Ring Bling {product review}

We've been blinged out in my speech room for a bit now. I thought it was high time I shared this bling with you! No, no big rubies on this SLP budget, just Super Duper's new game  Ring Bling. 

In a nutshell, ring bling is a game for collecting rings! Each student (up to 4, with the option to buy extra hands). 

There are several suggested ways to play, but in the most direct game, students spin the included spinner and collect rings that feature gems, dinosaurs and sports. 

Gathering 'things' is always motivating and these ringers were no different! 

The game features 50 following directions cards including one step, temporal and conditional. The game includes 50 rings and 4 hands. 

Pros: I cant believe how much the kids love it! I have used it with kids ages 3-8. The girls and boys alike love it! It's a wonderful reinforcer for any speech and language learning target. 

Cons: 50 following directions is pretty wimpy. My group of 2 preschoolers ran through them in a single game. I wish the game came with lots of card options (like Granny's Candies). I also already had a ring break in the first week. Hopefully the rest of them hold up! 

You can find Ring Bling current listed for $29.99 at Super Duper. Have you given it a try?

Disclosure Statement: Super Duper provided me with a copy of this product for review.

Old Lady with Shells and Books!

My favorite Old Lady is back! If you're like me you pull out a new one each season! Today I have two new units to share with you! There was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Shell and There was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Book!  

Find these units in my TpT Store! I'll be using them both over the next few weeks! Perfect for any discussions about Spring Break Vacations!

Spring Fever

It's Friday!

And for me that means Spring Break next week plus Monday!

And I really mean a BREAK!!! I'm really excited to give myself a full week 'unplugged.'

I scheduled some posts to run during the next week... a review, a tutorial and some new units. But I'm planning to totally unplug from life! So if Blogger doesn't post them right, or something weird happens. Just hang tight! I'll see you after a week of bliss! Hope you're unplugging too!

Tap Roulette

Yesterday, I wrote a guest post over at The Dabbling Speechie, about one of my favorite apps. I thought I'd also post the info here to make sure you didn't miss it! 

Tap Roulette is a great free app that we've been using for a variety of activities in my Speech Room! The free app works by allowing students to place one finger on the screen. It then randomly selects one person by turning the screen red around it. 

As you can tell, this app will work for any speech or language goal. 

Here are a few ways I have used it!
1. Decide who will go first during a game.
2. Articulation: Each child says a word from their card deck and then put their finger on Tap Roulette. The student who wins gets one point.
3. Language: Students answer questions and if they complete it correctly they earn a chance play Tap Roulette. The student who wins earns one point!


It's a perfect app to use when you have an extra 5 minutes at the end of a session and is ideal for the busy SLP in the schools! Do you have any other ideas for Tap Roulette?

Resources and Honors

The week before spring break is always a doozy. I am swamped in IEPs/IATs/ETMs. I know you've been there. Or maybe you are there with me now!

Imagine what a pick-me-up it was to get an email telling my SRN was named one of the top 25 Education Blogs for 2013. I'm totally excited and honored!!! 

Thanks to Education World Community for recognizing me, and therefore SLPs all over the country, for our contribution to education! Click the picture above to go check out the entire list! 

The other big news around the farm is that I created a new resource list. Look up at the links across the top of the blog and you will find the SLP Blogs & Websites Resource List.  If I missed you on the list, just comment on THAT POST. I hope you will find it useful!

Happy Tuesday!

Speech Sale & Giveaway!

Happy Sunday! Happy St. Patrick's Day! 

First, I'm jumpin' on the Lucky Sale bandwagon. Go visit my store to find all the latest spring items you need! Sunday Only!

I'm also blasting off with another big SLP giveaway! 

Prizes:

The 1st Prize Winner will receive a $25 Teachers pay Teacher Gift Certificate plus all of the following Speech Therapy product downloads.

The 2nd Prize Winner will receive a $10 Teachers pay Teacher Gift Certificate plus 10 downloads.

The 3rd Prize Winner will receive a $10 Teachers pay Teacher Gift Certificate plus 2 downloads.

Click the links below to view the selection of sponsored products for yourself.

Speech Room News: Easter Early Developing Sounds Articulation Game

WordNerdTeachSpeech: Butterfly Categories

Kids Games for Speech Therapy: Easter Language Activity Pack

Let’s Talk Speech Therapy: Breaking it Down- Phoneme Segmentation/Blending & Multisyllabic Words

Rae’s Speech Spot: Sequence Comprehension

Home Sweet Speech Room: Directing the Action: Social Skills/Pragmatics

Natalie Snyders: March Homework Packet and April Homework Packet

Kristin Minden: There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Chick Activities and 1 and 2 Step Following Directions

Major Speech Minor Girl: What Would You Do or Say Social Skills Activity

Teach Speech: Who What Where When Questions with Visuals and What Questions with Visuals Add On

Speak Listen Play: Practice on the Playground S and S Blends

Crazy Speech World: Social Candy Monsters

Nicole Allison: No Print Expressive Pack

Speechy Musings: Phonemic Awareness Packet Powerpoint

Ms. Jocelyn Speech: Buzz Words

Live Love Speech: Live Love Speech: Who Wants to be a Social Skills Superhero?

