Summer Time Therapy Activities Linky!

Check out the Link-up here!

What are two of my favorite things? Summer and linky parties! So, as you can probably tell, I'm excited to join Simply Speech for her summer-themed linky! Although I am not yet a licensed SLP (I'll be beginning grad school this fall), I babysit and work in a daycare, so I'm constantly working with children and trying to find a fun way to (secretly) build their speech and language skills in the process. These are some activities I've done with kids that I think would also be good for speech therapy! As you'll soon see, I love keeping kids active and away from screens, so here are a few hands-on type of activities that I like to do:

image source

- Bubbles- There's a good reason that everyone loves bubbles! First, now that it's summer, you can play with them outside and not worry about a sticky floor. More importantly, they are inexpensive and can entertain kids for a long period of time. In fact, I was able to entertain 4 kids for 40 minutes with bubbles one day! You can use the small bottles, or use the larger wands that come in different sizes depending on what you want to target. They're good for teaching directions. descriptor words, and even breathing control!

Image Source: Flickr (cc) Bugga Bugs

- Pretend Camping- This can be done indoors or outdoors depending on the weather. Children can practice directions by making a tent and making "s'mores"with the real ingredients not heated up or with toys. You can even add in sight words or articulation practice by writing phonemes or words on paper and taping it to the bottom of the toys. Then, just have the child put the sounds or sight words together as he/she builds the s'more. Another fun camping-themed activity is campfire songs! These can target voice issues (like talking to quietly or too loud), articulation or turn-taking.

Image Source: Flickr (cc) Tom

- Parachute- If you have a group, then a parachute might be great for therapy. Each color can correlate to a specific task that the child has to complete. So, say you have two children working on articulation and another working on using adjectives, then red can mean 'say X phoneme or descriptor word in 5 words', while green is 'describe two things in the room with your phoneme or descriptor words'. It's a simple way to combine everyone's goals while working on social skills.


Click here to see what other's favorite summer speech activities are!

End of Semester Thoughts

Wow, how is it almost the end of the semester and my first "official" year in my undergraduate speech-language pathology program?  I'm surprised it's even been 4 years since I graduated high school FOUR YEARS?! For me even high school went quick, and now the post-high school years have gone by just as fast, if not faster! This has been a year of many firsts, which was exciting. It's led me to think back on what all has gone on and what's yet to come.

Here are just some of the thoughts I've had:

1.5 months until I go to Spain!

I need to start studying for the GRE. Yikes!

Really, where has the time gone?

I'm so glad I got to know more people in my program :) 

I had no idea there was that much stuff involved in speech motor acts or language development.

Can't wait until I can do more observations and volunteer at the children's hospital!

I'm gonna miss my roommates when they leave me after graduation :(

How can I begin to narrow down the list of school to apply to?! Ayy!

I'm so nervous for my first poster presentation!

Speech science wasn't actually that hard.
(Okay, well for some it was, either due to the intricacies of some concepts that built on stuff learned in A&P of Speech, others because of cheating (more on that later). People always said that this was one of the hardest classes, but I guess that differs for everyone as I not only understood it but enjoyed  it! )

Okay, really... how has 4 years gone by?

What is everyone else thinking as summer comes closer?

Boosting That Transcript and Gaining Knowledge

Now, lots of people might ask "why take classes you don't need? Why torture yourself with some "classes" in the summer that don't "count" for something? Well, there's three reasons:

1. I'll admit to being a nerd and enjoying learning. Crazy, I know

2. To go along with that, these classes will boost my knowledge of the field I want to work in, and related items.

3. It'll boost my transcript and show I'm really serious about this, and not doing the bare minimum.

How will I go about doing this? Taking Continuing Education Credits (CEUs) that SLP's have to take for their license, but without getting credits at the end. Since I'm not a licensed professional, I don't need the credits themselves, so I'm just taking the classes. It's fairly simple. You can search on ASHA for CEUs you'd like, online or in person,  and find their provider, then take the class through the provider.

One of the main online providers (which makes it easier) is speechpathology.com, and what's good is they give a discount to STUDENTS! It's only $49/ year for access to all of their courses, which can be text, audio or video! And then you can take the test at the end. Each class is worth a different amount of CEUs and is a different difficulty level and length, but most I've found are 1 hour long, so not much time at all! There's even some classes related to audiology.

Another provider I've seen on ASHA (although it's not for credits, I'd still prefer it to be accredited) is linguisystems.com. I've actually seen some SLPs mention this on Facebook... and they love it cause some of the CEUs are free! So even better. :) That should be an easy way to gain more insight without having to hurt the college budget.

 

Those are just two examples to help boost that resume and just keep learning. Some even say it helped for finding a Clinical Fellowship Year (CFY) after graduate school. :)Check ASHA for other providers, or even take ones that might not be approved! If they don't count for credits then it may not matter anyway. :) Just make sure you jot down the courses and speakers to write on your resume!