Speech Facebook Frenzy May 4-5th!

*Click on the image to begin at the 

Twin Sisters Speech & Language 
Therapy LLC Facebook Page

OR

 1) Click on the map below which will take you to the list of SLPs who are all participating in the Frenzy.

** Once you have opened the map up in google docs, click on any of the squares.  It will take you to that person's Facebook page.  

***Just look at all of the fabulous participating 
Speech-Language Pathologist's!

3) Look for the tab on their Facebook page that looks like this:

5) When you click on the tab and LIKE the page, you will be able to download their FREEBIE.  

* This is what Twin Sister's tab will look like: 
*Freebie pages from several of our springtime speech, language and articulation units!

HAVE FUN COLLECTING ALL 20 FREEBIES!!!!!

The frenzy begins at 9:00 a.m. Eastern Sunday, May 4th and will run until 10:00 p.m. Eastern Monday, May 5th. 

Also, here are a few more tips to make your Spring Frenzy run smooth:)

We hope you have a fun and happy Spring!!!

Shanda and Manda, SLPs

50% off for 24 hours! Roll, Dot & Say Quick Print, NO PREP Articulation Workbooks 1) Voiced /TH/ Sound 2) Voiceless /TH/ Sound

VOICELESS /TH/ WORKBOOK AT TEACHERS PAY TEACHERS

VOICELESS /TH/ WORKBOOK AT TEACHERS NOTEBOOK

VOICED /TH/ WORKBOOK AT TEACHERS PAY TEACHERS

VOICED /TH/ WORKBOOK AT TEACHERS NOTEBOOK

Thank you for stopping by Twin Sisters Speech & Language Therapy LLC to check out our latest and greatest products! 

Please know that we have spent countless hours putting these gems together just for you- the busy SLP who wants to teach their student how to correctly produce the voiceless and voiced /TH/ sound at all levels of mastery! We really have tried our best to make the most comprehensive quick print, no prep, therapy workbook on the market today! 

Please see the previews at TpT and/or TN to read the contents and directions and to see slides (slides of features below this post as well) featuring many of the black and white worksheets included in this packet. You will see from the content pages that the voiced packet has 122 pages and the voiceless workbook has 130 pages.  They are huge! 

We also hope that you notice that we have tried to think of every detail that the busy speech therapist would like to have taken care of when needing to teach their student the voiceless and voiced /TH/ sounds. We have included workbook covers for a boy or girl, student information and goal pages, homework sheets, and caregiver sound reminder cards. We have even added voiced and voiceless  /TH/ sound cue cards, minimal pairs worksheets, and pages on how to elicit the voiceless and voiced /TH/ sounds! 

And then the fun really begins... That's because each worksheet has been developed to keep the student busy and entertained while practicing their speech sounds. Every sheet is designed for the student to make a dot with a paint dotter/dauber or to mark with a marker. Some worksheets incorporate the roll of one die. We know that kids love to roll dice!

Each worksheet is engaging and different and designed to teach students the voiceless and voiced /TH/ sounds in either the initial, medial, and final position of words while having fun! We move the student from the consonant sound levels, to the word levels, to the phrase levels, to the sentence levels, and FINALLY... the conversational levels! We wanted to make sure that these workbooks were all that you would ever need for teaching a student the voiceless and voiced /TH/ sounds and that you would be able to use them for many years to come with a countless number of students! 

We hope that you find these articulation workbooks to be just what you were wanting and waiting for! Thank you so much for stopping by our blog today and best wishes to you and your students as they progress in their articulation therapy goals. 

Manda Riebel, M.A. CCC-SLP &
Shanda Gaunt, M.S. CCC-SLP

Cinco De Mayo Speech and Language-Themed Therapy Sessions

HOLA!!!

COME TAKE A TOUR OF OUR CINCO DE MAYO THEMED SPEECH AND LANGUAGE THERAPY SESSIONS THAT WE ARE HAVING THIS WEEK!

