Minor (I hope) Health Crisis

The fact that I've used the word crisis twice in post titles tells you what kind of week I'm having.

So, Sunday night it became apparent that Michael had a fever. I figured it was your typical summer cold and it behaved that way. Monday morning he had a cough and still the fever, but no runny nose or anything. His behavior was pretty normal.

Michael often gets the croup when he has a cold, and as I was getting him ready for bed Monday night I made him laugh and I could hear the stridor when he inhaled. We know the drill. We got out two humidifiers and closed all the downstairs A/C vents to redirect as much cool air upstairs (and therefore into his bedroom) as possible. We could hear the barking cough all night long, but no crisis. Tuesday morning the fever broke and he seemed on the mend. We put him to bed last night with the humidifiers just because they were already out, and why not be careful?

So, this morning the fever is back. He had full on stridor for an hour after he woke up and that has never happened before. His nose is running constantly. He's lethargic and extremely overly-sensitive. Any time he gets upset the stridor comes back.

I called his pediatrician to ask how concerned I should be about this. She is fitting him in on her lunch hour and is pretty sure she's going to be sending him for a chest x-ray.

I have a bag packed full of snacks and activities for a 2 and 3 year old. I have their clothes laid out. I'm feeding them a snack of apples and carrots/dip. I'll dress them right before we go. Everything is ready, now just to wait until the appointment time rolls around.

A Tragic Love Story: The Perfect Cookies and Growth

Let's completely digress into the personal arena today.

Over the past 2-3 months I have gained 15 pounds! Prior to this adventure in weight gain I weighed about 5-10 pounds more than when I got pregnant the first time. Back then, at only +5-10, I figured that wasn't too bad for having two babies in two years. I decided that I wasn't going to be morose and self deprecatory about the weight and instead I was going to take a healthy lifestyle approach to (hopefully) a gradual weight loss.

Then, to place the blame where it belongs, my husband went on the hunt for the perfect chocolate chip cookie. (I love you, sweetheart!) It really was a wonderful hunt. We started with the generic cookie recipes on the back of the chocolate chip bags and were disappointed. That didn't stop the two of us from consuming each batch, mind you.

Then we moved on to a recipe my aunt kindly sent me in response to my post asking for recipe contributions. Her recipe was really good actually. We ate that entire batch as well.

But one fateful day we remembered that about three years ago the New York Times had published something on the perfect chocolate chip cookie. He went searching online and found it. The recipe was terribly complicated. It requires two kinds of flour neither of which are all-purpose. It requires a sifter. Most importantly, it requires patience. According to the article you need to stick the dough into the refrigerator for 36 hours before cooking. Really, you make cookie dough and then don't cook it? But he was determined. He bought all the ingredients and made the dough.

Now, we didn't wait. We baked two cookies that first night. They were very good, but not exceptional. Then we put the rest of the dough in the refrigerator and baked two more the next night. Wow!! They were even better. That still was only 24 hours and we wanted the full effect so we waited one more night to bake the rest. Oh my goodness were these cookies wonderful. Seriously, best cookies ever. You need to try the recipe and really do put the dough in the refrigerator for 24-48 hours. It makes an amazing difference.

At this point I had eaten half of several batches of cookies, but my husband wasn't done yet. He needed to find the perfect chips for his cookies. He started working his way through every kind of chocolate chips found in our local grocery store. That's at least 4 kinds.

And then I stepped on a scale to confirm my suspicion that the feeling that my wedding rings were getting tight was not in my imagination. And our love affair with the New York Times cookies came to an end. It is very sad. Very, very sad. I didn't even let him try the last bag of chips he had bought. The bag is sitting forlornly in the pantry calling to us.

And so, here I am 15 pounds heavier and still trying to keep a positive, healthy attitude about the situation. I have started by eliminating treats (cookies) and soda. I am watching portion control closely. Finally, I am increasing vegetables in my diet considerably. I like vegetables, but they're so much more work than the carbs that I love. So far, after about one week of the new plan, I am already 4-5 pounds down. I'm not sure exactly how that happened, but I'll take it. Now to continue the effort when the novelty and rate of weight loss decreases will be the real trick. That and resisting that last bag of chips.

Crisis

Before I tell you about the introduction of kittens to children and vice versa I need to share another story.

