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5 Tips to Write Speech Therapy Goals for IEPs

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We’ve all been there. Blankly staring at a screen hoping that your speech therapy goals would write themselves, and the IEP would be complete. After the long process of an assessment, it feels like you’re at the summit only to find there’s another mountain to climb. 🏔

We’ve got you! Keep reading if you want tips on how to create smart goals!

How to Write SMART Goals to Help Your Students and Make your IEP Goals as Clear as Possible

This post will help guide you on a path to write SMART goals that really help your students. My goal is to help make your goal writing a little easier. The decision process is hard to nail down and something you learn on the job, but I’m hoping this guide will give you some good ideas!

Getting Started with Speech Therapy Goals

Let’s start at the beginning with a little review of what can prepare you for writing really solid speech therapy goals.

1. A complete assessment that included formal and informal testing 

2. Input from the student, teachers, staff members, and family members

3. Data from your sessions (if applicable)

4. Your student’s strengths and the foundation you’re going to build on

5. An understanding of your student’s challenges and where they are struggling in the school environment

If you’re an SLP Now member, you have access to the paperwork binder that includes assessment, treatment plan ideas, and factors to consider that can help shape your speech therapy goals. There are also lots of quick informal assessments to use for baseline and probe data! 

S.M.A.R.T. Goals

We all know our speech therapy goals need to be SMART, but how do you get from your assessment results to goal areas to target? We’ll go through a couple of different treatment areas to cover our bases.

S – Specific: Is your goal specific? Did you talk about the setting? Are you putting too many things in one goal?

M – Measurable: Can you measure this goal with data? Consider a rubric for some of those harder-to-measure speech therapy goals.

A – Attainable: Is this goal attainable in a year for this particular student? Goals are individual, make sure it’s feasible for this student.

R – Realistic: Is this goal something that will generalize to the classroom/school environment and help the student succeed at school? Have you considered the whole EBP triangle with research, clinical judgment, and information from the student and their family?

T- Timely: Can the student achieve the speech therapy goal in the amount of service time you are recommending for the IEP?

Start with our Speech Therapy IEP Goal Bank

If you’re wondering where you should start, the SLP Now Goal Bank is full of speech therapy goal ideas that can help you create individualized speech therapy goals based on your students’ speech and language strengths and needs.

The goal bank includes AAC goals, fluency goals, social language goals, receptive language goals, expressive language goals, articulation goals, and more! Definitely head to the SLP Now Goal Bank to brainstorm IEP goals and objectives for your speech therapy IEP goals.

Tips for Speech Therapy Goals

1. Goals must be educationally relevant in the school setting.

Goals do not have to be based on developmental norms. To be aligned with IDEA, you have to find out the educational impact of the child’s speech errors and select your goals after that process (Ireland & Conrad, 2016).

Perry Flynn

2. Look for patterns.

Do you see articulation errors, phonological patterns, apraxia, inconsistent speech disorder? If your student is bilingual, don’t forget to cross-check the student’s native language!

3. Select a treatment plan.

Sometimes it’s easier to select your treatment plan before you write your goals. That way your goals and treatment plan are nicely aligned. I’m a big fan of the complexity approach!

Possible Treatment Plan

4. Keep phonological awareness in mind.

Make sure you think about phonological awareness skills as well, especially if the student is writing their error the way they say it. Students with speech sound errors are more likely to have difficulty reading and writing (Cabbage et. al., 2018).

5. Vary your target selection and individualize.

Map out the student’s pattern of errors on a place, manner, voice chart. Make sure that your targets are varied. You might pick one marked sound, one early developing sound, one sound that is relevant to the child’s life, and one sound that is frequently occurring. Choosing targets from different classes is also a good way to make sure you have well-rounded goals.

6. For childhood apraxia of speech.

We love Edyth Strand as a resource. Treatment for childhood apraxia of speech focuses on movement, not specific sounds. Goals should allow for use of an EBP based treatment plan like (Dynamic Temporal and Tactile Cueing) DTTC (Strand, 2020). A goal for syllable shapes (e.g., CV, CVC, CVCV) is one example of a goal that is appropriate for apraxia. Don’t forget to consider AAC!

Whew! That was a lot. Thanks for hanging in there. Check out these related posts on speech sound disorder treatment if that’s your next step in the process!

– A Review of Articulation Approaches
– Tips for Treatment of Childhood Apraxia of Speech
– Where to Start with Phonological Awareness
– How to Implement the Complexity Approac
– How to Implement the Cylces Approach
– Target Selection Considerations for Speech Sound Disorder Intervention in Schools

Tips for Language Goals for Speech Therapy IEPs

Zeroing in on your student’s strengths and challenges can really narrow down where to go with language goals. Look for patterns and what the ROOT of the challenge is. In order to be educationally relevant, your goals need to target skills that will help the child’s ability to access curriculum and participate in the school environment. If your goals aren’t generalizing outside of the speech room, we’ve got some ideas to help! 

Make sure to take baseline/probe data in order to be in the student’s sweet spot for learning. Including visuals and varying your prompting can also give you clues about a student’s learning potential. A goal that is either too hard or too easy will not lead to the optimal amount of progress for a student.