Some of our speech and language students started at our main speech room door. They helped to move the cactus around using different prepositions, attempted saying and repeating Spanish phrases, and answered "yes" and "no" and "WH" questions about the Cinco De Mayo Theme.

Next they moved out into the hallway. They named colors and attempted to say the Spanish color names after hearing us produce them slowly too! Then, they picked out a Mexican Cowboy hat for the scavenger hunt which came next!

On the scavenger hunt they found different colored beads and maracas as they filled their Mexican Cowboy or Cowgirl hat! Different goals for each student were addressed i.e., this boy was working on his /s/ sound, another was attempting to name the colors, and yet another repeated full sentences, "I found a red beaded necklace."

Guess what they found at the end of the scavenger hunt? A TACO BAR! Each student was able to choose what kind of taco they would like to make (hard shell, soft shell, or a walking taco). They needed to follow the directions to make them as seen on the picture direction sheet. Spanish naming and articulation goals were addressed for each individual student, as well, as sequencing, memory of tasks, and open ended "wh" questions. For example, "What step did we do first, second...?" or "What is your favorite ingredient in a taco?" 

This student chose to make a taco bowl! A yummy treat for him to take home or to munch on while we practice a receptive or writing activity next.

Back to the main speech room! It is here where we used our maracas to sound out each of our multi-syllable words, to shake the number of syllables in words, and for saying each word slowly and carefully in a 4 or 6 word sentence.  

Depending on the goal, we fed the sombrero our cards! Many ages of kids enjoy doing this-ha!  Some of the cards/goals that were used were: Listening for details, Naming/RepeatingSpanish family members/Spanish body parts/Spanish numbers/Spanish letters and Spanish Phrases, Name the synonym, Name the Antonym, Formulate a Question From Two Words and Naming Items in a Category.  We also used our Spanish articulation cards.  All of these targets are from our Cinco De Mayo and Spanish Articulation Packets!

This student loves game boards and he always asks me if we can play a "chase" game-ha! We had a great time playing our Cinco De Mayo themed game this week as we targeted his goal of naming items in a category.

Here is a speech student practicing his /f/ sound followed by a vowel using paint dotters!

Crafts are always fun too! This student made this fiesta themed frame from Oriental Trading Company as we practiced his articulation goal of the initial "s" in phrases!

We liked to finish with talking about what we learned today. We discussed: sombreros, Mexico, maracas, music, Spanish words, tacos and Cinco De Mayo while we painted or colored a picture!

Speech and Language therapy is fun, fun, fun!!!

Here are links to our Cinco De Mayo Packets that are filled with a large variety of speech, language and literacy therapy cards and worksheets.  Free pages are included at the previews.  Go on over to our stores to pick one up today so that you can have a muy bien fiesta in your room this week too!:)

Cinco at Teachers Pay Teachers

Cinco at Teachers Notebook

Spanish Articulation at Teachers Pay Teachers

Spanish Articulation at Teachers Notebook

Buenos días!

Manda and Shanda, SLPs

Twin Sisters Speech & Language Therapy

April's Speechy Feedback Party!

Once a month, Allison from Allison's Speech Peeps hosts a wonderful Linky party that helps to recognize great feedback received at speech therapy- themed Teachers pay Teachers stores.  Manda and I love to participate in this since we both REALLY appreciate the nice feedback that we receive after someone downloads and tries out one of our speech and language themed products. We always read all of our feedback! Every comment is terrific to see because we use the information to make our packets better or to just know that we are on the right track with providing packets that everyone can use in a beneficial way. 

This month we chose this nice feedback from Lovely S.:

Lovely S., will you please email us at shandagaunt@gmail.com for a free non- bundled product from our store?  You are very kind and we appreciate your feedback and support of our products very much!  We have worked hard to make our quick print articulation workbooks fun and useful and we are so happy that you recognized them with this comment, as well as, our preschool speech and language packs!   

