The Weekly Review: Week 56

SLP Idea of the Week

Viktorya at Speech Language Play has such a fun idea for what to do with articulation cards that have been mastered. She prints out my free articulation cards in black and white and uses them with her students. Then, when the students have thoroughly mastered a card and no longer need to drill with it they get to feed it through a little hand crank powered mini paper shredder. What fun! I can think of lots of variations on this children would enjoy. Tear it up. Cut it with scissors. Run it through a paper crimper. Crumple it and try to throw it in the trash can. I'll definitely have to print some on regular paper in b/w (instead of in full color on cardstock) just so we can try this. I think my kids will love it.

Ava this Week

One night I was getting some extra work in on the computer after dinner, but before the children went to bed. My husband was doing dishes in the kitchen. Ava came up to me and asked if she could have the stack of speech cards sitting next to me on my desk. I'll admit I looked at her a little suspiciously and asked her why she wanted them. She replied, "So I can do speech with Daddy!". I handed them over and watched her find a spot on the carpet, sit down, and start laying the cards face up on the carpet waiting patiently for her Daddy to come join her. She didn't actually notice that she'd neglected to invite him to play. I snuck into the kitchen to tell him what was going on. He abandoned his dishes and let her teach him "speech". It was so adorable.

Weekly Michael

Fine motor is finally kicking in for Michael. He's enjoying drawing pictures. He prefers his magnadoodle, dry erase board, or an iPad, but will use colored pencils or crayons and paper when necessary. He always tells elaborate stories about his pictures. One day this week he was staying at my mom's house and drew this picture on her iPad. I love seeing him find a new way to exercise his imagination. (It is a hot air balloon. What looks like hair on the passenger is actually the hot air balloon's flame.)

Ava's and Michael's Weekly Home Therapy Notes

/s/, /f/, /l/, and blends are falling into place for Ava. We've also recently re-introduced /k/ (only in final position) and she's finally making progress there. If she isn't paying attention, /k/ will always be /t/. When she is paying attention, with multiple types of cues, she's getting a back sound about 65% of the time. Yea! Progress. Hopefully it will all be downhill from here.

Michael's doing well with his /s/ and /f/. His /s/ sound can be easily corrected now when he's paying attention. His /f/ production is starting to lighten up a little and sound a bit more natural. I'm going to let him settle into those for at least another couple of weeks before even considering starting /th/ with him.

Weekly Homeschooling

I went ahead and ordered a couple of homeschooling curriculum programs. This week we did a math lesson and a handwriting lesson. They took about 20 minutes each (not consecutively) and the children and I had a great time. I look forward to continuing as soon as our schedule permits. I'll write more about the specific curriculum materials I purchased and what I think of them soon.

Homemade Doctor Kit Accessories - Play Prescription Pad and Broken Bone X-Rays

Michael and Ava had their annual pediatrician checkups recently and subsequently started playing doctor. Michael was making bandages out of tape and paper, which was adorable, but I did decide to buy the doctor's kit I found at Walmart to give them some props to add more dimension to their play. Then I had some ideas for some things I could make at home to add to their kit: a play prescription pad and some pretend broken bone x-rays.

Making a Play Doctor Prescription Pad

Michael likes to pretend to write prescriptions. On a whim I decided to try to make a prescription pad. I made a template and printed 20 copies (I printed mine in b/w because I've run out of color ink.). Save to your computer by clicking to open the full size image then right clicking and choosing "save as". Print and then trim off the footer and cut the pages in half.

Grab some glue (I used Mod Podge - I can't guarantee something else will work), a paintbrush and some binder clips. Cut a piece of thin cardboard (like from a cereal box) to the same size as your stack of play prescription paper to use as the back of the pad. Use the binder clips to hold the top together tightly. I only had five binder clips, but if you have more, use as many as possible so you can hold the pages together tightly along the entire top. Remove one clip at a time, painting the edges of the paper together with the glue then replace the clip to hold them as they dry. Do this to the paper under each binder clip until the entire edge is coated. Let dry for 15 minutes and then repeat. And repeat. And repeat. Once you have a fairly thick coating that is thoroughly dry you're done. Show your kids how to use their new prescription pad and toss it in their doctor bag along with a pencil/marker/crayon.

Making Play Broken Bone X-Rays

I did a google image search for broken bone x-rays and chose ones with really obvious breaks in four different bones (collarbone, leg, arm, finger). I printed them on a single piece of paper. I wanted our x-rays to be fairly small so they would store inside their play doctor's bag. I printed them and then traced along the outline of the main bone and edges of the break with a pencil to be sure they would show up. I cut out each x-ray and cut a second piece of paper to place on top. In this way, I made it so that the x-ray would need to be held up to a light to be examined. Then I made a frame from black construction paper and a little label for each x-ray. I took the final product and covered it in contact paper for durability. They can examine the x-rays by holding them up against a bright window or by placing them on one of our homemade light boxes.

Speech Card Set Activity: Speech Fours (Card Game)

The children have really been enjoying the variety of activities I've been introducing during speech time. Their favorite so far has been speech switcheroo so I went looking for another card game I could adapt. I found directions for a card game called Sevens that looked like fun. It works on some elementary math number and sequencing skills as a bonus too.

The original game of Sevens is played by dealing an entire deck of cards out to all the players face down. The players then look at their cards and sort them by suit and place them in order by sequence. The player with the 7 of diamonds places their card down in the center and play proceeds clockwise. Each player adds a diamond to the left or right of the currently placed cards in sequence forming a row (the second player would need to play a 6 or 8 of diamonds). If they cannot play a diamond, but happen to have a seven of another suit they can start a new row. If they cannot play they forfeit their turn. Play continues until one player wins by playing the last card in their hand.

Adaptation: Speech Fours

Preparation of Speech Fours Card Deck

Print a free card deck (or combination of decks) and choose 28 cards to be your game deck. Lay them out in four rows of seven cards each. Use dot stickers (or add colored dots with markers) to make each row a different color. Then write the numbers one through seven on the colored dots in each row. (Use light colors so that your numbers will show.)

Direction for Playing Speech Fours Adaptation

Deal all 28 cards out face down to the players. With my children I then had them turn their cards over (rather than hold them so that the other players can't see). I helped them sort their cards by color and sequence. Then I told them that the card with the red four in the corner (choose whatever color you like) was the starting card. The player with that card puts it down in the middle (saying the word on the card as they play it). Play continues clockwise with each player adding to the sequence if possible saying the word on each card as played. (So player 2 would need the red 3 or 5.) If they cannot add to the sequence of the current color row, they can play a four of a new color. If they cannot do either they have to pass. The player to use all their cards first wins. Alternately, you can continue play until all four color sequences are complete.

The game addresses speech articulation, color identification and matching, identifying the numbers 1-7, number sequencing, and basic turn taking and good sportsmanship.


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)