EP 93 speech therapy schedule tips for how to get the most out of the day

If you have ended your day as a school-based SLP and wondered, “What the heck did I do all day?” you are not alone. Between high caseloads, speech therapy referrals coming in every other day, and trying to see all your students on your speech therapy schedule, it feels like we have NO time left to do all the other caseload management tasks.

In today’s episode of the Real Talk SLP podcast, I am sharing my speech therapy schedule hacks that help me stay focused and productive on the must-dos for the day or week.

By taking about 20 minutes at the end or start of your week to plan out what you will do with your non-therapy time, you will find pockets of time that you can use to get important speech therapy tasks done.

You know, like progress reports, writing IEPs, scheduling meetings, programming AAC devices, planning therapy, assessing students, Medicaid billing, etc.

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In this Real Talk SLP episode, I share the following:

You will learn tips for how to up your productivity during the work day so that when you leave, the important things on your to-do list will be done. 

With this one small switch in how you view your work week, you won’t get distracted by emails, phone calls, or overbooking yourself and actually have time on your schedule to get stuff done!

How-to use Google Docs to create daily or weekly speech therapy schedules that you can duplicate to adjust your schedule.

Make your copy here of mine HERE. Use this Google Doc for each of your sites. If you are at one site or need a full weekly schedule view make a copy of this Google Sheet

Print out your weekly speech therapy schedule after you edit it in Google Docs. I prefer to make a copy of my previous speech schedule and write a new weekly date for digital tracking.

Once I fill it out, I print out the weekly schedule and keep it on a clipboard to take notes when I go around the school. This way, if I didn’t have a computer on me while co-teaching, I could take attendance for Medicaid billing.

EP 92 Who Knew My Students Would Love This!?

EP 92 Who Knew My Students Would Love This!?

We can overcomplicate the process when finding engaging speech therapy materials for our sessions! This Real Talk SLP episode shares what kids LOVE, and it might be something you never thought to use.

Have you ever planned an on-the-fly speech therapy lesson, thinking it would be “boring,” only to discover that your students thought it was the BEST.THING.EVER!

Or, maybe you left a game or material on your table, and your next group of fourth-graders walk-in begging to play Candyland in your session?

How To Participate in Future SLP Questions

This episode of the Real Talk SLP podcast will be sharing materials or activities SLPs used that were a surprising hit in therapy.

Many of the ideas shared today were from submissions from other SLPs that commented on my Facebook page. Come follow along to get involved with some of the questions I post weekly.

Get on the Themed Therapy SLP Membership Waitlist

If you LOVE planning therapy with a themed-based approach but often don’t because you lost all your planning time catching up on paperwork, I want to let you know about the Themed Therapy SLP Membership for SLPs serving Prek-5th grade students. We take lesson planning off your plate by providing themed therapy units to cover your Prek-5th grade caseload. Between themed book cheat sheets, open-ended activities, Google Slides, No Print PDFs, themed speech sound word lists, printables, and monthly LIVE webinars to earn CMH units, you will have engaging sessions without the stress of planning on your own.

The membership opens in July 2022. We take purchase requests and group discounts, so let your employer know you need this for a successful school year! Sign up HERE.

In This Real Talk SLP Episode You Will Learn:

 

-How to look at your therapy materials in unconventional ways

-Encouragement to take chances in your therapy and explore what can work with our students in therapy

-Therapy ideas that are cost-effective and engaging with kids

-Think outside the box, what might work for younger students could be used with your older students and vice versa

-What tools or supplies could you incorporate with your worksheets or activities to increase engagement such as using smell markers or erasable pens

-How you can use a simple object and turn it into a hands-on activity

-Our junk drawers could be our most effective therapy tool

 

See the links below to go to blog posts or find materials mentioned in this episode

Blog Posts and Resources Mentioned in This Episode

Amazon affiliate links are included in this post for your convenience. This means I get a small commission when you use my link to purchase items at no additional cost to you.

“I Spy” sensory bin

Articulation Flipbookstry the /l/ book for FREE

Use these ultra fine dry erase markers, your kids will love them.

Smelly Markers, Smelly Pens, Dot Markers, Erasable pens

Candyland and Don’t Break the Ice – If you need toy companion cheat sheets for using these games in therapy, check out this resource in my TPT store.

Lids N’ Lizards Blog Post – Free printables are on that blog post

Beach Day by Karen Roosa Blog Post with extension activity ideas

Make a random item sensory bin by colors. Check out the color-themed sensory bin resources in my TPT store

We can overcomplicate the process when finding engaging speech therapy materials for our sessions! This Real Talk SLP episode shares what kids LOVE, and it might be something you never thought to use.

If you loved this episode, make sure to leave a review on the Real Talk SLP podcast.