Just to let you know, we actually have a /TH/ quick print workbook packet that is just days away from posting too and we hope that is as helpful to as many people as the /SH/ sound workbook has been.  

Lovely S., thank you so much for leaving such great feedback and for purchasing our Roll, Dot and Say /SH/ Packet.  You are awesome!

And thank your to everyone who has left feedback at our TpT store.  We have received a ton, in fact, we are up 1,191 feedback comments as of today.  Whew! That's a lot of people taking time out of their busy days to help us out and we think that is SO NICE!

Best wishes to you all. 

Shanda and Manda, SLPs

Twin Sisters Speech & Language Therapy LLC

50% off! QUICK PRINT AND PRACTICE SPRING ARTICULATION UNIT: L, R, S, TH, AND V SOUNDS

QUICK PRINT & PRACTICE SPRING ARTICULATION AT TEACHERS PAY TEACHERS

QUICK PRINT & PRACTICE SPRING ARTICULATION AT TEACHERS NOTEBOOK

Hello! Do you want the opportunity to save on a ton of printer ink while being prepared for the all of your spring themed articulation therapy sessions? How about having numerous useful and fun worksheets that target different articulation goals and levels and that are easy to access and then distribute to one student or to a group of students all at the same time?

If these opportunities sound helpful to you, than we think you may want to consider purchasing this new Spring Themed Articulation document! The worksheets are fantastic because they can be used for therapy sessions or for take home practice! And the packet targets some of the most common sounds that we are working on lately with our students: The L, R, S, V and TH. How about you? Do you also have students who need to work on these commonly misarticulated sounds?

We hope that we have you covered! Please see the detailed previews at our TN and TpT stores  to review the contents and several actual worksheets that you will find in this large articulation unit.

Have a happy and healthy Spring season!

Sincerely,

Manda Riebel, M.A. CCC-SLP &

Shanda Gaunt, M.S. CCC-SLP

Freebie! Wagon Wheel Words For Advancing Literacy, Problem Solving & Articulation Skills

Howdy Partners! Have you been trying to advance articulation and also problem solving and literacy skills with your students? If so, maybe you would like to gallop on over to our TpT store to download our freebie called Wagon Wheel Words then?

Click Here to Download Wagon Wheel Words

In these worksheets we have included four different difficulty levels so that you can target the articulation of the sounds and also work on advancing spelling, writing, reading, naming, and problem solving with a large variety of students, all at the same time!

Students love these wagon word wheels! They are given the opportunity to try to figure out what word is written in a the wagon wheel by either going clockwise (on the first three levels) or going either clockwise or counter clockwise (on the fourth level). After they figure out the word, they are asked to write the word on the line and they always seem super proud of themselves when they figure them out! Each wagon is a little problem to solve and the little Cowboys from the ages of Pre-k to 8th grade that we trialed them with at our speech clinic enjoyed solving them all!

What's better than having a child advance in their language and literacy skills, as well as, in their articulation skills in one session?!

Note: If you love this freebie, you can obtain the complete packet targeting the sounds of: g, c/k, f, l, s, r, t, voiceless th, and sh by clicking on this link: Wagon Wheel Words: Spelling, Reading, Artic. & Problem Solving Skills

Best wishes!
Manda Riebel, M.A. CCC-SLP &
Shanda Gaunt, M.S. CCC-SLP
Speech Language Pathologists
Twin Sisters Speech & Language Therapy LLC

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What To Include In A Chemo & Radiation Therapy Cancer Care Package

Hello blog readers.  Recently, I did some research to find out what a person would need while they are undergoing cancer treatments.  I wanted to do my best job to include items that would help to comfort my mother-in-law during the treatments that were starting soon for her. I also wanted to put together a care package basket for her to let her know that we were thinking of her and wanting to help her out as much as we could. As I write this post, she is currently in her third week of radiation and chemotherapy to help battle her lung cancer.  She may even need more chemo and radiation after these first six weeks. grrr :(  The scans that she will have in about a month will help to decide that fate. No matter what, it will be a long and uncomfortable road ahead for sure! I feel so bad for her and I want to help her out as much as I can.  God knows that she is a wonderful person, mother-in-law and grandmother to my two boys.  I just need her to be here for us for many more years to come!

