If you like free, evidence-based language screening measures, you need to check out the CUBED Narrative Language Measures (NLM) and Dynamic Decoding Measures (DDM) from Language Dynamics (makers of Story Champs Narrative Language Intervention and the PEARL Screener). According to the authors, Douglas Peterson and Trina Spencer, the CUBED family of tools includes

 Wow! A free set of screening and progress monitoring tools that actually help inform your instruction AND your understanding of your students' actual decoding and language comprehension levels! But how does it work in actual practice? I used the NLM and here is my review (which was not solicited in any manner by CUBED or its associates. I just wanted to share my thoughts)

My first impression of the the CUBED toolkit is that it is very well designed. The website is professionally done and fairly easy to navigate. 

I was also impressed by the research links. The authors have been researching narrative language for nearly 20 years and writing about narrative language since 2012. They have been published in the Perspectives journal for SIG 1: Language Learning and Education, the Journal of Learning Disabilities, and Topics in Language Disorders. I always like to see research to back up any screener or assessment I use. 

The Narrative Language Measures include the NLM Listening and the NLM Reading.

Description of the NLM Listening measure:

• Sections: Listening Retell, Comprehension (Story and Vocabulary Questions), and Personal Story Generation sections,
• Age range: PK- 3rd grade
• Purpose: to assess "a student’s ability to comprehend and produce complex, academic language."

There are additional sections of the NLM that examine story grammar comprehension and inferential word learning/word use. There is also a personal story generation task that can also be used to monitor expressive language. 

The NLM Listening measure also includes optional picture supports for Pre K students, which cost $15. The manual recommends using them with students who have more difficulty retelling the story (so, basically all of my pre-K students), so I was happy to purchase them to use for benchmark and progress monitoring assessments. 

Disclosure: I have not yet used the DDM for my own clients, but I am including them here so you have a full understanding of the CUBED toolkit.

The DDM includes three dynamic assessments with multiple levels and a ‘test-teach-retest’ process to identify a student’s current level of performance for phonemic awareness, identification of words, letters, and sounds, and nonsense word decoding. Unlike the NLM, the DDM does not have specific grade levels for benchmark screening or progress monitoring. 

• Sections: Phonemic Awareness, Word ID, and Decoding
• Age Range: PK-2nd grade

The NLM and DDM are easy to download and use. Simply click on Download on the right-hand side of the page.

You will need to complete your order (free if you just choose the CUBED, $15 if you choose to purchase the illustrations for Pre-K students). You will then receive an email with a link to a zip file, which includes PDF files for the CUBED manual, and DDM and MLM benchmarks, assessments, and stimulus booklets. It's very straightforward from there. In minutes, you will be on your way to assessing your students' narrative language and decoding! 

The DDM measures decoding. The NLM measures language. To understand the DDM a little better, here is what the website says about the DDM:​

So let me know what you think- do you like the CUBED? Do you have any other favorite free language measures? Let me know in the comments! 

An updated version of this post is now hosted on my Private Practice SLP site. 
​

As SLP's, we sometimes need very specialized tools to do our jobs well- video fluoroscopy machines for swallowing evaluations, specific sound stimuli for articulation therapy, or eye-gaze AAC devices for clients. Sometimes, though, we need items that can help us target the goals for the maximum amount of students/clients/patients on our caseload. Hence, my list of go-to games for maximum engagement! Whether you work in the schools or in a medical setting, these games are sure to be a hit! 
​Affiliate links included for your convenience. 

There you go- my favorite speech and language games to use for (almost) everyone on your caseload! Do you have any other favorites? Let me know in the comments! 

Oh, the /r/ sound. If you work with speakers of non-Bostonian American English, you know that this sound can be tricky. Besides the two major production types- Retroflex and Bunched- you also have prevocalic and vocalic /r/ types. Also, as Dr Wayne Secord notes in his formative textbook Eliciting Sounds: Techniques and Strategies for Clinicians: "The articulation of /r/ is highly variable..." Understatement of the century, right there. 

I've worked with many students and clients on that pesky/r/ sound, with parents who report that others think their child is speaking in a  Boston or Southern accent, or is British. Over the years, I've compiled a list of my favorite go-to resources and elicitation techniques for /r/, since many clients work on it for quite a bit of time. 

I've divided my resources into those for younger and older clients, since their goals and interests can be so different. I've also included a list of my favorite elicitation techniques at the end. Enjoy!

