by Anne Page | Jan 2, 2017 | Freebies
Happy New Year SLPgirlbosses,[spacer height=”20px”]
SLP Summit
I don’t know about you but I feel like everyone’s been trying to sell me something during the holidays. And then all the post holiday sales; don’t get me wrong, I do LOVE to shop, just not constantly.
We bought the presents, opened the presents, ate all the cookies, and drank all the champagne. The holidays are over for another year. But now it’s time for some balance.
Did you make resolutions, set goals or choose a word for the year?
Work-wise what will you do to bring your best self to the therapy table in 2017?
We both know you’re already a caring, amazing SLP.[spacer height=”20px”]
But maybe you have some areas that you’d like to know more about. Have we got something for you! And you don’t have to buy anything!
SLP Summit is the brain child of my good friends Lisa and Sara from SLP Toolkit and Marisha from SLP Now. I’m so thrilled to be involved.
This FREE
two week-long virtual summit is for school-based SLPs by school-based SLPs. You’ll get tips you can implement the next day AND get Free CEUs.
Starting January 9th and running through the 20th, it features these dynamic speakers:[spacer height=”20px”]
Come join the fun.
You can grow professionally and be your best for 2017. It’s 100% free to attend and based completely online—you don’t have to buy a plane ticket, book a hotel, or spend days away from your friends and family.
The SLP Summit will be live, so you’ll have an opportunity to ask presenters questions and to win prizes. But don’t worry if you can’t make all of the offered sessions, as everyone who signs up will also have access to recordings of each session.[spacer height=”20px”]
Can’t wait to see you there,[spacer height=”20px”]
Anne
P.S. You can also make an impact by spreading the word about the SLP Summit through your networks. Share it on social networks, write a blog post about it, email people. Every action takes us one step closer toward our goal of supporting school-based SLPeeps across the country.[spacer height=”20px”]
P.
P.S. – Yes, you can earn professional development hours for attending these webinars! The SLP Summit sessions are not pre-approved by ASHA, but they do meet the standards of accepted professional development. We will be providing certificates as documentation of your participation.
by Anne Page | Aug 21, 2016 | Freebies, SLP Like a Boss, SLP Time Hacks
Two weeks into the school year and already feeling a tiny bit overwhelmed?[spacer height=”10px” id=”2″]
It happens! With IEPs, evaluations, scheduling, team building and oh yeah, THERAPY, you’re probably wishing there were more hours in a day. Believe me, I’ve been there.[spacer height=”10px” id=”2″]
But, if you’ll remember, we’re working on building ourselves some systems; an SLP foundation that will provide an evergreen underlying structure. This way you don’t have to reinvent the wheel every year. You’ll feel calm and collected whether you’re walking into a meeting or walking into your therapy room.[spacer height=”10px” id=”2″]
That’s why I created the FREE School SLP Like a Boss Smart Start Kit. Using it will help you feel more organized and on top of your game in no time![spacer height=”10px” id=”2″]
This 62 page kit includes some super helpful resources that you’ll find yourself using year after year.[spacer height=”10px” id=”2″]
You might want to read this before you print anything. Let me walk you through the best way to use this step by step.[spacer height=”10px” id=”2″]
Step 1: Read Letter to a Young SLP-get inspired![spacer height=”10px” id=”2″]
Step 2: Print Listening Posters: Print and laminate these posters. Place them where your students can see them from your therapy table. Explain them. For example: “This is what we need to do to be a good listener. Point to each picture, read caption and demonstrate. After you go through all the posters, have students say them with you as you point. (eg.”Eyes looking, ears listening, etc.”)[spacer height=”10px” id=”2″]
Step 3: Go to the FREE Whole Brain link on page 9. Print and laminate the Whole Brain Posters. Click on the video link to see an example of how they are used. I use these to start every session for my K-4 students. I still use it with my junior high functional skills class, we just do the movements in a more “adult-like” manner.[spacer height=”10px” id=”2″]
Step 4: Choose the Speech Punchcards you like and print them. Now, I use the color version because kids love colorful things. I also include a black and white version because of Murphy’s Law-color copiers are most likely to break, jam, or run low on ink when you just have 5 minutes to print something. These are such easy prep, just two cuts per page and you are ready to go. [spacer height=”10px” id=”2″]
Step 5: Get yourself a prize jar or box. Make a trip to Target and/or the Dollar Store for some cheap, fun prizes. Read my tips for how to keep it interesting on page 17.[spacer height=”10px” id=”2″]
