INTERACTIVE RESOURCES ONLINE -Part 1

January ends today. YAY, I made it through! This has been snowy month here in Kentucky. Our local school districts have been closed for many days, and we still have 6 weeks until spring! If this pattern continues, I sadly see a loss of Spring Break for many districts.

If you’ve been out of school for a few days and need to get yourself psyched up and back into the swing of things, or if you’ve been trudging along this whole month and need to be perked up, today’s website will do just that! We begin this series with FUN by looking at http://games.pppst.com/languagearts.html

When the above link opens you will be at Greta’s Game Station from which you can access many fun links such as FunBrain, Fun School, Primary Games for Reading, Interactive Stories, Digby Mole's Word Activities, Free Kids Games at Scholastic, Game Goo, and Preschool. Each of those have numerous fun educational and therapy goal driven activities/games. I would encourage you to take the time to go to each link and look at what is at your fingertips…literally! It will be well worth the time you’ve spent exploring this site for the opportunities and therapy materials you’ll discover. I promise!

After you’ve looked at those links, I want you to scroll on down the Greta’s Game Station page until you see the “for kids” section which has an Index laid out as a grid. Do you see that? All those are power points ready for your use! Won’t cost you any money or time to make materials….just click and go!

Leah and I have used many of these and have favorites that our kids LOVE. One such example (and this is just one of many) is LOVEBIRDS RHYMING WORDS. You’ll find it under the Word Analysis Index –click on Rhyming Words and then you’ll see a list of power-points for words that rhyme --click on Lovebirds Rhyming Words. It will take a few minutes for the game to load. In this game you are identifying/matching words that rhyme. You’ll place a blue bird from the bottom to its rhyming mate on the branches. There is wonderful modeling for the child in this activity and if a mistake is made the child is allowed to try again. This is a stress free game. My little Autistic fellows loved this game and would verbally request it when they entered my therapy room.

As you can see from the Index there are Power-Points for most any educationally relevant language goal you could be targeting. Don’t be afraid to use this type of thing in your therapy. The kids love it, your building supervisor/principal will love that you are incorporating technology into your therapy, and you will love the change of pace and diversity in your personal therapy!

This website is one of our all time top 5.

Next week we’ll expose you to another great online interactive website! Until then have FUN with your kids this week!

Leah and Dean

www.2galsspeechproducts.com

President's Day

We’ve created a fun, generic, quick-play game to commemorate the birthdays of George Washington and Abraham Lincoln. We simply call it Abe & George. Using a spinner that says “Go to…” or “Back to…” players make their way around the game board to the finish. Use any of your child’s speech/ language task for the day and the game will hold their interest! $12.99 (2 game boards, 3 spinners, and 6 pawns) Order online at http://www.2galsspeechproducts.com

If you will be doing a President's theme in February this will add fun to your therapy!

Autism Resources -Part 6

Another Monday…another start to the week.

Hmmm, I was just wondering, did you read that statement with negativity and dread for your week or with enthusiasm and excitement that this week is going to be great? It’s all up to you, you know, as to how you will view your week, your day, and this moment. Yes, there will be frustrations and challenges and the occasional co-workers whose heads you’d like to pinch off, but that should not define your day. Only you can define your day and chose how you’ll let others affect it! Don’t give other people your moment, your day, or your week. Chose now to have a great moment, day, and week! Just wanted to give you a pep talk this morning!