Yesterday I decided it was time to let the kittens out of the two room area they had been confined to, but the floor plan of our house is pretty open so after that it was difficult to do another gradual change. I tried. I took scrap material and blocked off the upstairs "balcony" and closed the child gate at the top of the stairs. I hoped that would be good enough to keep the kittens upstairs. They would be able to hear the children and I playing on the first floor and get used to those sounds a little before diving in. At least, that was the plan.

Two hours later two kittens appeared at the foot of the stairs. They figured out how to get under the material and just jump onto the stairs. I just went with it. I followed them around for an hour or so and they seemed fine. I blockaded the doorway to the basement with a few laundry baskets hoping that would keep them on the main floor. Then I started making lunch for the kids.

An hour later I noticed I hadn't heard from the kittens for a while. Unusual because they are kittens. They're usually running around underfoot. I just figured they had gone back upstairs for food, water, and a nap. After lunch I went up to check on them but couldn't find them. While the kids wandered, I searched the entire upstairs and main floor. I searched the basement in case they had squeezed past, or climbed over the laundry basket blockade. I searched all those areas again but couldn't find them.

I hoped that they were just hiding because the kids are kind of noisy and they'd come back out once the kids went down for nap. I rushed the children to bed, gave it a half hour and began searching again. No luck. I was really panicking and upset at this point. I noticed the basement door was unlocked and wondered if Michael had let them outside. I wondered if they were trapped somewhere. I just couldn't figure out how I had managed to lose not one but two active kittens in my own house. One, two, three, and then four hours went by. They hadn't been quiet for that long in the two days they'd been here.

A hint of a thought appeared in the back of my mind and without even thinking I wandered to the laundry room. I didn't see anything there either. Absentmindedly I picked up some clothes that had fallen off a pile next to the washer. Then I wondered why the pile had fallen. Then I started trying to peer behind the washer and dryer. Now, I'm pretty short and so getting a look behind there was going to be difficult, but just then I saw Sophie sticking her head around the corner. They managed to get back there, but couldn't get back out.

I was so relieved. I had been just sick with worry. And is it strange that I kept thinking how disappointed the shelter would be with me for losing the kittens they had entrusted me with?

Anyway, crisis averted. Thank goodness.

Sophie and Grace

Meet Sophie.

Meet Grace.

They are sisters born Wednesday May 4, 2011. They were adopted into our family on Saturday July 16, 2011 from an amazing no-kill shelter in our area. They are 10 weeks old.

The shelter had 300!! cats for adoption. (They also had 100 dogs.) I wish I had taken a picture of the room these two were living in. It was kitty heaven. It was extremely clean and full of kitty toys, beds, climbing posts and kitties. We spent a couple of hours there picking out which kittens we wanted to take home, and then waiting for the shelter to send someone to drive by our house to check it out (apparently part of their check before letting people adopt their pets).

The cats are allowed to roam freely in their room during the day when staff and volunteers are there to care for them and show them to potential adopters. Then, at night they are kenneled in very nice crates. Because the kittens are out and playing with each other and people all day, seven days a week they are extremely well socialized.

They already have their kitten shots and a microchip. The adoption fee includes pre-paying to bring them back when they are four months old to have them spayed. At that time they will get their final kitten shot and at that point they will be up to date on their shots for a year. They sent us home with two kitten sized litter boxes and a scoop, a bag of the food they had been feeding the kittens, two collars, and two toys. If we hadn't brought our own carrier they would have had a cardboard carrier for us too. I really was impressed.

I'll share more details about their introduction to the children later. For now I have two kittens to go play with.

Final D: Free Speech Therapy Articulation Picture Cards

Description

These articulation picture card sets are designed to be more comprehensive than the typical sets you might find elsewhere. The target audience for these sets are young children or children with more severe speech delays that need intensive practice with sounds at a one-syllable level or simple two-syllable level. No blends or vocalic /r/ sounds are included in these sets. (Scroll down to preview sets.)

Key Features

• Initial and Final sets include 30 one-syllable words that begin or end with the target sound.
• The words are simple and are easily understood by or easily taught to young children.
• Combines the target sound with all possible vowel sounds at least once.
• Words are sorted by difficulty level for an easy progression from easy to hard.
• Describes the progression from most intense prompts to least intense.
• Provides a simple carrier phrase for every word.
• A gestural prompt for the target sound is explained.
• A list of therapy activities is included.
• Includes 30 therapy cards with the target word and a picture on the front,
  and the difficulty level and the carrier phrase printed on the back.

