Please allow me a quick moment to shout something at the top of my lungs – fair warning, cover your ears because this will be extremely loud. Are you ready? Okay, here I go:
THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU!
(Yikes, my throat sure hurts now! I guess I forgot about the importance of vocal hygiene. LOL!)
Who is the THANK YOU for?
This appreciation is going out to all of the speech-language pathologists out there that take the time out their busy schedules to share their speech therapy ideas with others online through their blogs. Honestly, I’m beyond grateful for every single one of them and their mind-blowing posts that have helped me grow as a speech and language professional.
I firmly believe that blogging takes a great deal of courage.
The moment an SLP gathers up enough bravery to start a blog, that’s an amazing moment because we SLPs hold nothing back from our blog posts. When we write about our past experiences within the speech therapy room, we’re opening up our hearts and our minds to our readers and sharing valuable pieces of knowledge. All of us have something to share and it really shows a courageous commitment to the field when one of us says, “Hey, here’s a speech therapy idea that worked for me. It might not be the best idea in the world, but my students have benefited from it. So maybe, just maybe, it could work for others, too. I’m sharing this idea online because I want to help my colleagues. Giving back to the field by sharing is the least that I can do because I’m committed to my profession.”
So thank you for your courage to share and your commitment to our field.
With all of this being said, I wanted to take the opportunity to publicly highlight, in no specific order, 14 of my favorite SLP bloggers from 2013. It’s my hope that you give these fantastic writers a read because they are, hands down, the cream of the crop and I expect big things from them in 2014.
- Sublime Speech is a blog that has taught me so much throughout this year. Danielle nailed it when she wrote about how she uses QR codes in speech therapy. I also enjoyed her post about how to appropriately walk the fine line between being an SLP and being a family member/friend. Dynamite!
- Speechy Musings is a perfect blog for graduate students looking to pave their way into our field. With posts where Shannon touches on practical advice for current graduate SLP students and what everyone needs to know about taking (and passing) the Praxis for SLP, you need to bookmark this blog ASAP!
- SLP_Echo is a blog that is an absolute-must for any undergraduate who is interested in taking the leap into applying for graduate SLP programs. Right on the side of her website you will find an organized list of posts where Katie describes how to write SLP letters of intent, provides grad school interview tips, and even touches on GPA and GRE related numbers and how they may or may not impact your specific application. Super helpful, indeed!
- Home Sweet Speech Home is my go-to for the best app reviews. We all know how discovering new materials can get overwhelming, but never fear because Carissa has your back. She has introduced me to some of my favorite apps, like Word Vault and Storybook Maker. Oh, and she also reviewed one of my favorite card games ever called Swish Jr. so I gotta give props to her for that!
- Crazy Speech World, and the ideas on this blog, is crazy cool. Jenn is an SLP that I so badly want to observe because she is just so crazy cool. How crazy cool is she? Well, for starters she has incorporated that amazing What Does the Fox Say song into her therapy. She also uses zombie brains to get her students excited for speech therapy. Now, if those ideas aren’t crazy cool, I don’t know what is!
- Speech Peeps is a blog that is filled with a zillion gems. One of which I have been referencing quite often is Allison’s post about the differences between caseload vs. workload. It’s a magnificent read so do yourself a favor and read it, along with the other posts on her blog, right now!
- Speech Adventures is the blog that helps me stay up to date on all of the behind the scenes stuff that relate to this profession. For example, Mary is a wonderful advocate for all of us SLPs and her writing even reminds me that I better keep up with my CEUs! I get pumped whenever she posts new content and you should, too!
- Speech Room News is a blog you probably already know about, and if you don’t, where have you been?! Haha! Jenna is a champion clinician who has a magical way of combining low and high-tech into her speech therapy sessions. For example, one activity my kiddos really loved was her take on using the iPad book app version of The Legend of Spookley the Square Pumpkin and combining it with writing down the character’s feelings on paper. Genius!
- Speech Snacks is a delicious blog. I’ve said it once and I’ll say it again; this blog is the most unique SLP blog out there. Rose’s eye for combining lil’ snacks with speech therapy is always a blast and my kiddos enjoyed eatin’ bat wings, bat brains, spider eggs, and ghost guts during a session in October. Yum!
- The Speech Bubble is a blog that regularly contains content that warms my heart and causes me to smile. One of the many things I adore about Maureen is that she understands the importance of acknowledging every single student within a school, whether they’re on her caseload or not. She described it perfectly in this beautiful blog post when she said, “Even though many of the students I come in contact with during the day are not ‘mine’, in that they are not ‘speech kids’, they are all ‘mine’. They can all benefit from a smile, greeting, a ‘good job’, or ‘cool shoes’.”
- Speech Techie is an all-star blog that I simply cannot get enough of. Sean is a technology wizard and I was extremely fortunate to see him present at this year’s ASHA convention (Pairing MORE Picture Books & Apps to Contextually Address Language Objectives). Every idea that comes out of his brain is golden and I can’t even begin to tell you how often I use my Game Show Soundboard in my speech therapy room – that idea was all him!
- Activity Tailor is a blog that has introduced me to a bunch speech therapy approaches that are gross motor in nature that my students loved. From jumping around to practice syllables to using a yoga ball to elicit certain articulation sounds, Kim is one smart cookie!
- Simply Speech is the blog that feeds my hunger for good books. Thanks to Kristin, I have introduced so many new and exciting books to my speech kiddos. From a massive list of Thanksgiving books to a huge list of holiday books, your new favorite book is just a click away!
- Busy Bee Speech is a sweet blog that has often rekindled my love for things I’ve forgotten about. For example, Lauren helped me to remember just how much I loved using flavored tongue depressors and smelly stickers in the past. For some reason, I ran out of those years ago, but after reading Lauren’s blog, I immediately ordered some more and my students were ecstatic when the package was delivered!
In closing . . .
Thank you, again, you to all of those wonderful SLPs. Their writing is phenomenal, their ideas are fresh, and they push me each and every single day to up my game as an SLP. I am forever grateful to be on the same team as those creatives. Team SLP! Our team rocks! Now, bring on 2014 because I’m ready for it!
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