All Categories - Teddy Talker™ Tips

Making new friends...PHONEME FRIENDS!

5/5/2017

Teddy Talker®'s on a new adventure! Meet Phoneme Friends™, Teddy's latest dynamic adventure in learning about sounds! These innovative interactive printable Teddies support:
. phoneme identity activities
. individual sounds for repetition
. syllable production (CV, VC, CVC, etc.)
. phonemic awareness: blend, substitute, delete
. language concepts & narrative activities
The digital download gives you images that are Teddy-ready...just cut them out for learning fun! All Teddy Talker® materials have the unique cueing system for features of sounds so children can learn while they play.

Phoneme Friends™ images match the Mouth Position Cards with Reinforcement Rhymes™ and they can be used together (Mouth Position Cards give a close-up view, Phoneme Friends™ work as manipulatives, props or characters!) So let's look more closely
at how that works...

This Mouth Position Card shows a closeup of the features of sounds. Voice on with his green bowtie. Lips together, too! Focus attention on the features of individual sounds.

Now, meet the corresponding Phoneme Friend™ for the "b" sound. Same features of the sound. But Teddy now has a full body. His tummy is color-coded brown to let you know there is a consonant. You can find Phoneme Friends with blue tummies for the vowels, and put them together. Voila...

You're a SYLLABLE-maker !!! Teddy's friends love to work and play with each other to add sounds together and take them apart, creating new syllables.

Oh, and you can make puppets (my favorite!), magnets, and headbands and matching games that make learning super-interactive!

Stay tuned for the next Teddy Tips. We'll see more speech, language and literacy fun-filled ideas that Teddy's Phoneme Friends™ can bring your students!

Here's one of Teddy's favorite syllables!

Rock Chalk Speech Talk-Teddy Review

8/10/2016

So happy to hear how much Rock Talk Speech Talk loved Teddy Talker! Kari is a speech-language pathologist working with preschool students and you can check out Rock Chalk Speech Talk for her recent review!

She has wonderful ideas, and gives suggestions for extending this Teddy tool into her work. Kari shared her FANTASTIC strategy below to remember which articulator goes with each sound. She wanted to know exactly which pieces were paired with each phoneme, without having the book (i.e. there is a manual included in Teddy's Foundation Kit) on hand.

She put scotch tape on the backs of the pieces, went through the chart, and wrote down all the phonemes that corresponded to each piece-- problem solved! What a great way to match Teddy's articulators to sounds.

Thanks, Kari, for a terrific "Teddy Tip!"

A great strategy from our SLP colleague at Rock Chalk Speech Talk!

Putting everything in order!

5/18/2016

Are you working on phonemic sequencing? No problem for Teddy! You can simply put Teddy's images from the Mouth Position Cards with Reinforcement Rhymes™ in
sequence from left to right. This way, the child can not only LISTEN to the sequence but also SEE the sequence as well.

TEDDY TIPS: By having the child slide his/her finger picture to picture or tap each mouth from left to right , you can include TOUCH. By having the child put the cards in order as he/she says them, you can include MOVEMENT. What a great way to build a multisensory bridge to phonemic awareness!

Did you know that there is a dry erase version which allows the child to also trace the letters or highlight mouth positions? There is also a digital version that allows you to print copies of each Teddy image for your own use.

Can you guess what the sequence above shows? (The green bowtie means his voice is on for each sound, the honey on his nose at the end shows a nasal phoneme.) Here comes the sounds... B-OO-M!

Teddy can help children produce and then order sounds, and have fun at the same time!

A quarter century+ on the "Bear Track Trail"

1/27/2016

Here I am in the 80s...a Halloween lesson with puppet Brother Goose dressed as a bear (yes...that fabric's leftover from Teddy's first version!!!)

As you may know, I am a speech-language pathologist who had an idea a long time ago (in the 1980s!) when I received my certification. I realized that children learned so well when they had manipulatives, like those used in reading and math to construct syllables, words and number sense. AND I loved puppets!
Sooo...I put these two ideas together and Teddy Talker was born.

The Teddy you meet today is the SEVENTH version to construct sounds and connect to early literacy!

Did you know that one version (#3) even had Teddy with a "portable"(!) three foot game high board? There were LOTS of changes to Teddy as he grew with the children...

More than 25 years of revision led to today's fun-loving, "paws-on" bear!

Teddy's mouth changed from this...

to this!

In my experience, some children needed more visual, tactile-kinesthetic input in their learning. And today, just as with the original Teddy, learning still relies on awesome "kid-power" to move mouth pieces and a puppet tongue to physically construct sounds. Kids move them "first in the air, then on the bear!"

Whether the manipulatives are felt (as in the "vintage" version), or paper (today's additional digital Teddy downloads), this multisensory approach is designed for learning connections.

Most importantly, as in puppetry, it is children that create the magic that bring Teddy to life to make learning joyful. That is something that never seems to change!

Build and Say... the "Teddy" way!

12/2/2015

There’s a new way to meet Teddy! Our digital Build and Say B.E.A.R.R. Pack introduces Teddy’s hands-on approach for alphabet letters and their sounds. Teddy Talker™ is designed for Building Early Articulation and Reading Readiness. (Yes, that’s our bear’s B.E.A.R.R. focus!)

This budget-friendly tool allows children not only to produce the sound, but also to describe what is happening in the mouth while constructing the sound with manipulatives by building the sounds on the bear.