Permissions

I give permission to copy, print, or distribute these card sets provided that:

1. Each copy makes clear that I am the document's author.
2. No copies are altered without my express consent.
3. No one makes a profit from these copies.
4. Electronic copies contain a live link back to my original and print copies not for merely personal use contain the URL of my original.

Looking for Feedback

I would love to hear back from anyone who uses the word sets. Let me know if there is anything you would change. Comment on this page, or send me an email at testyyettrying(at)gmail(dot)com.

Where can I find more?

More sets are on my Free Speech Therapy Articulation Cards page.

Card Sets

To download click on the image to open it full size. Then right click on the image, choose "save as" and save the page to your computer.

Instructions for printing and using the cards are included in the set.

Initial D: Free Speech Therapy Articulation Picture Cards

Description

These articulation picture card sets are designed to be more comprehensive than the typical sets you might find elsewhere. The target audience for these sets are young children or children with more severe speech delays that need intensive practice with sounds at a one-syllable level or simple two-syllable level. No blends or vocalic /r/ sounds are included in these sets. (Scroll down to preview sets.)

Key Features

• Initial and Final sets include 30 one-syllable words that begin or end with the target sound.
• The words are simple and are easily understood by or easily taught to young children.
• Combines the target sound with all possible vowel sounds at least once.
• Words are sorted by difficulty level for an easy progression from easy to hard.
• Describes the progression from most intense prompts to least intense.
• Provides a simple carrier phrase for every word.
• A gestural prompt for the target sound is explained.
• A list of therapy activities is included.
• Includes 30 therapy cards with the target word and a picture on the front,
  and the difficulty level and the carrier phrase printed on the back.

Permissions

I give permission to copy, print, or distribute these card sets provided that:

1. Each copy makes clear that I am the document's author.
2. No copies are altered without my express consent.
3. No one makes a profit from these copies.
4. Electronic copies contain a live link back to my original and print copies not for merely personal use contain the URL of my original.

Looking for Feedback

I would love to hear back from anyone who uses the word sets. Let me know if there is anything you would change. Comment on this page, or send me an email at testyyettrying(at)gmail(dot)com.

Where can I find more?

More sets are on my Free Speech Therapy Articulation Cards page.

Card Sets

To download click on the image to open it full size. Then right click on the image, choose "save as" and save the page to your computer.

Instructions for printing and using the cards are included in the set.

The Weekly Review: Week Eighteen

Great Blog Posts this Week

• Amy at Amalah.com shares an anecdote about her boys. I loved the entire story. Perhaps I loved it because our household has also been through a Wonder Pets stage. Or maybe because it was such a wonderful example of imaginative, creative play. Anyway, check it out and enjoy.
• WaldenMommyandFamily is another blog written by a mother with a young child with apraxia. She wrote a post this week about being an advocate for your child and using your voice to speak up for them when they cannot.

Website of the Week:

I don't remember how we stumbled across the Alphablocks website, but my children love it. Michael and Ava spent at least an hour the first time exploring it. I sat down with them becuase it was really that engaging. The characters are little alphabet blocks and the videos are all about phonics, but truly entertaining for both adults and children at the same time. After playing some of the games, I found that Michael was spelling words on his own. He already knew the sound/letter correspondences, but was not yet trying to make words. After playing on this site for an hour he can find the first sound in a word, the last sound in a word, and often guess the vowel in the middle. He's also picking out blends with some help. Wonderful site. Check it out.

The Weekly Michael

A couple of days ago, when I went to get Michael from his room in the morning he told me the following story:

"I slept with some friendly ghosts. They are little. They are a mama and papa ghost. I let them sleep on my pillow because they were sad because their children died. The ghosts are following me because they like me because I am nice to them. They want me to read this book to them. They are sitting right next to me."

And then he picked up a little book off his nightstand and plopped down on the floor and read it to the ghosts. All day long he mentioned his ghosts and how they were with him doing various activities.

Then I never heard about them again. Strange. Perhaps he had a really vivid dream about ghosts or something. It was cute though.

Ava this Week:

Wow! Ava is really, really in the midst of Mama Stage 2. This time she's more articulate, louder, and a better performer. She's also more resistant to change. Sigh. I will perservere. We will be patient. This too shall pass.

Baby Kitty

This is Baby Kitty.

