Never a Dull Moment

There is never a dull moment working in a Skilled Nursing Facility....

I'm about to share some shortened versions of stories that happened recently at my placement. I SO wish I could tell them to you in person, but hopefully they'll come across funny/interesting!

1. I had a patient plan a full blown birthday party for me.  I asked him to sequence 4 steps to planning a birthday party, and 15 minutes later, he's still planning. And I mean PLANNING. Down to how the table would be set.

2. We had to break up a fist fight over a BIB at the lunch table.  You heard me, a bib.

3. I came into work to find out that a patient had "escaped" the nursing home, threw a nurse into a garbage can, and therefore was now no longer at the home.

4.  I told a patient I was rooting for the Red Sox to win the World Series and the patient goes, "Oh honey....".  Welcome to Cardinal Nation.

5.  I had two patients try and marry me off.  One was getting impatient for my boyfriend to propose. He told me he was going to call him up and give him a "talking-to."

6. Another patient had just finished telling me her life story and said, "So tell me about you."  I asked what she wanted to know, to which she replied, "Your age, your prospects for getting married, that's all."  Umm....

7. I had a therapy session all about fishing.  We spent a good 10 minutes on how to determine if this one type of fish was male or female.

8. One of my patients has a bunch of stuffed animals all over his bed. He proceeded to tell me the story behind each and every one of them. In GREAT detail.

9. I was feeding a patient in the dining room and all of a sudden she asked, "Where's my mother?  I can't find her.  She's been gone a long time."  Ok admittedly, that's really sad. But TWO workers came up and answered the question for her, playing along with it.  For example, "Oh what's her name?  I haven't seen her, but I'll keep my eye out."

10.  I witnessed "church" happening in the dining hall one day. Someone made a comment about not caring about the Cardinals, and the head nurse says, "Girl, you know the devil is dancing right now. Can I get an amen church?"  She kept going on and on. I don't even remember what she was saying. All I heard was, "Can I get an amen?" over and over and over.

I love my job.  There is never a dull moment.  That's all.

Fab Find Friday: 10/25/2013

Alrighty friends, midterms are DONE! 3 tests and clinical evaluations done!!  You know it's bad when a PT in your building says that you just need to stop and take a deep breath. So thank you for the support, encouraging notes, and for hanging in there with me!  You are truly the best.

Without further ado,  here's your fab finds for the week.

1. Maureen from The Speech Bubble posted about using students' learning styles in speech therapy. This is super important and is a great post!! Check it out here.

2. Alexis from Practically Speeching posted a great tip about using visual schedules! I love this strategy! Check it out here.

3. Nicole from Speech Peeps posted another month's Feedback Linky Party! Check it out here.

4. Teach Speech 365 posted a new Clinical Skills Confidence post- this time about which websites to use in therapy. Check it out here.

5.  My friend Shannon over at Speechy Musings passed her Praxis!!!! Woo hoo! Head on over to her blog to read about how she passed it and to celebrate with her here!

6. My friend Jenn at Crazy Speech World posted a new craftivity--witch style!! Check out her post here.

7. My friend Jen at Speech Universe posted about Halloween and Thanksgiving mats. They're super cute! Check them out here!!

On that note, have a fabulous weekend!  Have fun celebrating Halloween if that's what you're doing this weekend! If not, enjoy whatever else you may be up to!!

Note: All images have been used with permission.

Fab Find Friday: 10/18/2013

I take my second of three midterms today. I am almost done and then I promise blogging will be back to normal!!   Because I'm busy studying for these (or taking them), I haven't been around much.  All of my time has been focused on studying.  BUT I thought I would sneak away for a little bit to blog.

Here are a few of my find this week:

1.   Shannon at Speechy Musings just developed new sentence formation packets.  Here's one of them!

2.  Jenn at Crazy Speech World posted a great new activity too--Phone a Friend!  Check out her post here.

3. Teach Speech 365 posted a linky party recently about shopping at the dollar store and using those finds for therapy!  Check it out here.

There were a lot more fab posts this week, so be sure to catch up on them on Bloglovin!

My other fab find this week was new yoga pants.  They have been a staple in my wardrobe this week while studying...Gotta be comfy!  :)

Thanks for hanging in there with me!  You're the best!

Language Empires {app review}

First, let me apologize for being absent recently. It's midterm time again. But GUESS WHAT? These are the very LAST midterms I will ever have to take! WOOHOO!!! I could not be more excited!

