Grants in Action: Yay, Oops, Uh Oh, Oh No!

What if your very first words could be the ones that connect you to everyone around you?

In a preschool class at Poulsbo Elementary, some of the students don’t have words yet.

But they’ve got these: “Yay! Oops. Uh oh. Oh no!”

Each one comes with a funny picture that helps a child remember the sound, and something bigger happens when they say it out loud. These exclamations are a naturalistic way for a not-yet-verbal student to respond, connect, and join in the moment with everyone else. As SLP Shannon Singleton put it, everyone says these things, and the students light up when they realize they can too. Then the whole class laughs about it. That’s a child discovering their voice belongs in the room. 

Those exclamation cards came from a North Kitsap Schools Foundation grant that filled the school’s speech room with high-quality, durable intervention materials, a large, varied collection built to meet nearly every speech goal and instructional target across a diverse group of students.

For the speech-language team, that variety is everything. The right prompt, ready at a moment’s notice, is the difference between a session that flows and one that stalls. SLP Jenica Herndon says the Bjorem speech cards have become one of her most-used tools in articulation therapy. They pair school-appropriate word and phrase prompts with unique, engaging visuals; they support evidence-based practice and cut prep time dramatically. She now has a high-quality stimulus for nearly any session the instant she needs it.

It sounds simple: a set of cards. But the impact runs deep. When therapy materials are engaging, students lean in. When they’re convenient, therapists can focus on the child instead of the prep. And when a preschooler realizes they can say “uh oh!” right along with everyone else, speech practice stops feeling like work and starts feeling like connection.

These tools will serve the speech room for years, reaching dozens of students each year from preschool through fifth grade, and the team made sure the district knew where they came from by sharing the story through the Special Education Director’s newsletter.

That’s the quiet power of a grant like this. A set of cards will keep helping students find their words for years to come, one preschooler, one sound, one proud moment at a time. A child who couldn’t even say a word yet shouted “yay!” and the whole class cheered back. That is what support looks like up close.

This is Grants in Action: Helping Every Student Find Their Voice, and a Place in the Conversation.