It’s a giveaway day! A few weeks ago the SLP’s over at ARK Therapeutic Services, Inc, contacted me about reviewing some of their products and doing a giveaway. I browsed their catalog and found some resources I think will be perfect for those of us working with the preschool and school aged population. I picked out two products and I think you’re going to love them! ARK was founded in 2000 by Debra C. Lowsky, MS, CCC-SLP who saw a need in the market for materials to use with her clients. Check out the website and see all the great therapy resources available. ARK provided me with these materials but the opinions are all mine! 
First up are the line of chew tools, anchored by the Grabbers. As a mouthing tool, the Grabber is perfect for the mouth to play through jaw movement, tongue movement, and oral exploration. The material is chewy and resilient. They’re made to help with oral defensiveness and food aversions by de-sensitizing the mouth. 
ARK also makes a Y-Chew that is really similar. It’s made to assist in oral exploration and to increase movement in the cheek, tongue, lips, and jaw. SLP’s can use it to develop biting and chewing skills and decrease oral sensitivities to textures. I used these two items with one of my little preschoolers. We are working on chewing, swallowing and cup drinking. They are kid tested! And easily washed in the dishwasher! The Grabbers will be the first part of the giveaway! Have anyone on your caseload that this will work for? 
Now lets get to my new favorite tool! The DnZ-Vibe is a small tool about the size of a pen. It vibrates with a twist of the end cap and can be used for articulation and oral motor work. For my caseload, I’ve used it like I usually use a tongue depressor, with the added bonus of vibration. The DnZ Vibe has a ton of different tips to make it work for a variety of clients. It’s a great use of tactile input to teach individuals how to lateralize their tongue, elevate their tongue tip, make a tongue bowl, close their lips, learn a rotary chew, position the articulators for sound production, and various other skills. ARK has a multitude of different tips to go along with it. 
The Cat-n-Mouse Tip Set was a big hit with the preschool crowd. The critters provided lots of opportunities for mouthing, sound production, and feeding. Both tips are designed with a variety of textures to generate different sensations within the oral cavity and around the lips and face. The reverse sides have many additional textures and “pockets” for the tongue to explore. 
One of my preschoolers and I used this cute little dog tip to work on some bilabial sounds. I paired it with this book, so we could work on our /b/ sound for ‘bug.’ She loved the sensory input and we played on our lips a lot. I used another tip separately to model! 
Sometimes getting their interest is half the battle and she was into it! 
When she signed ‘more’ I had to give it back to her! The vibratory function was great for this client and the animals made it inviting and ‘toy’ like. 
ARK’s Popette Tip is designed to add vibration to the use of Toothettes and suckers in therapy. Just press the stem of the sucker into the Popette Tip, and you’re ready to go. This is where I’m sure I will get the most use with my DnZ Vibe. It is taking my usual routine with the tongue depressor and sucker to the next level. My students working on /r/ this week were working on lingual placements with it and even volunteered to stay 5 minutes extra in speech to finish working! So let’s review what the giveaway options are! 1st giveaway: 4 different chew tools of your choice from the website 2nd giveaway: DnZ-Vibe plus an assortment of grab-bag tips I’m trying out using Rafflecopter for this giveaway. Let me know how you think it goes! a Rafflecopter giveaway <a href=”http://rafl.es/enable-js”>You need javascript enabled to see this giveaway</a>. ARK is also offering a coupon to all the Speech Room News followers! You can use the promo code: SpeechRoom15 for 15% off all orders through the end of March! You’ve got 5 days to enter! Goodluck! This Giveaway is now closed. Congrats to the winners!
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My favorite therapy material??? Bubbles, Puppets and Books! (can’t say just one!). Favorite oral motor therapy tool??? Can’t pick one! It depends! Straws, horns, blow toys, chewy tubes. Love them!
My favorite therapy material…I have a couple that my students have been enjoying recently…Artic Shuffle card deck and the Synonym/Antonym Double Dice game.
I have to agree that bubbles are the most versatile therapy tool around!
My favorite therapy tool or material is probably my artic cards and my holiday-themed board games. All of my student have LOVED the board games, and it keeps them interested and motivated.
Right now my preschoolers are loving Dot markers and dot worksheets.
I love EET!!! It can target many different language goals including describing/attributes, adjectives, increasing MLU, syntax, etc…love Jenna’s suggestions on how to use it too!
My favorite is the Zvibe, I’ve used it with feeding clients!
My favorite therapy material … memory! Easy, simple game that my kids use to label, comment, request, and follow directions.
It’s hard to choose, but today bubbles got a kiddo to talk, so it’s bubbles for me too!
My favorite therapy tool is whatever is near by! I do a lot of early intervention and use what is available in the child’s home…but bubbles come in with a close second. I usually carry some around in my purse for those moments when nothing else will work!!