1. Work on executive functioning. 

Consult with other IEP team members (like the psychologist and special education teacher). Talk about executive functioning challenges you both see. You want to be working on strategies that will generalize into the classroom (Kamhi 2014). For example: Work on using describing words to talk about new concepts instead of memorizing a set of new words, or work on embedded narrative skills like story grammar rather than working on sequencing separately. Working on these types of skills will help executive functioning skills like working memory and planning. It is within your scope of practice to work on executive functioning in the school setting (Ward & Jacobsen, 2014), you probably do already!

2. Consider social-emotional needs. 

Consider any factors related to social-emotional aspects (Kirch et. al., 2020).

Are they able to get their daily needs met? Can they talk about how they are feeling? Can they tell a peer a story or joke?

If this is a need, it needs to be a goal.

3. Consider the Common Core.

Look through Common Core State Standards and find where your student isn’t able to participate in the classroom or access academics. I usually start by looking at the speaking and listening and language sections. What sticks out as an area to target? 

Some Ideas

– Vocabulary
– Grammar
– Language skills like narratives
– Functional Communication

4. Build on student’s strengths. 

Focus on what they were able to do and what the next attainable steps are. (Example: they can describe different things that happened in a story but can’t sequence them correctly in their working memory, so you target story grammar to improve working memory and their ability to tell a story. This helps with both academics and with their social relationships).

5. Consider the educational impact.

Prioritize what will help your students succeed academically and participate in the school environment. This puts you in the right mindset to pick their goals as well. Collaboration is always encouraged. I check in with teachers to make sure that the goals make sense for their classroom and would help them. Make sure there is educational impact in order to justify services!

6. Provide additional speech therapy supports.

Do they need other supports for sensory processing during the session and/or are they a gestalt language processor? This may affect the amount of trials, visuals, prompts/cues, the environment, et cetera as you’re formulating your goals.

Tips for Fluency Goals

For fluency and social goals, a great mindset to have is to think of the social model of disability. We aren’t trying to change the person, we’re thinking of ways to support the student and change the environment in order for them to succeed.

I am absolving you from the idea that you have to get gets fluent.

Yes, you read that right! Check out this post by Nina Reeves about why we shouldn’t be writing goals for a percentage of fluency. She links to a handout about writing goals for fluency. 

First and foremost, we are going to consider the student and what their communication goals are. We want to focus on creating an environment through education/training and levels of support that encourage the student to be confident and comfortable speaking.

Areas to Target

1. Change the environment.
– Education about stuttering (journals)

2. Support the student.
– Thoughts and feelings about stuttering (including acceptance)
– Demonstrate fluency strategies
– Demonstrate awareness of dysfluencies
– Self-advocacy (e.g., decrease avoidance)

Tips for Social Language Goals

Goals for social language/pragmatics are going through quite the shift lately. In following the social model of disability, our thinking has to shift to what WE can change to accommodate the student, not what they can change about themselves. Research points to masking (an autistic person having to change who they are to blend into a neurotypical world) as being very detrimental to their mental health (Beck et. al., 2020). So what can we do about it? Listening to autistic voices is one way of making sure that you are targeting goals that are supporting the student’s environment and their needs, rather than forcing them to mask.

Check out this website made by an autistic SLP/SLT in the UK!

Goals should not be compliance-based.

Goals should support the needs of the student.

Goals should not support masking, unless requested by the student!

Example Goal Areas

1. Student Supports
Support for gestalt language processing
AAC/any form of communication student is comfortable with
Self-advocacy (e.g., for sensory breaks)
Self-regulation skills (e.g., recognizing when they need a break)
Daily living skills (e.g., job training)
Recognizing emotions in themselves and others

2. Supporting the Student in Interactions
Problem-solving
Self-advocacy (e.g.,  tell the teacher they are listening so they don’t have to make eye contact)

When working on these goals, push-in lessons are ideal to talk to both neurotypical and neurodiverse students. It’s a great way to promote understanding and to talk about the double empathy problem (Mitchell et. al., 2021). Neurodiverse students don’t have difficulty communicating with each other, but neurotypical and neurodiverse relationships can have difficulty understanding each other.

Being present in the classroom is also a great way to know what supports the student needs in that setting and an easy way to model it for classroom teachers. 

3. Supporting the Student Academically
Figurative Language
Narrative Language
Story Grammar
Perspectives in books (e.g., character’s perspectives)

Adjust the Setting and Supports

After your goals are set, you can adjust the setting and any types of supports either with the goal (visuals and prompts) or in the school setting with accommodations/supports sections of the IEP. You’ll also make final adjustments to your service delivery model and service minute recommendations. 

I hope this post has given you some confidence to justify your goal areas as treatment targets. It takes a lot of time and practice to go from assessment to goals easily. I still call my SLP friends to bounce ideas off of (following FERPA guidelines, of course!).

Give yourself the space to learn and grow.

 

References

American Speech-Language-Hearing Association. (n.d.). Speech sound disorders: Articulation and phonology. https://www.asha.org/practice-portal/clinical-topics/articulation-and-phonology/#collapse_6.

Barlow, J. A., & Gierut, J. A. (2002). Minimal pair approaches to phonological remediation. Seminars in Speech and Language, 23(1), 57–68.

Beck, J. S., Lundwall, R. A., Gabrielsen, T., Cox, J. C., & South, M. (2020). Looking good but feeling bad: “Camouflaging” behaviors and mental health in women with autistic traits. Autism, 24(4), 809–821.

Beukelman, D. & Mirenda, P. (2013). Augmentative and Alternative Communication: Supporting Children & Adults with Complex Communication Needs 4th Edition. Baltimore: Paul H. Brookes Publishing.

