Easyspeak Magazine

On Wednesday, April 25, 2012, Shareka Bentham, an SLP from Barbados, launched the first ever e-magazine for Speech Language Pathologists as a person, with features on style, life stories, and product reviews. Of course, being an SLP, it was almost mandatory that she include activity pages, and a free worksheet.  I mean what SLP doesn't like that?

http://easyspeakmag.com

This inaugural issue features a personal interview with Dr. Rhea Paul, who makes a pretty spectacular cover girl, as well.  Shareka's interview with Dr. Paul reveals how she came to be who she is today. You will enjoy reading the personal conversation that took place between them.

This new online magazine (I think they refer to this format as an e-zine) has many great features that I would like to point out.  Possibly the best feature is that it is free, but that is just one of many things you will love about Easyspeak magazine.  The content is, in a single word, fabulous! Here are the departments you will find in this issue:

Technology which features Pinterest and how to use it to start pinning your favorite finds, from sources like Pediastaff.  A blog worthy segment featuring Tanya Coyle, the author of The Lexical Linguist. An App review of INJINI, and finally this section is rounded out with a fantastic article on switch accessibility and the iPad by Jane Farrall and Alex Dunn.

Style & Fashion section geared just for the SLP.  You will be delighted to see photos of what real SLPs around the world are wearing as they head off to work each day! As well as, what the new Spring must haves are!

Lifestyle department, which is my personal favorite.  Here you will read about a Day In the Life of a SLP.  I loved being able to cyber shadow Tiffani Wallace who works in an acute hospital setting for a day. I must say that after being a public school therapist for 30+ years, I am not sure I could handle those long hours.  With so many different settings in which we can practice, seeing what another SLP's day is really like can be refreshing. Perhaps you have been toying with the idea of working somewhere else.  This certainly would help you determine if you would like to be in that position or not.  You will also read an article from Patient Perspective and she even throws in a bit of humor by sharing Embarrassing Moments stories.  (I do not want admit it, but one of those stories is mine.)

Lastly, she wraps up the magazine with featured Products and some top product picks for the SLP and OT!  Oh, I almost forgot there are the Activities of a dysphagia crossword puzzle for us and an activity targeting final /f/ to use in therapy.

Thank you Shareka for creating such a fabulous e-zine! Our best wishes for much success as we look forward to the fall issue.

Leah and Dean


Leah J Musgrave, M.S. CCC-Sp
Dean Trout, retired SLP
http://www.2galsspeechproducts.com/

LessonPix

Today we are sharing the website LessonPix. http://lessonpix.com/   This is a fabulous online resource for those of us who love to create our own therapy materials. If you have more time than money you will love this site.  This is a very affordable subscription service from which you can create customized individual therapy materials to fit your needs.

The subscription service is only $24 per year and you have access to 8000 original and scalable pictures. From the picture library you can have a choice of how you wish to have the image: color, outline, or stencil.  With those pictures you can create items such as these:

 PECS cards

 Stick Puppets

 Dominoes

• Bingo Cards
• Coloring Pages
• Picture Cards
• Pattern Strips
• Spinners & Game Boards
• Lacing Cards
• Sorting Mats
• Playing Cards
• and more 

One feature that is great for the SLP when making articulation materials is their Sound Finder tab which allows you to search for pictures with a particular sound.  You can even narrow your search by the sound position within the words: initial, medial, final or anywhere.  You can also search for pictures by pattern such as VC and only those pictures fitting that parameter will appear.  You can search specifically by letter, too. I would call it a bonus that they even give you the ability to search by rhyme. 

There is much more to this site than I am telling you about so please go explore it. They offer a "try it now for free" program which will indeed let you try it out.  You can create your own item and print it immediately.  I highly recommend you try it out for yourself.   They also offer video tutorials for those who have never created anything online like this and may be unfamiliar with how to do it.  

As we often state, Leah and I are not paid (or given products) to tell you about these sites which we share.  We simply share things we find that we think you would also like to know about.

Have a fun week with your kids!

Leah J Musgrave, M.S. CCC-Sp
Dean Trout, retired SLP

 

COMING IN 2012

I imagine there are more than a few SLPs dragging into work this morning physically tired from the hectic pace of the ASHA convention, but also professionally rejuvenated. I loved having the ability to keep up with the #SLPeeps as they went to their sessions, met other SLPeeps at tweet-ups, and gathered for a group meal at the end of the day! It was almost like being there...almost. (#SLPeeps is a group of SLPs from around the world who have gotten together to collectively support one another via twitter. If you are on twitter you should jump in the #SLPeeps clan)

My blogging today will take a slightly different direction as I share with you 2 Gals plans for 2012. I would wait until the beginning of the new year to share but our news affects you today! Allow me to share this as "bad news-good news."

Our first big news to make you aware of is that MANY our products will increase in price on January 1, 2012. Why are we raising our prices you wonder? Basically because our cost to hand produce them has increased to the point that we lose money making them :/ That's the bad news. However, due to having to raise our prices we feel you should receive a better product. Therefore in 2012 you will see many product changes for the better. Our products will have a more polished and professional look to them. That's the good news.

The following items will be discontinued in the product form they currently exist: (bad news) They will be discontinued as of 1/1/12 or when current stock is gone.
1-Pick A Stick Original
2-Bee Happy Pick A Stick
3-YOU WIN bottle cap game
4-Pick A Stick Christmas
5-Pick A Stick Halloween
6-Pick a Stick Thanksgiving
7-Spinner Games Preschool (Early Development)
8-Spinner Games Set 1 (F-K-G)
9-Spinner Games Set 2 (R-S-L)
10-Board Games: Abe & George, Rainbows & Smiles, April Showers, and Snow Days.

If you want any of these original games ORDER now. You may order online or by calling 866-930-3098.

New Upgraded Items to replace those discontinued: (good news)
1-Concepts Caps will be the new replacement for our popular Pick A Stick Original
2-YOU WIN will take on a more polished look
3-Bee Happy bottle caps replaces the pick a stick version
4-Seasonal bottle caps for Christmas, Halloween, Thanksgiving replaces the stick games
5-ALL Spinner Games mentioned above will be sold as a download only
6-All board games mentioned above will be sold as a download only

Our last big news is that we have developed NEW language games for 2012! Our focus up to this point has been on speech but due to many requests from you we will begin offering some quick play language games in our ever popular Grab-N-Go Series.

1-Opposites- a quick play card game to specifically teach opposites receptively and expressively. There are two levels of instruction with this game.

2- WH? -This again is a two level game in which comprehension of the WH question format is learned at level one and then expression or learning how to answer WH questions appropriately is learned at level two.

3- Attributes-1 In this card game your students will learn attributes through prompts and a quick play game of slap matching!

4- Attributes 2 This game allows your students to verbally practice stating attributes. The game allow practice to be FUN while making them more proficient.

4-GOLD RUSH is our newest generic game that can be played with any speech language target. It is a fun quick play card game that our kids love. Be the player to accumulate the most gold to be the winner, but there are many dangers in diggin' for gold!

Our new games will be sold starting in January and for your convenience will be offered in two formats: 1-a premade game or 2-as a download for those who like to save $$ and make their own.

I hope this information has you as excited about the coming year as it has Leah and I! We love creating materials for your daily use in therapy and promise to hold true to our mission statement of offering products that are Fun, Affordable, Motivating, and Effective (FAME). We can promise you we don't sell any product that doesn't work with our kids!!

Enjoy your Thanksgiving and be thankful for all you have! See you next week!
Lean and Dean

www.2galsspeechproducts.com