Motivation, humor, and ideas that every school-based
speech-language pathologist will love!

Every speech-language pathologist has a story to tell, and this one is mine. As a school-aged child, I despised the fact that it was almost always mandatory for me to remain seated as I learned in elementary school. In retrospect, I felt like an animal locked in a cage, and now, years later, I see the same frustration in the eyes of my speech students. They usually don't want to stay in their seats during speech therapy, and why should I force them to?

I want students to get up and move around!

My mind is curious, my spirit is adventurous, and my body is everything but still. I am an educator that believes in the power of using our arms and our legs during all learning instances, especially during speech therapy. Children, by nature, are active learners and this is the reason I have spent the last two years writing a slew of hilarious child-friendly dares. As a practicing speech-language pathologist, I consistently ask my students to do child-friendly dares during speech therapy and they can't get enough of 'em!

Download my FREE child-friendly dares packet, today!

This PDF packet consists of over 30 flashcards that can easily be printed out, laminated, and used with all of the students on your speech therapy caseload. Some of my favorite include:

• I dare you to pretend like you're a ninja.

• I dare you to pretend like you're a dinosaur.

• I dare you to pretend like you're a ghost.

• I dare you to pretend like you're a guitar player in a band.

Click HERE to download the PDF packet. These child-friendly dares are guaranteed to help unlock your students' imagination while they continue to work on their given goals and objectives.

What about articulation-specific child-friendly dares?

Now THAT sounds like a fantastic idea, right? What if I told you that there was a way to show child-friendly dares to your students that are categorized by the target sound they are working on? You would probably clap your hands and cheer, right? Well, today is your lucky day because I have been working hard over for almost a year to create just that.

Introducing I Dare You Articulation.

I Dare You Articulation is an app for the iPad, iPad mini, iPhone, and iPod touch that allows, encourages, and celebrates getting up and moving around during speech therapy while practicing proper pronunciation. The sounds included are as followed: S, Z, R, L, S/R/L Blends, SH, CH, and TH.

• Working on initial /R/ sounds? How about this sentence? I dare you to pretend like you're wearing red roller skates. Show off some really cool moves.

• Working on medial /L/ sounds? How about this sentence? I dare you to pretend like you're a smiling shark about to attack a sailboat.

• Working on final /CH/ sounds? How about this sentence? I dare you to pretend like you're eating a rotten peach for lunch.

• Working on /S/ blends? How about this sentence? I dare you to pretend like you're a scary vampire with scary vampire teeth.

With just the tap of a finger, children and clinicians can uncover 600 (yes, 600!) child-friendly sound specific dares that are perfect for the speech therapy setting. In addition, I Dare You Articulation has an exciting narrative audio component to it that allows you to hear the words spoken. If you are a fan of my Multiple Choice Articulation app, you will adore I Dare You Articulation!

Smooth and clean, just the way it should be!

I Dare You Articulation has a child-friendly interface that is simple, intuitive, and as always, there are NO in-app purchases or external links.

You should download I Dare You Articulation right now. Click HERE.

Regardless of when, where or how these child-friendly dares are used within the speech therapy session, one thing is certain, children (as well as clinicians) will have a blast giving I Dare You Articulation a try . . . and in the process, your students will continue to practice the correct pronunciation of their sounds at the spontaneous conversation level. Let your imagination run wild and have fun with this therapy material!

"What two colors do you love, Mr. Raj?" inquired a curious first grader on my speech therapy caseload. "I want to draw you a picture of a dinosaur, but I want to make sure you love the colors."

"I'm a fan of red and blue," I happily responded to the little Pablo Picasso.

Have you ever received a work of art from a speech therapy kiddo?

Chances are, you have. In fact, I am willing to bet that over time, you have been given dozens and dozens (if not hundreds and hundreds) of drawings that were created by your students.

What do you do with those works of art?

You might hang them up in your speech therapy room for a certain amount of time for everyone to admire. Then, after a few weeks or so, the work of art might transition to another place. That place might be a folder that holds numerous pieces or art, or that place might even be . . . the trash.

The trash?!?!

I am about to share with you one of the biggest mistakes I have ever made. Remember that first grader who drew me the red and blue dinosaur? Well, during my lunch break a few years back while he was a student of mine, I decided to do some spring cleaning to organize my overflowing filing cabinet. While I was clearing away papers, I came across a bunch of dinosaur pictures that the first grader drew me earlier in the school year. I saved my favorite one, and then proceeded to gently put the others in the trash right next to my desk. No big deal, right?

Wrong.

As luck would have it, that student was on my schedule right after my lunch break. He entered my speech therapy room with the same enthusiastic smile, but just like that, his smile turned to a frown and tears starting pouring out of his eyes. I immediately knew why he was crying. He saw that his old dinosaur drawings were lying inside of the trash, in broad daylight.

My heart sank.

"Why would you throw out the pictures I made for you?" he genuinely asked me.

I quickly ran to the trash, grabbed the dinosaur drawings and told him that it was a blunder on my part. I explained to him that I was spring cleaning and I accidentally threw his dinosaur papers out. I put the works of art right into my book bag and thanked him for helping me to realize my error.

He taught me a very important lesson that afternoon.

I have since learned that a child's art is so much more than drawings on a piece of paper. It is an expression of who they are; the pictures they choose to use express their thoughts, feelings, dreams and imagination. So please do me a favor, never throw things like that out in your speech therapy room. Never ever. If you feel the need to recycle something that a student has made for you, you MUST promise me that you take it home with you and do it there. The likelihood that your student might see his/her art in the trash is high, and we, as kind and caring speech-language pathologists, should never expose them to something like what I did. I made a mistake, but I am delighted to announce that I have learned from my mistake and I will never let it happen again.