Cabbage, K. L., Farquharson, K., Iuzzini, -Seigel Jenya, Zuk, J., & Hogan, T. P. (2018). Exploring the Overlap Between Dyslexia and Speech Sound Production Deficits. Language, Speech, and Hearing Services in Schools, 49(4), 774–786.

Crosbie, S., Holm, A., & Dodd, B. (2005). Intervention for children with severe speech disorder: A comparison of two approaches. International Journal of Language & Communication Disorders, 40(4), 467–491.

DeVeney, S. L., Cabbage, K., & Mourey, T. (2020). Target Selection Considerations for Speech Sound Disorder Intervention in Schools. Perspectives of the ASHA Special Interest Groups, 5(6), 1722–1734.

Dodd, B., Crosbie, S., Mcintosh, B., Holm, A., Harvey, C., Liddy, M., Fontyne, K., Pinchin, B., & Rigby, H. (2008). The impact of selecting different contrasts in phonological therapy. International Journal of Speech-Language Pathology, 10, 334–345.

Dodd, B., Holm, A., Crosbie, S., & McIntosh, B. (2006). A core vocabulary approach for management of inconsistent speech disorder. Advances in Speech-Language Pathology, 8(3), 220–230.

Gierut, J. A. (1989). Maximal Opposition Approach to Phonological Treatment. Journal of Speech and Hearing Disorders, 54(1), 9–19.

Hodson, B. W. (2018, March 12). Enhancing Phonological Patterns of Young Children With Highly Unintelligible Speech (world) [Review-article]. The ASHA Leader; American Speech-Language-Hearing Association.

Julien, H. M., Finestack, L. H., & Reichle, J. (2019). Requests for Communication Repair Produced by Typically Developing Preschool-Age Children. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, 62(6), 1823–1838.

Justice, L. M., & Fey, M. E. (2018, December 31). Evidence-Based Practice in Schools (world) [Review-article]. The ASHA Leader; American Speech-Language-Hearing Association.

Kamhi, A. G. (2014). Improving Clinical Practices for Children With Language and Learning Disorders. Language, Speech, and Hearing Services in Schools, 45(2), 92–103.

Kerch, C. J., Donovan, C. A., Ernest, J. M., Strichik, T., & Winchester, J. (2020). An Exploration of Language and Social-Emotional Development of Children with and without Disabilities in a Statewide Pre-Kindergarten Program. Education and Treatment of Children, 43(1), 7–19.

Levy, E. S. (2014). Implementing two treatment approaches to childhood dysarthria. International Journal of Speech-Language Pathology, 16(4), 344–354.

Maas, E., Robin, D. A., Austermann, H. S. N., Freedman, S. E., Wulf, G., Ballard, K. J., & Schmidt, R. A. (2008). Principles of Motor Learning in Treatment of Motor Speech Disorders. American Journal of Speech-Language Pathology, 17(3), 277–298.

McLeod, S., & Crowe, K. (2018). Children’s Consonant Acquisition in 27 Languages: A Cross-Linguistic Review. American Journal of Speech-Language Pathology, 27(4), 1546–1571.

Miccio, A. W., & Elbert, M. (1996). Enhancing stimulability: A treatment program. Journal of Communication Disorders, 29(4), 335–351.

Mitchell, P., Sheppard, E., & Cassidy, S. (2021). Autism and the double empathy problem: Implications for development and mental health. British Journal of Developmental Psychology, 39(1), 1–18.

Smith, A. L., & Hustad, K. C. (2015). AAC and Early Intervention for Children with Cerebral Palsy: Parent Perceptions and Child Risk Factors. Augmentative and Alternative Communication (Baltimore, Md. : 1985), 31(4), 336–350.

SLP Summit Q&A: Strategies for Narrative Intervention

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I presented at the SLP Summit earlier this week, and it was so fun! We got to spend an hour talking about narrative intervention. 🤓

As promised, here is a roundup of your questions!

Strategies

What is story grammar?

Story grammar helps students learn the parts or elements of a story. Different programs/protocols will include different elements, but character, setting, problem, and solution are common elements.

What is recasting?

A recast is when we correct what the child says or modify the modality (e.g., turn a statement into a question).

What strategies did you recommend for students with autism?

This is a quote from Spencer & Petersen’s (2020) article:

For children with autism and other developmental disabilities, this may involve providing longer wait times, limiting verbal prompts, and strategically fading visual prompts (Favot et al., 2018; Garcia et al., 2019; S. L. Gillam et al., 2015; Petersen et al., 2014).

Check out the article for all of the citations!

Embedding Skills

How do you embed vocabulary instruction with narrative instruction?

I share tons of strategies in the Vocabulary Bootcamp course in the SLP Now Academy. (This is included with all SLP Now memberships!)

A few of my favorites are to…

– strategically select target words from the text/story
– pre-teach vocabulary words in the text/story (when working with older students)
– support students in incorporating the target words in their narratives

How do you get a child to tell a story in a specific verb tense (especially if they mix tenses)?

It’s difficult to give specific recommendations without knowing more about the child/target, but here are some general suggestions:

Assuming the child has had enough exposure to the target verb tense, I would do a structured drill activity (e.g., contrastive imitation).

After completing the drill, we could jump into the story retell. I would consider using a visual to remind the student of the target tense. I would also provide visual/verbal prompts to support the child during their retell of the story.

If you want more detail, check out the Grammar Bootcamp course in the SLP Now Academy.

