Simplify Articuation Therapy with Word Cards

After 10 years of using them, I have to admit I am so over individual articulation card decks. While they are great when playing Go Fish or some other type of matching game, they are a real pain in the you know what for drill-type activities. They rarely stay in the order I want them in and all get mixed up, sometimes ending up spread all over the table.

This is why Word Cards are one of my favorite things to use. Word cards are basically just a single sheet with a bunch of words printed on it. Each card is organized and color-coded by word position. You can whip out a sheet in therapy and just have students "go" without worrying about flipping cards and potentially creating a mess on the table. Since many of my younger students are not proficient readers yet, I wanted not just a word list, but needed something with picture supports.I had made my first Word card many years ago using the clip art available in Microsoft Word. I finally got around to remaking the cards and "beautifying" them by using cuter clip art. So now you too can indulge! They have been a a true life saver and are available on TPT here.

I use these cards for drills, bingo (you can do this when students are working on different cards), and other open-ended activities (finding a word by listening to the description, comparing and contrasting two words, etc.).

These cards are also great for a functional bulletin board idea that also serves as a storage opportunity. For each sound, I cut the top 3" off a large manila envelope, wrote the sound on it (I used thinking/talking bubble bulletin accents from Lakeshore), and laminated it. Then I used thumbtacks to stick each envelope on the wall and placed my cards inside. When students get to Speech, I can just tell them which card to grab. For example, if they are working on /r/ in medial position, I will say, "Grab a blue /r/ card". That way they can get started on their drills with no time wasted.

If you pick up these cards in my store, I hope you love them as much as I do!! Leave a comment to share how you would use these cards!

Organizing Therapy Materials Using Hardware Cabinets

Please note: This post contains affiliate links.

Ever since I've started my SLP career, I've struggled with the organization of my materials. Things always kind of ended up in a messy pile. This problem got even worse when I started accumulating materials from TPT, especially smaller products such as card decks. This year, I finally seem to have found the solution to my problem: Hardware cabinets by Akro-Mils! I currently own two different sizes: 
1. 24 Drawer Size (each drawer measuring 4-3/8-Inch x 2-Inch x 5-1/4-Inch)
2. 64 Drawer Size (each drawer measuring 2-1/8-inch by 1-1/2-inch by 5-1/4-inch drawers)

These cabinets are an absolute life saver! Made of sturdy plastic, they hold up to daily use. Each drawer also has a slot to insert dividers, so you can create even more space. I am currently using the larger cabinet for my articulation decks (the Webber cards fit perfectly), as well as all of the other card decks I have accumulated on TPT. The smaller cabinet houses my Brag Tags (more to come on these soon!). Before discovering these gems I just stuffed everything willy-nilly into my shelf or a photo box -- you can see how messy that looked.

And remember my Articulation Sticks? They also fit perfectly into one of the larger drawers!

I used the Webber card inserts and file labels to label each drawer. Now I can easily find materials and things look much neater. 

Bonus: These cabinets have holes in the back so that they can be hung on a wall if you lack counter space! You can also stack them.

These are definitely worth the investment - I'm sure I'll be using these drawers for the remainder of my SLP career!

Therapy Planning Made Easy(er)

The daily
 schedule.

I always strive to become more efficient. One area that I always struggled in were the transitions between groups - putting away materials from the previous group while trying to pull out the needed materials for the next always wasted a minute or so of precious therapy time. This year I'm trying something a little different.

Before therapy started this year, I went to all the classrooms to take pictures of my students (for the Guess Who poster). I took these photos and spent some time putting them into cute little digital frames on my computer, printed, laminated, and stuck some magnetic tape onto them. This made them adhere to the white board.

Our materials for the day.

When I get to work in the morning, I pick out the pictures of the students I see that day and stick them onto the whiteboard in the order that I will work with each group. Next to their pictures, I will write a little note of what the general plan is that day. I then pull out all of the materials we will need that day and stick them in a little crate that I bought at Walmart for less than $2 and put it by the therapy table. That way, I can easily access all of my materials throughout the day, keeping them organized and in one place, which makes clean-up easy and fast.

I know, it seems like such a simple thing... being an SLP sure comes with a steep learning curve, doesn't it?

~Viola

Best find so far this school year: Magnetic tape!

We started our new school year last Monday, and even though I am already completely swamped with all of the exciting back-to-school activities, I am super thrilled about this year: I was fortunate enough to move into a bigger room! (No more having to move furniture around just to open the door all the way!)

I have been spending this past week moving my belongings and have started to decorate in order to create a cozy and inviting learning environment for my kiddos. I promise to post more updates on my amazing new Speech room when it is finished. But I had to take a moment to share an awesome discovery that is going to make my life a lot easier: Magnetic tape! Yes, it's like tape, but it's magnetic! Because I finally have access to a magnetic whiteboard, this find is a treasure! I have started to "magnetize" the visuals that I use on a consistent basis. Here is an example of how I have used the tape on my structure word visuals (I made these to go with the Visualizing & Verbalizing program by Lindamood-Bell):

Just stick the tape onto the back of your visual...                           ...and it will stick to any magnetic surface!

By the way, the tape on the whiteboard itself is vinyl electrical tape. I have used it to section off parts of the board. I will have more posts soon!

~Viola