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Thursday, July 31, 2014

Favorite Therapy Item Thursday: Why Lisette of Speech Sprouts Loves The Matt & Molly Series





Shanda and I are excited to welcome, Lisette Edgar, M.S. CCC/SLP from Speech Sprouts to our blog today to guest post on her favorite therapy item.  She will be telling us all about how she uses the Matt and Molly story series (that is avaialble from Linguisystems) during her therapy sessions in order to teach her students important language skills. This is such a wonderful post and we are both so happy that you have decided to stop by today to read it in order to learn more about these great books and how they could also benefit your own therapy sessions.  

When you are done here, please don't forget to also take some time to check out all of Lisette's awesome products available over at her Speech Sprouts Teachers pay Teachers store too. She has over 40 products targeting great therapy areas such as: articulation, expressive language, phonological awareness, syntax and receptive language!  

Best wishes for lots of favorite therapy moments to come! 

Sincerely,
Manda & Shanda
Twin Speech, Language & Literacy LLC


5 Reasons Why I Love the Matt and Molly Series
By Lisette of Speech Sprouts
http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/Speech-Sprouts

I love using stories in therapy, it such a natural way to engage children in language learning. One of my all-time favorite therapy tools is the original Matt and Molly series, or Autism & PDD Picture Stories and Language Activities. (from Linguisystems). First, let me say, I am in no way affiliated with Linguisystems, or getting any compensation for talking about this great series. I just happen to love it!

Autism and PDD Fall cover:


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If you have never seen the series, there are five sets with eight stories each: one for each season and an animal story set. I originally began using the sets with the picture cards, but am now projecting the stories from the CD on the interactive whiteboard in the classroom! It is not just for kids on the spectrum, it’s great for language development in the 3-8 year bunch, depending on their developmental level. If you have the ability to show the story on an interactive smartboard or on computer, you’ll be fine with just the CD.
Each simple story has four story-sequence pictures featuring the stick-figure Matt and Molly characters, who are having some fun adventures. They are bright and colorful, with no distracting backgrounds, perfect to help children focus on the story.

Why do I love it?
1. Perfect for classroom-based group services. It benefits not only the kids on your case-load, but the others in class as well, and provides an opportunity to model prompting for the teachers and staff. Project it on the board, and you have grabbed a whole group at circletime. (The CD is narrated, or you can tell it yourself.) Add a few simple story props for story-retelling, and its magic!


For the story, A Frog in the Tree, I use these props. The kids are delighted as the frog “hops” around the top of the smartboard (and maybe on a few shoulders, elbows and knees to practice answering “Where is the frog?” and name those body parts.) The silly frog finally jumps down from the tree, but SPLAT! He lands in Molly’s ice-cream cone. The kids love it!

2. Familiar characters increase engagement. The same two characters appear in all the stories (along with a few animals here and there), and the kids really respond to their “friends” Matt and Molly. (As a matter of fact, I have been told I look like “Molly”, with my dark, curly hair. My preschoolers shout “Molly’s here!!” when I walk into their classroom at circle time! (I really do need to get a red dress and be Molly for Halloween!)
Autism PDD Spring Cover
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3. Tons of opportunities for language, and easy to modify up or down as needed for each child. Go beyond naming nouns! In A Day at the Lake we talk about size concepts small. medium and large, as we go fishing. In Swat That Fly! We name to a description and discuss categories. “Today our story is about an animal that has wings. Tell me some animals that have wings”. We talk about up position concepts high/low, inside/outside.


We buzz that fly around the group seated on the carpet. (Watch ‘em squeal as it lands on their head!) We target verbs as everyone gets a chance to “swat” the fly (And some of mine have stomped on him for good measure too!). “What is he doing?”- flying, swatting, sitting. We answer who, what, where, why, what doing, when, how. We name new vocabulary and make requests. “May I have the flyswatter?” We sequence the story, act it out and re-tell!

4. Story re-tell, story retell! Did I say story retell! Sooo important. The predictable four-part format increases comprehension and allows for plenty of story-retell practice. Describe the characters and action on a single pic or re-tell the whole story. Predict what will happen next.



The CD provides interactive questions after the story. Children answer wh? questions by choosing from two pictured answers, touch the named vocabulary, or answer yes/no questions. They can also drag and drop the pictures to sequence the story.

