Fall Speech Therapy Ideas

Fall is my favorite season. Here in Ohio, it is lovely. The weather is cool and the leaves are so beautiful. There are also many fun activities to enjoy with family and friends. Some of my favorite activities to enjoy are going to pick apples, watching football and making all things pumpkin related. Oh and picking up a Pumpkin Spice Latte from Starbucks! 

When I am working with students, it can be hard to find a book that describes all of these fun seasonal activities in a simplistic manner. If you are working with students who would benefit from a story discussing all of the joy involved with fall, check out my Let’s Talk Fall book here. The book has real life photos so that you can discuss these activities with your students. There are also social language questions at the end, to help facilitate conversation about the season.  I love to show this to my students on my ipad or on the Smart Board. Printing is also an option; whatever is most engaging for your students!

Another activity that my students enjoy year round,  but that I think is perfect for Fall is  I Went Walking by Sue Williams. This book is repetitive in nature and talks about all of the fun animals that the little boy encounters. He has so much fun meeting all of the different animals. This book is great for students who are early learners. It includes just one sentence on each page. I work with my students who are just learning to verbalize on filling in the line for the repetitive phrase “ I went walking, what did you see?” My students love to say the word see all on their own; it is a great way to engage in a cooperative literacy based activity.

One last activity I love to pair with the above book, is going on a nature walk. You can use the same repetitive line from the book  to discuss all of the interesting items you may see on your nature walk.  You can go on your nature walk and collect items that you see. After your nature walk you can discuss the items that you found. The SLP or teacher could say, “ I went walking, what did you see?” “ I saw a (outside item) looking at me” The student can say the label for the item that has been found. What an engaging way to work on new language targets!

Thanks for being here and if you aren’t signed up for my newsletter at www.abaspeech.org, come on over and join our community there! 

Social Skills and Modified Memory

When you are working with students who have autism or other complex communication disorders, there may be so many areas to focus on that it can be overwhelming! We want to help our students increase their communication skills and become more independent with these skills. We also want our students to enjoy play and leisure with their teachers, peers and family. One way to target all of these skills is within modified leisure activities.

Modified leisure activities are so vital to help our students increase their skill set in this area. If they are able to learn how to play a new game with you in therapy, they can generalize this skill when playing with a friend and also to the home environment with parents and siblings. This can be such an amazing experience for family, when a student can independently engage in a play-based activity. This is why including direct instruction of modified leisure skills, for students with a weakness in this area, can be so very powerful!

One activity that I love to teach students is how to play modified memory. Memory is such a great game and you can target so many communicative based skills. These may include but are not limited to: matching, sitting for a duration of time, staying engaged in a task without prompting, taking turns with others and labeling. Wow so many skills all in one activity.

Another thing that is so amazing with teaching leisure skills is that they can be generalized to a variety of settings. I may start by teaching this skill to a student in an individual session. After the student has demonstrated mastery in this setting, I will generalize it to a small group setting. Once they can engage in this type of environment, we can generalize it to the home environment. It can become an activity that they feel confident playing and love!

One strategy that I like to use to teach my students new skills is video modeling. Video modeling simply defined is as follows: the student watches a video of the targeted skill taking place before they practice the skill. Video modeling can be used for a variety of activities to include but not limited to making a snack, doing laundry, playing a game.  Video modeling can be such a powerful teaching tool. I show my students a video model of how to play modified memory, before we play the game. I will also send this video home to their parents, so that they understand how we are playing the game in the school environment. Here is the video that I like to use with my students. 

Memory comes in all shapes and sizes! I have seen Mickey Mouse memory, regular memory, SpongeBob memory; the list goes on and on. The way that I modify this game is to keep all of the pieces turned facing up, so that the students can see the pictures. When all of the pieces are facing up, it makes the task of finding a match easier for the student to complete. You may also want to modify how many pieces are set out on the table. Memory has so many pieces, that I find many children feel overwhelmed when all of the pieces are laid on the table all at once. Follow these tips and have fun!

If you want to learn more about modified leisure for elementary students, come on over to my TPT store and check out this webinar about modified leisure skills for younger students!