After doing some research, I realized that the information on what to include in a cancer treatment care package was not super easy to come by, so with this newly acquired knowledge of mine, I have decided to make this post.  I hope that it may help out someone else out there who would like to also put together a cancer care package for someone that they know and love too.  I know this is totally off the subject of speech therapy, but shucks, this blog is about trying to help other's and if this post can help out someone in any way, than that knowledge will make my day!

As I write this I would like to kindly ask that everyone out there send comforting thoughts and prayers to all of the people in this world that are battling cancer.  It is a difficult diagnosis that requires some very trying therapies to try to beat it.  So many of the treatments available today do end up helping out tremendously though and that is the encouraging part of this whole story.  The treatments are hard to endure, however, and as our loved ones go through chemo and radiations treatments, I hope that we can help comfort and support them as much as we can.

Here's the list of items included in my mother-in-laws care package and why I included them.  Thanks for stopping by Twin Speech, Language & Literacy LLC today.
Best wishes,
Manda

 

 Bath gels, bath bubbles and lotion. Here is a picture of some bubble bath, lotion and bath gel for those times when she needs to just relax alone with a warm bubble bath. I did read that lotions and bubbles without fragrance are often the preferred choice for patients.

 

 Light Reading Magazines:   These are so she can have fun flipping through the pages of a magazine, but not have to worry about remembering all of the details that would be included in a long book.  Sometimes a person's memory can be effected for the short term during chemo therapy treatments.  The drugs given can make patients more forgetful.  These mags are light reading and are meant to add some fun to her      day.

Puzzles & Playing Cards: These are to help pass the time!  She loves to play cards with her girlfriends, and she is very good at crossword puzzles.  She can do very difficult puzzles.  These are medium level puzzles as I want her to have fun and fill in the answers and not get frustrated and stuck on too many.

These are Queasy Pops and they are something to have to help to ease an upset stomach.  She can slowly suck on each one and that will give her something to keep herself a bit busy while she waits for her chemo treatment to end.  I like that they come in a variety of flavors and they are made from natural ingredients. Unfortunately, chemo therapy does result in upset stomachs and nausea sometimes.

The hard candies are to help offset the dry mouth and yucky taste in the mouth that happens because of the chemo.  The black licorice is a treat for her.  That is her favorite kind of candy!  The chocolate is a stronger kind of chocolate.  This is also a treat and I read that taste buds start to lighten up during the treatments and that stronger tasting foods are better and help to offset the blandness of foods.  So, dark chocolates, mints and strong tasting black licorice may still taste good to her. 

This is a picture of Biotene and a sore mouth rinse by Colgate.  The dry mouth symptom is a commonly reported one for patients undergoing cancer treatments.  I hope that the Biotene helps her out!  The Colgate rinse should help to clean and soothe her mouth if she starts to get sores.  

Not pictured: WATER!  I gave her several bottles of water and I plan to buy her a new cool water bottle. This is to encourage her to sip water all day to help offset the dehydration that will be happening from the drugs. 

Salty snacks: She loves nuts and these have extra sea salt on them!  I heard that the steroids that are given during the treatments really make you crave salty foods.  Thus, the salty crackers and salty nuts shown! I also gave her some potato chips that I know she likes.  She deserves these salty treats!

Here are soft silky socks and a new pair of slippers.  These are to keep her feet warm and cozy and most of all, comfortable during her chemo treatments.  I hope she feels like she can take off her uncomfortable shoes and slip these puppies on.  If she doesn't want to wear the slippers, she could just also walk around in the socks because they have grippers on the bottom. 

