Auctionable Cookies. Feb 2011.

I've lost track of what number I'm on for my auctionable cookies. But these are my hearts desire.




I call these Sara's Addictive Coconut Cookies.
(Cuz Sara gave me the recipe. And they are addictive. Clever 'eh? )

1 cup butter
1 cup white sugar
1 cup brown sugar
2 tsp vanilla extract
2 Tbs milk
2 eggs, lightly beaten
1 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
2.5 cups flour
12 oz chocolate chips (Sara's recipe calls for white chocolate chips, but I didn't have any)
1 cup coconut (sweetened or unsweetened)
sweetened coconut for rolling cookies in

Cream butter and sugars. Add everything else except for extra coconut. Roll into balls and roll in the extra coconut. Bake for approx 12 minutes at 350 (or until very slightly browned)

Tar Heel Books and Creating your own!

Have you seen the site Tar Heel Books?

There are 15,000 books that have been created for and by beginning readers on this site! The books are organized by topic, rated, and sortable. You can even check off your favorite ones for easy finding later.

The books are adapted for easy accessibility (switch users can turn the "pages" easily). And you can add voice (adult, child, etc.) with just the click of a button.

In addition, you can register for a free account and create your own books (or better yet, have your student create a book).

This website inspired me to check out creating powerpoint books (which I've heard of, but had previously never tried to create). So far, I've made one about "I see...", one focusing on the letter of the week "u", one with initial /p/ sounds, and one social story. Fun!

And , it was so easy! I even recorded my own voice on each page so that the auditory was clear.

Here is a tutorial on how to make your own Powerpoint books. My only difference, was that I recorded my messages this way, instead of using the prerecorded sounds.

Now, if I could just figure out an easy way to easily share these books with you, I would. Suggestions?

Therapy Thursday: Froggy Gets Dressed

I'm attempting a new idea to stream-line my therapy preparations: month long themes. I know these are common in classrooms, but since I see most of my students only twice per week, it makes it much more difficult to carry a theme on for only 3-4 weeks. Plus, there is the added complication of the age ranges from 5-11. Because of the huge range of skills to be worked on with my population, I need to have a vast array of materials.

I've decided that at the end of the month, I will take all the file folders and books I've used for the month, and file it under "February". Then next year when February comes around, I'm all set.

February's theme is "body parts" (cause of the "heart". get it?)

And although I had to stretch the theme to include "clothes I put on body parts", I decided to use "Froggy Gets Dressed" as one of February's books.

Here are all the materials I've been using for this story:

Using Boardmaker picture prompts, most of my students can help ask the repetitive question, "What did you forget?" And then choose the clothing item that Froggy forgot and use that in a sentences.

These pictures are laminated and have velcro on the back. They can be used to answer the "What did you forget?" question or used to retell the story with picture by picture words.




My verbal students always practice retelling stories. They brainstorm "first, then, then, and finally" and draw the pictures to help them recall the story elements. Sometimes I video or tape record the retelling for us to analyze.

After we've exhausted reading and retelling the story (around the 3rd therapy session on this book), I finally pull out a game. Any of my students that can match pictures, can also play "Froggy Gets Dressed" bingo. Some students use only one word answer to describe the picture, while others are asked to use an entire descriptive sentence. My students who need to work on auditory processing/comprehension need to find the picture without visually matching it first. This can prove tricky.

It's funny to be doing a book about getting dressed for winter when the crocuses are blooming. But we did have some flurries yesterday morning...

Sometimes I park far away (gasp) on purpose

Here's the situation. There are far too many people with handicapped stickers. Or maybe there are just not enough handicapped spots. Or maybe it's all of the above.


Consider a trip to Costco and the reason Professor X rarely goes there. There are approximately 10 disabled parking spots in the lot. Sounds like quite a few, right? Until you realize that every member of the AARP visits Costco. Regularly. Is it the free samples? Or the cheap hot dogs? (Yes, that is the reason I go, but we aren't talking about ME here). So Professor X gets to Costco and prays that one of the aforementioned spots opens up.