Goals

Do you have any recommendations for writing goals for narrative retell?

When we’re using a narrative-based approach, we don’t have to change our goals! We can target all of the same skills. We’re just using a slightly different approach/context.

If your students are working on narrative goals, I typically write goals that measure how many story grammar elements that the student can identify and/or include in their retell.

Timing

How long you do stay on a literacy unit? Will you use a book for a week, two weeks, a month?

It depends on the group, but we typically run with one book/article for a month. I see students with increased needs multiple times a week, so all groups typically end a book/article around the same time!

How many times would you read a specific story during a unit?

It depends on the group! I tend to read the book once (or twice) in therapy so that we have plenty of time to dive into all of the targets. I love to share the YouTube link to a book with parents/teachers so the students get additional exposure to the story. (The research supports multiple readings, but we just don’t always have time for it in therapy!)

This could be a good “warm up” activity though! You could give each student the opportunity to listen to the book while you collect your probe data. (More on that below!)

Data Collection

How do you take data?

I like to take data at the beginning of each session. I use a probe (which is basically a mini assessment with 5-10 items). I don’t provide any support so I get a really good read on how the student is doing. This helps me determine how much support I’ll need to provide during the session (or how much teaching I need to do before we dive in). It gives me clean data and allows me to focus on being the best therapist I can during the bulk of the session. I simply document the level of support I provided in my “real therapy” at the end of the session. I have a rubric that helps me consistently report the level of support. Click here to read more about my system and access the free rubric (at the bottom of the post).

How do you address reliable data collection with a group? I feel that I can take reliable data on the first student that retells the story but everyone else has had more time to listen to the story repeated before they do their turn.

If all students have a goal to retell stories independently, there are a few different options!

– You can pull the students from class individually to do a quick progress check.
– During your therapy session, you can pull one student to the side while the other students do a different activity.
– You can assess story retell for one student each week. (You can probe the students’ other goals during their “off” weeks.)

We can get creative in overcoming these types of hurdles!

When working with groups of 3-4 students with multiple goals each, how do you suggest getting enough targets/data for each student for the session?

I run through my probes at the beginning of the session to make sure I have “clean” data to report. I collect data for one goal per student to make this more manageable. It only takes a few minutes once the routine is established.

Then I focus on being the best therapist that I can be!

If it’s overwhelming to keep track of your students’ goals, have them each focus on one goal. (It would make sense to target the goal you probed at the beginning!) Set up each student for success by giving them a visual for each skill. This will make it easier to prompt them, but it’ll also remind you of which goals you need to target.

I don’t tally up data during this phase of the session. I find it more helpful to pay attention to the type of supports that a student benefits from. (I document this and always refer back to it, so I don’t have to reinvent the wheel each time.)

I’m curious what your daily note for Medicaid billing would look like when you are doing this?

Each state/district will require different elements, but here’s one possibility (if we’re using narratives as a context for embedded practice):

STUDENT participated in a book activity (Giraffes Can’t Dance) on DATE. STUDENT worked on using past tense verbs. They achieved 50% accuracy. After completing a contrastive imitation drill, they achieved 70% accuracy when using past tense verbs in a contextualized story retell activity. They self-corrected all verb errors when the SLP provided a recast for any verb errors (e.g., “The giraffe goed to the dance.” “Yes, the giraffe went to the dance.”).

The Curriculum

Do you ever use stories from the curriculum that students are reading in the classroom?

Absolutely! That is such a smart strategy and can facilitate generalization for our students.

How can we apply this to classroom reading activities?

All of the same strategies apply! Literature is literature, and it all works!

However, I would recommend picking something that takes ~5 minutes to read. Anything longer that than will be harder to target and really dive into. If they’re using a longer text in the classroom that makes a lot of sense for therapy, I pick an excerpt!

In general, do you target narratives as a retell of a simple story that was presented in class or in your therapy session?

It depends! Story retell is a great strategy, but we can also target story generation. It depends on what makes the most sense for the student!

At Home Practice

What resources do you give parents to help them work on these skills at home?

I share a copy of whatever visuals/graphics organizers are most helpful for the student in therapy. If I have the opportunity to see the parent/guardian, I will share a few strategies and/or demonstrate how to support their student’s narrative. If not, I try to send a quick video! Each child benefits from different supports, and taking a few minutes to put something together specifically for the students seems to be most helpful.

Book/Text Recommendations

Do you have some suggestions for great culturally diverse books that lend themselves well to story elements?

Chrysanthemum, I Like Myself, Allie’s Basketball Dream, and The Storm are some of the most popular diverse books in the SLP Now Membership.

If you’re a member, you can see the full list of diverse books here. We hired an amazing team of diverse SLPs to help us build out our library, and I’m so proud of what they put together!

Do you have any suggestions on finding lists of stories that can be used for the types of language targets you are describing?

Yes! I did a roundup of books for vocabulary, early language, later language, and grammar.

I also did a similar roundup of articles.

I also analyzed 190+ books and included “at a glance” target sheets for each book in the SLP Now membership!

What stories do you recommend for upper elementary self-contained classrooms of students?

I would recommend matching what they read in the classroom. Are they reading and books or articles? If so, I would use that to set up the students for maximal success.

What do you suggest for middle school students? Do you have books or stories that are age-appropriate but able to read in a short period of time?

