I fell in love working in speech therapy for middle school! Don't let this awesome group intimidate you, but read about the pros and cons!

Our new core vocabulary word is ON. We have found this to be a very functional vocabulary word to target. Here is a handout that gives more ideas on how this word can be used naturally and a home activity. Both of these will be sent home with your student. I also wanted to share a fun song that our kids have enjoyed that targets the core word - ON.

Perfectly demonstrate articulatory placement with new work out of the University of Iowa. Don't rely on your primitive cave drawings any more!

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

I really didn't get good guidance on this in graduate school. The supervisors I had in my clinical placements all did it differently, so I felt like I didn't get a good grasp on it when I graduated. I thought I needed data on every kid after every session. I remember feeling like I couldn't really teach because I was worried about my data sheet. Of course we all have activities to work on each student's goals, but focus on the data instead of the student, are you really able to give quality inst

Scheduling Tips for School-Based Therapists Over the last few weeks, the Your Therapy Source survey was on scheduling tips for school-based therapists. It was a simple two question survey: what is your job title and what is your best suggestion for creating therapy schedules? You can answer the current survey here. For question #1, the majority respondents (66%) were occupational therapists. Here are the 50+ responses to the question: what is your best suggestion for creating therapy schedules? Group by school, then consider eligibility/meeting days, then best time to see students that day dependent on individual goals/class fine motor or visual motor time. In the school based setting, one needs to schedule according to teachers schedules in school; some are more flexible than others. Check with teachers regarding classroom schedules including reading and math blocks, specials (PE, art, music, etc.). I usually ask them for the best and worst time to see students. Check student goals to see which can be accomplished in the classroom (and therefore helpful to teacher too) and match up students with similar goals and level of function. I am a teletherapist so I use a shared google calendar for one of my schools so that my paraprofessional can see when I am available and so that she can schedule my students during my available time. For my virtual students, I send the parents an email using the mixmax add on so that they are able to click their time preference. If I am available, it automatically schedules them on my google calendar. If I am not available, then they can choose another option from the times in my email. google calender I wish I knew Be flexible, Write in Pencil, Schedule middle and high school first, as their schedules are typically less flexible. Begin with a pencil! I have a loose schedule the first 2 weeks of school. I usually coordinate with the speech therapist first since they usually see the student multiple times per week. I have also found that if I schedule a school on meeting days I have a better chance of being the only related service that sees students on that day. If I miss a student that day due to a meeting, I can add them with another student that same day! Outlook Calendar so it syncs with those scheduling meetings and can be shared with select teachers, admin etc….. Go to the teachers first and find out when is the best time to schedule their students. I have a schedule starter sheet. It is a list with an empty day schedule on the left side to be filled out as I establish good times to see the student. On the right, it lists the student’s name, grade, teacher, IEP date and service time, lunch and special times, and I get from the teachers the best time to see the students (so I avoid instruction time). On the top of the sheet, it has the school hours, and a grid for a list of the different service providers for that school, PE teacher, school nurse. I use this sheet throughout the school year to add new students, or mark when they have moved out of district. I go around to all of my schools, get the individual calendars and the staff list with phone extensions, the specials, lunch, and recess schedules. I schedule the schools with the largest number of students first, and then fill in with the schools with fewer students. Determine need of districts sped students, With job description, allot time needed for paperwork and collaboration. Curriculum of students should communicate needs or gaps that OT can help with…if we are “academic based”. I wish I knew Consolidate holiday sessions Schedule older students and those who receive all services first I make three different options for each child then regardless of who is absent I have alternatives to who is available for any given block of time. It really is less work than it sounds. Schedule the hardest students to fit into an OT schedule. Schedule students that are in the middle school first as they change classes. then scheduled the elementary students who are in the same class throughout the day. If possible, bring the entire team (teachers and other therapists) together to work out mutually compatible schedules so it’s not a “race” to see who claims their “day” first. If that could be done at the schools where you spend the most time, then hopefully other schools, with small caseloads, will be flexible with what’s left of your time and things will work! It’s worth hoping!! Get the whole school schedule and then build in your times around recess/lunch specials. Push into language arts Communicate directly with teachers and other therapists, and be flexible! Teachers know how to pair students well. put it in pencil- you know you are going to have to change it 100 times! Flexibility! Speaking with the student’s teacher is of course, an initial contact that must be made to ensure smooth scheduling. Showing an investment in the student and communicating a respect for the teacher’s