Anyway, on to the topic of the day: Language Empires.  This is an awesome app from Smarty Ears that your language kiddos will have SO much fun with!  It was released in January, but they just did an update that includes some awesome features (homework and certificates among other things)!

As always, you have several menu options including a video tutorial, contact info, and liking Smarty Ears on Facebook, and more of their apps.  I would always recommend going through the tutorial. Barbara does a great job of explaining the app! Of course, if you have questions about it, you can contact her!

When you first start, add a student (or multiple ones).  Adjust the settings accordingly, and then hit "Next."

Once you select the students, you can select which empire you would like to visit. That is, which area you would like to target.  Drag the student's picture from the bottom of the screen to the given empire.

Once you drag the picture to the empire, click "Next," and you will begin the activity.  The empires are as follows:

Figurative Language:

How:

Predicting:

Sequencing:

Why:

Which:

Inferencing:

Vocabulary:

So when you're done playing, hit the "Done" button, click on the student's picture, and then choose either report or treasures.

Guess what else???? There's a homework and certificate option now!

What I like about this app:
-It targets SO many aspects of language!
-It's a great theme. Everyone likes an adventure, and it throws in a little history with the different empires.
-It uses real pictures to supplement the questions.
-Up to five kids can play at once.
-The scenarios are relevant and are ones that students can relate to.
-It is compatible with Therapy Report Center.
-You can print a certificate for completion of all or some activities.
-There are levels for some of the activities. Some have 2, others have 3.
-There are homework sheets!

Bottom Line:
This is a great app that targets so many areas of language.  I would recommend this app to any SLP to have in their "bag of tricks" or "toolbox."  Your students will have fun with this one!!

Want this app?? You can find it on iTunes for $24.99 at the time of this review!

Disclaimer: A code for the app was provided to me for my review. No other compensation was received. All opinions expressed are mine. 

Dollar Store Dash {Linky Party}

Teach Speech 365 came up with a GREAT idea of going to the dollar store, spending $5, and coming up with therapy activities with them.  You can find the first post and everyone who linked up here.

These are the items I picked up:

1. Soap Dish
2. Pumpkin Face Stickers
3. Reading Comprehension
4. Who Will Haunt My House on Halloween? book

Here are my plans for these items:

1. Put items in the soap dish and have the students shake, smell, or whatever they need to do to guess what is in it.  When it's their turn, they open it and either use the word in a sentence, repeat their words, etc. Have fun with it and they will too!

2. Pumpkin Face Sticker- I am still debating what I should do with these. One option is to put them on the pumpkins and talk about facial expressions.  Another option is to actually put them on popsicle sticks!

3. Read the book, ask questions, possibly do an activity from TpT or a craft with it!

4. Use the reading comprehension book with my adult clients.  I'll read them a short paragraph and ask them follow up questions!

What are your favorite dollar store finds for therapy??

Grad School Advice: Praxis

I just registered for my Praxis exam this past week and ordered THE book to study from a few weeks ago.  I posted this pic.

YIKES is right!  That book is huge.  There is SO much in it.  It makes me nervous for the test.  Since I have NO experience with this test at all and some of you have, I reached out to you to get some advice.  Here's what you said:

"I remember it being more of an application sort of test, which was difficult to study for. The practice tests in the book were definitely helpful."- Natalie Snyders

"Download the Praxis app and study the cards. It's kind of expensive but totally worth it!"- Roxanne Petterson

"I agree...practice tests! The book was an awesome help! Even for use during my CFY...everything was in it!"- Rae's Speech Spot

"Don't worry too much. You know more than you think."- Carly Fowler

"Just take your time going through it- you know a lot more than you think you do. Take the practice tests, they're a huge help. You will think you failed as you take it, but chances are good you'll do juuuuuuust fine."- Rachel Jones

"Take the practice test that ETS offers! Some of the questions were the exact same questions that I saw on the real one."- Stephanie McNemar

"I feel like the timing is important, so I did timed practice tests to get myself in the groove of pacing."- Jenna Rayburn

"Just breathe!"- Shannon Wilkinson

"...to relax. Most of the questions are common sense. When you apply them to students or clients you know, the answers are right there."- Jannike Johnsen

"Don't expect to know everything on the test. Sometimes you've just got to take your best guess based on what you know."- Lindsey Karol

"You only need to pass. Just passing and scoring high are the same. No one asks for your score during an interview."- Patti Bohlman

"Take a deep breath."- LyndaSLP123

"You cannot learn every fact in that book...just try and tackle a bit at a time. It's more important to take practice tests than to memorize each and every fact."- Speech Time Fun

"Pass the darn thing!"- Penny Benson

"Study study study, then study more until you dream about it. Then you're ready."- Kristy Davies


THANK YOU to everyone who responded.

