Articulation in the Clouds

Summer is almost here!  As we make our way to finish line, I am finding it harder and harder to be creative in my therapy!

Websites to Inspire Creative Language: Installment Three

 

A few years ago, the Occupational Therapist I worked with discovered a free website called Voicethread.  Voicethread is difficult to explain but amazing to experience!  In a nutshell, it is a a collaborative multimedia slideshow that holds images, documents, and videos.   It allows the student to record their voice and encourages a collaborative conversation by allowing others to give their input in the work.  It  allows people to comment on the students work in five ways:  voice by microphone or telephone, text, audio file and video

In addition, it can increase your communication with parents and colleagues as it allows for the student work to be shared! friends, students, and colleagues to add  comments.  Here is the link to get your FREE Educator Account!

I used The Important Book by Margaret Wise Brown to get started using this wonderful tool.  The Important Book is a pattern book that allows lots of opportunities to use descriptive language in the project.   We read the book and then used a template to help organize the students thoughts and drew some delightful pictures to support their oral narration!  It was time consuming, but VERY worthwhile!

Even more exciting, Voicethread has  FREE  Voicethread App for the iPad now too!

This allows for all the same features as the website with the mobility and ease we have all come to love in our iPads!  It connects directly to your account on the main website using the same password.

How will you use this in your sessions?  The possibilities are endless.   The website comes complete with  digital library of more than five dozen examples of VoiceThread being used in a wide variety of content areas taught in K-12 classrooms. 

Websites to Inspire Creative Language:  Installment Two

My Wordle from philosofry.blogspot.com

Wordle.net

Wordle.net is an amazingly versatile website!  Wordle is a tool for generating word clouds from words you input.  You can type in the words, use a URL from a website or blog, or enter a del.icio.us user name to create your own.  The more times  a word is used, the bigger it will appear in your word cloud!I have used it for poetry, vocabulary, main idea and articulation words.  I especially like using it with my older students.  They seem to appreciate the artistic component of it!  I have emailed or printed this wonderful creations for my students and they are amazingly proud of their work!

Wordle allows you to choose layout and colors.  You can also publish it to a public gallery.  I usually take a screen shot and then either print it or email to parents or teachers. 

Here is an example of a haiku written by a 6th grade boy for a Media project.  The student was struggling with this assignment and became much more motivated when he was allowed to type it into Wordle.

Have fun trying out this creative and engaging tool!

Websites to Inspire Creative Language: Installment One

I have seen some amazing resources on Pinterest and other speech/language blogs that make my jaw drop!  I only wish I could be that creative!  The truth is, I am a full time SLP and mom and there are days when I just don't have the time or energy to create and prep!  I applaud and appreciate those who do!  However, sometimes you have to have other go to resources.  In the days before the iPad, which really wasn't all that long ago, I discovered some wonderful free resources to stimulate creative language and support writing.  I still feel there is a place for these resources, especially if you are lucky enough to have access to an interactive whiteboard!  They are accessible for those of you who do not have an iPad or not enough to go around!  The best part is they are FREE!  Here is the first installment!  Check back this week as I highlight more of my favorites!

PicLits

PicLits.com is a creative writing site that matches beautiful images with carefully selected keywords in order to inspire you. The object is to put the words in the correct place and the right order to capture the essence, story, and meaning of the picture. 

I have used Piclits for story starters, inferencing, working on parts of speech and addressing grammar, as well as word structure.  Piclit allows for support on various levels as well.   A student can create by using the Drag-N-Drop word bank feature or Freestyle which allows them to write freely.  Other great features include that you can save them for documentation purposes or email and share with parents!

Here is an example written by one of my language students today!

http://www.piclits.com/compose_dragdrop.aspx

Marble Madness!

After I received my iPad last year I was so enthralled with it, I used it in almost every session.  I loved it!  So, imagine my surprise when the other SLP at my building introduced MARBLES!  I thought, "How 20th Century!"  I WAS WRONG!  Kids loved them.  We even found our older students were excited by them as well.  We have used them for reinforcers for articulation, language, fluency (great for "catching" the stutter),  The best part is the kids take data for you!

Another great use for marbles is my Molly the Marble Muncher.  I cannot take credit for her.  I actually credited at a workshop by the Anne Carlson Center in Fargo, North Dakota. 

They provided us with a small trash can the Dollar Store or Target, pom poms, yarn, googly eyes and a hot glue gun and let us create!  Molly not only munches marbles!  She loves to snack on cards, small toys, and sometimes small fingers.  (Okay, no fingers!) 

SuperMario Fluency Program: Using Video Games to Gain Interest

Recently, I have had a huge flood of little boys with moderate fluency issues.  I found that not only did they have fluency issues in common.  They also were CRAZY about video games.  This got me thinking:  how could I use their love of video games to engage them in fluency therapy.  The result was my SuperMario Fluency Program.  Essentially, I took some of the crazy characters from the multitude of Mario games (with the help of my sister, Lori Davis and graduate student, Jamie Oxley who knew they characters and properties better then I!) and matched them with the strategy I wanted the students remember and, maybe, even use!

The result was a  program that they found fun!  They even got to help with its creation and evolution, since they knew Mario way better than I!  They keep insisting that they want to earn a flag at the end of the year.  I really have no idea what this means, but I will post the picture of the final creation!  This program was definitely intended to be used for younger students who are working on increasing their awareness of their disfluencies, but it also introduces some of the concepts of stuttering modification, including cancellations and pullouts in a concrete way they can understand.

We started with some simple awareness activities.  We used these visuals to talk about our "bumpy speech" and the lightening was a visual reminder to slow down.

Moving to stuttering modification, we found some images to reflect cancellations and pullout.  I love the idea of the banana peel being a pullout!

Finally, the boys try to earn gold coins by "catching" their disfluency.

Feel free to grab download the complete program!  I hope it works as well for you as it has for me!
https://docs.google.com/open?id=0B8QDAPKSrgPOUzRxTHVoLUxiSGM

 

Dear Zoo for the iPad age

I am a huge fan of the story Dear Zoo by Rod Campbell.  Unfortunately, I only have a small version of this wonderful flap book.  Don't let the simple story fool you.  There is some wonderful vocabulary in this story:  big, tall, fierce, grumpy, scary, naughty, jumpy.  Lots of great opportunities for talking about describing words!  Today, the students I was working with included a student with visual impairments, so I used the iPad to bring it close in his visual field as well as flannel board characters for him to hold and match.  We talked about each animal prior to reading the story and then identified them as they came up.  I encouraged him to use his vision to find the animal and touch it during the story.

Here is a screen shot from Dear Zoo app.  It has some nice interactive features to help keep those short attention spans engaged!  My favorite is when the lion turns his head and ROARS!!

http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/dear-zoo/id484923402?mt=8

To support the story, I also used printables from Sparklebox, a wonderful free sight from the United Kingdom.  They have lots of resources!  Check them out!

http://www.sparklebox.co.uk/toolbar/no/thumbs20/sb3913.html