The Teddy and manipulative printables are black and white for children to color and/or personalize.

Once the 18 manipulatives and 4 cues are cut out, you are ready to build all 26 alphabet sounds! The cues help visualize, build and talk about the features of sounds.

As children “teach” Teddy, they can associate the sound with its corresponding letter. Use the B.E.A.R.R. Pack tool with the Teddy Talker™ Alphabet Chart or B.E.A.R.R. Track Game. You can also build sounds through Teddy and your own materials. There are activities in the Pack for phonemic skills and alphabet knowledge.

Because it arrives as a PDF file, you can download to a portable device. There's a chart (left picture) with colorful pictures of Teddy to show you how to build each sound, so you can swipe and expand them (picture below) for a Teddy lesson on your portable device's screen!

Watch the Instagram link here as we construct the sound for "m"... the Teddy way! Your students can begin to build learning with the Teddy Talker Build and Say™ tool. It's packed with fun!

Playful Props

5/27/2015

One of the most engaging features you may find with Teddy is his ability to invite the imagination of children! Are you teaching to a theme? Great! Teddy can have lots of fun with the children (and you!) with a few simple materials.

Teddy is made of felt. One of its timeless qualities is that felt pieces stick to felt easily! So in order to create props for an occasion or theme, all you have to do is use a piece

of self adhesive felt on one side and pick a special paper for the other.

Often scrapbook papers have lovely, bright and unique designs that easily work with a theme.

For example,to make
Teddy into a "pirate,"
simply choose a polka dot scrapbook paper and back it with the self- adhering felt. Cut out the pirate cap, and Teddy will be ready for a new adventure! Think of the language skills you can teach by having the children help you design Teddy's new look!

Teddy is actually prepared for Linda's "Manipulative-based, Multisensory Approach for Speech and Literacy" presentation on Saturday at the Florida Association of Speech-Language Pathologists and Audiologists' annual state conference. That's why he's so happy! The theme this year for the convention is "A FLASHA Life for me! Yo ho!

A "sense-able" approach to sounds

4/10/2015

Building the windy part of the "f" sound

One of the opportunities we have when teaching children about sounds is to help them visualize what their mouths should do to produce them. The front of the Teddy Talker board allows us to construct lip positions for 38 phonemes. Children actually physically build the sounds with manipulatives!

Our biggest challenge, however, is often that so much of speech, (estimates range from 60-70%) is not readily visible on the lips. So we have to be creative, and that's where Teddy comes in!

The puppet tongue and the BACK of Teddy's Bear Board is designed to help children see tongue movements as
they hear the sound. Moreover, by wearing the puppet tongue (shown below), they are able to touch and feel
the movements we describe.

This auditory, visual, tactile and kinesthetic experience can support a unique understanding and production of sounds. We hope you will find that this multi-sensory learning experience makes good sense!

The puppet tongue lifts to show what happens inside Teddy's mouth for "l"!

A Colorful Bear

2/24/2015

This brilliant idea comes from a very talented colleague of mine. Jan Tomanio, a Special Education Preschool Teacher, decided that she wanted a colorful version of Teddy from the Teach Together Toolkit™ for her classroom.

So, she copied Teddy on large construction paper in layers by using a dark brown background, with lighter brown mouth and ears, white eyes, and of course, the red bowtie! She then cut the features out, pasted them on the brown background and laminated it -- making her very own version of Teddy!

You can use this quick & easy method too -- it's a great way to make a lightweight and colorful bear to go along with your Toolkit. Thank you, Jan, for sharing this wonderful Teddy Talker™ Tip!

Make a colorful Teddy with the Teach Together Toolkit!

A Magnetic Idea

2/6/2015

As educators, we are always learning! One of the most exciting Teddy ideas
came from the parent of one of my students. She decided that her son
enjoyed playing with Teddy so much, she would make magnets out of
the Mouth Position Pieces from the Teddy Talker Teach Together Toolkit!™

All you need to do is copy and laminate the pieces, and put a small magnetic strip on the back. The Toolkit tells you the piece numbers for each sound, so you know which ones to use.

You can make a great "refrigerator" game for home practice ("Guess what sound this is..." "What letter makes this sound?" "What does your mouth do to make
this sound? etc.) or a fun activity within the therapy or class setting. Children can
take turns trying to find Mouth Position Pieces that match letters or put up the articulators on the magnetic board so their friends can guess. There's so many possibilities!

Make your own Teddy Mouth Position Piece magnets! It's easy!

A Multifaceted Look at our Multisensory Bear!

1/26/2015

For a detailed review of how several Teddy Talker™ multisensory components work together, we thank Nanette at Speech2me! She shares how she is using Teddy to
meet the needs of her young clients and how her data drives instruction.

Using Teddy for assessment and intervention

Nanette describes how she incorporates
the Teach Teach Together Toolkit™, B.E.A.A.R.R. Track Game™ and
Teddy Talker™ Alphabet Chart™ in her practice.

To read the review on the Speech2me
blog, click here.

You can enter to win your own
Teddy Talker™ Teach Together
Toolkit™ on Nanette's blog! There's
still time for the product giveaway!

About Our Bear

Teddy Talker™ is the innovative, kid-powered multisensory tool for articulation and early literacy. Children ”teach” our bear with manipulatives for letters and sounds in school and at home! Teddy helps us hear, see, feel and build sounds!

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