After chicken fighting with an 88 year old for the space, he gets out of the car and must now decide how next to proceed. Even the *best* spot is at least 30 feet from the store's entrance. Far enough that walking there with his cane will be excruciatingly painful. And if he gets to the front entrance of the store and there are no vroomy carts, then he has to hobble back to the car and go home. He'll be in pain for 2 days from the effort and won't have even entered the store.


He could, on the other hand, pull out his wheelchair and cover the distance easily (as ling as he doesn't wheel behind a car that decides to back up and can't see him in his chair). But then what does he do with his chair at the front entrance when he picks up a vroomy cart? Park and lock it up on the "wheelchair rack"? He could take it into the store, but then where does he put his boxes and boxes of items? On his lap of course. And this gets heavy and cumbersome quickly. Especially in Costco.





(Did I mention that my 5 year old is probably sitting on his lap through all this because she missed the Kindergarten cutoff by 2 weeks?)


So let's assume all goes well and he gets a vroomy cart and buys some delicious organic coffee and garden burgers. Now there is the less than small matter of getting everything out to the car. Which is at least 30 feet from the entrance. Probably more.


You get the idea. Shopping trips become nightmarish quickly.


So what is the moral of this story? Sometimes I purposefully do not take the close parking spot. Even when I could. Not because I'm a saint or a fitness buff, but because I realize someone else out there might need that spot a whole lot more.

I'm famous!

Somehow, this lax blogger not only got listed in the "20 Best Speech Therapy Blogs", but was 1st on the list!

The review of my blog actually says "This incredible speech therapist..." It then lists 19 other blogs that I really need to go check out. Way back when I started blogging (back when dinosaurs roamed the earth and I had to walk up hill both ways to school. Barefoot.), there were few if any other SLP bloggers. Things are changing!

Wow. Way to stroke a super-girl's ego.

Makes me almost want to start blogging more often. Almost.

The Boy Who Ssssssurvived

For my Harry Potter friends, Professor X has now supplied me with a list of /s/ practice sentences to accompany the Star Wars /s/ sentences.

1. The Slytherin seeker was the first to see the snitch.
2. With a simple "Stupefy!" the student was able to stun the summoned imp.
3. Professor Snape snipped the seed in half, added it to his cauldron, and stirred his potion slowly.
4. Cedric skipped a step as the staircase shifted beneath his slippers.
5. To Harry, it seemed like everyone was staring at his scar as he entered the store on Diagon Ally.
6. The spiders sped away from the basilisk in the Chamber of Secrets.
7. Hermione saw seven stars in the sky when she looked at the ceiling of the dining room.
8. Ron was spooked at the sight of a centaur casting a spell.
9. Hagrid told Harry, "Save your strength." as he struggled to swim in the syrupy sand.
10. The Sorcerer's Stone sat safe and secure at Hogwarts when Voldemort tried to steal it from Gringotts.

Ssssssstar Wars

My geeky Professor X created a great list of /s/ sentences for all my Star Wars loving students.

If you have a child working on /s/ who loves Star Wars, have them practice these sentences (the faster and more natural the better!)

1. C-3PO needs R2-D2 to short circuit the Cloud City's central computer.
2. The twin suns of Tatooine make the sand-people scurry to seek out shade.
3. Darth Vader's super-star-destroyer is sinister.
4. Darth Sidious uses his light saber to slice up the rebel soldiers.
5. Han Solo sets up a shelter so that Luke won't have to sleep in the snow.
6. The stormtroopers march the slaves to cell block 'C'.
7. The Sith sent spies to the Galactic Senate.
8. Luke saw his sister sitting on a speeder-bike.
9. The rebel spies used a stolen supply ship to sneak into the Endor system.
10. The shield surrounding the Death Star protected it from the rebel sneak attack.
11. Seriously, Star Wars and its sequels are strictly superior to the subsequent prequels.