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TWO. EXHAUSTING. MONTHS. It all started when I sat down and started thinking about how often I hear in IEP meetings: this student struggles with reading comprehension. Now, I WAS working on comprehension goals, but I felt like I needed to dig deeper. What SPECIFIC areas of language could I target that would best help my students in the classroom? There had to be more answers out there.   First, I read “ A Case for the Sentence in Reading Comprehension ” (Scott).   Next, I read “ Reading Comprehension Deficits in Adolescents " (Nippold). I was intrigued. I became obsessed. See, it all made sense: every word, phrase, and clause in a sentence works together to affect meaning. Additionally, every sentence in a passage impacts the overall message.   Kind of a big problem when academic textbooks are riddled with crazy amounts of modifiers and center-embedded clauses.   It became clear to me that comprehension of grammar/ syntax is not only important- it’s essential. As a l...

I literally CAN’T WAIT!!! Wednesday is Talk Like a Pirate Day buuuuuuut one day isn’t really enough to celebrate the awesomeness of pirates so we’ll be talking about them all week.  Tell me in the comments if you’re planning on using the pirate theme in therapy this week! Share what activities you’ll be doing so I can add to my list!  Here’s my list of planned activities: Teaching “pirate” themed idioms, like “test the water”, “off the hook”, “make waves”, “in the same boat”, “a fish out of water”, and “the coast is clear” Working on pirate-y sentences. Many of my upper elementary students are working on forming sentences with conjunctions, so I’m going to ask them pirate-y “why” questions and given them target conjunctions they must use in their answer choices. I’ll write “because”, “since”, “so”, or “so that” in circles on construction paper, and they can smash yellow dough to make “gold coins” as they create sentences. Here are some “why” questions I’ll ask: “Why do pi...

Speech therapy is a rewarding job. I have to admit it, though: speech-language pathology can be super, super stressful at times. I remember a few years back, during a particularly difficult time in my career. I was working in an outpatient setting at the time. I have always been a lifelong learner, and I sometimes go a little crazy in my search for answers. I was reading everything I could find. I was taking ceu courses non-stop. If I couldn't attend in-person, I was watching online ceu videos non-stop at home. I want to give my students (or patients) my all. This is a wonderful thing, but I was putting work life so, so far ahead of my own needs that I wasn't sleeping. When I did, I started dreaming about work. I would wake up in a panic, remembering things I needed to do that day. Unfinished reports, visual schedules that needed to be created, materials that needed to be laminated and prepped. I was running on fumes. I had zero energy. No amount of coffee was fixing that.   I...

The other day, I came back from an errand to find my toddler son outside with his babysitter. His clothes were soaked, and he wore the hugest grin on his sweet face. He was squealing with laugher.                                                            What had made him so happy? His red car, a watering can, and a bucket. You see, I'm a big fan of modeling language through play. We've played with these exact same toys before.  I've pushed him in his car multiple times. I've modeled words like "go", "stop", and "turn". We've gotten out Daddy's large blue bucket, and bounced his ball inside, while I modeled sentences such as, "Ball in. We bounced the round ball in the bucket." We've pretended to water the flowers (okay, the grass- I'm not much of a gardener) and talked about it as we did it. My son's creative babysitter, however, tho...

No print Speech therapy visual schedules for Google Slides ™! This no prep, digital activity is PERFECT for the busy Speech-Language Pathologist who needs to access a visual schedule FAST! Visual schedules provide a way to structure your speech and language sessions. Visual schedules assist with transitioning to a new activity, and in my experience, can help reduce challenging behaviors. I wanted to create a resource that would quickly allow me to go from session to session in a jam-packed day while providing my speech therapy students with access to the structure they need. With this digital resource, you won't need to print out or laminate anything . Seriously! This is huge, and I'm so excited about it! All you need to do is tap ! (Of course, if you're using your computer, you'll need to click ;-)!) With EVERY visual schedule included, you can choose to "repeat the activity" OR go back to the "home" slide again. This is a MEGA visual sched...

