How to Deal with a Common Problem Situation – Turning Homework In Children have to deal with problem situations all day long. Kids do better dealing with problem situations when they have good perspective-taking skills. It helps them realize that they need to think about how their actions affect others. Understanding that their actions have consequences can go a long way toward helping kids make appropriate choices. Do your students get into problem situations that they can’t handle? Are their responses limited to “It’s NOT fair!” Or maybe they keep explaining why they were right over and over ..read more

Visuals in Speech/Language Therapy Really Do Help! Why should you use visuals in speech therapy? Because they do help our students! If you don’t already use visuals in your speech-language therapy sessions, these reasons to use visuals will convince you.  If you already use them, you’ll still love the great links for resources! Visuals Aren’t Just for Autism! Memory Visualizing is a well-known memory aid, but it isn’t an automatic skill! Practice with remembering images is one way to start.  Remember those ‘What’s Missing?’ activities where kids need to remember the details of the or ..read more

Planning Made Easier- Quick Tips for SLPs Planning. Is that stressful for you? Many SLPs and SPED teachers think that is one of the biggest job problems, right after all of the paperwork. In fact, most of them say they’d like to leave the school system as soon as they reach full retirement age and then work somewhere else. They don’t know what specific kind of job they want, but they all agree that it has to be one that does not require planning! Of course, we can all plan for the week, but what can be done to make the process quicker and easier? My time spent planning has gotten easier over ..read more

You’d Hate to Work Here! Speech Rooms that Could Make You Cry Speech therapists in schools get offered some of the worst rooms ever! If a great therapy space is one of your priorities, private practice is probably the way to go, since school space is often crowded and administrators seem to prioritize by how often you are in the building and the number of students you work with. With our small groups and multiple schools, it seems that SLPs are often the last to get a space to work in a school (and often the worst!). The WORST Speech Therapy ROOM EVER! The Cage “My Worst Room Ever was what we ..read more

And a FREE Editable Speech Schedule! Make a speech therapy schedule without stress? Are you kidding me? It definitely is a true pain, but there are ways to make it easier. I’ve tried many ways to schedule over the years and this color-coded system has worked best. Give it a try to make speech scheduling (and rescheduling) faster and less error-prone throughout the year. The benefit of a paper schedule is that you can work on it while sitting through the endless beginning of the year meetings. But if you have the luxury of doing your first schedule on the computer, make colored background cel ..read more

How do you get the iPad away and survive it? How do you get the iPad away? If all your autistic student wants to do is play on the iPad, it can lead to lost sessions when you abruptly take it away. Autistic students learn a lot from visual teaching methods. But are we doing them any favors in the long term by teaching this way? Students with autism need our help to attain social skills and learn how to interact with others. One step that makes this possible is to get the iPad away. It is all about change. It comes down to this basic problem: how to get students with autism to vary the kinds ..read more

Pranks are a great way to improve social perspective-taking skills! Did you know that you can improve social perspective-taking skills using pranks your students will love? We may not like to be on the receiving end of pranks, but they sure are fun to watch! This sets up a perfect opportunity to discuss how people’s perspectives of pranks can be different. One kid might find it hysterical to walk into a hanging spider, while another child with a fear of spiders might be terrified.  Another social skill that can be reinforced using pranks is judging the impact your actions have on other ..read more

You can easily make your vocabulary activities more fun in speech/language therapy with a few simple changes. Let me show you how! All you need is a few basic supplies that you can combine with materials that you already own to come up with new activities for meeting students’ IEP goals. Even in mixed groups! Plus, when students are having fun using learned skills in activities, they really consolidate those skills in a functional way. Don’t you think so, too? Fun Ways to Respond in Vocabulary Activities: (Or why SLPs love the Dollar Store and the Target Dollar Spot.) Keep a variety of these ..read more

How to teach the language of friendship in speech Do you work on friendship skills during your speech therapy sessions? Is that even a speech/language area to work on? Like many of you, I had that question about areas of social skills at one time. But after doing my research, my answer is a resounding yes! Find out why and download some really helpful freebies. Finding out about your students’ families and likes/dislikes are a typical part of building a connection with your students. It helps SLPs to know how to bring meaning and enjoyment into the work we do with each student. But do you ask ..read more

Adapting for mixed groups is easier than you think! Adapting for mixed groups is easier than you think! And when home life gets really busy, it is important that you know how to give yourself a work break. Download this fun Thanksgiving freebie and read on to get some tips to make Thanksgiving speech/language therapy fun and on target! And a freebie! The easiest way to catch yourself a break around any holiday is to find a really useful free activity. By useful, I mean that it is adaptable to let you address many IEP goals. This way you can use it with all of your groups. Steps for Adapting a ..read more