Do you have more advice??? Comment below--we'd love to hear it!! 

Spch Lang {website review}

Usually I do app reviews, but I was particularly excited when I was asked to review a WEBSITE, since not everyone has access to iPads, other tablets, or smartphones!   Today, I want to introduce you to spchlang.com. There are affiliate links in this post for your convenience.

I was initially intrigued by this site because it is NOT geared toward speech-language pathologists.  It is actually meant for parents.  I wanted to see what it was all about.  Here's a bit from the website that states what their purpose is:

Spch Lang is a revolutionary early learning system designed to help parents stimulate their child's speech. Our lessons incorporate the best of current teaching methods, making it possible for every parent to be a successful teacher.

Using our simple and easy to understand tools, parents can give their child the best possible start in life. Spch Lang focuses on teaching one, two and three word sentence patterns while providing parents with easy access to simple and detailed notes, games and fun at-home activities and exercises.

There are A LOT of activities, games, and resources on this site, so bear with me!  I want to give you a comprehensive overview of it.

A blog is featured on the website.  Some of the headlines include "Teach Your Toddler To Talk: "Is My Child Stimulable?"", "Should I Read to My Child if She Isn't Talking?", and "Say S for Success."  One of the articles says: "Since I am not a Speech Pathologist I have had to learn these things through reading/research, trial and error."  This same article talks about stimulability, segmentation, modeling, etc.  Yes, these are all things that SLPs do.  I just think it's important that parents always consult an SLP, ESPECIALLY if there are any concerns about speech and language.  That's what their job is. Plus, SLPs will know the research.  There is actually no mention about consulting SLPs anywhere on the site actually.  I would STRONGLY suggest that be changed.  

Ok onto the fun stuff.   With a paid membership, you have access to what is called the Control Panel.  It's a nice, central way to organize everything on the site.  Just click through the tabs to see all of the materials under each one.  Here are a few pictures for you, just to give you an idea of what it looks like.

There are more options with a paid membership, but one of the free ones is this one: Speech Practice. Scroll through the pictures, have the child say each word. Pretty straightforward right? What is also cool about this is that you can record the child saying it and play it back for them.  Be sure to model for the child if they need it.  There is no way to take data on the site, so you'll need pen and paper. You have more options for this at the paid level, as well.

Another option is videos.  One thing I like about these videos is that they give multiple opportunities for the child to say the target word.  I also like that the videos show real pictures of the target word.   As you can see, the word was cut off in the video for me...I also think the title "Sentence Trainer" is misleading, since they are one word targets.

There are many games, activities and flashcards for the kids to go through.  Here's one of the games/activities.  The child listens to what the computer says, says the word, and then drags it to the table. There are multiple levels of this activity as well.  No data collection here either, so you'll need a pen and paper.

In the download area, there are some worksheets that they say are for parents.  One of them is what they call a segmentation worksheet.  The idea is to put the target sound before or after the vowel and then drive a car along the road to practice.  This is a cute idea for practice with one syllable targets.

There is a whole section where you can access activities by sound.  There are worksheets, sound practice, and an ebook associated with those sounds.

There is an error on that worksheet...However, I do believe there are good, useful worksheets.
UPDATE:  This has been corrected.

Here's an example of an ebook.  I actually really like these. They do a good job of incorporating the target sound, targeting only that sound, and giving cues for what to say to the child.   There are some for language as well.  Here's a pic of the first three pages of this book.

In the control panel, there is also a calendar with daily activities for parents to do with their children.

With a paid membership, you can access more of the videos, flash cards, worksheets, and books.

Bottom Line:
-This site was designed for parents, which is LOVE the idea of.  I love involved parents, and I think something like this would be great for them.
-HOWEVER, and I think it's a big "however,"  there is no mention of consulting an SLP.  As a future SLP, this absolutely concerns me. As I mentioned above, parents should always consult an SLP if they have concerns about their child's speech and/or language.
-SO, if you were to use this site as an SLP or a parent approached you about using it, I would give careful directions on how to use each activity, game, video, flash card, etc.  Show them exactly how to use them properly. Show them how to cue their children. You know the drill.
-I think students/children will enjoy the activities here.

Do you want to check this site out for yourself?? There are several membership options.  You can try it for free OR you can purchase a discounted membership on Educents this week.

Disclaimer: Access to this site was provided to me for my review. All opinions expressed are mine. No other compensation was received.