Easing back in with a Review Week

I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving and time spent with family. Since we took the week off last week to celebrate and count the blessings in our lives, this week we will ease back into our letter-sound of the week project with a review week. Of the 14 letters we have highlighted so far, we have covered 4 vowels (each with a short and a long sound) and 10 consonant sounds.

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Letter of the Week: T

Thanksgiving is coming! We are talking about gratitude/thankfulness all month and have a subtle Thanksgiving theme. However, while Thanksgiving starts with the letter 't', it starts with the 'th' sound. And we are not ready to go there, yet. So, next week as we highlight the letter/sound 't' we'll be talkin' turkey! ‘T’ is a consonant. From a speech perspective, ‘t’ is a tip tapper. The tongue [tongue tip to be specific] is doing the work to make this sound.

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Review Week #2

O, B, X, S, A, I, F, L, P, J, M, H, and U. Whew! We are halfway through the alphabet. And now it is November. This coming Monday we pay tribute to the men and women who have served, or are serving, our country. And then in a couple of weeks we take time to give thanks for all the goodness, big and small, in our lives. Thanksgiving, Christmas, Hanukkah, Winter Solstice… “The Holidays”. Busy, busy, busy. So, now through the beginning of 2014 (!) we will have several weeks of review with a few new letters/sounds sprinkled in. This coming week? A review week! You will also notice an over-riding theme all month of gratitude/Thanksgiving (with special focus on turkeys one week...but more on that in my next post).

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Letter of the Week: U

Well, it’s time we faced facts. We have returned to the time of year when rain is our frequent companion. So we are going to talk “umbrellas” for a week. A stretch, you say? Pi-shaw! Okay, okay. I knew without thinking about it that ‘X’ was going to be a challenge in the theme department. It wasn’t until I started thinking about it that I realized ‘U’ also presents a challenge (although not to the same extent). And for the the hardcore Seattleites who never use umbrellas…well, it’s good to know what one is so we can tell stories about how we saw one invert on someone in the windy rain. Anyone up for singing in the rain, twirling an umbrella?

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Letter of the Week: H

Hhhhhhhhhhalloween is coming! I’m not sure if you can tell, but I LOVE this time of year. Cooler air, warmer layers of clothes, hot drinks and beautiful colors changes outside = happy, happy, joy, joy. Mother Nature is even helping to create a Halloween-mood with all the fog. For H / Halloween week, practice saying “Happy Halloween!” If your child cannot say it verbally, learn to sign it or say it via an AAC system. Oh, and Halloween costumes are definitely welcome in therapy for the week of Halloween!

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