Pirate Talk

I got really tired of all of my speech therapy games and supplies last year.  The kids never get tired of my stuff because they only see me once or twice a week.  But I get stuck doing the same session with the same activities over and over and over.  Lather, rinse, repeat.  Lather, rinse, repeat.  Blah, blah, blah.

 

I decided I needed to order new materials.  I put in my request, everything was approved and $400 worth of new games and activities arrived in my office a few weeks ago.  Next I'm going to work on getting an iPad for myself. 

 

I broke out this baby today.  I was pretty excited about it.

"Your students are about to embark on a swashbuckling adventure as they sail the high seas with Pirate Talk, the receptive and expressive language skills game! As students respond to each prompt, they move from island to island on the colorful game board and collect gold coins."

 

What's not to like about that description?

 

But there's more.

 

"Easily adapt game play to meet each student’s needs by choosing the appropriate prompt(s). Questions build receptive and expressive language skills while targeting five categories of social interaction: School, People, Home, Community, and Activities. And the 150 color-coded cards are easy to sort, making prep time shorter than it takes to say “Ahoy, mateys!”

My second group of the day came in this morning and I decided we would play this today.  So I get out the cards, break them out of the cellophane and drop them in the card keeper slot.  

 

I put them in alphabetical order, like any normal, sane speech language pathologist would.  Except.  What the hell?  Can someone please get me a paper bag to breathe into? 

 

When the categories are in alphabetical order the cards are not in numerical order.  So, when "activities" is first, the first card is number 121.  And that, my friends, is not OK.

 

I had to break protocol and go in reverse alphabetical order so that they would be in correct numerical order.

 

I can't even stand this.  It's hard to look at.

 

But at least with "school" as the first category, card #1 is #1.

Now that the cards were organized, though not exactly to my liking, I turned my attention to how to actually play the game.

 

Which brings us to this:

 

It's an electronic spinner.

 

Complete with flashing lights and LOUD beeps that both start out fast and get progressively slower.

 

I am in a freaking episode of Wheel of Fortune.

The kids already love it and have proclaimed it their favorite.

 

I hate it.

 

I cannot stand it.

 

What the hell is Super Duper trying to do to me?

 

Have they ever even spent more than 12 minutes doing speech therapy with elementary aged kids?

 

Because this thing is going to give me epilepsy and Intermittent Explosive Disorder (that's a real thing, BTW) by Thanksgiving.

The gold coins are fun, but not fun enough to make up for the electronic spinner/devil's toy.

 

It's going to be a looooooooooooooong year.