St. Patrick's Day is ALMOST here, and I am SO excited to announce that FRANKIE IS BACK! I've teamed up (again) with some of my fav SLPs on TpT to bring you FREE St. Patrick's Day Speech Therapy materials! Seriously, we have your entire week planned out! I'm not sure if you joined us for our #slphalloween hop, #slpchristmashop, or #slpvalentinehop (just search those terms on TpT if not), but it's the PERFECT time to join in on the fun if you haven't already! Here's how it works. I created a super nerdy, kind of catchy story-song about a frog that adores St. Patty's Day (because, let's be honest... who doesn't?). You can sing this one to the tune of "The Ants Go Marching". Your students won't even mind if you don't have a great singing voice, I promise. Mine don't! You'll download and print your copy of the story/ song here ( and I'd be super, super excited if you left me feedback!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ),...

Hey guys! St. Patrick's Day is almost here, and you can BET that I'll be celebrating this fun holiday in my speech therapy room! Here are few activities you can try with your students... 1) If you're working on basic concepts, try this activity out to teach "more" vs "less". We just used construction paper and glue! 2. I've been on a roll with creating following directions sets, and my students are LOVING this St. Patrick's Day packet . You can grab it here . (This packet is also available in the holiday bundle . For seasonal themes, check this out ).  3. Leprechaun tic-tac-toe is so legit. This is easy to make. Laminate the board so you can write in any target you wish! We worked on vocalic /r/, but you could just as easily target idioms, categories, or anything else your heart desires! ...oh, and P.S. ... CHECK BACK SOON. I've been working hard with some SLP blogging buddies to bring you something special for St. Patty's Day.

I am SO, so excited because... FRANKIE'S BACK! In case you missed him at Halloween or Christmas ... click those links. Your fav frog is back, and I've again teamed up with some amazing SLP blogging buddies to bring you FREE Speech Therapy Valentine's Day activities ! As usual, it all starts with a song. Since my students absolutely love listening to me sing (I really haven't figured out why yet, my voice is terrrrrrible), the words in this story/ song combination pair perfectly with "The Wheels on the Bus". It's all about a frog named Frankie, just basically living the dream, and loving Valentine's Day. I included a color ink version for you, and a low ink version for your students to take home. Download the story here . Somehow, every time I write these nerdy song/stories, my SLP friends can create incredible materials to go along with them! So, here we go... The Speech Owl created phonemic awareness activities for you that your students are going ...

I'm incredibly passionate about correcting lisps . I've blogged about this before, created a Correct that Lisp packet , and even put up videos talking about my favorite ways to correct a lisp ! Oh, and just so you know... I can never say enough about Sandra Holtzman . I took her 28 hour continuing education course on orofacial myology, and then worked with her while creating my lisp packet. She's brilliant, and her approaches have made me a more confident- and competent- therapist. I know how frustrating it can be to correct a lisp. I also know how incredible it is when you do correct a lisp- and trust me, it is DEFINITELY doable! My new mission is to seriously help all SLPs correct that lisp  like a boss. The other day, I was working with a student who has made phenomenal progress. This student mastered correct lingual placement of /s/. To do this, I like to use a coffee straw or a wet Q-tip to provide some feedback. After that, we moved on to the whispered /t/. This i...

The holidays are nearly here, so I wanted to share some fun Christmas speech therapy activities we've been up to in my speech and language therapy room! I've got TONS of therapy ideas for you, so make sure to keep reading and pin this post for later! This is certainly the most wonderful time of the year. I'm hoping that you joined us for our #slpchristmashop and downloaded all of your free Christmas Speech Therapy Activities ! Make sure to follow me on Instagram (@thepedispeechie) so you don't miss out on any future giveaways! My students have really enjoyed these following directions cards all month! For extra fun, I created a gingerbread man out of construction paper. We smashed dough to create "buttons" after following each instruction. You'll love these themed cards, which target a variety of embedded concepts, and are also available in the following directions holiday bundle. Next, we have had SO much fun working on conversational turn taking skill...