Step 6: Print the “Speech Language, What is the Difference?” posters. Decide where you want to put them. Some ideas are: speech room bulletin board, staff room, and conference room. They are also handy for parent teacher conferences, staff development days and evaluation meetings.[spacer height=”10px” id=”2″]
Step 7: Look through the parent teacher handout section. Choose some of the “What’s Speech got to do with Academics?” handouts to have on hand for IEP and eligibility meetings. These can be used as posters too. Bonus: I included on to use in May 2017 for Better Hearing and Speech Month. See?! Look how on top of the game you are already.[spacer height=”10px” id=”2″]
Step 8: Choose the Student Snapshots you like best. Print one for each student on your caseload, plus some extras to fill out as IEPs are reviewed and revised. (I just keep the extras in a file folder) Follow the instructions on page 32.[spacer height=”10px” id=”2″]
Step 9: Read through “But What Does it Mean? 10 Tips for Explaining Speech and Language Evaluations in Parent Friendly Language”. This is important stuff that will help you to make that all important connection with parents (a big part of being an SLP Boss). If you’re a paper person print it out.[spacer height=”10px” id=”2″]
Step 10: Print 3 copies of the Parent Communication Log sheet of your choice. Use this all year. See instructions on page 51.[spacer height=”10px” id=”2″]
Step 11: Print and laminate testing sign.
Step 12: Print and frame (or laminate) you’re favorite SLP Like a Boss Poster. It’s my little present to you, a reminder that you’ve got this.[spacer height=”10px” id=”2″]
Step 13: Click this link if you need an SLP Planner. This planner is by my side all day. At the affordable price of $5.00, it is chock full of resources. The front cover is the only color page; the rest of the pages are black and white. You provide the color, because doodle borders and coloring pages are included. Yes, it’s true, I do love to color-that might be why I included these fun pages.[spacer height=”10px” id=”2″]
Step 14: This step can be a game changer. If you are really ready to up your game, have I got a tool for you. It is one of the most used tools in my bag of tricks! SLP Toolkit has saved me HOURS of work. Now I can easily assess present levels and give accurate, helpful progress reports. And the goal bank to-die-for! Go to pages 60 and 61 to read more about it. You can also click here and here to read the articles I wrote about SLP Toolkit.[spacer height=”10px” id=”2″]
So there you have it! Everything you need to feel more joy and less stress as you get your school year off to a brilliant start.[spacer height=”10px” id=”2″]
Click here to get your FREE copy.
ALL my best,
by Anne Page | Dec 7, 2015 | Blog, Freebies, Therapy Materials and Ideas
December already! I am looking forward to the holiday break for some time off to spend with family and friends.[spacer height=”20px”]
It can be a hectic time at school and the kids attention spans are short because they are so excited. I created this high interest, visually fun FREEBIE activity just for these days.
Click here. [spacer height=”20px”]
Laminate each of the four pages (perfect for group therapy) and grab some play dough (so cheap and fun, I think 4 containers are under $3 at Target). If I’m working with a group I roll the snowballs ahead of time.[spacer height=”20px”]
You can work on “her”. Child says “her mitten”, gets snowball and gets to smash it on the mitten. Or you can work on “she”. Child says “She has a mitten”, gets snowball and gets to smash it on the mitten. (Same for “his” and “he” for the snowman and boy snowbaby)[spacer height=”20px”]
The next level would be “She wants her hat” (using both forms of the feminine pronoun).
The males of course would be “He wants his hat”.[spacer height=”20px”]
The sheets can also be used for labeling winter vocabulary or for increasing MLU (I see a snowman).[spacer height=”20px”]
Play dough makes everything fun so your students will love this. You will too, enjoy![spacer height=”20px”]
If you are doing some planning and want to have some materials ready for when you return, my
Winter Plurals will provide activities for two-three sessions. This is a fun way to teach plurals with an introductory flip book, practice game, and follow up flip book to support the skill. The Reading activities support
connecting the skill from the vocabulary word level to the reading comprehension level. [spacer height=”20px”]
Whatever you are doing for the next couple of weeks, I hope you can enjoy the contagious excitement and joy of season.[spacer height=”20px”]
by Anne Page | May 26, 2015 | Blog, Freebies, Inspiration
I am so proud to be one of the 140,000 speech language pathologists in the United States. We change lives-that’s our superpower!
