Educational Apps for Kids: Smarty Ears Phonological Awareness Lab

Phonological awareness is a critical foundational reading skill for kids. As an SLP, I work on this skill often with my school-age clients. Over the years, I've relied on hands-on manipulatives and paper-based activities to target these goals. The problem is, my days are filled with travel between the clinic and several schools every day. Lugging around materials for a full load of clients can become very cumbersome. When a friend told me about Smarty Ears Phonological Awareness Lab, I was really excited about the idea of transporting materials on my iPad instead of hauling around overflowing bags. The big question though...does the app offer quality activities that can replace some of my paper-based tasks? After reviewing it on my own and trialing it with a few of my clients, the answer is YES! This app is well worth adding to your bag of tricks. Not only would I recommend it for SLPs, it's a fantastic app for teachers and parents as well. Check out what it has to offer as well as my thoughts on each component below...

Educational Apps for Kids: PLAY-DOH Create ABCs and Chutes and Ladders #SLPapps #appsforkids

With the school year in full swing, I've been on the hunt to freshen up my pediatric sessions with new and engaging activities that will meet my clients' speech and language goals. This week, I've come across two new apps by PlayDate Digital that will be fun additions to my arsenal. Their new Chutes and Ladders: Ups and Downs app will be a great motivator for my articulation and social skills sessions and the PLAY-DOH Create ABCs app will excite my little ones as we practice letter naming, sounds, and written formation. Check out my thoughts on each app and be sure to enter the giveaway to win these apps for yourself as well!

Educational Apps for Kids: Teach Speech Apps

With the new school year upon us, teachers, parents and speech-language pathologists will love both the content and price point of the Teach Speech Apps Bundle 4! The apps are super user-friendly and easily align with Common Core Standards, so for those of you working in the schools, Teach Speech has just made life a little easier for you. Because this bundle targets many common receptive and expressive language goals seen in our pediatric clinic, I was eager to trial it with my school-age clients. Teach Speech was gracious enough to allow me to review each app in the bundle, so that I can share my experience with you. Check out my thoughts below!

Mobile Education's Language Apps for Kids and Teens #educationalapps #SLPapps

As an SLP, I'm always looking for innovative ways for my clients to interact with language. By the time many kids with language impairments reach the school-age years, they have developed negative feelings about their academic skills. This can lead to avoidance, shut-down, and push back during therapy sessions...unless they are packed with high-interest, fun activities that allow kids to enjoy learning. Since the sight of an iPad seems to put a smile on my school-age kids' faces, I've been trying to find solid language apps that I can incorporate into parts of our sessions to meet their goals. One app that was introduced to me by a client who liked using it with a prior SLP is called Sentence Builder. It was created by Mobile Education and aligns with her grammar goals perfectly. Turns out, Mobile Education has a wide variety of language apps that target goals well and bring excitement to traditional therapy sessions! I've trialed nine of their most popular apps and provided my thoughts below...

Speech Apps: Little Bee Speech Articulation Station Pro & Articulation Test Center Pro

As a pediatric private practice SLP, I have a significant amount of clients who are diagnosed with language impairments, but also have underlying articulation concerns. I'll admit that I've found articulation therapy to be pretty dry in the past and I've spent way too many hours trying to "craft" my way into a fun session. Martha Stewart, I am not. On one of my usual internet searches to spice up sessions, I came upon Little Bee Speech. As it turns out, I hit the jackpot. The Little Bee Speech site offers a handful of speech and language apps that are nothing short of incredible. This week, I was looking specifically for articulation apps, so I reviewed the Little Bee Speech Articulation Station Pro and the Articulation Test Center Pro. Check out my thoughts below...

Educational Apps for Kids: Word Search Articulation and Silly Sentence Articulation #speechapps

Whether you're a parent working on speech sounds with your little one or a speech-language pathologist in a school or clinic, you'll probably agree that teaching articulation skills can be less than exciting. The repetitive nature of the work is often a drag for adult and child alike and engagement can be tough. In my search to find ways to spice up dull sessions, I came across two articulation apps developed by fellow speech-language pathologist, Erik X. Raj that I can't say enough about! The Word Search Articulation and Silly Sentence Articulation apps for iOS devices create fun and interactive opportunities to practice speech sounds and keep kids engaged.

Family Game Night: Simply Suspects #SpyAlleyPartners

The family has been on a bluffing kick lately, so to add to that assortment we found Simply Suspects from Spy Alley Partners and tried it out over the weekend. It does not disappoint! Perfect for 2 to 6 players and easy to pick-up and learn in under 5 minutes, this game already has a ton of children's and parenting awards for logical reasoning.

Family Game Night: Spy Alley #SpyAlleyPartners

We've been trying to find fun ways to facilitate strategic thinking for kids, so we when we came across the Spy Alley board game, we were excited to add it to our family game night. The team at Spy Alley Partners have designed an excellent 'bluffing' board game with a backbone of logic and deduction that is perfect for kids under 12 to learn, and fun for teenagers and adults just to play!

Family Game Night: Codenames - Pictures - XXL #CzechGamesEdition

We first played Codenames with friends awhile back and instantly loved it. We have been hunting for something the kids can enjoy as well, without tripping too much over the tougher words. Enter Codenames Pictures XXL! The funny and oddball pictures are great for kids and the coaster sized tiles are perfect for those matches ending in a little roughhousing (which at our house, it practically EVERY game).

Home Study Information #AdoptionTips

The Home Study

The term “home study” encompasses all of the paperwork, interviews, and verification needed for adoption agencies to freely communicate back-and-forth regarding potential matches. Your home study is the first thing requested when you inquiry about potential adoption matches.