predetermined classroom time and scheduling sets off the year to a good start. I try to find natural lulls during the school day — planned movement breaks or recess plus or minus a few minutes. I try to avoid pulling students during those times in the day when I’ve observed them come most alive in the classroom. (That is calendar time for some of my kiddos!). Routine is really important to most of my students, and I try to give them this consistency as often as I can. I am still working on it!!! Our supervisor tells us what day to go to each school so within the day I have to figure out when to see the kids. First I plug in who may go home early, then when each grades lunch and specials are. Then I look at IEP to see what subject OT supports. Try to fit it all into a puzzle by hand. I do best with sticky note tabs or pencil and paper. Coordinating between school administration and other therapy services. I try to set a day and time frame for the building (ie Thursday afternoons) when asking classroom teachers for serving the students. I then ask for their schedule,and find opportunities within their own schedule, and then work towards supporting the student within their own classroom working on items that relate to therapy supported educational goals.By setting day and time since we all seem to cover many buildings,it provides an opportunity to be more consistent on a weekly basis in servicing all students within all buildings. Be flexible! Write initial schedule in pencil and be prepared to change it…many times! Flexibility! I try to schedule time in a school and then “catch” the students during their PE class, music class, recess, diaper changes, or when getting on/off the bus and use those opportunities to teach staff while I do therapy with the students. Lead and teach by example. Gathering all the specials schedules(art, music, PE) and core subjects so we have those before putting students on a schedule. Also getting classroom schedules helps with knowing when to push-in for writing, etc. Meeting with special ed teachers to work on the schedule together greatly helps. Start early! Before school starts. Most schools have master schedules completed before school starts. Set up a meeting with your school administrators. I work in a rural district and travel to multiple schools in a day. My travel path is what dictates my therapy schedule which is probably not the best but when traveling to 4-5 schools in a day, it truly is my only option. Within the time I am within each school, I try to be the least disruptive to each child’s regular schedule whenever possible. Depends on teachers and special class schedules in school. I usually work in between. Patience! Start early with the most difficult students to schedule and be prepared to correct LOTS of drafts. We try to work with the student where they are struggling the most. I email each teacher or grade (some share students) for suggestions – not perfect but they know their schedule better than I can just by looking at a master schedule. Email school principal / secretary the week before school starts to have them email you special / lunch / recess schedules/ class lists. Take an empy schedule with times and then write every student’s name for that building on the tiny sticky notes (1/4″ or so by 1 to 1 1/2″). After getting the special schedules etc. start placing stickies in the time slots of your empty schedule. I like to email the teachers with times then they can reference that time or let you know if it is not a good time, or write it on a card for them if you have several students in their class. Other than being flexible and starting asap, provide the teacher with 2, or even 3, time slots. Some teachers are so flexible but for those who are not, giving them a choice seems to help our future relationship if you know what I mean! Ask at the office for the master specials, lunch and recess schedule before talking to any teacher about a specific student. Prioritize scheduling students who mainstream from self-contained homerooms to general education settings first. Then schedule resource room students next. Then schedule general education students and last schedule full day self-contained. Be sure to schedule in travel time between schools and for students who may need to be picked up to/from their class. Share your schedule with the teachers as you complete it to receive quick feedback about scheduling conflicts or circumstances and ultimately share it with the pertinent case managers, principals, CST secretary, school secretary, counselors and special area teachers for each student. pray. LOL. First find out about ‘special’ schedules, then talk to ST to coordinate with them, and then the teachers. Build in room to be flexible if at all possible Create a survey asking teachers the 3 best times to work with students and then attempt to create a schedule from this. Start with the students with the highest minutes. Group by location. Keep calm and schedule on! Plan early and be flexible Class time Collaborate with special education teachers for push-in times; set up a meeting time with speech/PT/etc to set schedules with teachers. Schedule your kids with the most restrictive availability first. Tell them your schedule is very tight, every change has a domino effect and you wish you could be more flexible. Say it very nicely, with a smile. Scheduling has to be a balance of the client’s needs and yours as a therapist. Make schedule then present to teachers. Make as early as possible. Create an excel spreadsheet and paste names into time blocks and shuffle as needed. Good luck everyone! Scheduling is a super stressful time. But, once done it is such a relief to get started working with the students! Please take a moment to participate in the current survey here. Once all your students are scheduled, stay organized with the Therapy Planner. The new, updated planners are ready for you to get started on organizing your work life. FIND OUT MORE INFORMATION ON THE THERAPY PLANNERS AND SEE THE DESIGNS The post 50+ Scheduling Tips for School Based Therapists appeared first on Your Therapy Source.

