Guest Speaker Series:

 Shelly’s Therapeutic Bean Bags for Clinic, Home, & School

Shelly Bartlett, MEd., CCC-SLP

Shelly is a Certified Speech Language Pathologist with over 20 years of experience working in public & private school settings, both with students in grade 1-5 as well as in the pre-school setting. She has been recognized by the American Speech Language and Hearing Association for her excellent commitment to continuing education.

With limited effective therapy materials available for students with speech and language objectives, especially those that focused on following directions that contained basic concept skills, Shelly thought of an idea while out shopping in a fabric store with her sisters. The idea turned into the development and design of bean bags that could be readily utilized in her therapy sessions.

Shelly’s niece Addie helps to demonstrate use

Shelly’s Therapeutic Bean Bags Business was Born:

Shelly had not thought of making bean bags for others until she found that her fellow SLPs and OTs were asking to borrow the handmade bean bags for their own sessions.

After a coworker shared that “she had not found any other therapy material as effective to teach the spatial concepts of "in", "on", "under", and "next to" than using the borrowed bean bags,” the idea took on a new direction.

Having a simple, go-to-activity, that kids really loved, made teaching and therapy sessions so much easier and productive. Shelly gathered family support, learned how to make the therapeutic bean bags, and a business was born!

Therapeutic Use of Bean Bags

Using Shelly’s Therapeutic Bean Bags enables you to:

• Target single or multiple-step directions

• Promote active participation of the students during sessions

• Focus on a multitude of basic concept skills during one activity

• Work on concept skills of color, number identification, size, matching, spatial skills

• Address the ability to ask and answer “wh” questions

• Build expressive language skills

• Allows transition from simple identification communication skills to combining words

• Encourages a student to describe the picture, drawing, and fun animals they see

• Use with a communication device (already in use, or for training in the use of)

• Use in social language groups

• Combine physical use with bean bag songs to integrate movement with music during language based sessions

• Reinforce positive behaviors in an active, fun way

• Vary their use by tossing into a container, stacking them, sorting, matching, transporting, collecting, search and find, engage students in set up and clean up, and so on!

• Use as a calming tactile fidget to help with focus & attention

Picture Communication Symbols - PCS:

Shelly’s Therapeutic Bean Bags have a picture on one side, and the printed word on the other side. Picture Communication Symbols, or PCS, are a range of drawings that represent words and or phrases. They are commonly used in Augmentative and Alternative Communication, or AAC, and can be used with both high tech systems, or in low tech communication delivery systems like bean bags.

Shelly obtained licensing to use the symbols, and currently has categories available for food, animals, transportation, and clothing. 

Materials:

Shelly’s bean bags are made with kid-friendly high quality materials, filled with hypoallergenic poly-pellets. They are machine washable and COVID friendly. 

Each bean bag is made individually with two layers of interfacing and double stitching for lasting durability. These bean bags are tactile, interactive, and FUN!

Comments from a Parent:

"We love these. I got them as a fun way for my son to practice sight words and simultaneously work on his hip strengthening physical therapy. I put them on his knee for him to topple off while doing clamshell leg raises. We do 8 of those and then he reads each bag before tossing in the bucket as a rest period, and then we do it all over again!"

Shelly’s Therapeutic Bean Bags Can Be Found at:

Etsy Shop: https://lnkd.in/eNVdp7H

Website: http://www.therapeuticbeanbags.com    

NOTE: A full activity list is included with every purchase!

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