Juggling Plates… /r/ Intensive and can be a TenseBuilder (p.s. there is a giveaway here)

I’ve always thought that I was more productive when I had more on my plate and deadlines closing in…. Or so I thought.   But these last few weeks have been too much and I have found myself literally juggling plates when our house sold. I didn’t break any but I did pack them, toss some and set some aside to eat on.  With the number of craziness hitting me all at once I decided the only one putting demands and deadlines on my plate was ME.  So I gave myself permission to do nothing but try to survive the stress of moving, house hunting, temporary housing, living out of boxes, car repairs, family stuff, school starting etc. etc. So that is the main reason I have not posted for quite some time.  Plus having my computer packed away….somewhere makes it difficult!

So giving myself permission has relieved some of the stress.  But I do want to share a few things I have been enjoying.

Games:

This summer I won a game from Thinkfun called Mini Mouth. The object is to draw 2-5 letters and be the first one to shout out a word that contains those letters. Yes I did play it this way with my family but realized it might need modifying with my speech/language caseload. It is easy to keep in my purse or therapy bag and take with me. I played it following the game rules but have also changed it for some students. We pick a category (food, animal etc) and we flip a tile and try to name as many items that start with that letter. The kids also like to each have their own tile and think of an item that starts with that letter and give clues and see if we can guess it. Great toy to work on vocabulary, problem solving, spelling, turn taking and more!!!

I was then contacted by Thinkfun and asked if I would be interested in trying another product. Oh yes!!! This one is called PathWords Jr.  This game builds vocabulary, spelling, and spatial reasoning skills. The object is to fit the correct Tetris-style puzzle pieces over letters to spell words. I used this with a two boys who were working on cooperative play. I gave them the basic game instructions and then they were on their own. It was great to see them dividing the puzzle pieces, taking  turns and giving advice. I noticed that some of the “advice” was moving the puzzle piece for the other student. I reminded them that if they did not want “finger help” they needed to tell their partner. This was a really fun activity and helped to work on social skills too.

APPS:

/r/ intensive from Smarty Ears-

I don’t know about you but /r/ sound errors are not my favorite. If I am successful and have a child imitate my /r/ in one of our first trials I am thrilled!  Sometimes that doesn’t work so we work on tongue placement and that might work..hurray!  If that doesn’t work then I might teach a “g” and move it into an /r/ often with the word tiger . Oh boy if that doesn’t work I might try using “l” and have them slide their tongue across the roof of their mouth and cross my fingers. Ok maybe move from “ah”  to /r/.  (Big sigh) Now if nothing works then we come back the next session and start all over again and again.  I have not found “the one” trick that always works. Each case is different and some move quickly into words and sentences. The ones that try and try but still can’t reach consistency can be frustrating for everyone.  But as an SLP we are known to never give up. We try different techniques and tools. We research for other ideas. We collaborate with co-workers and other SLPs through social media.  And some days we even get to dismiss a student from /r/ therapy!!

Smarty Ears had a recent update for /r/ intensive and  has added new flashcards, a matching game and a guessing game. Not only is this a great way to target those pesky /r/ errors but it is very engaging for my students.  I always use apps in multiple ways so my twist for this app is using it with all students on my caseload. I can play guessing games to expand describing skills. I can use it with my fluency students to practice techniques at the word, sentence and storytelling levels.

TenseBuilder from Mobile Education Store-   is designed to help students learn how to identify and use correct tense forms by playing movie quality animated videos to demonstrate past, present and future tense. I have been using this with my students in group activities. It makes a great cooperation activity. My youngest students need to focus on using present regular tense in complete sentences (He is calling). So we have concentrated on using the videos to learn about this and record our “big sentences” within the app. The kids love to hear themselves and are even starting to self correct their errors after listening! My older students are working on irregular tenses and love to see if they can get their answer correct  before the movie ends. It has become a contest among the group of boys on who can shout it out first.

Giveaways!!!

I have 2 codes for /r/ intensive and 1 code for TenseBuilder so here is what you need to do….

1. Leave a separate blog comment for each app you would like to win.

2. Like the Facebook pages for Smarty Ears and Mobile Education Store and leave a another blog comment that you did this or already are a fan.

3. I will do a random drawing for the app codes on Sunday 10/7/12 after 7:00 pm Central time.

The codes are for US iTunes.

(WordPress blogs are no longer able to use Rafflecopter for giveaways so sorry!!!)