Using Symbaloo to Explore Speech Therapy Ideas

Symbaloo is a great website that should be used by many teachers and speech therapists. This website allows you to make a board with square icons that represent various websites. It is easy to use the search tool on Symbaloo to find boards that could be extremely useful for speech therapists. We learned about Symbaloo in class, but for this blog post I explored as many boards for speech therapy that I could find. Here are some examples of what I discovered:

 

1. “Apps for Speech Therapy” 

http://www.symbaloo.com/home/mix/appsforspeechtherapy

 

This board includes many apps that have great ratings, reviews, and features. Earlier in the semester we compiled the best speech therapy apps that we could find, and all of the ones we liked happen to be on this board! I am going to keep this Symbaloo in mind for my future career because I think I will definitely have an iPad and use these apps with the children that I work with. One of my favorite apps on this board is “Verbally“.

 

Verbally is similar to a voice box that typically is thousands of dollars, but the full app is $99.

 

“Its simple interface and design make it simple and easy to use and will have you holding a full conversation within a matter of minutes. According to the Verbally app page on iTunes, “Verbally brings speech to those without and enables real conversation with its simple, intuitive design. Just tap in what you want to say and Verbally speaks for you.””

 

 

 

2. Speech/Lang Therapy

http://www.symbaloo.com/mix/speech-langtherapy?searched=true

This is another board that I found to be particularly useful. The board is entirely full with icons of great websites that would help speech therapists.

 

This board is full of games and activities that speech therapists can use with children. One example of a game is on the website http://www.angelfire.com/nm2/speechtherapyideas/articgames.html

“MYSTERY PICK: Clinician chooses a winning card, places the card back in the deck, shuffles and fans the cards out. Clients take turns selecting cards, saying the word on the card. The one who picks the winning card gets a sticker.”

 

I am amazed at all of the resources I have found for speech therapy online. I think this job can potentially always be fun because I have the resources to mix up the activities I do with children. Being a freshman in college, creating this blog has been immensely useful because I have gotten to learn about what I am getting myself into. 🙂 😉

 

 

Viewing Blogs to Explore Speech Pathology

I explored blogs of speech therapists and I’m very glad I did because now I know what a huge resource these blogs could be for me in the future. One of my favorite blogs by a speech therapist would be http://superpowerspeech.com/

 

Super Powers Speech:

 

 

Above is a screen shot of this blog – it has an attractive layout. It is easy to read, and every post is helpful. The author has been a speech therapist for 13 years and she is a mom. The blog has everything from information about speech development to lesson plans.

One example of an assessment she posted on this blog is called “Three Billy Goats Gruff.” It is a picture book with speech activites dispersed throughout lessons. At the end of each section, there is more practice for each section that the child may have struggled in.

 

Play on Words:

 

 

One other blog I found useful is called “Play on Words.” The author, Sherry, has been a speech therapist for 35 years. Her blog is less personal and more professional, but seems to be more informational.

 

An activity called “Dance and Groove with Your Toddler for First Game Fun” sounds really cute and enjoyable. The description mentions that toddlers will not sit still for speech therapy sessions, which I believe. The solution is to use colored cards with instructions to call out movements. I think toddlers would love this game while developing some speech and listening skills.

 

Using Pinterest to share Speech Therapy Ideas

My next area of focus in the realm of speech therapists on social networking is Pinterest. I made an account and started pinning ideas that wanted to save for later. I know that this will be an extremely valuable resource. I found an endless assortment of games and tips for speech therapists to use. I really didn’t expect to discover this much. Also, this is giving me a good idea of what my job one day will actually consist of, and I am really excited!

My Pinterest board: http://www.pinterest.com/jennaf33/speech-therapy-ideas/

One of the pins I made that I particularly liked is a link to the article “How to Talk to Kids” (http://www.modernparentsmessykids.com/2012/06/how-to-talk-to-kids.html)

I recently have been volunteering as a mentor at Thomas Lay, and sometimes I just don’t know what to say to a kid who is reading with  me or misbehaving. In my educational psychology class, we learned that words of encouragement are most effective when they mention something specific rather than being vague compliments such as “good job.” I started experimenting with pointing out specific things that impressed me, and it really does work. This article mentions that you shouldn’t ask too many questions and it recommends that we ask open-ended questions to get the children thinking and talking. I think this is great advice!

Using Twitter to share Speech Therapy Ideas

Twitter:

To explore the world of SLP, I made a professional Twitter account with the handle @jennafreeman_ and followed multiple Speech-Language Pathologists. There is a huge network of SLPs on Twitter that share techniques, advice, and experiences using many hashtags. Some examples of popular hashtags used by SLPs:

#SLPeeps

#SLPnerd

#slp2b

#slpbloggers

#autism

As a first year in college, I have a lot to learn about Speech-Language Pathology. After looking at tweets that have used the hashtag #slpeeps for just ten minutes, I have already learned so much. I’m glad that I am making an early start at using social networking to be the best speech therapist possible. Starting a twitter account and using it actively is important so that I can get the most out of it.

 

In other non-twitter news, I came across a link to a great blog: http://graymattertherapy.com/what-does-an-slp-do/

This blog was made by someone who asked fellow SLPs what they didn’t know about their field before going through training. Here are some of the responses:

“Swallowing therapy is within the SLP scope of practice.”

“SLPs do more than provide direct patient care.”

“SLPs do a lot of counseling.”

“Most people don’t know what an SLP does.”

“It can be an emotional job for better or worse.”