What does the rabbit do? Screenshot:


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5. Each story can be used for multiple sessions. Repetition is key for our kids who are at earlier developmental levels. My extended resource teacher reads the story for 3 days with her class, then I come and present it with props on the 4th. Kids who otherwise rarely initiate are excited to name the familiar vocabulary and interact with the props.


 

Versatile, fun and 40 different stories to take you through the year! Planning made simple, and group delivery sure helps with caseload management. If you try it, I bet you’ll love it too.

Sunday, July 27, 2014

50% off for 24 hours! Back To School Speech, Language, & Literacy Themed Unit




This document is 50% off for the next 24 hours because it has a brand new facelift! We have added 60 new black and white quick print speech and language themed worksheets and have made many edits to the previous pages. It is now a 155 page unit. Grab this fantastic back to school themed document today in order to be ready for just about any speech, language and articulation student that you will be seeing this school year! We just know that you won't be disappointed!
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Welcome back to school teachers and speech-language pathologists! Shanda and I hope that you all had a wonderful summer and are ready for another fantastic teaching year!

We have compiled a comprehensive packet for you to use at the start of any school year to address a large variety of speech, language and literacy goals with your pre-k to second grade students. In addition, more than half of the worksheets have a general school theme so they can actually be used all year long. That makes this packet a great purchase for the whole year!

Please enjoy the fun and cute clip art and large number of original activities designed by us! Content pages and pictures of the worksheets and activities are shown in the previews at our TpT and/or TN stores.

Thank you so much for stopping by our Twin Speech, Language & Literacy blog today. We wish you all well and appreciate your support very much!

Sincerely,
Shanda Gaunt, M.S. CCC-SLP
Manda Riebel, M.A. CCC-SLP
Speech-Language Pathologists
Twin Speech, Language & Literacy LLC




Tuesday, July 22, 2014

50% off Labor Day Letters, Literacy & Crafts: Learn About Community Workers!


 
 
This brand new unit will be 50% off for the first 24 hours after posting!

This useful unit contains 9 different read, write, and identify letter units. All of the units feature a community worker with a name that starts with one of the targeted letters of either: c, d, f, g, m, n, p, t, or v

We have also provided two useful and fun classroom or therapy room activities.

1) Color or just cut out a colorful community worker face to make a paper plate community worker mask.

2) Match the picture of the community worker to their job description with the "Guess Who Cards".

We hope that you love this brand new unit that help to advance letter and phonic skills in your preschoolers and will also teach them a lot about the useful workers in their community.

Have fun with this!





 Sincerely,
Manda & Shanda, SLPs
Twin Speech, Language & Literacy LLC


          
        

Tuesday, July 15, 2014

FREEBIE ALERT! Grab our Mixed /L/ blends words worksheet and game board!


Hello and welcome to Twin Sisters Speech & Language Therapy LLC. We are glad that you have stopped by our blog today to find out about our mixed /L/ blends freebie.

The freebie includes this terrific interactive tracing worksheet and a fun game board. We hope that both pages will end up being a great addition to your articulation drawers for targeting mixed /L/ blends at the CC and word levels.





or



If you liked this freebie, you may be interested in picking up our latest articulation packet. It is a comprehensive packet that targets /L/ blends at all levels (consonant, cc, word, phrase, sentence and carryover). And if you hurry, you can grab it for 50% off!  Every time that we post a brand new document, we make it 50% off for the first 24 hours.  So, please click one of the links below to check it out fast! The 50% off savings will end by mid afternoon of the 7/15/2014!



Comprehensive /L/ Blends Articulation Unit: BL, CL, FL, GL, PL, SL at Teachers Pay Teachers.

Comprehensive /L/ Blends Articulation Unit: BL, CL, FL, GL, PL, SL at Teachers Notebook.



Thank you so much for stopping by our blog today. Have a happy day!

Sincerely,

Shanda & Manda
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Monday, July 14, 2014

50% off for 24 hours! Our New Comprehensive /L/ Blends Articulation Unit!





Please know: This new posting will be 50% off for the first 24 hours after posting. Enjoy the savings and thank you for coming by to read about our new articulation unit targeting /L/ blends.