I love using fiction articles with middle school students! They are more age-appropriate and relevant to the curriculum. ReadWorks is my favorite source! They have a large selection of articles, so it’s easy to find something that connects with what they’re learning in the classroom. (SLP Now also has article companions to make your prep even easier!)

Can you talk about retelling expository/informational texts?

I talk all about summarizing in the Language Bootcamp course in the SLP Now Academy. (This is included with all SLP Now memberships!)

SLP Now Materials

Do you sell these materials?

Yes! You can find out all of the details at slpnow.com/summit!

Do you have these visuals available in a format that can be uploaded for teletherapy, like PDFs?

Absolutely! They are all available for download in the membership.

Does the membership include materials for upper elementary and middle schoolers?

Yes! We hired a secondary SLP to build out our materials for older students. The fiction articles, nonfiction articles, and video units are some of the most popular materials for that age group.

Where can you obtain the sentence pack?

We offer the sentence pack to current SLP Now members! You can download it digitally from the membership or contact us ([email protected]) to purchase a prepped version!

Are the additional courses included in the membership or is it separate?

The courses are included in the membership!

Can you post the link to the backpack?

Here’s a link to my yellow backpack (affiliate link).

Tips for Back to School Letters for SLPs

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So you’ve got pretty much everything set and organized and now you need to reach out to all of your students’ families! Congrats! 🎉

The first week can be a whirlwind and super overwhelming. As this is your first contact with your students’ parents/guardians, you’re probably worried about making a good first impression. We’ve got you covered!💪 

Start with an Introduction Letter

An introduction letter is a great way to reach out to families. Keep it short and sweet but make sure your letter has your contact information and a short introduction about yourself and how you’re looking forward to working with their child. We’ll include an example one and a blank one for you to customize. 🙌

How to Send a Letter

Try to communicate in some form with your families during the first week of school. Here are a list of ways to try and communicate!

Email: I typically email my letter to students’ parents/guardians. (That way I know if I have the right email address too!)

Paper Letter: If I don’t get an email back, I’ll put a paper version in the student’s backpack. Some will also request a paper version so they can put it on their fridge.

Phone call/text message: Depending on your caseload, you may be able to have a quick phone call or send a text message. I use Google Voice or Seesaw. What you use will depend on your district. I use Google Voice because it keeps a log of my communication. Seesaw messages get archived every year.

If you use a different method, you may want to start a communication log. Make sure it’s FERPA compliant!

If you need some inspiration, click here for a free template!

Follow Up Communication

I also send a follow-up after I have my schedule with the tentative day and time of their child’s session. I’m also able to make a note of the best way to contact that family. It comes in handy later! I promise!

Check-In

Throughout the year, I do try to check in a couple of times with parents/guardians just to drop a quick note about how a session went well and right before an IEP. It’s a great way to connect with parents/guardians so that meetings aren’t the only time you’re talking to them.

I’ve found that all of my meetings go a lot smoother when I’ve checked in with them before a meeting and a couple of times a year on a good note. My students also LOVE when they get to take that note home! 😍

Good luck and I hope that you have a great year!

How to Cut Down Spending on Therapy Materials

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We can end up spending a lot of our own money as SLPs. Here are some ways to get creative and save money!

Use the School’s Curriculum

Accessing existing materials can help cut down on costs. It also makes it easy to implement curriculum-based therapy.

Access Other District Resources

Does your district provide a materials budget? If so, use it!

If you don’t have a budget allocated to you, you can always try to request materials. If you present a good rationale, they likely will approve the request!

If the district says “no,” there are other options! For instance, are there district SLPs that can donate therapy materials to you?

Invest in a Subscription

Your caseload needs can shift drastically as you get to know your students and get new ones throughout the year. Having access to a library can be really helpful. By purchasing a subscription, you’ll have access to thousands of materials at once! This will help you avoid spending way too much on individual materials that you haven’t (and may never) use!

Avoid a spending spree as soon as you get your caseload!

Get to know your students first and what type of support they need.  The materials that you will need will change. Books, songs, videos, and bubbles will take you a long way!

Other Free Resources for Educators

The public library (A great source of physical books and e-books)

Free Books for Literacy-Based Therapy

Libby

37 Amazing Sources for Free Teacher Resources

Remember, you are your best therapy tool.

You don’t need tons of materials to provide amazing therapy.

The best thing you can do is invest time (not money!) in keeping up with the latest research.

We know that this can be really daunting!

The Informed SLP is a great account to follow to help you stay up to date on the latest research.

We recommend taking the information they share (on Instragram and on their blog). Then, think about new ways to use your existing materials!

You can also our free challenge to learn how to do literacy-based therapy! (You don’t need tons of materials to implement this approach, and you can always access free books!)

Remember that old saying in grad school about how we should be able to do therapy with a post-it note? (Or paperclip or whatever they joked about!)

Well, it’s halfway true! As SLPs we are what drives the therapy, along with our relationship with our students. How we use our materials and shape them to provide therapy is up to us and our knowledge.

How to Set Boundaries as a CF

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Sometimes setting boundaries is a struggle and not having dedicated time to work or wind down is a fast road to burnout. We’ve put our heads together and come up with some tips on how to set boundaries early while being friendly but consistent.

Be intentional about your time.

You’ll have to weigh being a social butterfly with your workload. I’m an introvert and I need downtime. If someone comes into the room to talk but I’m finishing a report, I will tell them I’ll pop into their classroom when I’m done in 30 minutes.

Set boundaries early.

