organizational tips Archives - thedabblingspeechie

5 Ways to Use Google Forms for Speech Therapy

by thedabblingspeechie | Aug 13, 2022 | Caseload Management, organizational tips

Many school-based SLPs cover two or more different sites with their caseload. Managing all the paperwork, documenting progress, and communicating with the IEP team is a LOT!

It can take a lot of papers and forms to document all the caseload duties, so why not use Google Forms to help manage your speech therapy caseload?

Nothing is worse than going to a new site and realizing you forgot that one paper that contained all the info you needed to write an IEP or get started with progress reports.

In this blog post, you will learn five ways that Google Forms can help streamline your speech therapy caseload paperwork!

Use Google Forms for Speech Referrals

Managing a couple of school sites and want all your speech referrals in ONE spot? Use Google Forms for speech therapy referrals to collect information from teachers digitally.

We know how many speech referrals we receive throughout the school year, and managing them can quickly get out of control. I used to put a few copies in each of the teacher’s mailboxes, and often the following would happen:

-The teacher would lose the form and ask for a new one when they had a speech referral
-I would forget to check my mailbox to get referrals, so I was not getting back to teachers promptly

This is why I started using a Google Form to collect speech therapy referrals. I could email teachers directly with the link by digitally storing my speech referrals. Furthermore, I could access my speech referrals no matter what site I was at. If you didn’t know, when a Google Form is filled out, you can generate a Google Sheet of your referrals. With the Google Sheet, you can add additional columns to help you manage what steps you have taken with each referral. Head to this blog post to read more about the importance of speech referrals.

Click the pink button to grab your set of Google Forms for speech therapy to help you confidently manage your caseload.

Click Here for your free Google Form Templates for Speech Therapy

Progress Monitor with Google Forms for Speech Therapy Goals

If you make a progress monitoring approach to assessing your student’s speech and language progress on goals, you can use Google Forms to keep track digitally.

Once you fill out the Google Form, you can create a spreadsheet with the inputted information. The Google Sheet will list the dates and times you took data and individual responses.

If you want ready-to-go Google Form progress monitoring tools for articulation and phonology, check out the Digital Speech Folder Resources. You can click the pictures below to check them out.

Instead of doing your speech and language screeners with paper forms, use a Google Form to input responses. The beauty of Google Forms is that you can create a Google Sheet with the information to track and manage your speech screening results.

Keep track of your data collection for your speech therapy caseload using Google Forms for speech therapy progress monitoring. Y

Administer Speech and Language Screeners Digitally with Google Forms

If you need an elementary speech and language screener with printable forms and Google Forms for easy response input, check out the screeners in my TPT store.

You can print the screening stimulus items, but have the Google Form on your laptop or iPad to take data while administering.

With the screener bundle, you get screeners for articulation and language. The language screener is broken down by Prek-2nd and 3rd-5th grades. Click the image to check out all the details about the screener.

Have Google Forms for speech therapy that can help you manage your caseload with confidence.

Use Google Forms to Get Input About IEPs and the Speech Schedule

Automate how you collect information about student IEPs and speech schedule requests with Google Forms. As we prepare for IEP meetings, we need teacher input for the present levels page. Instead of hunting them down with a printable form, send them a Google Form for the different areas you need their input. Having the information stored digitally allows it to access IEP information from any computer.

Make sure to download your Google Form templates to have an IEP form ready for the school year!

Click Here for your free Google Form Templates for Speech Therapy

Improve Parent Communication with Google Forms

We are super busy managing the 50+ students on our caseloads, so keeping in contact with parents can be difficult.

At the start of the school year or even at the initial or annual IEP meeting, you can have parents fill out a Google Form questionnaire to share how to be contacted (i.e., email, text, phone) and information they would like for the home environment. For example, you can find out what toys they have at home, skills they would like strategies for, or how much homework to send.

How do You Use Google Forms for Speech Therapy?