​For non-readers/younger clients:

• My Minimal Pairs Smash Mats for Gliding- I've used these with all ages because everyone loves play dough!
• Webber Phonology Minimal Pairs Cards Fun Sheets: I don't have the cards that go with this but I really like the fun sheets!
• Vocalic R Minimal Pairs Sorting Activity by Kiwi Speech- these are AWESOME for the clients who can produce one or two vocalic R types but the rest all sound the same.
• Vocalic R Elicitation Webs, also by Kiwi Speech. Uses coarticulation to help shape vocalic R from prevocalic R.
• Match It Quick Vocalic R game by Courtney Gragg- This takes a lot of initial prep time (cutting out the circles) but is so fun for all ages. 
• Cut and Fold Vocalic R and R Blends by The Artsy SLP. These are good for getting the clients thinking about the words/adding a literacy aspect (they are riddles and you fold back a tab to find the answer).
• Interactive Notebook for R by Primary Punch. All of my clients really enjoyed this! 

For /r/ elicitation: 

• Use play dough to make a tongue and "teeth" and have the client position them like they would be in their mouth (I learned this from Natalie Synders blog post).
• Use a mouth puppet to demonstrate articulator positioning
• For older clients, I bring in Secord's Eliciting Sounds book (quoted above) and show them the page with MRI scans of 12 different /r/ productions, then talk about how everyone produces the sound differently
• Shape from /i/, drawing the tongue back along the top of the mouth to produce "eeeer" 
• Use these great flavored plastic tongue depressors. I personally can't stand the taste or texture of wooden tongue depressors, and my clients really enjoy the gluten-free, sugar-free, non-toxic Tutti Frutti flavor. Have them hold the stick sideways in their mouth (like a bit in a horse) and push the tongue against it to "bunch" up the back when working on bunched /r/.
• Use a flat lollipop and have then push it against the top of their mouth with their tongue while trying to produce /r/ (also for bunched /r/)
• Have them lie down while saying /r/. This can use gravity in your favor! It works for both retroflexed and bunched /r/.
• Lastly, don't be afraid to try eliciting both bunched and retroflex /r/! I personally produce a bunched /r/, but many of my clients have had success using the retroflex position.

Those are my favorite resources and techniques. Let me know what you think! Hopefully these will help your clients say "world", "girl", and "squirrel" in no time! 

An updated version of this post is now hosted on my Private Practice SLP site. 

​We've all been there- between paperwork, evaluations, IEP meetings, bus/lunch/recess duty, PD that doesn't apply to our profession, fire drills, etc- sometimes there just isn't time to plan the therapy we envision. More than once, I've decided on a therapy activity while walking the students down the hall for their session. In general, those sessions have worked- a hallmark of being an SLP is being able to think on our feet and modify sessions as needed- but having an overall goal and theme for sessions is a useful practice. Thankfully, many talented SLP's have created membership-based sites that do much of the planning for you, so I've compiled a list of those sites below to help you work smarter, not harder! 

Titles are linked for your convenience!

Carrie Clark, CCC-SLP, founded The Speech Therapy Solution as a way to help make other SLP's lives easier. It includes many different options for learning, materials, and feedback. 
Target Ages: Not specified; school-based SLPs
Contents:

• The SLP Survival Kit: ready-to-go therapy materials, with more sent weekly
• Low-Prep Materials Library: worksheets and activities you can print and go
• On-demand Training Videos: covers over 300 different topics, based on questions that other group members have asked
• Mini-Course Library: includes the following courses (as of July 2017) 
  • Using AAC to Help Minimally-Verbal Children Communicate
  • SLP’s Field Guide to Speech Therapy for Children with Childhood Apraxia of Speech
  • What to Work on in Speech/Language Therapy for Children with Autism
  • SLP’s Field Guide to Improving Fluency and Decreasing Stuttering
  • Where to Start in Therapy for Children who aren’t Speaking Yet
  • SLP’s Field Guide to Working with Children with Behavior Problems
  • SLP’s Field Guide to Improving Social Language Skills in Children
  • How to Improve Syntax and Grammar Skills in Children with Language Delays
• Monthly Webinars:  these are ASHA approved for CE hours! 
• Private Facebook Group and Website Membership Forum: ask questions and connect with other SLPs
• Discounts on Carrie's library of e-books

Price:

• Full Membership: $25/month or $250/year. Includes SLP Survival Kit, weekly emails, Materials Library , and CEUs
• There is a FREE membership option for undergraduate and graduate students as well!

