Ideas for Fluency Therapy by Jenn @ Crazy Speech World

I am so excited to be guest posting for Kristine to celebrate BHSM!  Thanks for having me!  I'm gonna share with you some ideas for fluency therapy!

Fluency disorders seem to be cyclical for me...some years I have very few and some years I have a TON!  This year has definitely seen a rise in fluency numbers on my caseload....mostly in my primary grades.  I have had to scramble to update some fun activities to work on building their confidence and fluency...favorite so far?  Turtles and bunnies!

I know many of us use a turtle image for representing slow, steady speech and the rabbit for bumpy, fast speech, so they were the perfect candidates.  I originally just had the turtles, but my SLP buddy Steph suggested the bunnies and it was such a great addition!  I found these cute guys over at My Cute Graphics.  You can grab the turtle HERE and the bunny HERE.  These are free graphics!  She also has color versions available, but I just copied them onto green and yellow paper.  I made 20 turtles and 10 bunnies.  So now are you asking what in the world am gonna do with these, Jenn???  Don't worry, I got some ideas too!

First, I made a trail of turtles and bunnies in my room, taped to the floor.  Then, the kids will go roll a dice and move around the circle, practicing the type of speech they land on.  I either give them the word, phrase, or sentence to say since most of them are not readers yet OR show them a picture card if they need less modeling support.  This is so great for getting them up and moving!  They love it!  

I know many of you may not be able to utilize the walking around due to space constraints (closet therapy, anyone?) so you could also put them in a box or bag and have students draw one at a time to practice the same way.

What else can you do with these graphics?

• Use the bunny to represent bouncing and/or turtle for easy beginnings and practice those specific strategies 
• Glue pictures or write questions on the back to practice spontaneous productions using fluency strategies
• Add points values to each one and if students use the targeted strategy effectively, they keep the animal...whoever collects the most wins!

Can you think of any other ways to use this activity?  I would love to hear your ideas!

Jenn is a school SLP in Florida, working with children PK to 8th grade, and the author of the blog Crazy Speech World.  You can also follow her on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and TPT.