Here is a picture of Eucerin.  This is a nice thing to apply to her radiation area that will become red and sore and I hope it helps to heal the area and to soothe the pain there.  Also, I included some all natural healing salve called Green Goo, and several Chapsticks to help soothe her dry lips. 

Here is a picture of some of the food that I gave to her.  I also plan to make some homemade chicken noodle and beef noodle soups this week, as I know she likes those kinds very much and she loves the homemade variety much more.  Also, we are starting to put together small meals for her that can be put in a container and frozen.  That way, she can just take out a container and un-thaw it easily in the microwave when she feels like eating.  I'm including a lot of healthy vegetables for the vitamins, a little extra salt and seasonings to help spice up the blandness that she may be tasting with all her foods due to her dulled taste buds, and meat to give her body some much needed protein to help build up her muscle strength. 

Items not pictures, but that would also be great to include:

A soft blanket for the person to use as they sit in a cold treatment room during their long IV runs of the chemo therapy and to also have for comfort at home when they feel chilly.  Make sure it is soft and warm and not rough at all.  A handmade blanket would be a very nice gift for your loved one. 

Gift cards for restaurants, iTunes, Amazon, Target, Walgreen etc..  Cooking could turn into a tiring endeavor and the smells that come from it may be nauseating.  Buying a restaurant gift card would be nice to help bring food to the household but in a easy and quick way.  The iTunes gift card can help to bring some new songs, apps or movies for watching and listening to on a person's iPad or iPhone. The Amazon gift card is perfect for buying some new books or games to a Kindle or for even for buying something that you need from Amazon on-line.  Ordering on- line is a nice alternative to having to have to go shopping at a busy and big mall or store. The Target or Walgreens gift cards are ideas to help offset the cost of the medications that will be needed.  Maybe find out where the person picks up there medications and buy a gift card for that store or pharmacy? 

Non-prescription medications. Here is a list of some of non-prescription pharmacy items that someone going through treatments may need too: Tylenol, Motrin, Claritin, Colase and Senakot- I'm sure the list is much longer, but it is start if you want to buy some to add to your care package. 

A gift of a housekeeping service to help clean.  It is best to keep things clean during the treatments and your loved one may not have the energy to clean their house. Radiation and chemotherapy treatments can bring a lot of fatigue to the patient. 

Water bottle and cups with straws.  I read that it is just easier to have straws in cups for drinking when you are in bed and that it is nice to always have water, ginger ale, and juice around to drink.  Chemo therapy makes people VERY thirsty. 

Soft hats and nice scarves.  The softness is essential when the person's hair starts to fall out and they serve as a stylish cover-up. 

Kleenex and hand sanitizer.  The sanitizer is nice to have to help to keep the germs away.  A persons immune system is going to go down during treatments.  Please do not go around a person in treatments you are sick!  The hand sanitizer is to help to protect the patient from outside germs.  The Kleenex will be beneficial for the runny nose that also does occur often during treatments. Here's something to know: low immunity is due to low blood cell counts.and low blood cell counts occur because of the chemotherapy's effect on blood cells made in the bone marrow.  Blood cell counts often reach their lowest level around 7 to 14 days after the start of chemotherapy. Bone marrow suppression is the most common and most serious side effect of chemotherapy.  When it happens, the dose of chemotherapy is adjusted right away!  

Here's a link to read more information about the side effect of chemotherapy: 

Read more: http://www.cancer.ca/en/cancer-information/diagnosis-and-treatment/chemotherapy-and-other-drug-therapies/chemotherapy/side-effects-of-chemotherapy/?region=on#ixzz2yn9KEHOw

Cards and hand written notes of encouragement.  Don't forget to add your encouraging words and caring thoughts to your care package.  A hand written message means a lot to people, especially in this electronic age of emails. 

