My Little House

When was the last time you discovered a therapy material that could target a variety goals? For me, that therapy material is My Little House.  From the time I learned about My Little House, I had so many ideas on ways to use it.

This AMAZING product was created by Speech Language Pathologist, Yvonne Johansen. My Little House was born after many years of using felt boards in therapy. Not only does the house have 8 different rooms with various different furnishings for each room, but the house can be laid flat or velcroed to create a 3D stand up display. The reversible house has a house exterior on one side and the individual rooms with shape outlines on the other side and can be made to face each way. Since this product was created by an SLP, each piece and detail was designed with education in mind.

My first thought, like I’m sure many of yours, was to use it for early intervention. Using the house to teach functional vocabulary, prepositions, and allows for play based therapy as well as eliciting spontaneous language. Since the outlines of the shapes are also printed on the house itself, matching, same and different, requesting, and formulating questions can also be targeted.

The 36 felt pieces included with the house can be used separately for school age children working on categorizing, following directions, describing, narrative skills, and vocabulary. I also discovered that the house and its pieces can be used for similar targets with adult and elderly clients.

The exterior house side of My Little House is a great discussion piece. The vocabulary with this product is endless. It can be paired with a story for longer therapy sessions. Therapists can have clients decorate the outside of the house for different holidays, allowing for more specific or themed vocabulary and lesson plans.

As a SLPA and graduate student I sometimes work in multiple locations or share my space with other professionals. This amazing house folds flat and stores with all of its pieces in a similarly shaped box, making it easy to transport or store. This product is a great addition to any therapists’ collection of materials, no matter what setting they work in. Parents can also buy this toy for hours of family play and to elicit language outside of speech.

Keep your eyes open for new products by Smart Felt Toys. 

Visit and purchase My Little House during ASHA by visiting booth 438. Not going to ASHA? Buy My Little House online at www.smartfelttoys.com and use promo code ASHA17 for 10% discount.

Breana

B.E.A.R.R.

I know what you are thinking right now, what is B.E.A.R.R.?

It stands for:
Building
Early
Articulation
and
Reading
Readiness

The B.E.A.R.R. Track Game is a new card game associated with the amazing Teddy Talker Program. This card game is a fun and multisensory approach to help children learn and recognize letter sounds. Using pictures of Teddy, players identify the sounds Teddy is making and its corresponding letter. This game makes phonemic awareness activities more fun and provides another level of difficulty.

The NEWEST product to the Teddy Talker family is the Build and Say B.E.A.R.R. Pack. This add-on is a 40 page booklet/digital download that includes a reproducible picture of Teddy and his articulators, offering a more tactile approach. This introductory kit is a great way to introduce yourself and your clients to Teddy.

Don't forget that these products are just a few in the line of Teddy Talker products. There is a felt board with manipulatives, mouth position cards, multiple lessons for each sound, poems, and even a super cute bear puppet (Baby Bear, Teddy's cousin), which can all be purchased.

I was lucky enough to spend three days during ASHA 2015 with Teddy's creator Linda Siciliano and her husband Ray. Linda is so passionate about Teddy. She spent the entire three days explaining and teaching about Teddy and answering questions. Did you know that not only is Teddy helpful for helping kids with Apraxia and Speech Sound Disorders, he is also helpful for working with children with varying diagnoses. His auditory poems and felt board manipulatives make Teddy the perfect tool for children as young as early intervention and as old as high school.

Check out Creative Speech Products for more information on how to purchase Teddy Products or visit Teddy's Teachers Pay Teachers to buy digital products.

ASHA 2015 and Freebie!

This past weekend I attended my FIRST ASHA convention in Denver, Colorado. I was very overwhelmed by the amount of exhibitors in the exhibit hall and by the amount of sessions and poster sessions that I had to pick from.

The first thing I have to do is yell a BIG thank you to Linda and Ray from Creative Speech Products!!! Not only did they bring me in as an exhibitor, I got to spend the weekend learning more about Teddy than I could ever have imagined.
Asking yourself what Teddy is? Teddy Talker is an amazing felt board manipulative system with many different components. The felt board kit comes with a variety of letters, mouth positions, a tongue and the Teddy felt board so students can manipulate the lips for different sounds. You can also get sound cards with the different phonemes and poems to help with placement, a toolkit with 5-6 different lessons for each phoneme and worksheets to send home, the B.E.A.R.R. track card game, and the Build and Say kit (review will be published soon). Teddy is great for kids as young as 3 years old who have speech sound disorders, apraxia, or even Down syndrome.

 This is Baby Bear, Teddy cousin. He and I were both saying "Oh, no!" when it was time to clean up.

I think my favorite part of ASHA was getting to meet all of the bloggers I have been following for so many years. Each blogger gave out some fun swag. Not only did the bloggers host a meet up during the conference (with prizes), but other bloggers (not associated with the blogger booth) were also on hand. It's weird to introduce yourself by your blog name and not your actual name.

ASHA also gave me a chance to make some great connections for the blog. Keep checking back for some amazing product and app reviews. I made some connections with Hamaguchi Apps, Colorcards, Northern Speech Products, Fiddle Focus, Virtual Speech Center, and Invention Labs (the creators of Avaz). There are also some product reviews coming that you are no going to want to miss!

I saw Shawn who is the author behind The Speech Wizard. We actually met at CSHA earlier this year. She is a pediatric feeding therapist when she is not working. I am really excited to learn from her.

I met the one and only Michelle Garcia Winner! I wish I had brought my Superflex book so i could have gotten her autograph.

I met Meredith from Peachie Speechie and even bought a few new t-shirts for myself.

 Super Duper had a HUGE booth as expected and even brought friends to watch their products!! Catch that amazing carpet! I wish i could have taken some of it home!

This was just one part of the convention center once the exhibit hall closed. Thank you everyone for making ASHA such an experience.

Oh!!! I almost forgot. I handed out a FREE product at ASHA. Here is the link! Go in and get the product before December 20 or its gone.

Already counting down the days to ASHA 2016!!!

Breana