Digital tools can help you when traveling between sites, and Google Forms has been one of those tools! Nothing is worse than wanting to follow up on a task and leaving the form at your other site.

If you are new to using Google Forms and have questions, drop them below. And, if you love using Google Forms for speech therapy caseload management, let me know how you use them in the comments!

6 Supplies You Need for Speech Materials Organization

by thedabblingspeechie | Jul 5, 2022 | organizational tips, Uncategorized

Of course, we would love to have the time and money to organize our speech rooms into beautifully arranged Pinterest-worthy spaces.

Between the meetings, large caseloads, documentation, assessments, and site duties, there is little time to plan therapy, much less spend time organizing your materials.

So, today, I will share five tools you need for speech materials organization that will help you know WHERE your materials are when you need them.

Amazon affiliate links are included for your convenience. When you click a link, I receive a small commission at no additional cost.

Speech Materials Organization for Printables

Speech material organization is a whole lot easier with this supplies! Check out this blog post so you can get your speech therapy materials organized so you know where they are when you need them!

If you use many printable materials for skill-based or themed-based therapy, these envelope pouches for binders have been a game-changer.

You can keep full-page sheets, task cards, and visual supports in one spot. So, you can keep everything in one binder instead of having places for different printables. That’s how I organize my themed therapy units by grade level (these units are part of the Themed Therapy SLP membership.)

For your sensory bins, games, or themed units that use a combination of printables and props, zipper pouches are an excellent solution for keeping everything together.

You can store them in a larger bin and grab the individual materials when you need them. To learn more about how you can create a sensory bin storage system, check out this blog post.

Organization Supply for Mini Figurines and Task Cards

Stocking up on mini figurines is a material that keeps students engaged and is great for all sorts of hands-on activities. The only problem is that they can get tricky to store as you collect more sets. Photo boxes are helpful with keeping similar mini figurines together in one container but separated, so you can find the items you need when planning therapy.

Some of my favorite mini figurines are TOOBS and Wild Republic! If you want mini trinkets that are sound-specific, check out Dinky Doodads. I wrote a blog post for how you can use them in mixed groups HERE.

Join the Free 5-Day Organizational Themed Therapy Challenge

If you have been on the struggle bus with keeping your themed materials in an organized system, now is your chance to change that! The organization challenge starts July 18th-22nd. Each day I walk you through small actionable steps to help you create an easy-to-maintain organization system for your materials.

Click here to join the challenge. Enter your details, and then check your email for a link to join the Themed Therapy SLP Facebook group. On July 17th, you will get an email with some organizational goodies to use throughout the challenge. And this challenge comes with prizes, Facebook LIVES, and the satisfaction that your materials have a home.

Scrapbook or latch boxes for Themed Speech Materials Organization

When I started planning more co-teaching lessons, I realized I had a lot of loose materials with no set place to put them. I wanted an easy-to-organize system that didn’t take forever to keep materials together. So, I started putting everything in scrapbook boxes or latch boxes because I could toss everything in and do therapy!

You can store my themed push-in units in these types of containers. I can keep 3-4 themed units in one scrapbook box with the file envelopes from Dollar Tree.

You can store books, worksheets, visuals, task cards, and smaller items. For more organizational ideas, check out this blog post.

Digital Tool That Helps You Keep Your Materials Organized

One of the best ways to keep all your favorite YouTube videos, books, PDFs, digital websites, or apps is by linking them to a Google Slide lesson plan cheat sheet.

You can upload all your PDFs to a Google Drive folder and link them to your Google Slide. Similarly, you can link videos and websites so that everything is in front of you when you need to plan therapy. You can use this method for teletherapy or in-person. Check out this blog post for more information on a digital organization system.

The themed therapy lesson plan templates are part of the Themed Therapy SLP membership (doors re-open July 22nd.) Sign up for the waitlist HERE.