She is precious to Ava. Baby Kitty sleeps with Ava during naps and nighttime. Baby Kitty often accompanies Ava downstairs during the day or on a car ride. She was named Baby Kitty because she was smaller than Mama Kitty (we had Mama Kitty first).

When Ava first became attached to Mama Kitty, we got a couple of backup Mama Kitties just in case... We have needed one or two of those upon occasion (one Mama Kitty spent an accidental night at the mall, another needed a run through the laundry). Baby Kitty was a gift. A very loved gift. However, Baby Kitty has no tag or identifying markings. There was probably some sort of tag that I cut off when she first arrived, but I have no idea what it was. Therefore I cannot order backups for Baby Kitty. That makes me nervous.

Yesterday, at nap time, Baby Kitty could not be located. I managed to distract Ava with a soft snuggly blanket she hadn't seen in a long time, but it was a glimpse of how sad she would be if Baby Kitty disappeared. I found Baby Kitty in a corner after Ava went to sleep, but what if I can't next time? I know she'll survive, but I'm kind of attached to Baby Kitty too.

Glimpses of the Future

Until recently, our house has been full of two babies. Or a baby and a toddler. Or two toddlers. Or a preschooler and a toddler. At all of those stages the children have been very parent focused. At first it was just crying, and then came the "Mommy, Daddy, come play with me stage." It was as if they had no toys or space to play in unless an adult was at their side. They simply didn't seem to know how to play on their own. (Notable exception: Michael can play for over an hour in his room if he is supposed to be falling asleep.)

Recently I am beginning to see glimpses of a more independent future. Michael in particular will occasionally become absorbed in a self-directed activity for 30-45 minutes at a time. When an older playmate comes over, they will all disappear for half an hour at a time. They are beginning to see each other as playmates instead of always depending on me. Michael will "whisper" something to Ava that he doesn't want me to hear. (His whisper needs some work, I can pretty much always hear what he is saying.) They will converse with each other in the car. As long as they are not the one causing the other to cry, they will try to comfort each other when someone is upset. When Ava is away (at her grandparents, taking a nap, off to a therapy session, etc.) and returns home, the first person she looks for is Michael.

It is wonderful watching their independence and relationship as siblings develop simultaneously and in an interconnected way. This is what I was hoping for when I made the completely impractical decision to get pregnant when my first child was only 6 months old.

Apraxia Adventures

You might notice that I've added another blog to my blog list (lower right). It is called Apraxia Adventures and is written by a mother of a young daughter with apraxia. She attended the CASANA conference held this past weekend and wrote a great post about a session she attended that was conducted by five young adults who had all been diagnosed with Childhood Apraxia of Speech when they were little. Laura's thoughts about the session and the young adults who conducted the session are a valuable read for anyone who wonders what the future holds for their little one.

Difficult in pairs

Ava is experiencing a return of the Mama Phase. See here and here for the original version of the Mama Phase. I'm sure it didn't appear from nowhere, but somehow I didn't notice until it hit critical. Ava now wants me to do everything for her and refuses to accept attention and assistance from anyone else. She doesn't want her Daddy to kiss her hello or goodbye. She doesn't want her Daddy to get her from her room in the morning or after nap. She doesn't want her Daddy to help her go to the bathroom, dress her for bed, read her stories, get her milk, wipe her face, or anything else. "No! Mommy do it!" is the phrase we hear all the time around here.

This time, we know better than to give in. We learned last time that giving in only makes it worse. We also know that the way to fix it is to give her reduced Mama time and extra Daddy time (making it fun) until the phase passes. It is even more "fun" this time around though because she has so much more speech. As she was pitching a huge fit the other day because Daddy happened to be the one carrying her out of Chick-Fil-A instead of Mommy, she tried a variety of tactics to get him to switch. "I need Mommy" didn't work. Then she tried, "I need to pee, I need to go poopy, I need to get down." Sigh. These situations are even more fun in a crowded public setting. So that's Ava right now.

And then there's Michael. It just wouldn't be as much fun if my children didn't experience their difficult phases at the same time. I remember saying the following statement. I remember saying it to multiple people, on multiple occasions, over several months if not years. I really should have known better. I said, "Unlike Ava, Michael is fundamentally a rule follower. He usually pretty much listens to what I say and doesn't question it much."