Marisha is an SLP who loves to share her amazing organization tips and tricks along with helpful information for other SLPs. She created the SLP Now membership to save other SLPs time and headaches. 
Target Ages: not specified; school-based SLPs
Contents: 

• Literacy & theme-based activities: book guides, crafts, open-ended activities, reading passages, etc. 
• Common-Core Aligned Resource Library of 800+ materials
• Organizational Tools: including an editable digital therapy planner designed for SLPs
• Private Facebook Group and SLP Now Membership Forum: ask questions and connect with other SLPs
• HIPAA-compliant data storage​

Price: $29/month (only includes access to 3 courses) or $249/year (includes access to all courses)

​More of set of therapy tools than a lesson plan membership site per se, SLP Toolkit was created by SLPs Lisa Kathman and Sarah Bevier to streamline paperwork for SLPs.
Ages:  all
Contents: online resources accessible anywhere including

• Present Level Assessments: screen any child on your caseload with customizable screeners
• Goal Bank: choose from preset goals or write your own. Includes targeted skills, levels of cueing, criteria for mastery, assessment methods, and assessment frequency in all goals. 
• Caseload Management: record each student's demographics, IEP/Evaluation dates, service times, and treatment area
• Strategies List: use for accommodations on IEPs. 

Price: $18/month (billed annually) or $24/month (billed monthly) 

This site includes therapy plans for articulation and language. Articulation plans address all sounds in all word positions, and language plans "include describing, prepositions, rhyming, pronouns, antonyms, synonyms, homonyms, multiple meaning words, vocabulary, past tense verbs, plurals and sequencing!" Purchase orders are accepted and there is a 30 day money back guarantee.
Ages:  preschool through early elementary 
Contents: 

• Therapy Plans: 2 therapy plans each for artic and language per week (4 total plans) with instructions, materials, tips, and video tutorials
• Bonus Plans: one per month
• Private SLP Community Forum
• 50% Off select Speech Therapy Fun materials
• Bonuses and Challenges: win prizes for tasks like completing paperwork 

Price: $24/month or $227/year (yearly membership includes 3 free bonus bundles)

We've all been there: after 280173 iterations of your therapy schedule, you still have a lot of mixed groups. What to do when you have little Johnny working on prepositions, little Suzy working on past tense verbs, and little Kimmy working on /r/? Enter my secret weapon: interactive books! Here's how I use them to target every goal on my caseload:

Research has shown that incorporating movement into learning is the best way to engage children and encourage generalization of skills. I love a good worksheet now and then, but when you are first teaching a concept, using manipulatives (SLP-speak for "items you can move around") and the children themselves is the best way to get them learning. We also know that literacy instruction is important. My favorite way to combine the two to target every goal on my caseload is through using interactive books. 

What is an interactive book, you ask? It's a book that "requires participation and interaction by the reader". In the case of most interactive books for speech, this involves pieces that the student can attach to various parts of the book to answer questions or interact with the story. Below is an example of one you can find in my TPT store, "Leo's Lunch for /L/ and /L/ blends". 

There are many different interactive books to choose from- for younger students, you can use board books.  I like to buy mine from TPT in order to support other SLP's and to find books that already target a specific goal (it gives me one less thing to plan for!). Here are some of my favorites:

• Leo's Lunch: An Interactive Book for /L/ and /L/ Blends by me
• Pronouns and Prepositions Interactive book by Speechy Musings
• Interactive Song Book: Old MacDonald by Jenna Rayburn
• Where Is the Frog? Preposition book FREEBIE by me

Once you have your book, you can begin to decide how you will target each student's goal/s. Many books make this easy- I offer a comprehension page along with mini flash cards in my Leo's Lunch book, so you can easily target language goals as well! If the book doesn't offer that, I like to do what Hallie from Speech Time Fun recommends and write out some target questions beforehand. I always think I'm going to be able to remember all of the goals in the moment, but I always miss some if I don't write things down! Some sample questions I wrote for "Old MacDonald" are:

• "Where does Old MacDonald live?" (Target: Where questions)
• "What is the first animal we sang about?" (Target: basic concepts- temporal concepts)
• "What is the difference between farm animals and jungle animals?" (Targets: categories; Curriculum Unit: animals)
• "What does a farmer do?" (Targets: What questions, Curriculum Unit: Community Helpers)
• You can also target sharing, turn taking, and asking relevant questions in conversation if you are targeting social/pragmatic goals. This is a wonderful, natural setting for teaching and learning those skills!