Be friendly but consistent. Not having dedicated time to work or wind down is a fast road to burnout.

If someone asks you to do a task that is not in your job description, be honest about your workload and ask them if it is a priority over XYZ. 

If you’re looking for additional resources, Nerdra Glover Tawwab has a fantastic book on setting boundaries. Here’s a link to her book, Set Boundaries, Find Peace.

I really love her Instagram account for bite-size pieces on improving relationships.

Set yourself up for success.

Introduce yourself to the team and becoming a resource. If teachers/staff know what the criteria are for referral and how your RtI system works, you can streamline your referral process. This may be new information or a review. You can ask what the old referral process was and gradually change it to one more efficient.

Your first year is for observing and learning!

Some Resources on Missed Sessions and Makeups

ASHA’s stance is that there should not be a blanket policy from districts. Decisions should be made on an individual basis if missed sessions are a denial of FAPE for that particular student.

ASHA Leader Article: Missed Session … What’s Really Missing?

ASHA IDEA Part B Issue Brief: Missed Sessions

Don’t be afraid to ask for help!

If you are unsure of how to respond to something at work, you can ask your supervisor.

I also loved collaborating and learning from others!

Here are some people you can build relationships with:

Psychologist
Counselor
Occupational Therapist
Physical Therapist
Teachers

Knowing what other members of the team do can be really helpful for when parents ask for help and you feel like you need to do and know everything.

Be careful about referring for services, and align yourself with your district’s policies. You can always ask other team members for their advice on what to tell parents.

Setting Boundaries to Avoid Burnout

Burnout is a big problem in the education field, as well as speech-language pathology as a whole. Setting boundaries for yourself is important too!

Here are some boundaries to think about:

How much time will you spend at work? How early will you come in? How late are you willing to stay?

How much of your personal time will you devote to SLP-related activities?

How much time will you spend answering emails? Will you answer e-mails outside of work?

CF Supervision: How to Build Independence

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Your supervisor is an amazing resource, but it’ll go a long way if you do some of the leg work before you ask a question.

Here are some strategies to consider:

Processes

1. Create a cheat sheet for your state’s eligibility guidelines.

2. Create a cheat sheet for legal timelines.

3. Create a cheat sheet for your school/district’s RtI process and referral process.

4. Use a planner or task management system to keep track of deadlines.
If you’re looking for a planner, Rifle Paper Co, Erin Condren, and the Happy Planner are popular options.
You can also use our free CF Binder to keep track of your dates!

Learning

5. You don’t need CEUs during your CF year, but it’s your responsibility to be knowledgeable enough to serve your caseload. Once you get to know your caseload, look into what you need to learn more about.

6. Look through ASHA’s evidence maps and practice portal.

7. Search the SLP Now blog. There’s a search bar towards the bottom of the page (in the light blue box)!

Report Writing

8. Look for (or request) report templates.

9. Look for (or request) goal banks.

10. Collaborate with other team members (e.g., teachers, parents) to write reports and decide on goals.

11. Learn how to align goals with Common Core State Standards.

IEP Meetings

12. Create an IEP meeting outline for yourself.

13. Write down commonly used explanations for your IEP meetings. Practice them (out loud!) to get comfortable.

14. Gather parent handouts that will be used frequently.

Now what?

Share anything that you create or learn with your supervisor! They can provide feedback and answer any questions that you might have. They might also take this into consideration when completing your Speech-Language Pathology Clinical Fellowship (SLPCF) Rating Form.

CF Supervision: What Your Supervisor Can Do to Support You

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Every supervision relationship is different, but here are some examples of how your clinical fellowship year supervisor might support you:

1. Brief you on district policies and guidelines.

2. Train you (or tell you who will train you) on the websites/systems you will be using for paperwork, caseload management, and billing.

3. Give you a rundown of who is in the district and who to ask for help.

4. Share templates for report writing.

5. Review your district’s IEP standards/expectations.

6. Proofread reports/IEPs.

7. Arrange for you to observe an IEP meeting with parent permission.

8. Attend your first IEP meeting.

9. Share a checklist and/or scripts for IEP meetings.

10. Help you troubleshoot difficult cases.

11. Help you troubleshoot difficult situations with coworkers or families.

12. Give you ideas for lesson plans when you get stuck.

13. Give you tips on how to make your schedule. Your supervisor will also be setting up their caseload, so you might be able to observe how they do it.

14. Help you troubleshoot ways to get support if you get overwhelmed or if your caseload numbers get really high.

If your supervisor doesn’t offer a type of support that you’d really like to receive, you can always ask!

CF Supervision: Fostering the Relationship

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Your relationship with your supervisor can make or break your clinical fellowship year (CFY). Here are some questions to consider as you foster that relationship and start off on the right foot:

1. What type of support do you need?

Do you like to be more independent and ask questions when needed, or do you want a lot of support?

Be honest! Supervision style is a two-way street and your opinion matters!

2. How do you like to communicate?

Do you prefer e-mail, text, or in-person meetings?

3. What type of weekly support do you need?

Schedule check-ins at least once a week.

Remember, supervision during your CF year is very different from internship supervision. You will get basic job training and then be able to use your supervisor as a resource and mentor.

A Checklist for Week 1 of Your Clinical Fellowship (CF)

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Ready to dive into the first week of your clinical fellowship (CF)? We put our heads together and came up with a list of essential tasks to prepare for the school year. There are 35 items on this list, which can definitely feel a little overwhelming! Set a goal to tackle 5-7 items a day. You may not be able to complete all of the items within the first week, and that’s okay! Just do your best!