Oh boy. Little did I know that he was just saving up all his defiance for 3 1/2 instead of for the "terrible twos". You name it, he's trying it right now. Where did my sweet, compliant little boy go? I say, "Don't do X." He immediately responds by doing the forbidden action. Then, in the action specifically designed to increase my temper into the red zone he giggles and runs around in glee at my obvious anger. He's hitting, throwing, and making messes several times a day. In his defense, they're all pretty low level versions of those things and he's obviously just testing, but it is driving me crazy. I need to take a step back and come up with some kind of plan, because I really don't like the amount of yelling I've been doing recently and it isn't working anyway. Ideas?

Oh, and as a bonus, when not dealing with all of the above, the Why phase rages on here as well and it is contagious. Now they're both at it. They take turns. This one doesn't bother me as much though. It gets to the point where it is just funny. I enjoy trying to think of the answer to the next why that I know is coming as soon as I finish the last response.

I hope all of your parenting adventures are going more smoothly than mine.

Chipmunk

My parents took Ava Friday night. (Thank you Mom and Dad!) When they brought her home Saturday evening she was clutching a package of crackers in her hand like it was treasure. I'm still not sure what the story behind that was. Since we were about to eat dinner, I quickly confiscated the crackers but lessened the blow by letting her have two. She wandered around carrying them without eating them for a while but was eventually down to half a cracker.

In the meantime, Michael noticed the sudden appearance of crackers in the house and came to beg one for himself. I told him "just one" and was handing it to him when Ava rushed in from the other room apparently having overheard us. She popped her last half cracker in her mouth and held her hand out for more. I told her, "Absolutely not! You've already had your two." She thought about that for a moment, accepted that it was fair, and pulled that last half cracker right back out of her mouth and walked away holding it.

My little chipmunk.

Final T: Free Speech Therapy Articulation Picture Cards

Description

These articulation picture card sets are designed to be more comprehensive than the typical sets you might find elsewhere. The target audience for these sets are young children or children with more severe speech delays that need intensive practice with sounds at a one-syllable level or simple two-syllable level. No blends or vocalic /r/ sounds are included in these sets.

Key Features

• Initial and Final sets include 30 one-syllable words that begin or end with the target sound.
• The words are simple and are easily understood by or easily taught to young children.
• Combines the target sound with all possible vowel sounds at least once.
• Words are sorted by difficulty level for an easy progression from easy to hard.
• Describes the progression from most intense prompts to least intense.
• Provides a simple carrier phrase for every word.
• A gestural prompt for the target sound is explained.
• A list of therapy activities is included.
• Includes 30 therapy cards with the target word and a picture on the front,
  and the difficulty level and the carrier phrase printed on the back.

Permissions

I give permission to copy, print, or distribute these card sets provided that:

1. Each copy makes clear that I am the document's author.
2. No copies are altered without my express consent.
3. No one makes a profit from these copies.
4. Electronic copies contain a live link back to my original and print copies not for merely personal use contain the URL of my original.

Looking for Feedback

I would love to hear back from anyone who uses the word sets. Let me know if there is anything you would change. Comment on this page, or send me an email at testyyettrying(at)gmail(dot)com.

Where can I find more?

More sets are on my Free Speech Therapy Articulation Cards page.

Card Sets

To download click on the image to open it full size. Then right click on the image, choose "save as" and save the page to your computer.

Instructions for printing and using the cards are included in the set.

Initial T: Free Speech Therapy Articulation Picture Cards

Description

These articulation picture card sets are designed to be more comprehensive than the typical sets you might find elsewhere. The target audience for these sets are young children or children with more severe speech delays that need intensive practice with sounds at a one-syllable level or simple two-syllable level. No blends or vocalic /r/ sounds are included in these sets.

Key Features

• Initial and Final sets include 30 one-syllable words that begin or end with the target sound.
• The words are simple and are easily understood by or easily taught to young children.
• Combines the target sound with all possible vowel sounds at least once.
• Words are sorted by difficulty level for an easy progression from easy to hard.
• Describes the progression from most intense prompts to least intense.
• Provides a simple carrier phrase for every word.
• A gestural prompt for the target sound is explained.
• A list of therapy activities is included.
• Includes 30 therapy cards with the target word and a picture on the front,
  and the difficulty level and the carrier phrase printed on the back.

Permissions

I give permission to copy, print, or distribute these card sets provided that:

1. Each copy makes clear that I am the document's author.
2. No copies are altered without my express consent.
3. No one makes a profit from these copies.
4. Electronic copies contain a live link back to my original and print copies not for merely personal use contain the URL of my original.

