By Lauren Kline, M.S., CCC-SLP, A/OGA, C-SLDI I get asked all the time what materials I actually use in therapy. Not what looks good on Instagram — what I'm grabbing off the shelf week after week. So here it is: my go-to literacy materials that earn their spot in my therapy bag (and yes, it has to earn its spot, because I see three of my kids in person on the road). Word Building Dominoes If you caught my Reading in the Rockies presentation Syllables: Types, Division, and Eve

By Lauren Kline, M.S., CCC-SLP, A/OGA, C-SLDI If your students stumble when adding endings to words like "happy," "carry," or "try," they're not alone. The change y to i rule is one of those spelling patterns that trips kids up -- until they learn the logic behind it. And there absolutely is logic. The Rule When you add a suffix to a word that ends in the letter y, change the y to an i -- unless the suffix starts with the letter i. That's it. One rule, one exception. How It

By Lauren Kline, M.S., CCC-SLP, A/OGA, C-SLDI The silent e does a lot of heavy lifting in English. It tells readers to make the preceding vowel long -- think "hop" vs. "hope" or "kit" vs. "kite." But what happens to that silent e when we start adding suffixes? That's where the drop e rule comes in. The Rule When adding a suffix that starts with a vowel to a word ending in silent e, drop the e. When adding a suffix that starts with a consonant , keep the e. Two parts, one rul

By Lauren Kline, M.S., CCC-SLP, A/OGA, C-SLDI Of the three major spelling/suffixing rules in English, the doubling rule is usually the one students learn first and the one that causes the most confusion when it's taught without the reasoning behind it. Once students understand why we double, the rule clicks. The Rule When a one-syllable word has one short vowel and ends in one consonant, double that final consonant before adding a suffix that starts with a vowel. Some people

Is the Letter Y  a Vowel or a Consonant? Did you know that the letter Y  can act as both  a vowel and a consonant? Most of the time, Y  actually behaves like a vowel. Let’s take a closer look at when and why that happens. When Is Y a Consonant? You’ve probably heard the saying: vowels are a, e, i, o, u… and sometimes y. But when is that “sometimes”? The letter Y acts as a consonant when it appears at the beginning of a syllable, such as in: yoga yet yum In these words, y repr

Teaching children to read and spell can feel like solving a puzzle—but a few simple rules can make tricky endings much clearer. These...

Bjorem Speech Prefixes, Suffixes, and Bases When teaching spelling rules to kids, it’s essential to break them down into clear,...