Print this list (or download our free CF binder at the bottom of this post) to keep track of your progress. There’s nothing more rewarding than seeing your progress as you highlight/cross off completed items!

The Basics

1. Introduce yourself to school staff (principal, assistant principal, secretaries, custodian).

2. Find out when your first meetings are and add them to your calendar.

3. Look at a staff directory (on the school website or an old yearbook).

4. Make a list of your district contacts (e.g., program coordinator/director, department secretary).

Getting Set Up

1. Get a key to your space.

2. Pick up your work computer.

3. Get access to your work email.

4. Get access to your caseload/IEP management system (e.g., SEIS).

5. Get access to your billing setup. (Your district should provide training for this.) 

6. Get access to your attendance/student information system.

7. Get your caseload list. (This can sometimes involve quite a bit of sleuthing. You can typically request a list from the special education secretary. Ask your supervisor and/or lead SLP for help, if needed!)

Finding Your Way

1. Get a map of the school.

2. Find the copy machine.

3. Find your mailbox.

4. Figure out where to find school supplies (or how to request items).

Your Speech Space

1. Take an inventory of what materials you have.

2. Make a note of basic school supplies that are needed. (Your school/district may provide these!)

3. Note what tests you have and where your protocols are. Make a note to request more if you are low. 

4. Ask about rearranging your room. (Some schools don’t want you to move furniture yourself.) Request new furniture if needed.

5. If you do not have an adequate space, see if you can work with your supervisor on advocating for a more appropriate space that is FERPA compliant. 

When You Have Your Caseload

1. Find out how to cross-check your caseload to make sure that no one is missing. (You can ask your supervisor or SLP lead for support.) 

2. If you have SLP Now, follow these steps to set up your caseload. 

3. Send out “IEP at a Glance” printouts to teachers.

Scheduling

1. Write down which teachers you are going to be working with. 

2. Ask your school psychologist or educational specialist for advice about your school’s culture. 

3. Choose how you want to make your schedule (Maybe a scheduling party? Or Calendly or Doodle for digital scheduling?). Give yourself a deadline. Your supervisor will be able to help you.

4. Make note of other providers that you will have to schedule with. Introduce yourself to them as well, and ask them when they typically have their schedule ready.

5. Get a master school schedule with recess, specials (e.g., PE, art), and regularly occurring assemblies (e.g., morning assemblies).

6. Once your schedule is complete, send out teacher (and student) session time reminders. (Even though you will make many adjustments to your schedule!) You can use paper, send an e-mail, create a calendar invite, or use a digital communication system–like Google Voice or Seesaw. Whatever you do, make a template and save it.

Supporting Students

1. If one teacher has a lot of your students, meet with them and ask if they have any information to share about students. This could include what will help them succeed and help you support them. For example, ask about special interests, sensory preferences, or how you could set up the environment for a successful and fun session. 

2. Take an inventory of your students’ goals and find patterns so that you can start to make a game plan for what type of therapy will be the most efficient. 

3. Take note of what population you will be serving and how you will need to support them. Will you need to provide extra support for sensory regulation? All kids benefit from emotional/sensory regulation, so it’s something that you can integrate into your sessions. Does your school have translators? Social workers? Community resources? Counselors? Trauma-informed resources? 

Other Things to Consider

1. Find out how to send paperwork to the district.

2. Find out what the session makeup policy is in your district.

ASHA’s stance is that there should not be a blanket policy from districts. Decisions should be made on an individual basis whether missed sessions are a denial of FAPE for that particular student.

3. If you are a part of the union, you can ask your supervisor about what support is available.

What We Wish We Knew Before Our Clinical Fellowship (CF)

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We asked hundreds of SLPs what they wish they knew before their clinical fellowship (CF). Here are the common threads:

Relationships

1. Focus on building relationships with your staff, parents, and students.

2. The secretaries and custodians are going to be your best friends.

3. One of the hardest things to learn on the job is how to navigate difficult relationships with parents. It’s hard not to take things personally when things don’t go as expected, and also difficult to help counsel parents through tough situations. If you didn’t have a counseling class during your program, check out this blog post.

4. Your relationship with your students is what makes progress happen.

5. Be careful about who you talk to, what you say, and WHERE you are. You never know who is listening. Keep FERPA in mind at all times. 

Learning

1. It’s okay to not know. No one expects you to know everything.

2. Don’t be afraid to ask questions.

3. Use this phrase when needed: “That’s a great question. I want to take some time to think about it and get back to you.” This is much better than giving a wrong answer and have to correct it later. 

4. It’s a lot at first, but you will learn.

5. You’re gonna make mistakes. You know a lot, but–at the same time–not a lot. 

6. You will write cringe-worthy goals. That’s okay.

7. You will have cringe-worthy IEP meetings. That’s okay.

8. You will have cringe-worthy therapy sessions. That’s okay.

9. Give yourself grace.

10. Do the CEUs even though they don’t count yet. They are an incredible confidence booster! The SLP Summit is free, and they offer 8 hours of courses every July and January!

Supervision

1. Utilize your supervisor as much as possible. They are there for you!

2. Ask your supervisor for feedback if you aren’t getting support.

3. You can respectfully disagree with your supervisor when they have a different perspective on best practices.

4. If your supervisor doesn’t work with students like your caseload, ask if any other district SLPs would be open to answering caseload-specific questions for advice.

