End of the Year Student Information Page

I always like to have a quick snapshot view of a student at the beginning of each school year. I made a student info sheet to place in the students working file at the end of the year. This will allow any therapist to pick the folder up next school year and not have to do a bunch of research about the student regarding dates and goals/current accuracies.

Pick up the item here!

My first real post (post-baby)!

Hey everyone! I am finally able to squeeze in some time to jot down a post so I decided to let you all know whats been going on in my house.  I wanted to explain where I've been for the last 10 weeks!

My son, Kade, was born on Valentine's Day this year. He turned breach the day before his due date (stupid me tried to get off the couch without asking for help when I was having trouble). I had a c-section the next day! I had a really easy recovery thank goodness--up walking the day of and we got to go home a day earlier than planned.

Kade was a VERY tough baby from the day he was born. He battled really bad reflux and has had issues with that ever since. Medicine didn't help my little man at all and if he wasn't sleeping (which was very little) or eating, he was screaming. It was very very hard on this momma's heart. We ended up going to see a pediatric chiropractor and it helped a lot, but we still battle the reflux every day. I hear from everyone that the baby eventually out grows it, so I am really hoping it happens soon so my baby can have some relief. He deserves it.

Anyways, the reflux (among other things like severe gas and tummy issues), made him not be able to sleep well for the first 6 weeks of his life. After that things got a little bit better, but only until now is it getting much easier for him during the day. When you don't have a baby that sleeps during the day, there is little time to eat, rest or do chores much less be active on my blog FB page or blog.

You all are wonderful and I really appreciate you guys continuing to follow my blog despite this hiatus I had to take to take care of my son. Hopefully now that he is taking some much needed naps during the day I can squeeze in some more time to blog. I look forward to interacting with you guys again and being an active participant in the speech blogging community.

Did any of you guys have a baby with reflux issues? I am really curious what age your babies grew out of it.

Here is a picture of my sweet baby boy! 

Guest Post! Ways to Spice Up Any Word Therapy! by Allison's Speech Peeps!

Hi there! It's Nicole over at Allison's Speech Peeps today.

I am sooo excited to be guest-posting on Major Speech Pathology Fun with a Side of Gluten Free today! This has always been one of my favorite blogs so I'm honored that Amy's letting me spend a little bit of time with you today. 

Today I'm going to talk to you about some fun ways to spice up word therapy. In my mind, "word therapy" can mean anything from practicing articulation words to consonant-vowel-consonant words to synonyms/antonyms. All you need are some flashcards with words on them. My groups were working on learning sight words this week so that is what I used. 

1. Hide and Seek. 

What child doesn't love the fun game of hide and seek? Even if you have a tiny therapy room, it's nice for the kids to get up once in a while and move around. Simply "hide" target words around your room and ask students to find them. For specific words, I always clarify the word I want them to find. For example, when working on rhyming, my students must find the word that rhymes with "book." If they come across a different word, they must leave it there (shhhh....don't tell anyone!) and remember it for later. 

Can you find my sight words?

2. Light it up!

Grab a small flashlight and display cards with words on the table. Turn down the lights and have students say the words that are in the spotlight. My kiddos love this, especially when practicing articulation words!

3. Jump Around!

Use rings or even duct-tape and place words inside on the floor. Call out words and have each student jump into the ring with the word. This is a super easy way to assess whether they know the words. The kids also love it!

Therapy can become hard to make fun during this time of the year. I hope these ideas gave you some fresh inspiration! Thanks so much for letting me have some time with you!

Nicole

Allison Speech Peeps