Are you working on helping your students produce better /L/ blends? If so, this comprehensive articulation unit will be invaluable to you. We have included a /L/ blend screener and 160 + pages of worksheets to work on the increasing the accuracy of /L/ blend productions from the consonant level to the carryover level.

The screener should be a wonderful tool for you to use to see which /L/ blends your students need to work on the most and from there you will find that the program has been laid out in an easy teaching pattern of consonant,  to consonant vowel, to word level, to phrase level, to sentence level to carryover /L/ blend word activities. That means, that all that the busy SLP has to do is PRINT AND GO! No busy planning and prepping sessions needed! It's all here in this program for any student needing to work on increasing production of /L/ blends! It's easy cheesy and you will be the most prepared SLP in town. :)

We have included a large variety of interactive activities, worksheets and games. Your articulation students will appreciate the large variety of activities and will also enjoy learning to increase their intelligibility of /L/ blends with this unit!

Thank you so much for stopping by our blog today. We wish you well and appreciate your support!

Sincerely,
Shanda Gaunt, M.S. CCC-SLP
Manda Riebel, M.A. CCC-SLP
Speech Language Pathologists

*Please see the previews at our TpT and/or TN stores for information on the units full contents and directions. See below for picture descriptions of some of the pages included in this comprehensive unit.






Friday, July 11, 2014

Giveaway time! You could win a free Kindergarten Screener and Awesome Kindergarten Readiness Packet!




Hi!  

We are giving away two copies of our kindergarten readiness packet with a monster truck theme.  We decided to give this packet away because we both agreed that this would be a great one for any parent or teacher of young boys to have anytime, but especially now during the summertime.  

It is packed full of fun activities and worksheets for preparing students for kindergarten or for getting them ahead academically for preschool.  

The kindergarten screener in the beginning would be a great activity to complete initially to assess the child's baseline skils in a variety of areas such as: literacy, fine motor, visual processing, numbers, pronouns & prepositions, direction following, and/or phonics. After finishing the screener, the parent/teacher could go to that specific targeted area in the packet and start having the child work on it with fun and engaging worksheets that are REVVED UP with a super cool monster truck theme! 

Please know that this packet was originally posted in June of 2014, but we had to make some edits and additions to the packet since then.  If you previously downloaded it, please re-download at TpT or TN.  Thanks for that! 

And to enter to win this fun contest, please see the Rafflecopter giveaway below.  We also have the giveaway going over at our Facebook page and you are able to enter every day until next week. 


Best of luck and happy summer! 

Manda & Shanda. 


Description information: 
Get ready for a rip roarin' time through mud and over the hills! We have put together a wonderful monster truck - themed kindergarten readiness packet for your students or your own children who are preparing for kindergarten this year or next. The little boys in your life will especially enjoy the super cool monster truck theme, but please know that there are plenty of general animal and every day object worksheets in this unit too so many girls will have fun completing the useful worksheets and activities too!

We are most proud of the kindergarten readiness screener that we created and plan to use it ourselves at the start of each year or therapy period to obtain a baseline of skills for our pre-k students. Later, the skills screener will be re-given to show parents the wonderful progress that their child has made during their teaching/therapy period. In summary, we think that any preschool teacher would find it great to have for their preschool class in order to show student progress at conferences and later at the end of school. It would serve as a nice example to parents to where their child stands in the area of kindergarten readiness. 

After the screener, we would advise you to dive into the almost 150 pages of awesome worksheets to work on the skills needed for kindergarten readiness. These fun worksheets target such things as: concepts, literacy, numbers, fine motor, visual processing, auditory comprehension, and MORE!!

There's really way too much to report in this description area and so we encourage you to download the previews at our TpT and/or TN stores to read the content pages of this 162 page unit and to see sample pages. The preview will be a great place for you to see exactly what you are buying before you do.







a Rafflecopter giveaway

Thursday, July 10, 2014

Product Review: The m-chew oral-motor device

Today we are reviewing the m-chew. It is an oral-motor device for the jaw. It is produced by Reed Invent for Therapy. The "m" stand for multi, as the m-chew device provides lower jaw movement exercises in three dimensions: up-down, left-right, and front-back.  It has a silicone based non-toxic chewing part which is rotatable. It comes in three color-coded options (green, red, and purple) for different jaw sizes.

