Chain Letter Link Up

It’s time for the Chain Letter Link Up! We have interviewed two great speechie bloggers, Natalie from Just Wright Speech and Leslie from Leslie 4 Kids and Speaking of Apraxia (you may remember the guest post she did for us earlier). You can read about them below. Also, be sure click on their links to follow their blog or TpT store! Next you can cjeck in with their blogs to read others they interviewed.

Natalie 

1.     Your name, email, and TpT store if you have one. If not, feel free to leave me your blog link.
Natalie Boatwright, justwrightspeech@gmail.com, TPT Store: Just Wright Speech, blog link: www.justwrightspeech.blogspot.com

 2.    When and why did you start blogging?

I started blogging the night of January 4, 2013. Blogging is very new to me, but I wanted to be able to share my ideas as a SLP. I love using books in therapy and want to share the companion packets for the books I use as well as other materials/ideas I find helpful.

3.    What is your favorite population to work with?

I love working with the school-age population, PK-5^th grade.

4.    How much time per week do you spend blogging and/or creating materials?

Since I started on January 4, I’ve only been able to spend an average of 10-12 hours per week. Blogging/creating materials in an electronic way are fun, but takes time to learn. Working full time in the public schools and having two young children myself, four years & two years, doesn’t allow for a lot of “extra” time. I will get more efficient as time goes on.J I look forward to this new journey!

5.    What's your favorite topic to create materials for?

I like to make materials that can be used with a story book. There is so much language within books and the children respond to books very well. To relate articulation activities to story books is fun too. It allows the student time to hear the target sounds within a story format rather than at the level on which they are working, i.e. sound, phrase, and sentence.

6.    What's the best thing about blogging?

Thus far, the best thing has been being able to share with others. My page is very new, as you know, so I haven’t had many view my page, but to those who have, I hope it was helpful!

7.    Do you have any blogging tips?

My advice, to new bloggers especially, would be to take your time and do not stress over the small things. I consider my blog a “work in progress” and will be making changes/edits/additions as I learn how to do so. Happy blogging!

8.    What is your funniest speech moment?

There are lots, but to choose one…It was a time, not about what was said, but what was taught. One of my students showed me how to do something on the iPad…and to see the look on his face when he realized he had showed me something he knew that I hadn’t was priceless!

Leslie

1.     Your name, email, and TpT store if you have one. If not, feel free to leave me your blog link. 

Hi all—my name is Leslie Lindsay, R.N., B.S.N.  and while I am not a speech-language pathologist, I a mom raising a child with resolving (once severe) CAS—and author of SPEAKING OF APRAXIA: A Parent’s Guide to Childhood Apraxia of Speech (WoodbineHouse, 2012 www.woodbinehouse.com) .  I am an avid blogger since 2009 at www.leslie4kids.wordpress.com …it’s “Practical Parenting…with a Twist!” 

2.    When and why did you start blogging?  

I was reluctant to the blog world back in 2009—I didn’t think anyone would bother reading what I wrote.  I was wrong!  Plus, I was naïve about just how “big” the Internet has become.  Everyone reads stuff on the Internet. 

 3.    What is your favorite population to work with?

I love, love working with kids and educators the best.  Even better if I have a connection with an author who has written a book or article about kids and education.  That sort of combines all three of my passions:  kids, education, and writing.  But, I would be lying if I didn’t say I have a special affinity for CAS. 

4.    How much time per week do you spend blogging and/or creating materials?

I blog Monday thru Friday, aiming for 5 posts each with a different theme.  Like everyone else, I’m busy so I don’t always get a post out a day—I’d be happy with three solid posts.  How much time…well, it all depends, but I would say an average of 40 minutes a post. 

5.    What's your favorite topic to create materials for? 

I’d have to say that I love working on new ways to help our kids work through self-esteem or coping with a speech impediment.  That really ties into my Monday (Apraxia Monday) and Tuesday (The Teacher is Talking) posts. 

 6.    What's the best thing about blogging?

The best thing about blogging….well, it’s tri-fold:  1)  I love to write and I am very much a ‘processor.’  I have got to get my thoughts and ideas “out” or I go nuts!  Sometimes blogging is the best way to do it.  2)  Connecting with others in the blogosphere also tickles my fancy.  I love to make connections that I may have missed out on had I not been blogging.  3)  I’d like to think that some of my posts help others out there…guess that goes along with #2 above.  But, when I get a response from a reader who tells me that they love what I wrote, or what I shared helped their child, it’s like I am giving back.

7.    Do you have any blogging tips?

Set a routine.  Blog every day at the same time of day in the same location.  You will prime your brain to work creatively at those times.  Pick several topics you are most passionate about and let them be your “columns.”  Write about similar things on the same days of the week.  Crafty Wednesday, or Alliteration Monday, or Therapy Trick Tuesday…you get the idea.  Readers will come back for their favorites. 

 8.    What is your funniest speech moment?

My daughter with CAS was at the mall around late February/early March.  She was nibbling on a cookie with her dad and little sister.  She looked up and saw a giant white bunny sitting in a spring-y little cottage.  Her eyes grew as large as saucers as she pointed, “Daddy…no ho-ho…big hop-hop!”  We still giggle about that today, many years later. 

Thanks for having me! !