DIY MATERIALS : CUPS

My client LOVES the Cars movies, so I've been tweaking a lot of activities to include Cars characters, especially Lightning McQueen.  I recently tweaked a few of them for Halloween as well.  You could use these activities for most interests and holidays by simply decorating the cups to fit the theme!

Cars Towers:
This is a version of Artic Towers that I personalized by using Cars cups.  These cups are just big enough to not fit in a pringles can for storage, so I wrapped a head band around them instead.  My client earns each cup by correctly producing the target words I've taped on the cups.  After he's earned all the cups, he gets to stack them and knock them down!

Halloween Towers:
For Halloween Towers, I drew silly ghost faces on foam cups.  He really enjoyed trying to mimic all of the silly faces!

Where's the Cars Prize?
I put out three Cars cups, and under one of them I hide a Cars sticker.  My client choses which cup he thinks the sticker is under by saying the target word on that cup, and keeps choosing until he finds the prize.  I tape each of his target words on a cup, and rotate cups throughout the game.  When he finds every sticker (or has said every word), he wins!  (I like how the stimulus is incorporated into this activity.)

Where's the Halloween Prize?
I used the same cups for this activity as for Halloween Towers.

Happy Articulating!

DIY MATERIALS : TOY STORY

I'm working with my first client this semester!  He's such a joy to work with, and I'm having so much fun planning activities for him and seeing him improve.  I've been trying to personalize a lot of my articulation activities according to his interests.  He loves Pixar movies so I recently incorporated some Toy Story themed games into a speech session.  Although I always enjoy the newest Pixar movies, the first two Toy Story movies came out when I was in the target age range, so they definitely bring out my inner child.  I think I probably get as excited about these types of activities as my client!  Here is what we did:

The Claw:
First, I made a rocket out of construction paper, leaving a square cut out in the middle.  Next, I taped a plastic sandwich bag behind the square cut out.  I printed Toy Story aliens on card stock, cut them out, taped target words on their backs, and put them in the plastic bag.  My client used a clothespin (the claw), to pull out aliens and produce the corresponding words.

Andy's Toy Chest:
This was very simple to put together.  I folded brown construction paper to form an envelope for the chest.  Then I printed Toy Story characters on card stock, cut them out, and taped target words on their backs.  I placed the characters all over the room, and my client cleaned up Andy's toys by putting them in the toy chest and saying the target words along the way.