Looking for Feedback

I would love to hear back from anyone who uses the word sets. Let me know if there is anything you would change. Comment on this page, or send me an email at testyyettrying(at)gmail(dot)com.

Where can I find more?

More sets are on my Free Speech Therapy Articulation Cards page.

Card Sets

To download click on the image to open it full size. Then right click on the image, choose "save as" and save the page to your computer.

Instructions for printing and using the cards are included in the set.

The Weekly Review: Week Seventeen

Best Blog Post of the Week

I hate to be repetitive, but All and Sundry appears here again. However, this time she is featured not because she was funny, but because she was brutally honest. It is hard to be honest about a parenting experience you later feel guilty about, but she is. By sharing, she not only makes the rest of us feel less alone about our own questionable parenting moments, but she also got some amazing advice in her comments.

The Weekly Michael

Michael is finally moving from being able to say his name, then spell his name, and then type his name to trying to write his name. He somehow got the idea in his head that writing with an actual pencil on paper was hard and he refused to even try. Now he is working on it because he wants to. It is very cute and watching him succeed and be proud of his own efforts is a lot of fun.

Ava this Week:

A while back Ava felt the need to anounce every red light while we were in the car. If we encountered 6 red lights and 3 stop signs during the trip we would hear "Red light!!!" about 27 times becuase she often needed to anounce each red light (or stop sign) multiple times. That stage, while adorable at first, drove us a bit crazy and thankfully passed.

This week she is anouncing every time the road is bumpy. "Bumpy Mama, bumpy!!!" It is beautifully articulated, and actually still at the adorable stage, but I wonder when hearing "bumpy" 30 times per car ride will start to get annoying?

The Weekly Trip Report

Our trip to Arkansas for the 4th of July / my grandmother's 80th birthday went amazingly well. It has been 6 months since the last time we went on a visit. Those were an important six months of development apparently, because the travel went much more smoothly with a 2 and 3 year old than it did with a 1 and barely 3 year old.

Let's see. Highlights of the trip include:

• 10 total hours of a successful car riding
• first experience with fireworks for the children (Michael loved them. Ava hated them.)
• reconnected with 17 relatives
• watched 5 cousins between the ages of 1 and 3 play together - mine were neither the youngest nor the oldest of the group
• waded in a creek, threw rocks to watch splashes, and caught crawfish in nets to study and then release them
• played in a water park (one of those that is simply a slab of concrete with many jets of water streaming up from the ground)

Unsupervised

There were the sounds of three children laughing, giggling, playing, and talking.

There was the sound of macaroni rattling around which was to be expected given that they were playing in our macaroni sensory bin.

There was the moment early on when I peeked around the corner to see two of the three children actually sitting in the bin together - adorable.

There was the half an hour of completely uninterrupted adult conversation I was able to have with a friend.

There was the sound of three pairs of feet thundering up the stairs as they moved on to another activity.

And then I walked back around that corner and found this...

Totally worth it!

Speech-Language Pathology Topics: Choosing Targets - An Example

Speech-Language Pathologists have lots of tools available to them. One example is picture card sets that focus on a specific sounds like the ones I have been making and sharing here. However, it is not always appropriate to work on a specific sound with a child even when they are having trouble with that sound. That's when the experience and professional judgement of the SLP comes into play. I'll give you an example.

Let's take the final /b/ sound as a example. An SLP has two apraxic children both of whom are struggling with the final /b/ sound. That SLP also has a set of cards that focuses on the final /b/ sound. For Child A, using that card deck would be very appropriate, and for Child B it would not be her best choice. Why?

Child A: Child A is 2 1/2 years old. She isn't really talking at all and has only two "words" in her vocabulary /ma/ for "more" and /da/ for "that" which she uses for everything else. She struggles to even imitate sounds. Through informal assessment, the SLP has determined that /b/ is one of the only sounds that Child A is stimulable for. Child A has an easier time imitating /b/ in final position than in initial position. This would be a perfect time to work on the final /b/ sound and using a final /b/ card deck would be one way to work on it.