The great thing about interactive books is that you can keep each child engaged while you read by giving them a specific picture and having them listen for when they need to add it to the book. Little hands love having something to fidget with while you read! You can also use the removable pictures as a cue to help students who need visual supports while answering questions, without having to use a separate visual aid. 

Another way I love to make interactive books work for my entire caseload is to print out a master copy in color that I laminate and add Velcro to, then print half-page-sized sheets in black-and-white that students can glue the pictures onto. If you have students who need more tactile input while you read, you can have them follow along and glue their pictures in. If you want them to practice more of the concept at home, send it home with them. Parents have always enjoyed those books because they can re-use them by reading to their kids after they are finished gluing the items in the book. 

Those are my tips for using interactive books for every student on your caseload! Be sure to check out the interactive books from my store: "Where Is the Frog?" FREEBIE, "Where is the Snowflake?" FREEBIE, and "Going Poop on the Potty" social story FREEBIE, and "Leo's Lunch: An Interactive Book for /L/ and /L/ blends", and let me know what you think! 

Related posts:

• 5 Organization Tips for the Traveling SLP
• Using Minimal Pairs in Therapy​

An updated version of this post is hosted on my Private Practice SLP site. 

The setting: your speech room.
The characters: you and the articulation student/client you've been working with for a few months now.
The scene: Aforementioned student/client walks into the room, takes one look at the activity you have set out for them, and groans, "Not this again!"

Despite our best intentions, therapy can sometimes get monotonous. There are only so many ways to elicit speech and language goals, and combined with the added requirements of seeing mixed groups, implementing RtI, providing curriculum-based therapy, and just plain settling all of the kids down, sometimes you just have to use a tried-and-true standby like Candy Land or Webber Artic Cards! I was in that position, until I watched Felice Clark (The Dabbling Speechie) talk about her awesome sensory bins during her SLP Summit talk. She mentioned these toys called "TOOBS" that seemed so interesting, so I just had to check them out! Affiliate links included for your convenience.

For anyone wondering, TOOBS are, well, tubes filled with tiny soft-plastic toys of varying categories. **DISCLAIMER: these are appropriate for students 3 and up, due to being so tiny**.  They offer nearly any category you can think of: Coral Reef Creatures, Flowers, Fruits and Vegetables, and even Space! The number of toys varies based on the category, but is usually between 7-12 per TOOB. I love that they all fit in the tube for ease of transport (I'm an itinerant SLP and space is at a premium!), and that the toys themselves are small enough to not overload those sensitive students who are overwhelmed by too many choices. ​

​I chose to use my TOOB to target articulation at the sentence level, but one of the great things about these TOOBS are that you can use them to target any articulation level (word, phrase, sentence, carryover) as well as a plethora of language goals (see below).

1. First, I found a TOOB set that my student was interested in that had multiple items with their target sound. Fortunately, my student likes sharks and is working on /r/ in sentences, but you could choose any number of different TOOBS, or even a phrase to use with them ("I see a ___" for /s/, etc).
2. Secondly, I provided visual support. In this case, I made a simple semantic map so we could describe each shark. You can find it for FREE in my TPT store! I've found that just playing with the toys can be fun and elicit a lot of language, but you can get caught up pretty fast and end the session with everyone happy but without having gotten even 10 repetitions of your target words. Before the session, I made a list of the words I was going to target that I kept in my notebook. During the session, we used my computer to go to Wikipedia and look up information about each shark, and my student wrote down a sentence or two in each part of the semantic map (color/size, food, habitat, and an interesting fact). 
3. Since we were working on sounds at the sentence level, I had the student go through and highlight each /r/ word, then say the sentence to me using their best speech ( i.e. "The nurse shark is very slow"). 

​And there you have it: articulation with TOOBS!

You can use them to target different speech goals, including:

• Categories
• Describing/comparing
• Narrative structure: make up a story with some or all of the characters in a TOOB
• Curriculum support: there are toys for nearly every unit that my preschoolers study (Community Helpers, Farm, Transportation, etc). 
• Attributes
• Wh- questions
• Story re-tell: have the student describe a story from class using the TOOB characters

I hope you found this interesting and can add it to your arsenal of Speech Tricks and Tips! If you found this helpful or have any of your own tips or tricks for TOOBS, let me know in the comments! 