This is what the red (medium sized) one looks like:


Here are pictures of the m-chew in action.  During the up-down-left-right jaw training exercise the patient chews the m-chew device up and down while moving their lower jaw in the left-right direction.  In the up-down-front-back training exercise the patient chews the m-chew up and down while their lower jaw is moved in the front-back direction.



 Here is a link to an instructional video provided by Reed Invent for Therapy:

The jaw is like other bones and/or muscle groups. It needs to be used and encouraged with exercise to function fully.  Degenerative diseases and hereditary conditions can have an affect on jaw stability.  Jaw strengthening and stabilization practice can also also be a good companion to a therapy program that is trying to reduce a speech disorder such as a frontal lisp where it has been shown by some that a good jaw stability can aid in the correct production of sounds such as: /S/ and /Z/.  For instance, for the /S/ sound, the jaw needs to be brought up. A correct production is hard to achieve when the jaw hangs low or is misaligned.  Here is a picture of misalignment of the jaw and one of a low hanging jaw:



 
We have had a few children at the speech clinic whom have come to us with low hanging jaws and misaligned jaws and dentition.  We sometimes advise parents to consult with a dentists, orthodontists and/or oral surgeons in order to help with their malocclusion and jaw difficulties before initiating any sort of jaw strengthening or movement program.  We have done exercises with our clients only when they are not experiencing pain of any sort and when they are tolerable to their introduction.  For instance, we have seen advancements in sound accuracy and overal speaking intelligibility after working on increasing alignment and strength with a child that has Down Syndrome. The exercises appeared to have increased her awareness of her jaw and where it should be when she speaks.  She has been an ideal client example of someone who benefits from a jaw exercise program as she does not seem to mind the addition to chewing objects in her mouth or the need to follow through on completing several exercises 5 to 10 times each on a daily basis. This client presented with very low postural tone before the program, but the exercises have appeared to help increase her tone to the point where her jaw does not hang low anymore.  Most importantly, the family has reported a more coordinated manner to her eating, and drinking.  She is making  less of a mess at mealtime! Shanda and I have noted a great advancement in her ability to talk clearly during word to phrase level tasks.  She is improving greatly because of her increased jaw awareness!  

We would like to add a freebie to this post.  Here are some jaw exercise cards for your own files.  These are simple and are examples of ones that we completed with the client that we mentioned above. Completing these may help to improve jaw strength and alignment for your own clients whom are struggling with those issues with their jaws and may also help to increase speaking accuracy in the end! Right click on each slide and print out if you are interested in using these therapy cards. 


Please note: Caution should be completed before beginning any type of exercise program.  We would advise that a physician be consulted to approve the initiation of any exercises.  Completing these oral motor exercises are at your own risk.. 


Additional Information:

While using the m-chew, other exercises could be utilized for jaw strengthening as well but it would be catered to the needs of the individual patient.. It would also be recommended to control relaxation of the shoulders and jaw while the correct positioning of the device is utilized. 


Warning:

The m-chew is a device prescribed by a registered occupational therapist or speech-language pathologist for treating children with oral-motor problems.  The m-chew should only be administered under the supervision of a registered therapist.  For more details about the m-chew device, please visit their website at www.reedinvent.com.

Thank you for stopping by Twin Sisters Speech & Language Therapy LLC Blog today.  

Have a great day!

 Manda & Shanda, SLPs

Thursday, July 3, 2014

Have a blast and save 20% at the 4th of July Sale At Teachers Pay Teachers!!


Hi! What do you have planned for this weekend? A picnic, a parade, a dip in a pool or lake followed by an awesome firework show at night? We are hoping to get that all in and more this weekend! 

To help celebrate this super fun holiday we have put all of our products on sale over at Teachers Pay Teachers. Please come on by there Friday and Saturday to receive 20% of every single one of our 100+ speech, language, literacy, and articulation documents. Enjoy the savings and have a happy 4th of July!!

Here's a link to our Twin Sisters Speech & Language Therapy Teachers Pay Teachers Store:

Manda & Shanda, SLPs
Twin Sisters Speech & Language Therapy LLC