I would love for you to download the modified leisure skills guide that I have developed. It will help you and other staff you work with help make play and leisure fun for all! 

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Halloween Therapy Ideas

I love Halloween! I am sure that most of you reading this also love the holidays. There are so many fun ways to work on communication around Halloween. I wanted to take some time today and give you a peak inside my Halloween inspired therapy activities.

I am a big fan of using real pictures in therapy. So whether I am working with younger or older students, I always make sure that the pictures that I use are real photographs. I find that for younger and older students alike, these types of pictures are often times more engaging. Also when I am working with older students who may have more intense language needs, they are an age appropriate way to deliver services.

One adapted story that my students have really enjoyed using is Let's Talk About Halloween. This story can be printed out and bound like a book, shown on an ipad, used on a computer or put on a smart board. It is so wonderful because it allows the students to fill in the blanks along the way for shared reading. After we are done reading the book, I read aloud fill in the blank phrases about the story. The students can practice using the vocabulary from the story to help recall details. If I am working with students who are working on answering and asking social questions, I ask them the questions at the end of the story. Having a conversation about what we will be for Halloween and what candy is our favorite is always fun to do during therapy.

When I am working with younger students or my own children at home (I have 3), we love to read Llama Llama. This is such a delightful and easy read, especially for younger students who may not want to sit for an entire book reading. 

When I am finished reading this story, I like to play The Monster Mash. This is an oldie but goodie and one that my students seem to enjoy. I like to play this version. 

One last activity that is great for labeling and sentence construction involves some pictures and a 99-cent pumpkin from the dollar store. I put the pictures in the pumpkin and tell the students that we will take turns picking and describing what we pull from the pumpkin. This activity works on so many skills: taking turns, cooperative group work, labeling an item (pumpkin), sentence construction (I picked a pumpkin, I have a pumpkin), waiting, etc.… And who doesn’t love any activity with this super cute pumpkin!

Hope these ideas infuse some fun into your therapy sessions. Happy Halloween from my therapy room to yours!

ABA and Speech Pathology- My Journey and a ABA Glossary

Hello everyone! Thanks for stopping by. If you are new here, my name is Rose Griffin. I am a speech language pathologist and a board certified behavior analyst. This is my very first blog post and I am so excited that you are here! * I hope that when you get to the end of the article that you will download the free applied behavior analysis glossary I have developed for all of you! *

I wanted to start my first blog by discussing my professional journey. I get asked a lot about that and wanted to tell you a little about me and how I can help you in your every day practice.

I remember working with my graduate school mentor during my school experience like it was yesterday ( it was about 15 years ago!). I loved working with all of the students, but especially the students with autism. There was something so challenging about getting the students to attend, but when they did and you were able to help them learn something new, the feeling was so amazing! Ever since that part of my journey, I have picked positions along the way that allowed me to specialize in working with students with autism and other complex communication disorders.

I made life long friends in my 3 years working at the Cleveland Clinic Center for Autism. I loved my time working down in Austin, Texas as an Autism Facilitator and Support Specialist. It was in this position where I was able to collaborate with an amazing staff of SLPs. I would speak at their monthly staff meetings about topics related to effective treatment for students with autism. I would also visit and work with them in their individual buildings. I loved seeing all of the great things they were doing for kids and being able to share this with and among therapists. It was during this time that I completed my coursework for my BCBA through UNT. I was supervised by a wonderful BCBA, took the dreaded BCBA exam and passed! Hooray I was elated. And so it began this journey as a SLP/BCBA.

Fast forward six years later and here we are! I am now a proud momma of 3 little ones, wife, slp/bcba, creator of the action builder cards and newbie TPT store owner. I started this blogging journey because I wanted to get good information out to other professionals who may be feeling frustrated or overwhelmed by working with students with autism and other complex communication disorders. So know that the information that I post in my blog will be relevant, effective and functional for your caseload. Let me help you provide systematic language instruction with ease!


A great first step on this journey is learning more about the basic concepts involved with applied behavior analysis. I hope that you will sign up to receive an aba glossary I have created. Sign up below.

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