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There are many, many, many websites you can explore regarding Autism and we have only targeted a few. In fact today’s focus is number six and our final in this series. We certainly encourage you to Google, Bing, or otherwise search this topic further and hope that the sites which we have shared have given you a broad assortment of useful information. We’ve tried to cover it from the needs of the teacher to the needs of the student, and that brings us to today’s website http://www.zacbrowser.com

Zacbrowser stands for Zone for Autistic Children. It was created by a grandfather out of love for his grandson “Zackary”. When he (the grandfather) saw how frustrated his grandson became in attempting to use a standard computer browser, he determined that he would develop something less frustrating for his grandson. As they explain on their website regarding the creation of Zac Browser, “Following the disappointing results obtained with the use of a conventional browser, we designed a software package specifically adapted for him. We designed a "full screen" program that cannot access the task bar, the Start menu and also cancels the right hand function of the mouse. The buttons are limited to essential functions and the browser prevents the child from accessing inappropriate sites. Children suffering from autism are known for being able to adapt easily to PECS (pictograms) so we designed an icon based navigation system like the PECS system. “

This is an internet browser developed specifically for children with variants of autism spectrum disorders. It allows children to access games, activities and videos specifically chosen for their positive effect. You really have to see it to understand it.

Because of having first-hand experience with the expense of educating a child with Autism they offer this software completely FREE. Now that’s what I call paying it forward! So now you have no reason to not download it for your students.

Next week we begin a four week series on a potpourri of interactive resources. Things that can be used with whiteboards, power points, game links, and etc. are just a few of the resources we’ll share.

To close as I began, if you determine to have a good day and week, it will spread to your kids’ enthusiasm for coming to therapy!

Dean and Leah

www.2galsspeechproducts.com

Autism Resources -Part 5

It’s Monday and am I excited! I am about to show you all the POT OF GOLD at the end of the rainbow! This website (http://www.practicalautismresources.com/printables) is phenomenal when it comes to ready-made printable resources for your kids within the Autism Spectrum. Just peruse their offerings and click PRINT. How easy is that? (and if you are wondering, yes, Ina Garten a.k.a. the Barefoot Contessa is my favorite chef….and where I get the saying “How easy is that?”)

They offer us FREE printables for just about any topic:
• Behavior and Emotions
• Behavior Supports
• Numbers
• Associations
• Blank templates
• Categories activities—Bingo Sets
• Clocks
• Folder Tasks—Pieces
• Food Pictures—Word Cards
• Fractions
• Nouns—Functions

Everything is very clearly described. No guessing about how it is to be used.

Now if that wasn’t wonderful in and of itself, in the left hand navigation pane, you’ll also see listings for more awesomeness, like “iPad and iPod for Autism” which tells you about some of the marvelous apps available to us.

From the navigation pane check out: Great Links, Parent Resources, Data & Planning Forms, More Printable Links, Image Search helpers, and Free Worksheet Links!

If you don’t think this website is a Pot Of Gold, then you must not work in public schools, ha ha.
Now the icing on the cake is the link at the top of the page that directs you to Mrs. Riley.com which is a subscription service where by you can make your own task cards.

I hope this website leaves you as giddy as it did me when I first looked at it! I think it's awesome. I love it when the work is ready to use and all I have to do is click and print.

Enjoy this Monday off and we'll see you next week!

Leah and Dean
http://www.2galsspeechproducts.com

Autism Resources -Part 4

Back to reality....those lyrics float through my mind this morning as we all go back to work. All school systems are back in session after a nice long Christmas break. I always found it hard to get back into the swing of things after being out for the holidays.

My least favorite month used to be January because it seemed to drag on forever. However, now that I work for myself this has changed. I find January doesn’t hold enough days to get everything done to start the New Year. I cannot believe today is Jan 10th already. This weekend will mark the middle of the month...YIKES! Where have the days gone? Speaking of time flying by, I'd better get to the topic at hand :-)

I LOVE-LOVE-LOVE the immediate practical usage of the website we’re featuring today, http://www.positivelyautism.com/links.html They have so many practical everyday materials, ideas, and lesson plans for our use. I send a big public THANK YOU to them for their wonderful website!

Let me give you a preview of what you'll find there and then you can go explore on your own.

Work Tasks: offers file folder games; independent work; and distinguishing between pictures.

Data Sheets: data collection; discrete trial training; monthly and yearly data graphs; incidental teaching; and self recording data sheets.

Lesson Plans: literacy related

Fine Motor: cutting and tracing activities and make at home fine motor activities

Reinforcement: point and sticker cards.

