Can I make a confession? One of my least favorite things to work on in therapy is the dreaded /r/ sound! It's so hard to demonstrate to students what exactly you want them to do
Geared towards CFs to talk about the importance of sending an introduction letter home and contacting families/parents a couple of times a year to foster a good working relationship.
In the field of speech therapy, building a strong professional network has so many benefits. Whether you're a seasoned clinician looking to expand your reach or a budding student eager to connect with like-minded peers, networking and collaboration are key ingredients for growth, learning, and advan
The ultimate Amazon guide for speech therapy and special education – these lists are consonantly updated! Includes Amazon tips and tricks!
As we gear up for the final stretch of the school year, let's talk about why those end-of-year progress reports are more than just a box to check and how informal assessments can help. They're like the GPS guiding us on our road map to lasting speech therapy success.
Tackling paperwork in the schools can be super frustrating for educators. Here are my top paperwork tips for SLPs that make it manageable!
My best tips for teaching /r/ in articulation therapy! Placement cues, product reviews and /r/ word lists to help your students succeed!
Speech pathologists treating speech sound disorders will no doubt want some tips and ideas for correcting a lisp in speech therapy. Many different speech errors are addressed in articulation therapy, and correct production of s and z requires some skill and hard work to accomplish. While your coworkers and the internet may offer good advice,
Are you studying for the SLP praxis exam? Check out some of my best tips for acing this important test! Keep up the hard work!
As school based SLPs, many of us are required to write a professional goal for ourselves each year. In my district under the Danielson model, we call it an "Individual Growth Plan," while others may
Inferencing and Predicting Goal Ideas Read more about my goals here. Teaching Inferencing and Predicting Skills It’s no secret that children with language disorders struggle with inferencing. As a little refresher, there are two main types of inferences: Text-Based Inferences Text-based inferences connect information you are reading/hearing with information you’ve already read/heard (information from the […]
Need free CEUs speech therapy focused? I have found even more free ceus for SLPs. Read more to learn how to earn them!
Every year when I go shopping right after Christmas, it's always the same thing....stores like Walmart and Target pack the shelves with organizational totes and containers. I thought it was just ME, but apparently it's
If you know me in person or follow me on social media, you know that I’m a serial consumer of information. Books, podcasts, the works. And not just SLP stuff (though that’s great too). Some of my favorite books are about business, psychology, how we build habits, etc. in 2019, I read When, by Daniel...
Are you trying to manage your stress as an SLP? Tune in to the SLP Stress Management Podcast, an SLP podcast to help you manage and reduce your stress.
When you automate parts of your job, you are freeing yourself to focus on what's most important. Learn how to develop good work habits!
Making lesson plans for speech therapy doesn't have to be hard. Using themes, let me show you how I plan my therapy sessions, and give you a free planning sheet to help you!
The obstinate, ornery R. Have you exhausted every R articulation therapy trick that you know? These articulation therapy for R tips and tricks are just what you need!
Echolalia- Learn strategies for your Autism classroom. What echolalia is and how to reduce it with activities to decrease repetitive speech or non-authentic communication.
Interviewing for a new job is so stressful. Take the guesswork out of the process by practicing with these interview questions for SLPs
Prep now for back-to-school so the beginning of the year doesn't sneak up on you! Relax all summer so you don't have to worry.
Free resources to help SLPs reduce stress and prevent burn out, so they can enjoy their work and have more balance in their lives.
Telepractice puts a new spin on conducting and managing IEPs. These tips provide guidance for case management before, during, and after IEP meetings in order to help SLPs feel more confident!
Are you starting out in your school career, or just want to try something different during the first week of speech-language therapy? Here's what my first week of therapy in the elementary school looks like. My
This blog post shares six SLP supplies you need for organizing your speech therapy materials so you can work smarter!
As busy SLP's it is difficult to come up with strategies for running a successful IEP meeting. I have complied tips to run a successful IEP meeting!