Let's take a break from holiday activities to talk about stuttering therapy. I do have a Halloween activity for my fluency kids, but I will blog about that later. Here is a clue: Cadavers. Gross, right? Anyway, when students begin therapy with me for stuttering, one of the first things we do is describe what stuttering is and how they stutter. Part of that is describing types of stutters. For my students in kindergarten through second grade we talk a lot about smooth, bumpy, and blocked speech. There are a variety of activities that we do to really make this concept concrete. But, this one is a favorite! First we make roads with basic supplies: index cards, crayons, paper, glue. The roads are either in a straight line for smooth speech, a bumpy road for bumpy speech, and a road block in the middle of the road for blocked speech. The students then choose three cars (I got these are the dollar store). We drive the cars on the roads and say words, phrases, and sentences with the type of speech on the little paper street. For example, we say, "This road is smooth for my car," "This this this this is a bumpy road for my car," and "My_______ car hit a road block." All while moving the cars along the roads. When we are done driving, I hot glue the cars to their page. The kids think this part is pretty cool. Plus, they love taking this project home to show their parents!

AAC tools for communication to use with students that are nonverbal/limited verbal. AAC tools for communication work well with students on the Autism spectrum.

I was recently asked to offer some advice about correcting for those tricky sound errors — lisps and lateralized productions of the sibilants /s/, /z/, /sh/ and /ch/. If you are an SLP, you …

Let’s Talk IDDSI Recently members of our team attended the Leading Age conference in Minnesota. This gathering of professionals provided us an opportunity to speak with several service providers who work in the field of aging. These conversations quickly became discussions focused on transitional foods, finger foods and implementation of the International Dysphagia Diet Standardization […]

I still have another 3-4 weeks left of summer but I know some of you are coming close to that back to school season. I want to try and post back to school ideas to help get you prepared! Since my game boards have been popular in the past, I created one with the back to school theme! Not only will these questi ...

I have all new students this year, so I knew that I wanted something that would be quick and easy to get some baselines. I find it easy...

Speech therapy documentation can be tedious and time-consuming; however, it doesn't have to be! I can help you here.

I have so so many R kids on my caseload right now. In that past, that statement would be followed with a mournful sigh, or possibly with me throwing my head

Great ideas from an librarian, SLP, and PK teacher!

To put it simply, speech development refers to the pronunciation of sounds. However, this is much more to it. Start your learning here!

This is an excerpt from Super Star Speech, which includes instruction for teaching most of the speech sounds. Many more teaching tools and practice activities may be found in the book, but I hope this will be of help to some of you! R is produced by widening and flattening the tongue. The sides of the tongue touch the upper back gums and teeth. The tongue tip is held in the center of the mouth and is curled upward. The voice is made to vibrate. Tips: 1. /r/ can be a difficult sound to teach. It is hard for the child to see the correct tongue placement since the sound is primarily made in the back of the mouth. Much trial and error may be needed. 2. Provide a visual representation of the tongue by holding your hand palm up and curling the fingers upward. Slide the hand backward to show the backward movement of the tongue. Remind him to put his tongue far back in his mouth. 3. Touch the sides of the tongue and the back teeth with a popsicle stick and instruct the child to press the sides of his tongue against his back teeth and push upward or even to “bite” the sides of the tongue with his back teeth. The tactile cues created by touching the teeth and tongue are very helpful here. 4. Have the child relax his lips. Lip rounding encourages production of /w/. 5. Start with a production of /l/ and gradually slide the tongue backward in the mouth until it approximates /r/. 6. Practice widening and narrowing the tongue and moving it forward and back in the mouth. 7. Teaching words or sound combinations of kr, and gr (creak, green, great) is sometimes helpful because /k/ and /g/ are also produced with the back of the tongue. Blends are usually more difficult to produce, but this may be an exception. 8. The vowel sounds “ee” and “i” are also produced with the tongue high and back in the mouth. Combining /r/ with “ee” or “i” may aid in attaining correct production. (“rrrreee”, ring, reach ) 9. Exaggerate the sound of RRRR to draw the child’s attention to it. R Practice—Initial R Say each word pair. Be careful! The first word starts with W. The second word starts with R. whack rack won run witch rich whip rip wore roar whale rail weep reap wick Rick weal reel wing ring west rest wise rise wound round wag rag wide ride white right wed red wind rind way ray wipe ripe Do you know.... an animal with long ears? why we carry an umbrella? a bright color? what you wear on your finger? a pretty flower? what will float on water? a small animal with a long tail? what a girl might wear in her hair?

