Saturday, March 15, 2014

March Mystery Box Giveaway!!!

I have been trying for months to win the monthly Mystery Box giveaway. This giveaway hosted by 6 incredible blogs gives away a box full of fun surprises as well as digital products valued at approximately $200 every month. Check out Growing Firsties Blog to get information and enter.


Keeping my fingers crossed that this is my month to win!!!

Breana

Sunday, March 9, 2014

Dynavox Mayer-Johnson App Reviews and Giveaways!!!!

Dynavox Mayer-Johnson has provided me with the opportunity to review Articulation Flip Books and PCS Flash Cards and they have provided me with 2 copies of each app to giveaway to my loyal followers. I was introduced to The Entire World of R by a family friend who recently retired from being an SLP and by my current Supervisor, but carrying around all of the different components is hard for me (I work in 5-6 different schools during the week). Getting the opportunity to review part of this program and have it on my iPad is definitely a plus.

First up lets take a closer look into Articulation Flip Books. This app contains three segment flip books for phonemes: ar, air, ear, er, k and g, m and n, or, p and b, r blends, recurrent r's and ire, rl and prevocalic r, s and z, s/r/l, sh and ch, t and d, th/f/v, and w/h/l.

This is a picture of what the home screen looks like.



When you click on the desired phonemes flipbook, this is what the screen looks like.





Each of the three segments can be changed individually, creating an indefinite number of possibilities. This app is also great because it can target expressive language skills such as sentence formation, syntax, and predictions and receptive language skills such as answering wh- questions and vocabulary development.

Pros:
  • Targets articulation, receptive, and expressive language
  • Settings allow you to turn the text on the panels on and off and mute the sound
  • The app can be used on an iPad, iPhone, or iPod
  • Each panel is narrated individually (but touching the text) or as a sentence (by touching the blue square in the corner)
  • The text turns blue when being narrated as a sentence so non-readers can follow along.
  • Easy to carry between multiple locations
Cons:
  • Does not include a flipbook for all phonemes
  • Some panels may contain unknown vocabulary
  • The settings cannot be accessed when in a flipbook


Next lets look at PCS Flash Cards. This app contains flashcard sets to teach or review vocabulary, articulation, language, and rhyming. The information covered can be used to teach students in pre-k through elementary school.

Here are examples of the different homepages for each section.


The vocabulary flashcards include: actions, birds, birthday, body, bugs, Christmas, clothing & accessories, colors & shapes, dessert & snacks, fruit & vegetables, Halloween, hobbies & leisure, holidays, home items, instruments, jobs, lowercase letters, meals, meats & diary, numbers, places, school, signs, sports, sports equipment, states, thanksgiving, tools, toys, uppercase letters, vehicles, water animals, weather & seasons, and zoo animals.

 
 
The phonemes covered are: /b, ch, d, f, g, dz, k, l, l blends, m, r blends and more r blends, n, p, r, s, s blends, sh, t, th, v, vocalic r, z/ in all positions of words. 




Here is a sample of a flashcard.



Pros:
  • This app contains flashcard decks for lots of different materials.
  • The bottom of the screen tells how many pictures are in each deck and what picture number is being viewed.
  • The app is very user friendly.
  • Setting allow the user to turn text labels on and off, touch card to get voice production on and off, turn category selection on and off, and turn the progress indicator on the bottom of the screen on and off.
  • You can select sort on the bottom of the home screen to select what cards to display and to shuffle the order of the cards. The deck can also be reset from this screen.
Cons:
  • The pictures are animated, not real pictures.
  • Only one flashcard deck can be selected at a time.


Use the Rafflecopter below to enter to win one of these fabulous apps.

a Rafflecopter giveaway
The opinions in this review are mine and only mine. I was provided a copy of this app and no other compensation.

Sunday, March 2, 2014

How Do You Use It?: Dry Erase


Speech Time Fun has done it again! This month's link up focuses on Dry Erase materials. I personally love dry erase materials because they can be reused and save printer ink (and money).

1. Dry Erase markers and crayons- I laminate all of my materials before I allow my students to play with them. I have found that allowing them to circle their answer on multiple choice activities allows them to be semi-independent during a speech session. My Subordinating Conjunction Superhighway is one of the activities where I allow the students to circle their answers and we review their answer choices every 10-15 cards.

2. Dry Erase whiteboards- I use my individual white boards to help students break down multisyllabic words into individual syllables for more manageable productions or for practicing blending words together, to help them sound out long words, to write sentences so they can correct the mistakes, to keep a tally in a competition, to draw a picture if they have extra time or are waiting for their turn. I don't know what I would do without my little whiteboards sometimes.

Start looking forward to April's How do you use it? link up. The theme will be:

Don't forget to check Speech Time Fun's blog to see how other SLP blogger sue dry erase.

How do you use dry erase?

Breana

Saturday, March 1, 2014

Love it and List it: Fluency

Jenna over at Speech Room News has set up the March Linky Party focusing on Fluency. I personally do not have many students on my caseload who are working on Fluency at the moment, but here are the products I have used in the past and would definitely use again:

1. Snooky Snail Goes to Work Fluency Card Deck- This is a Super Duper fun deck. I love that it has a profession and a necessary material for each profession. This card deck can be used for more than just fluency and has so many different ways to play.



2. The Fan Freebee on my blog is a super cute winter themed visual aid to help students with easy onset speech. To see what it is and get your FREE copy, go to Speechercize and Gluten Free's facebook page.

3. My agency had the speech department trained in the Ryan Fluency Program. Barbara Ryan and her husband Bruce Ryan created a program that has the students practicing reading, monologue, and conversation increasing in length from one word at a time up to 5 minutes. In the few times I have used the program I have found it to be very helpful and the students can progress through the program quickly.

What are your favorite products for fluency?

Breana