All Set for OT Evaluation

Our OT evaluation is scheduled for today. My mom (who just retired last week - Congratulations Mom!) is going to watch Michael. As much as I love Michael, he is a rather overwhelming presence when around. I need to be able to focus on Ava and the occupational therapist and on answering her questions rather than on trying to keep Michael quiet and out of the way.

In one way, I am excited. I know speech pathology. I know Apraxia. Those areas are familiar and comfortable. I know very little about occupational therapy and I am excited professionally about getting to watch an occupational therapist at work. Even as a mother I am excited. Ava will finally be getting an assessment and hopefully some help to address some of her other needs. I always had some idea of how to address her speech issues, but I don't know how to help her with her sensory ones. So I am excited to be getting some help for her in that area.

When the OT called to set up a time for her evaluation we chatted for a few minutes. One of the things she asked me was if I thought Ava had a particularly sensitive gag reflex. (She asked the question in the context of her food pickiness.) I told her I hadn't really observed Ava gagging while eating because she won't even try things she thinks she won't like. So, the OT said, "Do you think she'll let me check her gag reflex?" Hahahahahahaha. Oh my. What I said, very politely, was, "We can try." What I thought was, "Hell, no!" So, I think we'll be looking at a very... interesting hour later today.

Card Sets Stage One Complete

All of the card sets for the early emerging consonants have now been posted. You can find links to all of them here. (In case you were wondering, there is no final /h/ set because the /h/ sound does not actually occur in the final position of words in English.) I spent a lot of time working on these sets and I'm pretty happy with the final product. I'd love to get some feedback from any of you who are using them. Also, please let me know if you find any typos or errors so I can get those corrected.

I am actually working on a book of therapy materials that expands on these basic card sets. I'm expanding the backs of the cards with symbols so the cards can be mixed together and easily resorted back into sets by phoneme, position, or vowel and with symbols for sorting into phonological processes. The book will also include simple two-syllable words for each phoneme and phrase/sentence level cards for each phoneme as well. There will also be games (board game, bingo, etc) for each set of words. I am still at least 4-6 weeks from having a rough draft done, but when I do finish the rough draft I would like to get a couple of SLP's lined up to do some proofreading and product testing. If you are interested, send me an email at testyyettrying(at)gmail(dot)com.

So, for now, I have no more free sets in the works. Once I get this first book up and running, I plan to start working on free sets for the mid-emerging sounds (f, v, k, g, s, z, w, y), but that is several months away.

Initial H: 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.