My favorite therapy tool is the chipper chat sets and the turn and talk flipbooks for artic kiddos.
There are so many materials I love it’s so hard to pick one. But I’ll go with Hedbanz! I use it to formulate questions, increasing MLU, describing/attributes, and categorizing.
I like chipper chat holiday edition. My kids love the “magic wand” to take the chips off.
Recently I’ve been enjoying the Hear Builders CD’s on my smart board. I also love “homemade” materials.
My favorite therapy materials are “ZAP” sticks. The students really enjoy the game.
I am loving my iPad! It is so versatile with everything you need at your finger tips..data collector, materials bank, interactive tools, DAF, mirror (someone posted to use the camera as a mirror-great idea!), network to other SLPs, voice recorder, motivator and the list goes on!!
My kids love “Looting Pirates” & “Pick a Stick” by 2 Gals Speech Products. You can use them for any goal and there’s no prep and no clean-up! I also have a never-ending puzzle called “Izzi” that my older kids love to use with any type of goal.
My favorite therapy tool is books and puppets…oral motor? I like train whistles and straws! These look neat though!
I love incorporating things I find here on your blog and in other blogs with my general education setting ELA class. I have 3 of my 22 students this year that receive speech services! Anything I can do to help support is fantastic!
I’m exploring the use of narratives as my favorite therapy tool. 🙂 Thanks for this great site, you are an incredible slp.
Right now I really enjoy using books in therapy!!! Love your blog!!
I love using my iPad for therapy!
i love my memory games!!!
I LOVE using wind-up toys! I have a whole bucket full of them. They seem to appeal to a wide range of ages. Definitely a go-to choice for me in therapy!
I really like using games with my adolescents to elicit a natural occurring social situation in my pragmatic groups. A few months ago I found Story Cubes. They can work with any age level!!
I found some really neat picture magnets on Amazon and we have been working with those lately! We really like them! I would love to win the DnZ-Vibe! Ive been looking at buying one!
I like my iPad and any hands-on games that have lots of different language activities.
My favorite therapy tool right now is my iPad!! I also love bubbles, popup pirate and books!
My favorite therapy tool is the Expanding Expressive Language program. I use it with so many students!
Right now my kids are really into Chipper Chat (used a a reinforcer for almost any activity) and Pirate Talk, and my younger ones love using dotters!
I am just loving my iPad! It’s motivating for students of all ages and all abilities levels. I specifically love the innovative mobile apps and mobile education apps!
My favorite therapy tool is my iPad!!!! I love all the apps and adding technology.
One of my favorites is MagneTalk. It is motivating for all elementary ages!
Bubbles for sure are a favorite therapy tool!!
My favorite therapy tool is pinterest! I know that sounds silly, but I find so many great creative activities on it, I would be such a plain old boring therapist without!
I love to use books as part of therapy activities.
I love creating activities from Pinterest. I also like to use the game “memory” and use the IPAD!!!!
We’ve used chewy tubes and nuk brushes, but I really want to win some of the awesome tools you reviewed!!!
Mama to a three year old with CAS. 🙂
hmmm…my favorite tx tool would have to be my picture schedule. it solves (almost) every meltdown!
My favorite therapy material would have to be my homemade rinky dinky “What’s in the box?” game. It is my go-to for those days I’m feeling not so creative!!
My kiddos in the PPCD class love anything that vibrates! Those light up/vibrating/spinny toys are their absolute favorite!
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I started working in Early Intervention last August, play dough, cars, animals and my Elmo flip books have been a few of my favorites thruout the winter.
I’m so excited about the weather this last week in the midwest! It’s been so much fun being outside and blowing bubbles, playing at the park or in the backyard, and using sidewalk chalk to target colors, shapes, prepositions, following directions, labeling actions/objects, sky’s the limit!
Can’t wait to try the “bubble snake” soon!
The kids always beg for bubbles! Smartboard activities are always attention getters. Also puzzles, books, and interactive games such as Popup Pirate.
I’m a sucker for bubbles. I’m also a huge fan of repetative books like Polar Bear, Polar Bear What Do You Hear. I love my co-workers ARK therapy tools too. They are great. I really hope I win!
My favorite therapy material is whatever I’m using at the moment 🙂 I love taking whatever it is I’m using, adding movement or giving it a “name” and watching kids get excited!
I love my iPad, and lately I have been getting tons of use out of Mr. Potato Head! I use it for labeling body parts, requesting, talking about function of each body part/ senses, and even just a reinforcer for older kids. I use Mrs. Potato head to work on he/she and him/her.
I love discovering new ways to use the iPad in therapy. But my favorite “non-tech” tool is bubbles with the little ones!!
Bubbles, the ipad and playdough!