Every summer my family and I take a road trip, usually to visit our extended families.  This year our trips are very carefully planned to limit our risk due to the pandemic. We won't be stopping at any hotels, we have masks and tons of hand sanitizer and are limiting close contact (ex. hugging) with those we visit.  We're also not visiting any restaurants on our trip. We are still planning on visiting our immediate family but all other vacations have been postponed.  That being said, we have a family visit coming up! Over the years and as the boys have grown we started putting together "busy bags" for the car to keep them entertained. We also found the items to be helpful once we got to our destination or stopped at a restaurant/hotel too.  My boys are currently 3 and 6 but even though they are three years apart we have two of almost everything since they will fight over things if one has something the other doesn't.  Here's what we put in our "busy bags...
I have had quite a few messages lately asking what exactly do I DO during teletherapy so I figured I'd write a post sharing my "bag of tricks". I have compiled my favorite websites, games, activities, and apps that I have used during teletherapy, and that have worked well. I currently have a caseload of pre-K-5th grade with several students on the Autism spectrum.  These materials and tools definitely helped to make teletherapy more interactive and engaging. I hope this list gives you some new ideas or if you are new to teletherapy a place to start!  Before we get started I talk about "screen sharing" and using a document camera quite a bit.  Both of these tools are how I am able to use many of these materials and keep it interactive.  "Screen sharing" is just digitally sharing what's on your computer screen (or iPad screen) with your student over whatever platform you are using for teletherapy (Ex. WebEx, Google Meet, Zoom, etc.).  Usually, t...
When I first started working as an SLP I found it easy to incorporate language goals into play but had to be more intentional to also target articulation goals too.  A little people farm is a staple in my speech room both for language and articulation goals.  Here are some of the ways I target skills using the farm! I've included a list of words (or animal sounds) that I often use when targeting the sounds. You'll see many of the words are repeated as they can work on several sounds depending on which position of the word you're working with.  ...
I shared about learning letters with my 3 year-old a little while back but thought I may want to back up to learning colors too!  My youngest knows the basic colors now at 3 but we worked hard on naming and identifying colors from about 2-3 years old.  Here are some of our favorite things to practice learning colors! First is the most obvious, crayons!  We color, paint, and draw whenever we get a chance.  I usually have a small pack of crayons and a coloring book in my bag for whenever we go out to eat (if we ever get to do that again!). Next, is the Learning Resources Mini-Muffin set !  This set does so much more than work on colors, there are activities for counting, learning numbers, and fine motor skills too.   This little piggy bank has been one of my favorite toys for a while during therapy with the pre-K population.  It is great for naming/identifying colors but also can be used to incorporate so many other goals such as requesting, taking turns, count...