Image courtesy of MyCuteGraphics

September 16, 2017

As International Talk Like a Pirate Day approaches (September 19th, this year and every year!), I am inspired to talk about how much fun it is to use a pirate theme in speech-language therapy, with younger kids and older kids, alike. Lessonpix is an amazing resource for pirate pictures (and many other themes) which you can use to make custom materials for your kiddos. I like to use a pirate treasure map to work on following directions, pirate stick puppets to work on pronouns, grammar and syntax, pirate actions or roleplaying to work on particular sounds, and pirate sorting to work on pronouns or the possessive “‘s”. The list of pirate fun is endless and children of all ages seem to love it, thanks to popular culture such as Pirates of the Caribbean and Peter Pan.

Another resource I would like to mention is Tar Heel Reader, good for younger children but especially useful for older school-age kids. What is a Tar Heel you say? At least that is what I said when I heard this term for the first time. It is the nickname for a person from North Carolina, originating back to the Colonial days of the state when tar was a major product extracted from the extensive pine forests. Tar Heel Reader is an amazing website providing a collection of free easy-to-read books on almost any topic. Well, shiver me timbers, I found an excellent pirate story on Tar Heel Reader for working on the “r” sound with school-age children, written by Jane Farrall, called "R is Really Important". My favourite line from the book: “Every pirate needs a chart, but without the R it’s just a chat”. Pirate cleverness in it’s finest form!

I hope I have inspired you to have some pirate fun, whether it's for speech-language therapy, or just in playing with your children. Enjoy International Talk Like a Pirate Day, and get your pirate on!

Fare thee well and thanks for reading me hearties!

Cindy McCallum, M.Sc., R.SLP, SLP(C)

Registered Speech-Language Pathologist

Founder, WiseOwlSpeech