My Favorite Speech Therapy Resources

My Favorite Speech Therapy Resources

I love providing teachers, parents, grandparents, and friends with great resources that they can use at home. Sometimes the resources are more informational, sometimes they are exercises that they can do with their loved one. I think knowledge is power and it is fantastic when I see empowered parents, students, and teachers who are able to help my clients make important strides in their communication skills. 

These resources should be used in conjunction with consultation with a certified Speech Language Pathologist. While many of them won't harm anyone, it's important to make sure you are getting the most accurate information possible. When a Speech Pathologist and a client are on the same page, speech and language growth can increase, but it may be difficult to work together if consultation is not taking place. 

Informational Resources:

• Handy Handouts: www.handyhandouts.com If you have a speech topic you would like to know more about, Handy Handouts is one of my favorite resources. Not only are the articles both in English and Spanish, but they are written in client-friendly language and have additional resources if you would like to learn more. They also include some Occupational Therapy resources.
• American Speech Language Hearing Association (ASHA): www.asha.org The American Speech Language Hearing Association is the national organization for Audiologists and Speech Language Pathologists. Topic overviews, research, position statements, conference notes, and journal articles are all available through this site.
• Playing With Words 365: www.playingwithwords365.com This informational blog has parent resources, resources for clinicians, and free activities. Geared towards children with speech and language difficulties, this site is loaded with great information.
• Caroline Bowen Speech Language Therapy: http://speech-language-therapy.com/ Caroline Bowen is a respected Speech Language Pathologist with over 40 years of research and clinical experience. In the Articles section of the website, she has some fantastic information on development, disorders, and intervention.
• National Aphasia Association (NAA): http://www.aphasia.org/ The National Aphasia Association is for both those suffering from aphasia and their family members. Information including FAQs, aphasia types, and communication tools are provided along with news in the field. 
• National Association of the Deaf (NAD): http://nad.org/ The National Association of the Deaf website shares resources about the community, events, and parental resources. 
• National Stuttering Association (NSA): http://www.westutter.org/ The National Stuttering Association is a great resource for People Who Stutter. There are national conferences and events for both national and local chapters. There are also newsletters and other resources for all age groups.

Activity Resources:

• Little Bee Speech: www.littlebeespeech.com is a site which sells apps for articulation. In addition to the apps, they also have some good downloadable pdfs which are fantastic for tracking articulation difficulties and understanding articulation and phonological development
• Speaking of Speech: www.speakingofspeech.com is a great website for finding activities in the material exchange. While the site is geared toward SLPs, if you understand your goals you should be able to quickly find activities to do at home. Most of the site's activities are for children, but many of the activities can be modified and used for adults as well.
• Teachers Pay Teachers: www.teacherspayteachers.com is a materials exchange site where teachers and other education professionals, including speech therapists, sell their materials. There is a large free section which is chock full of fantastic activities including some activities that are normally $3-4 a piece. If you register with them you can receive a weekly email which also contains 10 featured free activities, many of which can be used for speech and language practice.
• DLTK Kids: http://www.dltk-kids.com/ is a craft and printable game website with multiple paper crafts and games (crosswords, word searches, etc.). If you're looking for a good activity to do with your kids or even with friends (some of the activities are geared towards older children or can be easily modified for adults) that will include lots of language, this is the site to go to.
• Pinterest: www.pinterest.com Just search for speech and language and hundreds of pins come up with hundreds of activities. You can search a little more specifically within your goals (for example- search /s/ sentences instead of just articulation) to find activities and information quickly and easily
• Google: www.google.com This may seem completely obvious, but Google can be your very best friend when searching for speech and language activities. You can quickly find research articles, activities, etc. If you want coloring pages to do while working on goals for following directions, use Google images. If you'd like some specific information about an approach the clinician is using with you or your child use Google scholar.
• Super Duper Publications: www.superduperinc.com Many speech therapy and occupational therapy resources are sold on this site. Most are aligned to common core curriculum and many of them are research based, solid activities. Make sure to consult with your speech therapist to decide if purchasing these resources is right for your goals.

These sites are definitely only a place to get started, but they are some of my favorites and ones that I return to again and again. I hope they help you as you go on your speech and language journey.