Pokemon and making connections in speech!

My son was about 12 when he first introduced me to Pokemon.  He collected the figures, stuffed animals, movies, and video games.  He then introduced me to PokemonGo.  Purely for mother/son bonding, I started playing it as well.  I have to say; I kind of loved it!  So I decided to create some speechemon activities.  If you would like free copies of some fun speech-style Pokemon activities, join my Newsletter and you will get these for FREE.

Having my own kids allowed me a glimpse into the interests of my students.  Now that my kiddos are getting older, I have to work harder to stay relevant.  So why is this important?

• Connections – making connections with your speech students/clients is essential for speech therapy.  I have had kiddos that I could connect with quickly and some that were way harder to (you know, those that can push your buttons sooooo quickly).  When I can connect with a student, my ability to teach and model increases drastically!
• Generalization – I know you all have had those speech therapy students/clients who can say their r’s perfectly in speech, and then you hear them in the hall, and you would think they had never had speech.  When we play or do an activity that they would do in various settings, the ability to carry over skills increases.  I think of it this way.  We want our students to be able to say their r’s correctly when we have flashcards and when we are talking about the pokemon characters on the card sets I snagged from my son (which I carefully choose for target sounds).  These everyday activities help to carry these activities outside of the speech room.
• FUNctional therapy – speech can and should be fun.  Now I am not going to say that speech is always like going to the beach or playing at the park, but we can make flashcards and make a card house or practice our card flinging skills.

Making speech FUNctional is why I created the speechemon world.  So join my newsletter for free access to SpeecheMon!