Learn how to take advantage of Google Sheets for SLPs! It's time to change to digital caseload management, data collection, and more!
Free speech therapy printables - Developmental milestones, hierarchies, and graphics for SLPs and educators!
Find out how SLPs can effectively integrate AAC in teletherapy sessions. Get tips and specific details of the technology setup to ensure success in your virtual AAC intervention.
Getting a school-based assignment at a new school can be overwhelming, especially if you're working with a new population. I think that a majority of SLPs fear working with high school students. And let's be honest, high school students can be intimidating. They seem big, opinionated, and mean. While they are pretty big, and they certainly have opinions, very few, if any are actually mean. In my humble opinion, high school students are great! I feel privileged to work with students during one of the most pivotal times of their lives. My students are getting their first jobs. getting their driver's licenses, falling in love for the first time, and planning their futures. Between sports, academics, and social pressures, high school students have A LOT of stress and expectations. They're often insecure, and the never-ending immersion into social media doesn't help their self-esteem. I think that the absolute worst part of working with high school students is that they are cool. They're better at technology than me, they know all the best songs and artists, and they know tons of slang words that I don't know. So despite being a semi-hip thirty-something professional, I am a dinosaur in their eyes. I've come to terms with my uncoolness, but I continue to be amazed by how much I love working in a high school. The bottom line is, high school students may seem intimidating, but once you get to know them, they are vulnerable and sweet kids who you'll fall in love with. Here are my top eight tips for working with high school students, but before we begin, a disclaimer. I work with students who have mild/moderate disabilities and have very little experience with students with profound disabilities. So while these tips absolutely apply for my caseload, they may not apply in every circumstance. 8. Be flexible when you can. Many of my students struggle with flexibility, but I'm going to let you in on a little secret. Most adults are incredibly inflexible too. I try to practice what I preach in the speech therapy room by being as flexible as possible. Some of my students prefer to complete a worksheet independently and some abhor writing. I might have a preference for how the task is completed, but at the end of the day, if I'm adequately targeting the goal, who cares if the task is completed written or verbally? I never hesitate to alter my plans if I feel it will benefit the student. For example, if I have a student who is anxious about homework he needs to complete or a test he needs to study for, I put my plans aside and find a way to make their schoolwork fit into a therapy goal. As long as students don't take advantage of me, I try to be as accommodating as possible. 7. Set clear expectations...for everyone. Yes, I'm flexible. Yes, I'll allow deviations from my plan based on student preferences, but there are some things that I won't accommodate. Most teenagers have an excellent "pushover radar", and they will test their limits. At the beginning of the year, my students sign a speech therapy contract. The contract lays out expectations for both the students and the speech therapist. The basic premise of the contract is that I will treat them like young adults as long as they act like young adults. Consequences (that I rarely have to employ) are also clearly stated. I have found the beginning of the year contract to be really effective to start the year on the right foot with the students. I also make sure my students understand why they have speech therapy on their IEP. If I feel it is attainable and appropriate, I also share with them the skills they need to demonstrate in order to "graduate" from speech therapy. I am upfront and honest about the thing we are working on and why the IEP team that those skills are vital to the student's academic and/or social development. 6. Be in the know. You're not going to be able to know every new musical artist of every genre or be hip to the ins and outs of the most popular video games, but it is helpful to know what's going on in teenage pop culture. Many of my kids love Star Wars and Marvel films and they love theorizing about what will happen next in the respective universes. If you don't know what one of your students is talking about, ask about it! I love pulling up an impromptu YouTube video during a therapy session so I can see my student's favorite viral video or a clip from their favorite TV show. I ask students to show me clips of their favorite video games, and I download apps that they are using. When students and teachers have connections with one another, mutual trust and respect are built which leads to improved educational outcomes. That's what I call a win-win! 5. Be interesting AND functional. A student's school day is filled with algebraic equations, history facts, science theories, and discussion of literary themes. Teachers try to make their content as interesting as possible, but they still have to adhere to the curriculum. In speech. we can learn about ANYTHING. I try to find topics that are interesting, unusual, or are of particular interest to high school students. Many of my Every Goal Units have been inspired by conversations with my students. Utilize things that are going on in their lives as therapy activities (studying for a driver's license test, filling out an application, solving a problem they're having at work, etc.). Providing support using real-world tasks has much better carryover than arbitrary and hypothetical tasks. I try to write goals and plan tasks that will serve the student academically AND in the real-world, because let's be honest, nobody cares if a student is able to meet a target in speech if they can't eventually carry it over to the real world. 