Danielle Reed: Hedgehog Grammar Unit

Busy Bee Speech: Monster Mash Artic

Slp For Me: Spring Egg Hunt - Language Lessons Around the World

Speech Time Fun: Spring Word Fun

MrstSLP: Easter Basket Roll a Dice Game

If Only I Had SuperPowers: The Princess and the Dragon Speech Language Activities

Goodluck! 

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Flipboard {a reasonable way to read blogs!}

Blogs are the best thing to happen to speech-language pathology since Van Ripper. Ok. Maybe there have been a few good things in-between - but you know what I mean. Never has it been SO easy to find new therapy information. 

But... do you need a bloggervention? Are you spending too much time trying to keep up with all the good information? Don't worry, I've figured out a great way to keep up with the dozens of good speech therapy blogs without needing to attend BA (bloggerholics anonymous)! RSS feeds help you by pulling the newest information from every website/blog you ask it to monitor, compiling one source with updates from each blog you 'follow'.

Whether you're addicted to speech and school blogs, home decor blogs, foodie blogs or mommy-blogs, Google Reader has been the go-to RSS feed to keep up with all that goodness! You might have heard this week that Google is closing down Google Reader starting in July 2013. I wrote this post before that news came out, but luckily I have the perfect solution for you to save those subscriptions! Flipboard! This tutorial will show you how to get signed up and use Google Reader, import into Flipboard (an iOS app) and then be all set for when Google Reader goes to internet Heaven in July. 

You're going to start with a free app "Flipboard." Go download that and it'll be ready for you when we get to that point.  Flipboard is like a personal magazine of all your own interests. It can pull in your Twitter, Blogs, Favorite news articles, etc. You 'flip' through the 'magazine' by swiping your finger. 

The other thing you'll need is a google account. Google Reader, although on the way out the door, is a great way to get organized and imported into Flipboard. With google reader you 'subscribe' to blogs. The great news? Once you sign into Flipboard and connect your current GR account,  Flipboard will save those subscriptions for you. And you'll be able to add to them - making Flipboard your new RSS Feed! 

Here's what my Google Reader looks like. You can see updates from Blogs I follow. The arrow is pointing to the list of subscriptions (blogs I follow.)

Ok, so now you have Google Reader. Let's follow some blogs! On the right side of my blog you will see this widget. Click 'Join this site'.

A box like this might pop-up, then you can click on Follow This Blog. Viola. You're a follower and Speech Room News posts will show in your Google Reader.

Now lets move on to step 2. Open the new app that you downloaded called 'Flipboard'. This is going to give a magazine type feel to reading blogs (and more). I use Flipboard on my iPhone, but you can also do it on your iPad. 

Sign into Flipboard with your Twitter and Google Reader accounts. 

Here's what Flipboard looks like. The 'gear' you can see in the bottom right corner, is where you can log-in to your google reader account. Click on the Google Reader square. 

From there you will be able to flip through and 'browse' all the blogs in your google reader! Mine includes an assortment of SLP blogs, home blogs, beauty, and more! You'll see 1-2 images per page with the title of the blog and one picture. If you're interested in reading the entire article, just click on the picture! 

While it looks like a ton of steps, using Flipboard is super easy and FREE. It makes catching up on your favorite blogs each week super easy! The perfect 5 minute activity when you're waiting in line at the grocery store or when you're waiting for the water to boil for dinner!

Use another RSS feed? Don't worry you can always use Flipboard to read those - just tap on the red ribbon and search! 

If you're looking for a great place to start and find SLP blogs, the SLP Blogs Bundle from Sean is a GREAT! You just click and get over 70 SLP blogs inserted into your Google Reader. Then you can unsubscribe from any of those that don't fit your needs. Easy! 

I'm sure I'm not the only person searching for other alternatives to RSS feeds now the GR is on the way out - if I find something I plan to use after Google Reader I'll keep you updated! For now, I am happy I'll be able to save my current subscriptions - but not sure how Flipboard will allow me to edit my subscription list once GR goes away. 

Does anyone else use Flipboard? What other ways do you read blogs?

Carrotville: Spring Grammar Games

I've been living in Carrotville for a few weeks now. No, that doesn't mean I'm on some weird juice diet where I eat only carrots. It just means I found this amazing spring clipart and have been working on this spring grammar activity. Pack your bags and head to Carrotville! 