Heating pad, rice bags and ice packs.  These can help to comfort sore muscles and can be very nice to help to relieve mild muscle pain. 

Thank you for reading!  I hope you found this post helpful and God Bless! Manda 

Book Review and Giveaway, "First Words A Focus on Final Consonants".

 

 

My students whom are working on final consonant deletions and I had the pleasure of reading a delightful new book in therapy this week.  The book is entitled: Easy-To-Say First Words-A Focus on Final Consonants. It was developed by a skilled Speech-Language Pathologist named, Cara Tambellini Danielson. The book is illustrated by her talented mother, Mary Tambellini. This book is recommended for speech-language pathologist and parents of children developing their first words.  It can be found at Amazon and is currently on sale for $10.39. 

 

Currently, I am treating three younger students (3 years and younger) whom all have goals to help reduce their final consonant deletions that occur during their speech.  This book was a perfect addition to their therapy sessions. The book targets easy-to-say one-syllable words that contain early developing consonants, most specifically, the sounds of /p/, /t/ and /k/.  Two of my students are able to produce the /p/ and /t/ but the third is not quite ready for the /k/ sound but we enjoyed looking at the wonderfully illustrated pictures in this section together as I modeled the sound for her.

 

In the beginning of the book there is a very useful parent guide which discusses how parents can help their child with his/her speech and language skills. These tips include helpful suggestions such as; ensuring that their child is looking at them, utilizing pausing before the last word is spoken on each page, using gestures, encouraging play with the word targets, responding with enthusiasm with speech attempts and the suggestion to make book reading fun and engaging.

 

The book then begins with the words targeting the final /p/ sound. The words in this section include: up, mop,  hop, beep, and cup. An example page from this section is shown here. 

 



 



The illustrations in the entire book are very adorable. It was super cute to see how the faces of my little students just lit up by seeing them on each page.  I also saw how they anticipated seeing the next page and hoped for a page turn.  The illustrations shown are engaging!  

In addition to reading the book during the session, I also modeled the sign for each age appropriate word  that was shown, and then utilized a visual phonic for the final consonant for each targeted word.  These three students all attempted either the sign, phonic and/or verbalization for each word.  I also liked how each page encouraged three attempts of the word. This too is similar to how I approach word targets (three repetitions) to help increase consistently and overall production.

The /t/ section included the following words: hat, bat, hot, eat and boat. Here is picture of the hat pages. The owl is beyond cute.

 







The /k/ section targets the words of: book, kick, cake, bike, and duck.  The sweet and cute illustrations continued to help my students stay engaged.   The book was just the right length for a young child's attention span. Each session with my students was fun and productive.  I wrote each word on a take home practice sheet (from our Easter Eggstravaganza unit) and provided supplemental visual phonic sheets for the /p/, /t/ and /k/ for each family.  A parent for these little ones participated in each session with us so I knew they were more then capable to provide continued home carryover practice with their child.

I highly recommended this book to be part of all pediatric speech-language pathologists therapy materials. It is also perfect for parents of children working on developing their early words as it has a very useful parent guide in the beginning which will assist them in how to best read it to their children.

A copy of this book was provided to me by, Cara Tambellini for the sake of this review. The opinions are my own and result from the direct use of the book in a therapeutic  setting. Cara is generously providing a free copy to one of the readers of this review today.  Thank you Cara! Enter the Rafflecopter giveaway below for your chance to win a copy of this great book!

Have a wonderful day and good luck!
 
Sincerely,
Shanda Gaunt, SLP

a Rafflecopter giveaway








Author bio:- Cara Tambellini Danielson is a California licensed and ASHA Certified Speech- Language Pathologist. She received her M.A. in Communication Sciences and Disorders from Northwestern University. Cara specializes in pediatric speech and language development.  She currently lives in Santa Monica, California where she works in elementary schools, early intervention, and her part-time private practice.