4. Be there. High school students are juggling a lot of really tough issues - adolescence, social cliques, parental pressure, schoolwork, jobs, and post-secondary planning just to name a few. Sometimes they need to have someone they trust to talk to. Some of your students might need a safe space to get away from the pressures of their school day. Try to be a friendly haven for your students. A place where they can eat lunch if they need to. A room where they can use your phone to call their mom. A person who listens and will give advice (when it is asked for!). You don't need to be their best friend, but you do need to be an adult that they can trust. 3. Be involved in the school. It is very tempting to close your office door and type IEPs during a pep rally or to wear your business-as-usual clothes during spirit weeks, but being engaged in the culture of the school is important for student success. When you engage in the social culture of the school, you are modeling camaraderie and teamwork for your students. We are constantly asking our students to step out of their comfort zones and join in with others, and we need to model the same behavior for them! If you advise a club or coach a sport you will also get to know kids outside of the special-ed world. It is helpful to see how students without disabilities navigate the pressures and daily drama of high school so you are more in-tune to the social norms at your school. 2. Don't be an island. Collaborate, collaborate, collaborate. Does your student have a vocabulary goal? Does your student have 50 vocabulary words they need to learn for their To Kill a Mockingbird test? What benefits your student most - learning 10 random words from you and attempting to independently learn 50 words for class OR using their To Kill A Mockingbird word list to learn vocabulary strategies during speech therapy sessions? Obviously the latter, right? It is important to have strong bonds with the general education teachers so you can incorporate their curriculum into your speech therapy tasks. I also really like delivering lessons in the classroom. It took me a couple of years to build rapport with teachers and to find classes that were appropriate for weekly speech therapy lessons, but now that I feel confident in my building and in my classroom instruction skills, I enjoy my time out of the speech room. 1. Have fun! Listen to music. Watch funny YouTube videos. Play games. Have a sense of humor. Throw parties. High school students hate things that make them different from the crowd, and they know that if they're still in speech in high school, they're different. Don't let speech therapy sessions be an awful experience for them. You can absolutely target speech therapy goals in a way that is fun and engaging for teens. When you relate to your students and build positive connections with them, they will work harder for you! I've hopefully made you feel better about your high school assignment by reassuring you that high school students are just insecure kids inside of adult bodies, but you're probably still wondering what in the world you will actually do with them to most effectively meet their speech and language targets. Next week, I'll be sharing with you some of my favorite materials and activities for high school students.
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I recently received a few questions from a parent of a little boy who has childhood apraxia of speech (CAS). This wonderful mom was feeling a bit nervous
Echolalia in autism can be difficult. Find out about the types of echolalia and get practical tips to help your students with autism. Be sure to check out the links to free, important information and research to get therapy started on the right track!
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I recently asked for advice for new SLPs on my Facebook page and the response I got was AMAZING. The feelings I have after starting this new job have been crazy. I love it, but it can definitely feel overwhelming at times! I still sometimes feel bad for the clients who get assigned to me […]
My best tips for teaching story grammar elements, plus my packet of visual supports and 13 no-prep short stories for story grammar practice.
It's not easy to start any job, and starting as a new SLP is no different. Here are the top five rookie SLP mistakes I made!
I posted a picture of this volume control chart on Instagram today (even though it is a little blurry! I need to work on taking better p...
My cycles for phonology toolkit will give you everything you need to provide assessment, progress monitoring, and intervention!