Child B: Child B is also 2 1/2 years old. Child B is doing a lot of talking, but it is difficult to understand anything she says because of the high numbers of speech errors. Child B can make most of the early emerging consonant sounds (/p, b, t, d, m, n, h/) and a few of the sounds that tend to emerge next (/s, sh, w/). One of the speech errors that is having the biggest impact on this child's speech is her tendency to leave final consonants off of words. With this child the final /b/ is not going to the the therapist's top priority. She would probably focus on final consonant production using voiceless, early emerging consonants because those specific sounds are the least complex in terms of motor processing. Final /b/ would not be included because it is a voiced sound.

Summary An SLP working with a child who has a severe speech disorder has more potential targets than there is time to work on. The SLP will use her expertise, professional judgement, and assessment of the child's current skill level and needs to determine which targets are most important at any given time.

You might also be interested in the following articles:

Voicing Pairs

Random Example of the Complexity of Motor Planning

Rory's Story Cubes: Review

This is my glowing review of Rory's Story Cubes. I am not affiliated with Rory's Story Cubes or Amazon in any way. I am simply telling you about these because I think they are really cool.

The idea is super simple. The entire game consists of nine dice. Each die has a different picture on every side. You roll the dice and make up a story prompted by the pictures. You'd think this would be way over the head of a two and three year old, but they loved it. They were entranced for at least half an hour. Ok. Fine, my two year old got bored after 15 minutes and then just wanted to hoard some of the die and play with them independently, but still. Together, we made up at least 10 stories during our half hour of play.

This would be a great little tool to have around for therapy. For language it is a great prompt for making up short stories. For speech, you could choose specific pictures that have your target sounds in them and have them make up phrases or sentences using those words. Great for generalization and you can't beat the price.

Why? Why? Why?

Why has arrived in full force around here. In fact, if it weren't so new, and if I weren't so grateful that Ava can talk at all, it might even be a little annoying.

Now I don't mind answering genuine why questions. Ask me why the sky is blue. Fine. Ask me why we need to go to sleep. Fine.

But check these out:

Ava: I need to go pee.
Me: Ok. Let's go potty.
Ava: Why?

(Ava is obviously bored with the television.)
Me: Are you ready to turn the tv off?
Ava: Yep.
Me: Ok. Let's go turn the tv off.
Ava: Why?

(after finishing a meal)
Ava: Come play with me.
Me: Just as soon as I finish cleaning up.
Ava: Why?
Me: Because Mommy has to make sure that the table is all clean for next time.
Ava: Why?
Me: Because we'll need the table to be clean so we can put new food on it at dinner.
Ava: Why?

Me: I'll be right back.
Ava: Where you going Mommy?
Me: To the bathroom.
Ava: Why?
Me: To go potty.
Ava: Why?

I could go on, but I think you get the idea.

Happy 4th of July everyone.

Final B: Free Speech Therapy Articulation Picture Cards

Description

These articulation picture card sets are designed to be more comprehensive than the typical sets you might find elsewhere. The target audience for these sets are young children or children with more severe speech delays that need intensive practice with sounds at a one-syllable level or simple two-syllable level. No blends or vocalic /r/ sounds are included in these sets.

Key Features

• Initial and Final sets include 30 one-syllable words that begin or end with the target sound.*
• The words are simple and are easily understood by or easily taught to young children.
• Combines the target sound with all possible vowel sounds at least once.
• Words are sorted by difficulty level for an easy progression from easy to hard.
• Describes the progression from most intense prompts to least intense.
• Provides a simple carrier phrase for every word.
• A gestural prompt for the target sound is explained.
• A list of therapy activities is included.
• Includes 30 therapy cards with the target word and a picture on the front,
  and the difficulty level and the carrier phrase printed on the back.

(This Final /b/ set is the only set with 20 picture cards. I simply couldn't find enough words that fit my criteria to get to 30 cards.)

Permissions

I give permission to copy, print, or distribute these card sets provided that:

1. Each copy makes clear that I am the document's author.
2. No copies are altered without my express consent.
3. No one makes a profit from these copies.
4. Electronic copies contain a live link back to my original and print copies not for merely personal use contain the URL of my original.

Looking for Feedback

I would love to hear back from anyone who uses the word sets. Let me know if there is anything you would change. Comment on this page, or send me an email at testyyettrying(at)gmail(dot)com.

Where can I find more?

More sets are on my Free Speech Therapy Articulation Cards page.

Card Sets

To download click on the image to open it full size. Then right click on the image, choose "save as" and save the page to your computer.

Instructions for printing and using the cards are included in the set.