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Allison Fors, Inc.

Speech Therapy Tools for SLPs and Educators

Tips and Tricks: How to Draw on PDFs

how to draw PDFs

Make static PDFs interactive for speech therapy or teletherapy! Annotating PDFs is a great teletherapy trick to be more efficient with your time and materials! 

Do you use PDF resources? Or perhaps you have a CD lying around somewhere with PDF versions of some of your workbooks. Or better yet, have you bought one of my “no print” resources? Or are you a teletherapist?
There’s an easy way to save time, ink, and paper by drawing straight onto the PDF while on your tablet or computer! Or even if you have endless printer ink (said no one ever), some kids are just simply more engaged by drawing digitally – and I want to show you how easy it is to do.

Different annotation apps have various features, but they all tend to have: pen, eraser, text box, and shapes features with the ability to change color and line thickness. You are also able to save the changes made to the PDF to continue in the next session or even send home to families! The most common things I use the drawing tools for on static PDFs are to circle and cross out answers, write or type answers, complete no prep activities like mazes or matching (things that don’t require cutting/gluing).

PROGRAM TUTORIALS:

Here are step-by-step directions to accomplish this three ways – ADOBE READER (computer) and the MARKUP APP and XODO APP (tablet). All three of these options are free.

You can use ADOBE READER on your computer. You can download it by going to https://get.adobe.com/reader/

draw on PDFs


MARKUP
and XODO are free annotation apps. If you are using it with a no print resource, the interactive/touch aspects still work in this app – they may not work in other annotation apps.

How to Draw on PDF MarkupApp

How to Draw on PDF Xodo app


Some other PDF annotation apps or programs to try:
PDF Element
Notability
Apple Books (preloaded on iPads)

View my NO PREP PDFs and NO PRINT activities.

Would you try this? Do you have another way to write on PDFs? Let me know!

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speech teletherapy tips

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speech teletherapy tips

August 1, 2017 allisonfors 4 Comments Filed Under: Teletherapy, Therapy Ideas, Tips and Tricks

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Comments

  1. Christine Miller says

    April 21, 2020 at 12:09 pm

    I want to learn how to write on a PDF. I touched on the Adobe reader picture, but thete was no hyperlink to a new doc. Please share. Thanks, Christine. [email protected]

    Reply
    • allisonfors says

      April 21, 2020 at 11:07 pm

      You will need to open a PDF you already have in Adobe Reader.

      Reply
  2. Georgine Mullen says

    May 4, 2020 at 6:36 pm

    Do I have to send these instructions to my parents when I send them the PDF so they can have their child write on it?

    Reply
    • allisonfors says

      May 5, 2020 at 3:49 am

      Most files include these directions in them!

      Reply

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Hi, I'm Allison! A speech & language resource author who loves the creative process of making therapy materials and clipart, as well as connecting with educators world wide. Learn more about me here! Read More…

Effective communication comes in all shapes and si Effective communication comes in all shapes and sizes! Verbal, written, gestures, sign language, an AAC device...

As educators we understand this but it’s also our responsibly to relay and explain this to caregivers!
“Children gesture before they begin to speak and “Children gesture before they begin to speak and continue gesturing throughout the language learning process...children’s early gestures not only precede, but also predict, the onset of a number of linguistic milestones–nouns, nominal constituents, simple and complex sentences. Gesturing may thus play a causal role in language learning, and could do so in two ways: (1) Gesturing gives children the opportunity to practice expressing ideas in a preverbal form. (2) A child’s gestures offer parents and other communication partners insight into the child’s linguistic level, thus giving the partners the opportunity to provide input tailored to that level.”

Goldin-Meadow, S. How gesture helps children learn language. (2014)

Some caregivers worry that we are giving up on verbal language when we begin using gestures or other non-verbal forms of communication.But gestures can be an amazing stepping stone to words. They seem to help the concept of communication click for a child...If I do this, then I get what I want/need! Have you found this to be the true?
SPEECH INTELLIGIBILITY • I updated this graphic SPEECH INTELLIGIBILITY • I updated this graphic with the newest research!

Note: These numbers are based on unfamiliar listeners in an unknown context. You will notice the dark blue is the milestone (when 95% of children at this intelligible) and the light blue is the average (when 50% of children are this intelligible.)

The snapshot on the left is a summary given by the researchers (Hustad, et al.) as a quick way to remember and recite this new information.

Find these updated intelligibility levels in the Free SLP Handouts!

The paid handouts were updated a while back with this new information and have a more detailed summary, including word-level intelligibility. If you own them, be sure to redownload!

Free Speech Therapy Handouts: bit.ly/FreeSLPHandouts
Speech-Language Development Handouts: bit.ly/SLPHandouts
Save this post! 📚 Some favorite books for soc Save this post! 📚 

Some favorite books for social emotional learning >> inferencing >> verbs >> negation

You can find more book round-ups by categories at: allisonfors.com/?=books
📣📣📣 Phoneme awareness is the ability to b 📣📣📣 Phoneme awareness is the ability to break down a word into the smallest unit or sound. This includes phoneme isolation, blending, segmenting, addition, deletion, and substitution.

It’s ESSENTIAL to work on these skills starting in Preschool and continuing to focus on them in Kindergarten and First Grade!

The Speech-Language Development Handouts break down what to target at each grade level + the phonological awareness steps with definitions and examples!

bit.ly/SLPHandouts
What can we expect from toddler attention span? ⏰ It’s easy to over-expect the amount of time a child can sit and attend to a structured activity. Do these numbers surprise you or are they what you’d expect?

Memory trick 💡 You can remember the number of minutes a child can attend is approximately twice the child’s age.

Note: Don’t forget to use developmental age.

Save this post + tag an educator or parent!

Gaertner et al. (2008) Focused Attention in Toddlers

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