Card Set Activity: Speech Caterpillar

This idea is super simple. I cut out 8 circles that were 3.75 inches in diameter each. That made the circles just big enough for my free printable speech cards. Then add a slightly bigger head with antennae, eyes and a mouth and laminate (or stick together with contact paper) and you have a speech caterpillar. It is inexpensive, easy to make, travels well, and makes artic drill a little more interesting.

You place a card on each body segment and then one prize per child (treat, sticker, token, etc.) on the last segment. They get the prize when they reach the last word on the caterpillar. You can easily modify difficulty. One child might simply imitate the word while another might say it three times in a row. A third child might use it with a carrier phrase and a fourth child might be using it in a sentence.

It rolls up easily for storage and or transport. You could keep it in a pencil box along with several card decks. You could also make a train, snake, racetrack, chain of boats, etc and keep them rolled up in the same box and then the children can choose the one they want to use that day.

If you liked this activity idea you might also be interested in top-bottom puzzles, or this activity and game list.

L-Blends (/bl/, /pl/, /fl/): Free Speech Therapy Articulation Picture Cards

Description

This articulation picture card set is designed to be more comprehensive than the typical sets you might find elsewhere. The target audience for this set is young children or children with more severe speech delays that need intensive practice with sounds at a one-syllable level. No blends (other than the targeted initial blend) or vocalic /r/ sounds are included in this set. All syllable shapes are kept as simple as possible to allow the child to focus as much as possible on producing the initial blend. Syllable shapes are CCV or CCVC only.(Scroll down to preview set.)

Key Features

• This set includes 15 therapy cards with the target word and picture on the front, and the difficulty level and a carrier phrase on the back.
• The words are all CCV or CCVC in syllable shape.
• The words are simple and are easily understood by or easily taught to young children.
• Combines the L-blends with all possible vowel sounds at least once.
• Words are sorted by difficulty level for an easy progression from easy to hard.

Permissions

I give permission to copy, print, or distribute this card set 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 this card set. Let me know if you find errors or 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 Set

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.

I recommend you print on cardstock and laminate for durability.

How many words does it take to be a late talker?

The Twenty-Five Words Every Toddler Needs to Know is getting a lot of press. This article is pretty much a fluff news piece with very little substantive content and no references. It was a written summary of someone's take home message from a talk a researcher did at a conference. I am not at all criticizing the researcher / presenter. I wasn't there. I have no idea of the quality of the research or presentation. I am questioning the "factual" information presented in this news article and the potential impact on parents who read it.

There are two concrete bits of information printed in the article.

1. A late talker is a child who is using fewer than 25 words at age 2.
2. When helping late talkers build their vocabulary, the 25 words that should form the building blocks of that vocabulary are: all gone, baby, ball, banana, bath, bye bye, book, car, cat, cookie, daddy, dog, eye, hat, hello/hi, hot, juice, milk, mommy, more, no, nose, shoe, thank you, and yes.

Now I have no major objections to the 25 words listed as good building blocks of an early vocabulary with one caveat. The caveat is that when working with children with a severe speech delay, sometimes you have to take whatever you can get and build from there rather than holding out for specific words you got from a list. You might have to start with exclamations, sound effects, or animal sounds before moving on to other words. You might have to kick start expressive language with a communication board or signs. A parent and therapist of a child with severely delayed speech need to be flexible rather than focused on any one ideal list.

I do have a major issue with the accuracy of the first statement: a late talker is a child who is using fewer than 25 words at age 2. Older research in the area of speech and communication disorders often defined "late talkers" as children who were using fewer than 50 words or lacked two-word combinations at age two. Even dated research wanted two year old children to be using at least 50 words at age two, not 25. More recent research shows that the average number of words girls produce at 24 months is 346 and boys produce 252. A vocabulary of below 92 for girls and 63 for boys puts a 24 month old at the 10th percentile. I'm taking this data from the introductory section of Language Outcomes of Late Talking Toddlers at Preschool and Beyond which is an excellent article.

The popularity of the Twenty-Five Words Every Toddler Needs to Know article concerns me because it may persuade parents that they can wait to have their child evaluated by a professional. In fact, children with a vocabulary of 25-50 words who are not using two-word combinations at 24 months should probably be evaluated by a professional.

On a personal note, reading the criterion for concern as a 92, 50, or even 25 word expressive vocabulary were all depressing. Ava had 3-5 words at that age. My worries at that time were completely valid and I certainly do not regret seeking a professional evaluation (other than my own) and early intervention. In fact, I credit intensive early intervention by excellent professionals and the work we do here at home for all the progress she has made in the past year.