Use this Low-Cost Supply to Keep Your Materials Together for Therapy

Raise your hand if you forget what materials you have on hand if you don’t see them in front of you? Instead of grabbing random things off the shelf, take 20-30 minutes at the beginning of the month to select your books, print worksheets, and therapy tools. You can use a crate from Walmart with hanging files to separate your materials by type, age level, or skills targeted. Because I plan by themes, I grab the materials I want to use for two to four weeks and stick them in the crate. I have options for switching out materials at the moment if a group isn’t feeling my current therapy plan.

What supplies do you recommend for speech therapy organization? I always love hearing about new tools and materials that can help me know where my therapy materials are located! Share in the comments if you have a supply that has been a game-changer for therapy.

Digital Speech Therapy Organization for Themes

by thedabblingspeechie | Aug 13, 2021 | organizational tips

When it comes to digital speech therapy organization most SLPs struggle with how to keep track of their speech therapy materials. It’s hard to organize materials digitally if technology isn’t your strong suit too!

If you find yourself having 100 internet browser tabs open with all your activities learning how to digitally organize your materials will help curb that!

Today, I wanted to share some tips on how you can streamline your digital speech therapy organization for keeping track of your theme-based materials. For more info about organizing themed printable materials, check out this POST. I also share LOTS of ideas in this FREE Themed Therapy SLP Facebook group. Come join the group and stay inspired by implementing themed therapy.

How to Create Folders in Google Drive

When organizing your themed materials, you want to create folders for your themes. You can create folders on your computer or a cloud storage solution such as Dropbox or Google Drive. I have found that Google Drive is the easiest to use because I can access it from any computer.

My biggest tip for creating folders is putting a number before labeling the folder so that your most important folders are the first to show up in your Google Drive.

I typically make one general folder for themes and then make sub-folders for all the types of themes I have speech therapy materials for students. You can check out the YouTube video below to see how to add a folder in your Google Drive.

Digital speech therapy organization for your themed therapy materials has never been easier with this tutorial!

Use Google Slides to Link Your PDFs and Websites

With a Google Slide themed template, you can link YouTube videos, books from GetEpic or YouTube, websites you use for the theme such as ABCYA.com, as well as linking your Boom Cards and other games from the internet.

What’s even cooler is that you can link your PDFs from your Google Drive folders to your themed Google Slides lesson plan cheat sheet.

Whether you do teletherapy or like to use a mix of digital and printable activities, you will easily be able to find what you need for therapy.

My biggest tip for organizing your themes is to do it as you are implementing the theme. All the websites and activities are fresh in your mind and you can slowly add videos and PDFs that you like to use. It may feel cumbersome to link all the things, but the following school year you will have an organized themed unit of materials to use with the majority of your caseload.

Need a FREE Themed Google Slide Planner?

You can watch the YouTube video above to get all the techy tips for adding PDFs, websites, and YouTube videos to the themed therapy Google Slides planner. If you want this free version, type in your email HERE or signup in the box. You will be asked to make a ‘copy’ of the Google Slide template and it will automatically be added to your Google Drive. That is your master copy. Rename it to something that is easy for you to search for in your Google Drive.

If you want more Google apps techy tips, I have a LOT of videos to help you navigate technology (you can do it!)

For more premade Google Slide speech and language templates, here are some that I use to create customized materials for my caseload.

Planning by themes has helped me cover more goals with my caseload. It can help you streamline planning and students can benefit from a themed-based approach. To learn more about themes, I have several podcast episodes and blog posts with themed ideas. Check it out HERE.

Articulation Organization Containers That Store LOTS of Items

by thedabblingspeechie | Aug 1, 2021 | articulation, organizational tips

When it comes to treating students with speech sound disorders, I like to have all my tools in one spot. Having an on-the-go container with my articulation materials together allows me to easily grab what I need during a small group or when I am working with a student in a hallway for quick articulation.

I find with articulation organization that having everything in one spot saves me time with putting materials away, transporting materials to classrooms or schools and cuts down my lesson planning time. Today, I wanted to show you how you can make an articulation organization storage container to keep all your speech therapy materials together for the school year.