Ep 91 5 Strategies to Get Buy-In With Your Older Students

Ep 91 5 Strategies to Get Buy-In With Your Older Students

When it comes to working with older speech students, it can be hard to keep them motivated in therapy. Nothing feels worse than having session after session fall flat because you can’t get your students to buy-in into the therapy process.

That’s why I invited Kristin Bowers from Kiwi Speech to come on the Real Talk SLP podcast to share 5 strategies you can use to get buy-in with your older students.

 

Sign Up for the LIVE Sensory Bin Webinar June 21st

If you are struggling with finding ways to engage your mixed groups and feel confident that you can cover all their goals in a session, I am hosting a LIVE webinar on June 21st 5pm PST/8 pm EST to share how you can use sensory bins to target your students’ speech and language goals.

Tickets are $9 and include:

-1 hour CMH units (Clinical Maintenance Hours)

-Ultimate Sensory Bin Guide – step-by-step instructions and recommendations to help you find the right bin, fillers, and materials to make your sensory bin with a visual rules poster, storage ideas, and printables to make bins

-$15 worth of sensory bin materials

-A fun learning environment that will answer all your questions about using sensory bins in speech therapy.

Strategies to Help Get Buy-In With Your Older Speech Students

In the beginning part of the interview, we discuss some of the roadblocks speech pathologists face when working with older speech students. We then dive into strategies that can help improve your therapy sessions and your relationships with your students. 

In this podcast episode, you will hear about these 5 strategies to help your older speech students:

 

– Teach a growth mindset in your sessions using the three pillars of motivation, rapport, and resilience (the research article is linked below in the blog posts and resources section)

– To use distraction in your therapy sessions

– Finding materials and activities that provide a challenge for your students

– Get your students reading in your therapy sessions

– Really get picky with their speech sounds or the skills you are working on with them in therapy

 

Blog Posts and Resources Mentioned in This Podcast Episode

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Ep. 90 Five Tips for ESY Services

Hey Hey Hey SLPs! Today we’re going to be talking about five tips for working ESY Services to make it a little bit more fun and successful.

 

In this episode you’ll hear:

 

5 tips for working ESY services:

  1. Try something new
  2.  plan by themes to cover your younger and older students.
  3. pick books in your theme that can cover a wide range of skills and goals
  4. Set a time when you will arrive and when you will leave
  5. Keep things easy when you can

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Ep. 89 4 Things That Could Be Missing From Your Articulation Sessions

 Hey Hey Hey SLPs! Today we’re going to be talking about four things that could be missing from your articulation sessions. If you have students who really struggle with being motivated in your sessions or if you’re hitting some roadblocks with helping your students generalize their speech sounds into conversation and outside of the speech room, this episode is for you!
  In this episode you’ll hear:   The 4 things that could be missing from your articulation sessions  

  1. you may need to stay at the syllable level longer
  2. you’re not incorporating phonological awareness
  3. incorporating self-monitoring Into your session
  4. you’re not varying tasks to provide naturalistic opportunities to practice 
When it comes to planning by themes, you need all the cheat sheets for keeping track of words in the theme that have your student’s speech sounds.

 

It makes all the difference to have a cheat sheet to reference for sound-loaded words to target while reading a book, a passage or a play activity.

 

That’s why in the Themed Therapy SLP membership you get a speech sound word list for the theme as well as words broken up by speech sounds for the toy guide and book cheat sheets.

 

This helps you run a mixed group much easier knowing you have a resource to help you target all the goals. Sign up for the waitlist for the themed therapy SLP membership because the membership is re-opening summer 2022 and you don’t want to miss details!

 

Start asking your employer if they would support you this coming school year as we take purchase orders and have group rates.

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Ep. 88 4 Things You Can Streamline With Your Caseload Management

 Hey Hey Hey SLPs! Today we’re going to be talking about 4 things that you can streamline in your caseload.  Over the years, I would look at what was causing me stress or areas where I felt like I was always scrambling to get things completed. Then, I asked myself, “What could I do to make this easier to execute?” I would develop systems by taking small actionable steps to get better. When we have things streamlined, when we have systems set in place, we are able to do a good job and serve our students well.

 

 

In this episode you’ll hear:

 

4 Things You Can Streamline with your caseload:

 

  • Your speech referral process
  • Your speech reports
  • Where your materials are located
  • Your weekly speech therapy schedule

 

Let someone else take lesson planning off your plate because I know how much you already have on it! Get on the www.themedtherapyslp.com waitlist because doors are re-opening summer 2022.

 

Blog Posts and Resources Mentioned:

 

Why I Have a Speech Referral Process

Using Google Forms for Speech Referrals

 

How to Write a Speech Report Like a Rockstar

Organizing Speech Therapy Materials

Articulation Organization Container

Google Sheets Weekly and Daily School Calendar (click to make a copy)

Google Docs Weekly Calendar for one site

 

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