If you've been an SLP for any amount of time, or if you have a child in speech therapy, chances are that you've heard about minimal pairs. You might think, "What makes them minimal?" or "How could something called 'minimal' help with speech?" I happen to love using minimal pairs in therapy, and I'll show you why. 

The basics: minimal pairs are words that differ in only one phonological element (sound). Some examples are seat/sheet (initial sound) or back/bat (final sound).  Now, on to some reasons that I love them.

1. They're evidence-based
According to the venerable SLP gurus Barbara Hodson and Elaine Paden (1),  "the use of auditory bobardment, minimal pairs for semantic understanding of speech errors, and gradual multisensory cue fading improved children's overall speech intelligiblity. " In simple terms, that means that using a lot of sound repetitions for the student to listen to, along with minimal pairs and different cues (pointing to your own lips to show shape and use, verbally cuing where to place the articulators to make the sound, drawing pictures, tracing the sound as you say it, etc) help students sound more intelligible. 

2. They sneak in some rhyming practice
By definition, minimal pairs are words that differ in only one phonological element. So unless you're working on final consonants or final sounds, the words generally rhyme (torn/corn, tape/cape, seat/sheet, etc). I like to point this out when I'm working with kiddos to help them tune in to the sounds of the word. Sometimes I give older students multiple words and have them figure out which ones are the minimal pairs. We work on speech sounds AND phonological awareness, all at once! 

3. They're fun
There are a ton of fun activities targeting minimal pairs out there! You can also make your own using flash cards, although you need a lot of them. Some of my favorite activities are:

• My Minimal Pairs Smash Mats Bundle: my students LOVE using play dough in therapy, and this activity allows them to do so while working on minimal pairs. They can also use a dry erase marker, just to mix things up. There are sets for Fronting, Stopping, Gliding, Cluster Reduction, and Final Consonant Deletion. You can try out a free version here. 
• Vocalic R Minimal Pairs Sorting Activity from Kiwi Speech. My kiddos who are working on /r/ LOVE this! It is great for those students who can use /r/ at the beginning of words, but their vocalic /r/s all sound the same. I laminated these and used Velcro to make them reuseable. 
• Minimal Pairs for Fronting and Backing by Speech2U. Includes rebus activities, sentences, matching activities, and more! (You can try it out with an "S to F" version here)
• Grab 'N Go Phonological Processes from Live Love Speech. I love all of Kristine's Grab 'N Go books for their portability and effectiveness. This one targets Final Consonant Deletion, Fronting, Stopping, Gliding, and Cluster Reduction with minimal pair activities and more. 
• Candy Town Phonology from Jenna Rayburn. My kiddos LOVE the CandyLand game, and this packet works with it (*game not included). It has sets for Final Consonant Deletion, Fronting, Stopping, Cluster Reduction, and Multisyllabic words, and for each set, the double picture cards are minimal pairs.
• Minimal Pairs Activity for S and T FREEBIE from Activity Tailor. Includes Say and Sort, Say and Dab, and What Did You Hear? activities. 
• Minimal Pairs Interactive Book for Deaffrication by SLP Tree. A fun book with silly sentences, that targets that complex phonological process of deaffrication (substituting a fricative or stop sound like /s/ or /t/ for "ch" or "sh"). 
• Minimal Pairs for Fronting K and G Sounds from The Speech Chicks. Includes flash card with pictures and an auditory bombardment page. 

These are my favorite activities to target minimal pairs. Do you have any favorites to add? Tell me in the comments! ​

​References:

• Hodson, B.W., & Paden, E.P. (1981). Phonological processes which characterize unintelligible and intelligible speech in early childhood. Journal of Speech and Hearing Disorders, 46, 369-373.
• Barlow, J. A., and Gierut, J. A. (2002). Minimal pair approaches to phonological remediation. Seminars in Speech and Language, 23(1), 57-67
• Barbara Dodd, Sharon Crosbie, Beth McIntosh, Alison Holm, Cynthia Harvey, Maureen Liddy, Kylie Fontyne, Bernadette Pinchin & Helen Rigby (2009). The impact of selecting different contrasts in phonological therapy. International Journal of Speech-Language Pathology, 10:5, 334-345, DOI: 10.1080/14417040701732590