Where to Find Articulation Organization Storage Bins

When it comes to organizing a lot of random materials that need to stay together, I found that using storage bins that have latches on the tops are really helpful. You don’t want to be carrying materials and drop the container with the lid popping off.

So, I have found that the 6.2 quart Latchmate storage boxes by Recollections from Michael’s or the 14.5 quart Latchmate storage boxes were the best.

If you need a storage box that can keep your small visuals and reinforcer materials, then the smaller box works well! For SLPs that want to be able to keep some folders, visuals, reinforcers and task card type materials, then the larger 14.5 quart box would be a good investment.

The smaller box would probably store better, but the larger container would help you have materials for multiple sounds to grab when you needed it for speech sessions.

Check out how to setup your articulation on-the-go containers to make planning therapy easier.

Articulation Organization Container Tip!

Articulation organization storage that can help you run quick articulation groups with ease!

The main reason that the Recollections storage bins are my favorite are because of the trays that fit perfectly in the container!

This allows you to keep mini items such as mini erasers, wind-up toys, and magnetic chips (Amazon Affiliate links are included) organized in their own compartment. The only drawback is that it does take up space in the bin, so you have to lay items flat on the bottom in order to fit tasks cards and tools for speech sound disorder therapy.

Favorite Items to Store for Getting High Trials

As clinicians, we know that with many speech sound disorders, students need to get high trials to help achieve mastery of the sound and carryover into conversation. Whether you are using a minimal pairs approach, cycles, traditional, etc. you want your students to practice a LOT in a session.

In order to help make that process a little more motivating and productive, having tools to use for those high trials is key to therapy success. So, I like to have a variety of materials available to switch out if the child isn’t like something that I picked for the day.

Here are some items I love to have in my storage bins for high trials in speech therapy (Amazon Affiliate Links):

–Pop Sensory Fidget Toy

–Dice

–Digital counter

–Magnetic chips

–Dry erase markers to use with my Articulation Flipbooks

DIY Abacus

For more ideas on how to get high trials, you can check out this blog post HERE. I even have scored with getting high trials using paper plates!

Materials You Can Store in Your Articulation Storage Container

With the larger storage box, you can store your iPad and task card type materials. Having visual sentence strips for students working at the phrase level is great to have on hand. You can use these ones in my store that come as printable and digital options.

You can store speech sound cue cards from Bjorem Speech. With the larger 14.5 quart container, you can even store a slant stand to have a mirror and dry erase board on the go. They also have these cool double-sided clips that you can show minimal pair cards or sound cues. Here are some other cool ways you can use these clips!

I found an 8-inch abacus that fits in the larger storage container and is great for getting those high trials quickly. Having tools like this pair really well with my No Print and Printable Articulation Flipbooks.

It’s also nice to be able to store some reinforcer type materials such as ball poppers or mini puppets.

Keep Your Speech Sound Materials in the Large Bin

When you have a lot of students working on the same articulation sound or phonological process, you can make speech folders for those sounds and store them in the larger bin.

I found that this helps me with planning therapy for several sessions because I can grab the stimulus items, homework sheets, visual reminders, or self awareness rating visuals all together. You can read more about setting these up HERE.

What would you store in your articulation organization storage bin? I would love to know what tools and materials you have found helpful for your students. Let me know if you have any questions about setting up your articulation system in the comments.

How to Organize Your Themed Therapy Materials

by thedabblingspeechie | Jul 10, 2021 | organizational tips, Themed Speech Therapy, Therapy Materials, Uncategorized

Raise your hand if you start the year off strong with organization, and by the end of September you find yourself scouring through laundry piles of resources and worksheets. I know I can’t be the only one out there! I decided to get serious about organizing my themed therapy materials using a system that would last the whole school year. Here are some ways you can organize themed therapy materials so you don’t have to constantly find your self thinking “I swear I put that articulation packet in this folder…..”