5. You can get a mentor other than your supervisor. ASHA STEPS is a great way to find a mentor. They are open in February. An ASHA STEPS mentor may not be able to guide you through your CF, but they would be able to talk to you about the next steps in your career. 

Your Speech Room (or Closet)

1. You do not need to have picture-perfect, laminated materials and detailed therapy plans to see your students make progress.

2. Don’t compare yourself to others when setting up your workspace. Less distraction is generally better, especially for neurodiverse students. 

3. Do what’s best for YOUR students, not what other people are doing on the internet.

Paperwork and Productivity

1. The district will keep track of you by your paperwork and if you meet timelines. Focus on getting them done according to your district/state/federal guidelines. 

2. Find shortcuts for productivity where you can. Here are some tips to get started.

3. Ask for templates that are available. You might have access to report templates, progress report templates, or goal banks. You most likely don’t have to write reports from scratch! Plug these into a text expander to save time.

4. Schedule time to write reports and protect that time so you can keep work at work.

5. Buy noise-canceling headphones for paperwork time. 

Self Care

1. Build in self-care routines (e.g., prep meals, schedule exercise/time for hobbies, meet up with friends).

2. Take breaks at work.

Advocacy

Learning to advocate for yourself is a process. Phuong Lien Palafox is my absolute favorite. I watch her video “SLP, Hear Me Roar” when I need a reminder of why I do what I do. 

 

And that’s a wrap! What stood out to you? Would you add anything else? Let us know in the comments below!

The Summer Before Your Clinical Fellowship Year (CF): 8 Tips for the Overachiever

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All you really need to do before starting your clinical fellowship is complete the necessary paperwork.

If you are anxious and would like to get a head start, here are some things that you can think about and get ready before you know your caseload.

1. Keep track of your start date and any important onboarding training dates.

You can also ask about specific trainings for new district SLPs. Don’t forget to add them to your calendar!

2. Check in with your supervisor.

You can ask them what the beginning of the school year will look like (e.g., time for planning, setting up, and caseload management).

Your supervisor might be able to tell you your school placement and what your caseload might look like. This can always change so take this with a grain of salt! I wouldn’t recommend buying and prepping tons of materials ahead of time.

3. Reflect on your strengths and needs as a new clinician.

What areas of the job will you need the most support with? Be honest, it’s easier to ask than to fix a mistake.

4. Explore self-care strategies.

This is KEY! It’s so easy to lose yourself in a new job. You can start by building healthy habits now (e.g., meal prepping, working out, hobbies). You can also plan vacations or mental health days. Think about what you need to take care of yourself and recharge your battery throughout the school year.

5. Explore organization strategies.

This is my favorite thing to talk about, and I have lots of ideas for you here. You can think about which planner to use, how to keep track of evaluations/IEPs, how to organize your therapy planning, etc etc.

6. Learn about behavior management strategies.

Here are some resources for a neurodiversity-affirming mindset.

– ASHA Voices: Two SLPs Talk Autism and Positive Self-Concept
– Autism and Neurodiversity: Addressing Concerns and Offering Implications for the School-Based Speech-Language Pathologist

7. Learn about cultural competency and trauma-informed care.

Check out ASHA’s practice portal for cultural competency tips.

Last but not least…

8. Take a break!

You just graduated! Know that you have the most recent, up-t0-date knowledge. You have a huge advantage here when it comes to making evidence-based decisions. Let your brain rest so you can start your CF with tons of energy!

All You Need to Know About Paperwork for Your Clinical Fellowship (CF)

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Getting the paperwork sorted might have been the most stressful part of starting my clinical fellowship, but I made it a lot more complicated than it had to be!

Biggest Takeaway: Don’t be afraid to ask for help! You’re not the only one going through this process, and you have tons of resources (i.e., your graduate program, your supervisor, your fellow graduates).

Here’s a quick overview of the paperwork that will be required to start (and complete!) your CF:

State Paperwork

There are one (or possible two) things that you’ll need for your state:

1. You’ll want to submit the required paperwork to your state for your temporary license if that is a requirement. Your supervisor can help you with your licensing paperwork.

2. You’ll also want to get your teaching credential. Your university should be helping you with this.

Every state is different, so check with your graduate program and look up your state requirements.

If you are starting a job in a different state than your graduate program, allow extra time for the process. Licensing paperwork usually takes around four to six weeks to process in my state.

ASHA’s Paperwork

Good news! Your ASHA paperwork doesn’t need to be turned in until the end of your CF, but you should know what ASHA’s requirements are. (It’s your job to do this! Don’t rely on your supervisor.)

Once you are ready to submit your paperwork, it’s a pretty simple online process! You can click here to fill out the form online.

You’ll also need these additional documents:

– Passing Praxis exam scores (sent directly to ASHA from ETS)
– Official graduate transcript which verifies the date and degree awarded (may arrive directly from institution)
– Speech-Language Pathology Clinical Fellowship (SLPCF) Report and Rating Form report through your online application portal
– Disclosure documents (if applicable)

Bonus Tips

If you were a member of NSSLHA for two years during graduate school, you are eligible for a “gift to the grad” discount that includes 20 months of membership for the price of 12.

ASHA states that it is the responsibility of the CF to verify that your supervisor is certificated. You can do a quick check online and should do so periodically throughout your CF. If your supervisor is not certificated, you will have to redo the portion for when their certification lapsed.