This 30 page download features Carrotville, a nice little town where bunnies live and play. It features homes, apartments, a grocery store and even a bunny barbershop! 

The activities center around the Carrotville board game. Two ways to play are included. The first option features specific skill development, while the second features carryover of grammar skills by targeting mixed stimulus cards.

                                   

 

Game point and score cards are included.  Each type of building corresponds to a grammar activity to complete. When students land on a building they answer the corresponding questions.

Included:

•Subjective & Possessive Pronouns (24 multiple choice)

•Irregular Plurals (18 sentence completion)

•Irregular Verbs (18 multiple choice)

•Helping Verbs (24 fill in is/are/has/have)

•3rd Person Singular (18 multiple choice)

•Special Cards (12 includes)

                           

                       

                        

I finally got this one laminated to test it out before sharing it with you this week. The kids thought Carrotville was hilarious! Here are some shots from our game! 

You can find the full download in my TPT Store! Let me know if you download it! Leave a comment below if you'd like to win a copy and I'll pick a winner later this week!

Phonological Processes {app review & giveaway}

The Virtual SpeechCenter has published their newest app, Phonological Processes, for ipad. The app features the minimal pair contrast therapy approach and covers the following Phonological Processes: Affrications, Deaffrication, Cluster Reduction (R, L, S and mixed), Final Consonant Deletion, Fronting, Gliding (L, R, and mixed), Provocalic Voicing, Stopping (fricatives, affricates, and mixed).

The app developers cite the following research: The minimal pair approach to phonological remediation teaches children the function of sounds, emphasizing that changing sounds changes the meaning of a word (Barlow & Gierut, 2002). Minimal contrast therapy targets pairs of words that differ only by one sound. It may focus on the perception of contrast or production of contrast. In the perception task, the child is asked to point to target words when presented with two or more pictures (minimal pairs). In the production task, the child is asked to verbally produce minimal pairs (Bernthal and Bankson 1998). 

Start by adding your clients. Then choose Flashcards or Game Board before selecting the ‘next’ button. I’ll start by reviewing the Flashcard options.

Select activities for your client by choosing targets. Here, I chose fronting and final consonant deletion. On the left hand side you can select the level at which your student is working (auditory bombardment, auditory discrimination, minimal pair production or single word production.) I selected minimal pairs for this trial for Ms. Rayburn.

The minimal pair activity asks student to, “Say each word.”

"Jenna" is working on auditory discrimination for stopping of affricates. The prompt asks, “Show me the jog.” The page offers to opportunity to record the student production or listen to the prompt again. Data is kept on the right side of the screen.

Auditory Bombardment of Cluster Reduction of /s/ plays two minimal pairs. The student is not required to do any tasks and no data is taken. The recording feature is still present as an option for practice.

Single word production for Deaffrication is noted here. The student is asked to “Name this picture.”

If you select the Board Game option, you will be prompted to select the processes and level of practice for each child. Each child also chooses a fruit icon. 

Each child takes turns spinning the spinner. Their fruit icon moves around the board automatically (a plus). If they land on a question mark, the learning target opens a new box. If they land on an animal, the animal dances across the screen and is then added to the cage at the top.

I loved this game board. It took just the right amount of time to play. I just wish there was a big finish! When a student lands on finish, the fruit tokens disappear and the animals are removed from the cage, but there is no ‘Jenna is the winner’ sign, song or anything. My kiddos were confused about what happened! As the students ‘earn’ animals into the cage I think the developers could add the opportunity to earn a trophy or safari hat for earning all the animals in the jungle. My 5 year old student said, “What happened to my animals?” The developers could open to a new screen after the game that listed the winner and pictured the animals learned (another chance for speech and language practice!)

Data is collection throughout the app and easily emailed for your records.

So, what's the bottom line?

 Pros: The app targets phonological processes and is broken down within those processes (ie: gliding /l/, gliding /r/ and mixed). This give the SLP a lot of flexibility in choosing targets. I like the opportunity to target auditory discrimination, minimal pairs, and single word production. I was able to use the app with a students at varying skill levels in the same app.

Cons: When you select two or more processes (ie: fronting and final consonant deletion) the app does not mix the questions. So it will prompt the child through all 27 Fronting pictures before it gets to the Final Consonant Deletion pictures. They need to be mixed throughout to get the type of data I am looking for!

I think adding a special ending to the game board would give the game more finality and an ending that makes sense!

The app is currently available for $16.99. Virtual Speech Center wants to give 3 lucky SRN readers a copy of the app. Use the rafflecopter below to enter! Good luck!

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REFERENCES

Barlow, J. A., and Gierut, J. A. (2002). Minimal pair approaches to phonological remediation. Seminars in Speech and Language, 23(1), 57-67

Bernthal J. E., and Bankson N.W. (1998). Articulation and Phonological Disorders. 4th edition.