going to start posting speech “blurbs” in our Thursday note at Pioneer Path again this year!  Please take a minute to check it out!  I’ll post on different communication themes and strategies to use with students at home!  Here’s a link to my September “Speech Corner.”  It’s mainly an introduction and offers you all my contact information.  Looking forward to having lots of contact with parents, teachers and other SLPs this year!  Thanks!!

If you’d like to view it here, click on the link! 🙂  2016SpeechCorner_September

Wow was this article an eye-opener!  Talks about day-to-day struggles of being a mom to a child with autism.  I can’t imagine what a blessing these kiddos can be for their parents and families, but also how overwhelming it must be for parents to care for them financially and emotionally.   Parents of ALL children truly are superheroes.   Continue reading →