You hold the key to helping each child you work with develop his communication skills to his full potential.
May is Better Hearing and Speech Month. Sponsored by the American Speech Language Hearing Association (ASHA), this is the time of year for SLPs to promote awareness of communication disorders and let our co-workers/colleagues know what we do.
But really, how many people know what we do?
I work in a school setting and have been talking to the teachers to let them know how we can work together as a tean to help students learn and grow.
I explain it during IEP meetings and eligibility meetings, never assuming that they already know what I do.
This year I created a poster/handout to add another layer to the process. “What’s Speech Got to Do with Academics or How Can an SLP Help a Classroom Teacher”is a great tool to promote understanding of the role of SLP’s in the school setting.
Collaboration is key.
Bulleted points link specific speech language skills to Reading and Writing, Math and Classroom Presentations and Social Skills. Click here to get your free copy.
Another handy resource (and yes it’s free too) explains the difference between speech and language. Click on the picture for your copy.
Finally, one more fun freebie to help promote understanding of what we do. “But What Does It Mean? 10 Tips Explaining Speech and Language Evaluations in Parent Friendly Language”. This is a free gift for signing up for the Beautiful Speech Life email list. The sign-up is here at the top of the page.
Keep doing what you do my speechie friends, you are making the world a better place.
by Anne Page | Feb 24, 2015 | Freebies, Ipad Apps, Quick Therapy Tips for the SLP and SLPA
Here is a great tip for when you are short on time (uh-everyday?). Get the Doodle Buddy app for your ipad. You can quickly photograph worksheets and the kids can use their fingers to draw lines and write. Even better you can use the stamp feature, which comes with audio! Also it has a great tic tac toe feature that I use for quick, fun articulation practice.
Here, I just wrote the words with my finger, then chose a stamp. Put on one stamp per production, a great way to get many productions!
Click here to read my post on all the great ways to use
Doodle Buddy. And the best part? It’s FREE!
This is all part of Kim Jarvis’ Quick Tip Tuesday Linky Party, so click on the pink pic to head on over to The School SLP for some more amazing ideas!
by Anne Page | Feb 1, 2015 | Freebies
I created this product to help students practice verb tense. Click on the picture above to see the product on Teachers Pay Teachers. So many of the kids I see really struggle with this. This activity is aligned with Common Core Standards for 3rd through 5th grade.
Includes:
-16 pairs of matching verb heart cards
-24 verb sentence cards
Heart Cards:
Cut out the heart cards, glue them on a backing and laminate.
To use as a Memory/Matching Game: place cards face down, mix them around. Players take turns flipping over two cards, saying the past tense version of each card. If they say it correctly and get a match they take the cards. If not turn the cards back over. Object of the game: be the player with the most pairs.
Alternate: When students are at a higher level they need to use the past tense version in a sentence.
Black Heart Game: Shuffle heart cards and place face down in one pile. Player one chooses a card, reads the word and says the past tense version. Then it’s the next players turn. If a player chooses a black heart, he has to give back one heart but if he can say the past tense version of the verb on the black heart he can keep the black heart. When there are no more hearts the player with the most hearts wins.
Alternate: When students are at a higher level they need to use the past tense version in a sentence.
Sentence cards
Cut out the sentence card, glue it on a backing and laminate.
Thumbs Up or Down
Place cards in a pile or spread them out face down. Player 1 chooses a card and hands it to SLP. SLP reads the sentence and student gives thumbs up for a good verb and thumbs down for a bad verb. Student keeps card if he was correct, puts it at the bottom of the pile or back on the table if he was incorrect. Student with the most cards wins.
Alternate: Students read their own cards.
I hope you enjoy this FREE product and if you download it, please take a couple minutes to provide a rating. Also if you want more freebies and fun therapy ideas, sign up to follow Beautiful Speech Life on Bloglovin’ or sign up to receive email notifications of all new posts.
Hey there I’m Anne Page. I help heart centered SLPs and educators put the fun in functional communication. 