Comprehensive and systematic Vocalic R teaching and elicitation activities using the proven coarticulation method. This slide-and-say strategy will be the DIFFERENCE-MAKER in your speech therapy sessions with students who are stuck in progress. I'm an SLP with 20 years of experience using coarticulation in my speech therapy sessions. Coarticulation is especially effective with motor-based speech disorders like Apraxia. This resource offers multiple opportunities to shape vocalic R from a well-established initial R in speech therapy. Slide and Say: Teaching Vocalic R is available in color and black & white with a picture and word-level cue in a variety of formats from a single word to sentence level (posters and cards) Slide and Say: Teaching Vocalic R is EDITABLE! You can add your own words or clip art to individualize. Data sheets are included for progress monitoring for the vocalic r sound! What SLPs are saying… ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ "This resource is my current "go-to" for a lot of students on my caseload that are working on /r/. We have been kinda stuck but now that we are using the coarticulation strategy I have seen some amazing progress!" -Kelly G. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ "I am so happy with this resource, it is quick and easy to use and so effective!! I will not teach vocalic /r/ again without it!" -Ashley C. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ "My students have achieved the dreaded vocalic /r/ with this resource. I used this product last year during virtual therapy and in-person therapy. It helps to achieve vocalic /r/ when other techniques have not worked. Thank you!!!" Melanie W. ►You will also like: Co-Articulation for Initial S For Speech Therapy > Connect with me on Instagram: ashleyrossiSLP

My students get bored with activities very quickly — too quickly to have met the goal targeted by the activity. I have several students working on vocabulary goals and goals which targe…

Practice saying these pairs of words. Listen and feel the difference between the words that start with the "w" sound and those that start w...

This set of 21 activities is aligned to the VB-MAPP Level 3 Listener responding by Function, Feature, and Class  Milestones and Supporting Skills. These materials will help build the skills identified in the VB-MAPP assessment.  It includes two different reference sheets for organization. Each activity has individualized set up and implementation instructions and labels for organization. This resource is perfect for centers or small  group instruction and speech-language therapy. The activities in this set target: selecting multiple items from the same class, function, or location selecting the next step in a sequence selecting to answer a time question selecting to answer wh- questions selecting based on shape/class, color/class, function/class, and         feature/class selecting based on 2 and 3 verbal components selecting based on preposition, verb, or adverb for feature, function, or class selecting to identify what is missing selecting to answer questions based on one topic using visual scenes select community helpers by their function selecting to identify something different  selecting to identify an item given a statement with negation   You do not need the VB-MAPP manual or protocol to utilize these resources; however, they've been designed to supplement the protocol! The Autism Helper, Inc. has a licensing agreement with the developer of the Verbal Behavior Milestones Assessment and Placement Program (VB-MAPP), Mark L. Sundberg Ph.D., BCBA-D, to create and sell VB-MAPP-aligned products.

Here's a high school drill for using context clues for finding word meanings.

Emojis are everywhere these days, from our text messages to commercials. Why not make them part of speech therapy for our more tech savvy students?

Give me an /r/ any day. Gimme me any old artic error. It's only the lateral productions that make me shake in my boots! I'll admit it, I'm a big ole chicken when it comes to lateral

As you can tell, I have pulled out all of my Halloween themed materials! I love this holiday and incorporating it into my therapy sessions. My students are motivated by it which is enough reason for me! One group I work with is working on wh- questions so I created my popular wh- board game with a Halloween th ...

Children with selective mutism can be successful in the classroom with speech therapy or accommodations designed by a Speech Language Pathologist.

Therapists can fill out this form in under two minutes and share with physician, nursing, social services, psychological, and therapy staff to ensure adequate understanding of individual cognitive impairments. The form includes quick scoring boxes for the MOCA, MMSE, SLUMS, and a blank area for other test results. It includes quick checkboxes to identify memory, […]

Learn what to look for when you are taking a language sample. Quickly calculate MLU and check out my 1-page Language Sample Checklist FREEBIE

I have so so many R kids on my caseload right now. In that past, that statement would be followed with a mournful sigh, or possibly with me throwing my head

Tips and techniques for teaching the vowel sounds to your child.

Critical thinking skills can be immensely improved by using visual aids. Learn how this SLP uses visual aids to help her speech therapy students succeed!

Have been trying to come up with new ways to target auditory memory and word retrieval. I would be eager to hear any of your ideas! Some of my student’s inherited goals are maybe not my favor…