Ms. Ferguson's Blog

August Speech News

Welcome Back to School!

It has been so nice to catch up with all of my students and hear about their wonderful summer adventures!  I am working out the kinks in my schedule and should be seeing students on a regular basis next week.  You will be getting a welcome back letter with more information next week as well.  As always, please email or call me with any questions or concerns.

Summer Practice

Welcome summer!  It was been another wonderful year at Ford Elementary.  I encourage you to keep practicing good speech and language skills with your child throughout the summer.  Finding ways to work practice time into activities you already do will help it become automatic.  Great times for practicing are:  waiting in line, driving in the car, when reading, during toothbrushing routine - you are already in front of a mirror!  Utilize technology!  Try using your cell phone or computer webcam to video your child practicing.  Watch it back and have them give themself a rating of good, close, or needs work.   

Click here for a site where you can get materials for various speech sounds.  http://www.speakingofspeech.com/Articulation_Materials.html

Need to work on retelling or story comprehension?  Click here Download ScalableIconsRev for symbols to help your child recall story parts (character, setting, kick-off, feelings, plan, consequence, resolution) or here View this photo to get a page of bookmarks.  This link http://www.4gaslps.com/Stories_Online_page.html will give you many websites with online stories. 

Below are some more ideas for how to practice speech or language skills with your child.

Download Summer_articulation_ideas_general

Download Summer_language_ideas_general

Before you know it we will be back at school hard a work.  Until then treasure every extra moment you have to spend with your child!

cool articulation website

This is a link to a website that shows how to make each sound with a visual and a verbal description.

http://www.uiowa.edu/~acadtech/phonetics/

 

Technology Tools

Getting back into the school routine can be tough.  Especially with juggling homework, after school activities, time for play and getting to bed on time.  I recently came across a post on the website www.speakingofspeech.com  that described some iphone/itouch/ipad apps that can be used for speech language therapy.  My first thought was, "I wish I had an ipad!" But then I thought of how this would be a great way to practice with your child while at the ball field, dance studio, or any other place!  Here are some of the apps she suggested. 

SLP Field Kit -- great therapy "cards" on screen

The Grouchies -- a cute book about how to overcome grouchy feelings

Talking Tom -- a cartoon cat who repeats everything you say (great motivator for artic and language!)

Twister Thistle -- a tongue twister game which should be great for carryover

Pocket Zoo -- all about animals and has webcams at various zoos so you can watch real animals in real time

iReading Stories Collection -- free and inexpensive books that a student can read or hear

Free Books -- set up a selection of grade-level books

Monster Mix -- crazy monster pictures to make and print, great for language therapy and reinforcement

iSentence Builder -- for grammar needs

I have not had a chance to try these out personally so please let me know what you think or if you come across any others you like.

Welcome!

It is hard to believe that our summer break is over!  We are getting into the swing of things at Ford and I have started seeing students on a regular schedule.  We have started out the year with a unit on families and vacations.  Look for a letter from me to come home this week.  It should have your child's speech-language therapy schedule written on the top.  Please send back the bottom of the letter with your email address and a phone number where you can be reached during the daytime.

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Summer Speech Language Activities

It was been a wonderful year.  I encourage you to keep practicing good speech and language skills with your child throughout the summer.  Finding ways to work practice time into activities you already do will help it become automatic.  Great times for practicing are:  waiting in line, driving in the car, during toothbrushing routine - you are already in front of a mirror!  Motivation (ok bribery) is always key.  Print out one of the practice calendars and offer a treat for every 5 or 10 activities completed.  Before you know it we will be back at school hard a work.  Until then treasure every extra moment you have to spend with your child!

Download Summer_articulation_ideas_general

Download Summer_language_ideas_general

Download Articulation calendar June 2010

Download July 2010 speech calendar

Try some of these fun educational websites

www.starfall.com

http://speech.jppss.k12.la.us/index.htm

http://www.quia.com/shared/search?category=12416&adv_search=true

http://www.eduplace.com/tales

http://www.gigglepoetry.com

http://www.storylineonline.net

http://www.pbskids.org

Using technology to help speech and language

Let your child be a star!  Using cell phone videos, webcams, flip cameras, etc. to record you child  saying their sounds correctly, retelling a story, or describing an event is a wonderful way to provide feeback.  Seeing and hearing themselves communicate is so powerful.  Give it a try.  What a great way to pass the time waiting in line.

Using technology to help speech and language

Let your child be a star!  Using cell phone videos, webcams, flip cameras, etc. to record you child  saying their sounds correctly, retelling a story, or describing an event is a wonderful way to provide feeback.  Seeing and hearing themselves communicate is so powerful.  Give it a try.  What a great way to pass the time waiting in line.

Miss Nelson Series

Many of my students will be working on a unit designed around the Miss Nelson series of books by Harry Allard.  The titles are Miss Nelson Is Missing, Miss Nelson Is Back, and Miss Nelson Has a Field Day.  The following links are activities I may use with these stories.

Download Hot On The Trail

Download Field Day comprehension questions & vocab

Download Instant Replay

Download MN is Missing comparing characters

Download Oh No! It's the Swamp!

Download Scenes From Smedley School

Download Miss Nelson Lessons

Breaking News!

The speech room has moved!  I am now in room 111 which is located on the Kindergarten hallway. 

Learn about Mrs. Ferguson

I was born and raised on a dairy farm in Brookfield, Vermont.  Yes, I really do know how to milk a cow!  I have 2 sisters and 1 brother, who all still live in Vermont.  I attended Elmira College in Elmira, New York and earned my bachelors degree in speech and hearing.  I then went to the University of Connecticut (Go Huskies!) where I earned my Masters degree in Communication Sciences.  I moved to Georgia in 2000 with my husband Josh.  He is a police officer with the Cobb County Police.  We have 2 children, 1 cat and 2 dogs.  My hobbies include reading, camping, and gardening.  This is my 7th year working at Ford.