Organize Themed Therapy Materials Using a Crate

One thing I invested in is these file storage crates. They are so easy to find and such a game-changer. You can find these file storage crates at Staples, Target, Walmart, or Amazon. You want to make sure the crate will fit the hanging file folders legal and letter-sized folders. I used the legal size so it is wider and can fit books and wider folders better. Some will fit the As you can see in the picture, I label each file folder with my themes. When I’m looking for a particular themed activity, I’ll know exactly where to look in the crate which saves me a ton of time. This is especially helpful for organizing themed therapy materials for my whole classroom or push-in activities. When I first started organizing with crates, I quickly realized the file folders were essential! Without them, my materials turned into another pile, but this time they were in a crate instead of my desk!

This blog post will tell you all the best tips for organizing your themed therapy materials, so you can quickly find the activities you need!

Click Here to Download the Free Themed Therapy Planning Guide

Use Zip Pouches to Organize Themed Therapy Materials

Along with the crates, I also love to use these file pouches from Dollar Tree or zipper pouches on Amazon (affiliate link included.) Like the crates, they are super easy to find and a great organizational investment. These zip pouches are perfect for those themed activities that require a lot of components. For example, crafts, core word squares, books, and sentence strips. It’s super easy to keep all of the themed components in one place with these pouches. They are also very quick to grab and easy to carry from class to class.

A quick tip: if you are interested in buying these pouches, I would recommend going for more durable, plastic ones. These help keep your materials from bending or creasing, and they don’t “flop” as much for easier storage.

Organize Your Story Themed Materials in a Scrapbook Box

Scrapbook boxes are a great tool to organize themed materials and lesson plans. These boxes are wide and deep enough to store your theme-related books and companion activities.

The best place to find these scrapbook boxes is at Michaels.

I love these scrapbook boxes because I can use them to store the books I want, the activities, any pouches I have for my loose cards and materials, craft examples I want to use, and all of my visual supports. They are so easy to label, grab, use, and reorganize at the end of my day. I’ve cut down so much time on my planning and organizing once I started using these scrapbook boxes.

Check out my video on Facebook or Instagram to see what my scrapbook box and pouch organizational systems look like using an ocean theme!

Use Zipper Pouches and Bins to Keep Sensory Bins Neat

One thing I love to incorporate into my therapy is themed sensory bins. However, these sensory bins and the loose materials I put in them can get super messy and time-consuming to organize. Using zipper pouches and a storage bin has helped keep my sensory bin materials neat. First, I store the loose cards or small toys in smaller zipper pouches. Then, I store the “sensory” materials in their zipper pouch. You can then place the sensory bin filler, smaller items, and materials all in one larger zipper pouch. Then, when it’s time for you to assemble your sensory bin, you can grab the zipper pouch and all the contents are together. Check out this blog post for more details.

Click Here to Download the Free Themed Therapy Planning Guide

More Ways to Get Organized!

Looking for more ways to get your office or your materials organized? Take a look at my 7 Tips for Organization.

If you’re an SLP that has an articulation/phonology-heavy caseload, then you’ll want to take a peek at my previous blog post where I talk about setting up articulation folders to help with organization.

Digital organization solutions for SLPs doing teletherapy or wanting to keep their PDFs and digital materials in one spot can check out this post HERE.

I love seeing how other SLP’s get organized and what works best for them. Let me know in the comments your favorite way to stay organized throughout your school year!

Setting Up Articulation Speech Folders For Students

by thedabblingspeechie | Jul 30, 2019 | articulation, Caseload Management, organizational tips

Recently, I polled the SLPs that follow me on Instagram to see how many of us make individual student folders for our caseloads. It was a pretty even 50/50 split of speech pathologists that do make individual folders and those that don’t.

I personally do not make individual speech folders for each child on my caseload. I use a giant therapy binder that has tabs for each child on my caseload. If I cover two schools, then I store a therapy binder at each school.

Setting Up Articulation Speech Folders

For each student, I store their therapy logs, a communication log, their IEP-at-a-glance, and specialized data sheets as needed. Typically, I just flip back and forth between students to keep everything documented.

