Love It & List It - Fave Technology

my top 4 favorite forms of technology for use in speech therapy

I'm linking up with Speech Room News again this month for her Love It & List It link-up. This month's topic is favorite technology. Here's what I use and love in my speech room.

1) iPad

I feel like I'm preaching to the choir here, because the iPad and apps are EVERYWHERE, but it is truly the number one piece of technology I use every day. Obviously there are tons of apps out there which are great for use in the speech room, but the iPad goes way beyond apps too.

It's a timer.

It's a search engine.

It's a voice recorder.

It's a tv.

It's a secret decoder.

It's a library.

It's a fun game.

It's a writing tool.

It's a flash drive.

It's a scanner.

It's therapy-on-the-go.

It's all that and more. I am so fortunate that my employer also sees its value and is willing to provide me with one. Now, if only I could triple the amount of memory available :)

BTW, I was supplied a case with attached bluetooth keyboard by my employer, which is great for writing reports on the go, but I'm looking for something less clunky sans keyboard for everyday use. What's your favorite iPad case? Let me know in the comments please.

2) Boardmaker Plus
 

Need a visual schedule for a student? Boardmaker. Need a token board to keep a student on task? Boardmaker. Need pages for a communication device? Boardmaker. Need a sheet of words containing target speech sounds for progress monitoring? Boardmaker. Need to write a social story? Boardmaker. It's such a versatile tool, and I use it all the time. Be sure to check out Boardmaker Share and Boardmaker Achieve to download ready-made activities from other users! Again, I am so very grateful to have this provided to me by my employer.

3) Voice Recorders

The top two I use are Quick Voice (on the iPad) and Audacity (on my laptop). They are both free to download, and perfect for taking language samples, screening a student, and recording story retell trials. I like Audacity on my MacBook Pro because I can turn it on and then tilt the screen down until almost closed so the student isn't distracted by the recording. However, I'm almost always working with students in their classroom or in the hallway and don't drag my laptop along, so I use Quick Voice on the iPad the most. Check it out!

4) Social Media

This isn't really something I use directly in therapy, but social media is definitely something that affects the activities I'm doing in therapy! Pinterest is overflowing with amazing therapy ideas! I have connected with a whole bunch of SLPs on Twitter and love using it to find information about current research and upcoming events. But my favorite right now is Instagram. It's such a great tool for connecting and interacting with other SLPs and I find a ton of great ideas from the creative people I interact with. I don't know what I'd do without these tools!

Schoolhouse Talk on Instagram

Schoolhouse Talk on Pinterest

Schoolhouse Talk on Twitter

Schoolhouse Talk on Facebook

So there you have it! My favorite technology tools for speech. What do you like to use? Go check out what other tools SLPs are using!

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Abby wishes there were 30 hours in a day so she could catch up on everything.