Speech Card Set Activity: Magnetic Speech Cards

As the next installment in my quest to slow the kids down so I can focus on quality s-blend productions I decided to make some of our /s/ blend cards into magnetic cards.

It took me a good half hour to get the magnetic speech cards ready. I printed two copies of my chosen card set and put purple dot stickers on one set and green dot stickers on the other set. I had 22 cards total. Then I cut 22 rectangles out of a cardboard box. The rectangles were slightly bigger than the speech cards. I taped two jumbo paper clips onto each piece of cardboard and then taped the speech cards over the paper clips. Voila. Now I had a speech card set that would attract to magnetic wands. (You could get the same effect by just putting staples or paperclips onto the plain cards, but they wouldn't be as durable.) This is my set when I was finished.

I played several games with the kids. First I just put all the cards face down in a pile and mixed them up. I told Michael that the green ones were his and Ava that the purple ones were hers. They fished one out of the pile with their magnet wand and said the word for me. They got to keep the card if it was their color and had to put it back in the pile if it was not their color. They continued to take turns until all the cards had been distributed. This worked really well. The kids liked playing with their cards while the other child took their turn. Michael lined all of his up in a row to display them with pride.

Next we played a memory game with the cards. The kids liked the novelty of playing memory with magnetic cards and so they were very engaged.

As one last game we piled all the cards in the middle again. They took turns trying to fish out as many cards as possible at one time with their wand. Michael managed to get six at once on one of his tries. They would then pull them off, count them, and say each word they had "caught".

One activity we didn't get to, but I intend to try soon is to bury the cards in a bin filled with rice, beans, or dried pasta and then try to fish them out using the magnetic wands. I think they'll really enjoy that one too.



If you liked this card set activity you might also like:

• 10 Card Set Game and Activity Ideas
• Simple Speech Card Puzzles
• Speech Card Stories
• Speech Card Caterpillar
• Speech Card Game: What's Hiding?
• Speech Card Game: Speech Switcheroo (An Uno-Style Game)

Initial /s/ Homework Booklet: Free Speech Therapy Articulation Picture Book

Initial /s/ Homework Booklet

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 for durability.

Description

This articulation homework booklet is designed to be an extension of my single-syllable card sets. The target words are all CV or CVC in syllable shape and include no blends or vocalic /r/ sounds. This booklet is designed to be read by a parent (or therapist, older sibling, classmate, teacher...) and child together. The child should be familiar with the target therapy words/pictures from working with the initial /s/ card set. The helper reads the typewritten words pausing for the child to "read" the picture words. Each time the book is read, the helper can put a sticker/stamp/checkmark in one of the boxes on the front of the book. This will encourage multiple practice readings. The child's fluency should increase with each repeated reading. The words on the back page can be used for either auditory bombardment before reading the book together or for drill after finishing reading the book (or both). The target audience for these cards are children with severe speech delays who are ready to practice initial /s/ sound in a more natural context. Move to these exercises to add complexity and increase generalization after the child has achieved good accuracy with single word, single word repetitions, and simple alternating single words with the initial /s/ picture cards.

Key Features

• This booklet features 12 initial /s/ words incorporated into a simple story to be read by a helper and child together.
• The words are CV or CVC in syllable shape.
• The words are simple and are easily understood by or easily taught to young children.

Permissions

I give permission to copy, print, or distribute this booklet 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 booklet. 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 card sets and related printables are on my Free Speech Therapy Articulation Cards page.

Here is a picture of a homework booklet (the /l/ booklet) printed on cardstock and folded into the booklet. It slides nicely in between board books to be pulled out and read during bedtime story time.

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One year ago I wrote about how to use songs and rhymes and a cloze technique to get a young child to verbalize.

Speech Card Set Activity: Speech Switcheroo (An Uno-Style Game)

I needed to slow the kids down so they could focus more on making quality productions rather than on simply making lots of sloppy productions, so it seemed like the perfect time to introduce a new speech card set game. I turned our /st/ cards into an uno-style game I called Switcheroo. The kids had a blast playing and I was really pleased with the experience. It should take you no more than 10 minutes to prepare any of the free speech sets for your own Speech Switcheroo set.

Directions for Making Your Own Speech Switcheroo Game

1. Print 4 copies of the free speech card set of your choice. (You probably need no more than 12-15 cards to make a large enough deck, so I recommend printing four copies of only one page of the sets.)
2. Print 1 copy of the special cards. (Found at the bottom of this page. Click to open full-size image then right click on that and save image to your computer for printing.)
3. Before cutting the cards out, put yellow stickers on each card of the first sheet and one one of the skip cards and one of the +2 cards. Then do the same for green stickers on another sheet, red stickers on the third sheet, and blue stickers on the fourth sheet. No stickers need to be placed on the Switcheroo cards. You could also use colored markers to make dots on the pages if you don't have stickers in the four colors.
4. Cut out all the cards and shuffle. Then deal 7 cards to each player and play the game uno-style. Have the child say the speech word as they play each card.

If you liked this card set activity you might also like:

• 10 Card Set Game and Activity Ideas
• Simple Speech Card Puzzles
• Speech Card Stories
• Speech Card Caterpillar
• Speech Card Game: What's Hiding?

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One year ago, during a speech session with our early intervention therapist, I encountered a very concrete example of the oral apraxia exhibited by both of my children.