Preschool Week Day 1: Websites & Apps

Welcome to Preschool Week!  A whole week all about the little guys right here at Busy Bee Speech!  Everyday we’ll be diving into tips, tricks, research, and materials to help our little ones become better communicators.  Whether you work with them or have your own children who are preschoolers, I hope you’ll find some helpful new info.

Today is all things techie!  I’ll be sharing my favorite websites and apps for PK.  We recently had a speech therapy in-service in our district, and my amazing coworkers shared some fun new apps with me.  I’m super excited!

First, let’s check out some useful websites for SLPs and parents of preschoolers. 

Hands down this is one of the best blogs for parents on early speech and language development.  There are plenty of resources for SLPs as well.  Katie is an SLP and mommy who loves to share information on early speech and language skills as well as intervention strategies to expand children’s communication.  You can read more on what her blog is about here on the “about” page.

To understand if a child has speech or language delays, it’s a good idea to have a sense of typical development.  On this site you can find definitions of what is meant by “speech” and “language” as well as other areas of communication.  There are also development charts from ages birth-5 that you can find here as well as what to expect if a child is learning more than one language.

This is another awesome site geared toward parents and SLPs.  Heidi is an SLP/mom and shares lots of resources and worksheets, especially in the area of articulation.  You can find free sound development charts and articulation screening tools.  She even designed the app Articulation Station… one of my favorite artic apps!

I was fortunate enough to be able to attend a conference by Laura Mize a couple of years ago.  It ended up being one of the best, most practical lectures on early childhood I’d ever heard.  She has books and DVDs that are available for purchase but also has lots of tips and information on her site.  She even does a “Therapy Tip of the Week” which usually includes a video clip.  Highly recommend!

Now for some fun apps that I love to use with my preschoolers!  For this list I’m going to try and stick with apps that are free or under $5, so it won’t break the bank if you wanted to purchase them yourself.  🙂

• LEGO Duplo ~ Free!

• Touch & Say ~ Free!

• Ocean Adventures ~ $2.99 

• Eek & Slow ~ Free!

• Interactive Books – TabTale Books, Big Cat Books ~ Most free

• The Monster at the End of this Book ~ $4.99

This one definitely wins the cutest app award in my book!  I love it!  It’s awesome for print awareness and emergent literacy skills.  Grover is hilarious and tries to tie down pages and build walls to keep you from turning the pages.  It’s very interactive!

Well, hope some of these help you!  What are your favorite sites and apps to use in therapy??

**Be sure to check back the rest of the week for more preschool fun!