Visual Aids: inexpensive picture card idea; visual supports for the classroom

Flash Cards: high frequency reading words and color word reading cards

Social Skills/Stories: (limited) previous websites I have mentioned offer more

Worksheets, Handouts, Assessments and Games

You may be able to use everything or just a few gems from here, but regardless, I think this is a tremendous asset to your Autism therapy bag!

Next week our blog will focus on a site that offers a plethora of PRINTABLES!

Until then, enjoy your therapy and your time with your kids this week!

Dean and Leah

www.2galsspeechproducts.com

YAY! Snow Day

Do you need to add some spice to your cold winter therapy? Our little board game YAY! Snow Day may just be the fun you need!


A very fun quick play board game for 2-6 player. Players race to the finish while being stopped along the way to advance or retreat according to snow day related spaces. Game comes complete and ready to play with 2 duplicate game boards, 3 spinner cards and 6 pawns. Duplicate game boards are provided so that, even if you have 6 kids in your group, no more than 3 kids have to share a board and no more than 2 kids have to share a spinner! If you travel to more than one school why not leave a game board at each school?

GNG-YSD-13……………………………………………………………..…………12.99

You can order online at www.2galsspeechproducts.com
GREAT news: we can now accept Purchase Orders online!!!

Have some Winter Fun with your kids!
Dean

A New Year

HAPPY NEW YEAR!! 2011-a new decade already!

Today's blog will be off the regular beaten path. I wanted to take the time to share with you all that is happening with us and our plans for 2011, since this is the time to reflect, ponder, and plan. Leah and I are getting our year started with a bang. Many good things are happening and we hope that this will pass on to you and your work.

For starters, you will now find all three of our FAME CDS and our three Spinner Games for sale in the 2011 issue of Great Ideas for Teaching catalog, and very shortly on their website.

Our two newest CDs (FAME Preschool and FAME Articulation Cards) will be available for purchase through Speech Bin in the FALL 2011 issue. Our Adventure Pack game CD and first FAME Articulation Workbook on CD are already available in their catalog and on their website.

The Speech Corner offers our Adventure Pack game CD through their catalog and website.

So, as you can see, we are slowly making progress in our advertising efforts. Our best advertising has been word of mouth from people like you who have either used our products or heard us speak at conferences!! Thank you for all your kind words and much appreciated support.

We only have one speaking engagement scheduled for 2011, so far, and that will be for OSSPEAC in Columbus, OH in October. We are available for speaking and offer 3 hours CEU for each of these topics: (1) Enhancing Your Therapy with Technology or (2) The Practical Side of Therapy-60+ years of tips and tricks. We are working on a presentation addressing language, but we are not ready to present that one. Leah and I are always so humbled by your comments and hope you truly have gleaned nuggets of information that you can use in your daily therapy!

We plan to branch out beyond KY, OH, and WV this year in our conference exhibiting. At present we plan to be at the North Carolina and South Carolina conferences to exhibit our products. I'd like to squeeze in VA and TN but don't know if we can. Unfortunately we won't be able to attend KY or the spring OH conferences, but we will be sending catalogs and discounts to be included in your conference bags :)

Finally the last bit of joy I wish to share is that we have updated our website www.2galsspeechproducts.com and now you can purchase those little therapy games that we offer at conferences! I hope you will go right this minute to look at the generic games because one of the board games is "YAY! Snow Day". Certainly winter is when you would want to use this game. Leah can attest that the kids LOVE it! We have our little following of SLPs who all say their kids beg to play our games!! How amazingly flattering is that? Our purpose in doing the games was because we knew our kids loved them and knew yours would too!

We are on facebook search for 2 Gals Speech Products, and I am going to attempt Twitter! Please friend us and follow us!!

I think that about sums up our plans for 2011. Hopefully you and I will pass ways this year and when we do please introduce yourself and let us know you're reading my rambling :)

Our Best Wishes that 2011 will be your Best Year yet!!

See you next week!

Dean and Leah