What Happens When Your Caseload Changes Everything
I thought I had speech therapy figured out. Then I met my littles.
A Career Built on Middle School Energy
I've been a speech-language pathologist since 2009 and a school-based SLP since 2012. Most of my career has been spent working with middle school students, a population I love for their humor, honesty, and ability to connect without all the frills and games.
My sessions were laid-back, high-trial, and efficient. We talked. We practiced. We made progress. It worked, and I was good at it.
Then, Everything Shifted
In 2024, my caseload expanded to include transitional kindergarten through first grade. I quickly realized that my laid-back, high-trial sessions that worked so well with tweens weren't going to cut it with my littles. They needed movement, engagement, and something to keep those busy hands occupied.
Week after week, I found myself printing new worksheets, coloring pages, and laminating flashcards to keep their attention, but their interest quickly faded. What do little ones really love to do? Play.
The Counter Incident
At first, I thought I had it figured out. "I'll give each student a counter," I told myself. "They can click it each time they say a target word until they reach 100 productions!"
What I didn't anticipate was how reinforcing the clicking would be. They clicked and clicked, even when they weren't practicing their sounds. One student refused to return to class until he hit over 900 clicks.
Needless to say, that was a learning opportunity!
I needed something that kept their hands engaged and their attention on their speech goals. They loved games, but it always felt a bit forced asking them to practice a word before each turn. I needed something more natural, a way for speech practice to be part of the play, not separate from it.
A Game That Wasn't Made for Speech Therapy
There was one multisensory game they adored, but it wasn't made for speech therapy. I couldn't control the target sounds or fully tailor the activity to my students' needs.
So, I decided to make my own version.
What started as a simple adaptation turned into something much bigger when I printed my target words and images onto small, round tokens. Suddenly, Lingua Tokens was born.
The Moment the Tokens Became the Game
These little coins could be collected, spun, buried, flicked, hidden, stacked, and rolled. They transformed routine articulation drills into interactive, play-based learning. The tokens didn't just support the game, they became the game.
That shift changed everything about how I approach therapy: less prep, more play, and a lot more progress.
When the speech targets become the play, everything changes.
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