However, I always have certain students that I service in a quick artic model, or I want to have some specialized visuals organized for my artic students to use when running mixed groups. In these circumstances, I will make an articulation speech folder for the individual student or the particular sound/phonological process. Today, I am going to share how you can set up your own articulation speech folders to help you streamline your therapy planning process.

Why I Make Articulation Speech Folders

Let’s face it. We have limited time for planning therapy. And sometimes we are doing our quick artic in the hallways or targeting articulation goals with mixed groups. It is hard for me to keep visuals, homework sheets, flash cards, etc. organized for my articulation students. Having all of the tools I may need in one speech folder helps me to be prepared for therapy. Planning therapy is less stressful because I can grab the folder knowing that everything I need is ready to use.

Or, if I have 3-4 students working on a certain phonological process, I can make one folder for that process and have all the speech materials I need to remediate that process. The only other thing I may need to grab is a toy, a game, or a manipulative to use with all the tools in the speech folder.

Materials to Make Articulation Speech Folders

To make your speech folder, you do need some organizational materials to make it work. I am going to show you what I do, but feel free to adapt for your caseload. Amazon affiliate links are included for your convenience.

Plastic Folders with 3-Hole Prongs (You may be able to find them at the Dollar Tree or any office supply store.)
Page Protector Sheets for visuals or worksheets that you may use with a dry erase marker
Two-Pocket File Dividers to hold therapy logs, forms, data sheets, or word lists
Clear Envelope File Pouch to store materials, articulation flash cards, dry erase markers, or tally clickers

What other office supplies have you found helpful to include in your student’s speech folders? Share in the comments!

What to Include in Your Articulation Speech Folder

When setting up your articulation speech folder, you want to have an idea of where the child is performing with learning his/her sound. If the child is at the syllable level, then you can include materials and visuals for that level, as well as add in materials for the word and phrase level.

Grab these FREE Articulation Syllable Practice Sheets in my TPT store.

This allows you to have extra materials ready in the event that the student progresses quicker than you expected. You will be ready to adapt the therapy session easily without racking your brain on what to do next.

Here are some helpful things to include in your speech folder:

-Therapy logs (I use the logs from The Speech Bubble SLP or SLP Toolkit)

-Specialized Articulation or Phonology Data Sheets to track progress. Here is my FREE Articulation Data Sheet template. If you need more specialized sheets, you can grab them HERE.

– Visual Supports to help with articulation production or to increase self-awareness. You can add speech sound cue cards from Bjorem Speech in the envelope file pouch.

-Data graphs or self-awareness visuals can be helpful to incorporate into a session. Grab some FREE articulation carryover visuals by clicking the button below.

– Word lists or materials to use for quick drill practice, like these free flash card lists for older developing sounds or my Articulation Flipbooks. Sometimes I will print up pages from my Any Craft Companion Pack and store in the speech folder.

Homework forms that help track if the student is practicing at home. I use these ones from Kiwi Speech (FREE printable). For your students that you are creating home programs, you can have homework sheets in this folder ahead of time, so you can easily plan and track homework assignments. This is a free homework sheet once students get to the carryover level in my STORE.

These FREE Articulation Homework Word List Strips by Simply Speech can be in your students folder. You can customize the word lists based on your students performance during the session and send home.

Other Helpful Forms to Include in Your Speech Folders

If you like to have an individual folder for each student, here are some forms that will help you keep things organized for each student:

FREE SLP Attendance Form by Natalie Synders

Communication Log (FREE) in Sublime Speech’s Starter Kit to document interactions with the child’s parent or teacher

Please share any other forms, visuals, or tools you would add to your articulation speech folders in the comments! You can also tag me on instagram @thedabblingspeechie with your articulation speech folder setup.

Blog Posts To Help You Plan Articulation Therapy

As busy SLPs, it is easy to struggle with ideas on how to increase repetitions or keep your students motivated with articulation practice. Here are some blog posts with ideas to make your articulation therapy productive and fun: