Marisha

Informal Narrative Assessment Tools for SLPs

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Informal narrative assessment tools include the Index of Narrative Microstructure, free SLAM cards, and DYMOND, a dynamic assessment for grades one through six that helps distinguish language difference from disorder. Simple picture-based tools like Matt and Molly stories can produce a meaningful narrative sample in just a few minutes, while parent and teacher input rounds out the picture of how a student actually functions with narratives day to day.

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This Week’s Episode: Informal Assessments for Narratives

So far in this month’s podcast series, we’ve reviewed a few of our favorite formal assessments and the importance of narratives in everyday life.

So, we’ve got a standard score potentially with a normative sample that is appropriate for our students and all the other factors we want to consider. This week we get to dive in and take a closer look at the different language structures with informal assessments.

Let’s get to it!

Informal Assessment Options for Narratives

– The Index of Narrative Microstructure (INMIS, Justice et al 2006): This study investigated measures and developed a tool for analyzing narrative microstructure.
– SLAM Cards: These language elicitation cards and questions are designed as a tool to be used in assessing language for mid-elementary and high school-aged students.
– DYMOND (Peterson & Spencer, 2021): This is a dynamic assessment for narratives, grades one through six. It’s currently in a pilot version to get normed. This is really great for all age groups.
–Dynamic Assessment: This is used when we are trying to determine a language difference or language disorder. By having a measure from the pretest and the post-test, you’re measuring the skill that they have to learn new information as well as learning what types of supports they benefit from.
– Parent and Teacher Report

Links Mentioned 

– Leaders Project Website
– Matt and Molly
– Check out our other blog posts on Parent/Teacher Communication!

Subscribe & Review in iTunes

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Bonus points if you leave us a review over on iTunes → Those reviews help other SLPs find the podcast, and I love reading your feedback! Just click here to review, select “Ratings and Reviews,” “Write a Review,” and let me know what your favorite part of the podcast is.

Thanks so much!

Transcript

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Marisha: Hello there and welcome to the SLP Now podcast, where we share practical therapy, tips and ideas for busy speech-language pathologists. Grab your favorite beverage and sit back as we dive into this week's episode.

Marisha: Hello there, and welcome come to the SLP Now podcast. I am your host Marisha and this month we are diving into all things narratives. So if you head back to episode 90, you can hear a little bit about how Monica and I tackle narrative assessment and just our framework for it. And then the rest of the episodes throughout the month for 91, 92, 93, we'll dive into specific aspects of assessment and just things that we want to consider when we're getting ready to target narratives in therapy. And without further ado, let's dive right in.

Marisha: So now let's dive into some informal assessments. We've got a standard score potentially with a normative sample that is appropriate for our students and all the other factors we want to consider. And now we get to dive in and take a closer look at the different language structures. So one of the tools that we can use is the Index of Narrative Microstructure. So the INMIS, I-N-M-I-S, developed by Justice et al in 2006. And this is a tool that helps us break down language samples, and I'll include a link to one of the articles that breaks it down even more. And it just helps us look at, they look at all of the T-units and all of that. They have some really great resources on their site as well that helps break it down as well. But that's just one to look into. One that I have more experience with myself is the School-age Language Assessment Measures.

Marisha: They're also called SLAM cards and they were developed by Crowley in 2014. But I found this on her Leaders Project website. And again, we'll link to this in the show notes as well. It's right at the top of the site though. So it's easy to find. I really like these cards. They even have some Japanese ones, which is really cool and they have guidelines for analysis. They give you lots of resources and they've got them in different languages and all of that. They have a couple of series. So one of them is a set of cards about a bunny going to school. And then there's another one about a dog coming home, a dog that got lost. And it ranges because there's one about losing a cell phone and there's a variety of sets of cards that we can use for a variety of students.

Marisha: And they're very colorful and just really nicely done. When I started working in the schools, I just printed these out and had them laminated and I would just pull them whenever I needed a good language sample. And I could use that across my caseload. Yeah, they're just really easy to use. And like I said, the site has different resources to help us break that down. So that is one of my favorites when it comes to collecting language samples.

Marisha: Monica.

Monica: Yeah. And those are free, right?

Marisha: Yeah, they're totally free. The Leaders Project website, if you haven't heard of it, or if you haven't been on there, they have test reviews. They probably have a test review of inaudible I haven't looked at that in a while, but they have disability modules for preschool and school-aged children. It's a wealth of knowledge. They do a really great job and it's all free.

Monica: Yeah. And inaudible too. I was like, "I totally forgot to mention that." So the ones that I like, again, from Peterson and Spencer is called The DYMOND, which I was like, "I don't know if there's a longer name for these. I should look that up." This one came out in 2017. So this is kind of similar. This actually looks pretty similar to the cards that they have. So it's the same illustration, but it's a dynamic assessment for narratives. So it's for grades one through six. It's currently in a pilot to get inaudible. So if you want to be part of that, I can get on that and you can send in your data for that and be part of that. So that's kind of cool. So since it's a dynamic assessment, if you're not familiar with what that means is you give a pretest. So you have a retell and you do that and then there is a portion in between where you teach them about story grammar. It's all laid out on the test and then you give a post-test and you compare those scores.

Monica: And it's fantastic for all populations, especially for bilingual populations or those diverse populations where you need something that's a little more dynamic. So that's super awesome for that. And this one, you can do that just for the retell~ and language complexity compared to the cubed, which has the comprehension and personal generation inaudible. So if you're trying to decide between the cubed and the diamond, those are the differences besides the age groups.

Marisha: And can you tell us a little bit more about dynamic assessment and why we might want to use that or how that could be helpful?

Monica: For sure. So I think dynamic assessment, when we think about it the most it's when we are trying to determine a language difference or language disorder.

Monica: So by having a measure of how they're doing from the pre-test, and then after teaching and the post test, you're really measuring that skill that they have. So you're not necessarily measuring their understanding of all of the vocabulary in that, especially if they're a second language learner. You're measuring that skill that they have to learn new information when it's taught and then to be able to use that new information. So you're measuring that skill of learning, So it's like relating back to the classroom. If their teacher is going to give them instructions and then they have an assignment, you're kind of that transference measuring that skill. So it's really a fantastic thing to do for that.

Marisha: Yeah. So it's helping us get at that difference versus disorder. It also gives us information about what types of support do they benefit from what helps them, which can be really helpful when we get into treatment.

Marisha: And also, just thinking if we even need treatment, if just after a little bit of teaching they're good to go, then maybe they don't need it. So it's really helpful. And it would be a shame to put them in that least restrictive environment, like go through the whole IEP process to find out that they don't really have a disability.

Monica: That's such a great way for you to be able to tell their teacher, "I just added this, this and this port and then they did so much better." Where a teacher in a classroom of 30 might not have the time to sit there and go through different supports and see what that student needs. So you're absolutely right. You could be that bridge right there.

Marisha: Awesome. Anything else on the diamond?

Monica: Nothing else on the DYMOND, but that does kind of make me think about other ways that I do informal assessments.

Monica: So if some of these tests, the language is going to be a barrier for me to assess those skills. Like maybe the vocabulary isn't in that child's vocabulary skills, then I'll use something that I have. So I have like Matt and Molly stories that I always have around that have simple pictures and then I can put the sentences that I want to test with and bring it down to their level to really, really look at what level they need support with. And kind of like we talked about like what supports I can add, because it's informal testing. You can add as many visuals as you want. You can add as many verbal prompts as you want. A lot of times I'll put that in my report, like, the student benefited from this, this and this, and then you have your baseline for goals and you're making your goals while you're doing assessments and rolling it all into one.

Monica: So I think that also makes it a lot easier. For my district, we have to do benchmarks under our goals. So if I can test a student and the first benchmark has this many visuals and this many prompts, and then the next one maybe I add another part of a story and I take away the support, I can test it while I'm doing the assessment and it saves me a little bit of time later because it's all kind of a bundled together thing. That's usually how I do it.

Marisha: No, that makes a lot of sense. That's perfect. Then it looks like you got one other resource for us.

Monica: My favorite. Yes. So the other one, which might be one of the most important things, which I know it's hard to squeeze in there, but it's parent and teacher reports. So when you're asking the teacher, you're really looking at common core standards and how they're functioning in the classroom. So some things that I asked teachers are like, "Can they put together a couple of sentences when they have a picture prompt?" Kind of like thinking about how much they support they need there. And also thinking about initiation, do they need a graphic organizer to get started? Do they need directions repeated a lot? Do they need a full example? That gets into executive functioning which is a whole nother conversation, but it's a good measure because when you're working on narratives, you're working on a lot of that executive functioning and students have that structure of what the story is in their mind.

Monica: So you're able to get out where they're at. They may not even have a schema. Do they have a little bit of it? And that kind of helps you with the levels of support because especially if it's an initial and you will only have that kid in your room for testing the one time, it's important to talk to the teacher to see what their real functioning levels are at. The other one is parents. I feel like one of the most frequent questions I get is, "When they come back from recess or lunch at school, can they tell you what happened? Because when they get home from school, they can't tell me what's happened." And so that's a great indication because that's retell too. So sometimes what I'll do is I'll send home a little visual schedule thing, just like pictures that they can cut out.

Monica: And I have them put it on adhesive magnet things that they can put on the fridge. So then when they get home, they can take the pictures from what they didn't at school and then be able to retell their day. So if that helps, then that also gives me a clue of where that student is at and what level of support they need. So it only takes 5 or 10 minutes and I feel like when parents have that little bit of input, it just makes everything go a lot smoother too.

Marisha: It helps with that generalization, if they understand what they're working on, if they're buying in, then the student will make that much more progress just by the fact that they're getting a little bit of extra practice. And parents are so busy, everyone's busy, but maybe they only do it once a week, but if they know their strategies, if they're in the car on the way to soccer practice, then they'll find themselves just using those types of strategies and supporting narratives, which I think is super powerful.

Marisha: What about Matt and Molly? Should we talk about that?

Monica: Sure, sure. So Matt and Molly, if you are listening and you don't know what that is, it's not a curriculum, but it's like a material bundle and they are stick figures just to be really simple. And it comes in four parts stories, like really simple four part stories and you get a little booklet. And each four part story has a story already written. But I don't always use it, I'll modify it. And then it has a set of questions that you can ask with it, but it's just to have something quick and easy, and that's always really similar each time. So the students then know what to expect. So what I'll do too, is sometimes I'll put the four and I'll mix them up and see if they can unmix them. Are they able to do that?

Monica: That might be where I start. And then I might tell them a simple three part story. I might take one out to make it more simple and then see if they can retell that. And if they can't, then I might try it where they repeat after the first one. So I'll do a sentence for the first one and then they'll repeat it. And then I'll repeat for the second and the third one, and then see if that extra modeling helps. That way I am able to listen to their sentences after I model, because I can tell you a lot about where they are with grammar and syntax as well, because they're not going to repeat something that they don't have super solid.

Monica: So it's like you're getting all of these super natural things from their language while you're doing narratives. And it's so quick, it's so quick. You just put out three pictures and you do it and you've got an informal assessment that you can do in eight minutes. If you're worried that this sounds super overwhelming to do informal assessment on top of your formal assessment, it doesn't have to take a lot of time and you get so much information out of it I feel like.

Marisha: Yeah, I couldn't agree more. And I love the ideas that you shared because sometimes we might try and administer the TNL. It's a high level language assessment and a lot of these require a lot of language. And I've had students maybe say one word. In retrospect, maybe I shouldn't have even administered the TNL in those cases, but you live and learn and we figure things out.

Marisha: But I especially love these because the pictures are super simple. Monica shared amazing ideas to adjust the task so that it works well. We can modify it. And just the nature of how it's set up. It has four simple pictures. We can decrease inaudible simplify the story if we need to. It has the sentence strips that can support some students if they are readers. I typically don't use these when I'm using it for assessment. I laminated my picture cards and then we can write on them and give visual supports and just try all sorts of different things and just really see what helps the student and what level of support helps us to get a narrative.

Marisha: And I left her idea for the sequencing activity too. That can be really helpful as well. So good step. So I think that's a wrap for our informal assessment, like blitz of different assessment tools that we can use. You can access the SLAM cards for free, and then the diamond is free as well. So there's something that you can use. If you don't have a printer, you can pull this up on your computer, or if you're lucky enough to have an iPad. So it's totally accessible. There's something in here that you can use. And even if you're not able to do any of that, you could just draw up some pictures and make a story about it. And this fancy set of Matt and Molly materials uses stick figures. So we can draw stick figures too. Just go for it. Yeah. We got this.

Marisha: Thanks for listening to the SLP Now podcast, this podcast is part of a course offered for continuing education through SpeechTherapyPD. So yes, you can earn ASHA CEUs for listening to this podcast. If you enjoyed this episode, please share with your SLP friends and don't forget to subscribe to the podcast to get the latest episodes sent directly to you. See you next time.

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A Quick Review of Formal Assessments for Narratives

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Three formal narrative assessments worth knowing: the Test of Narrative Language (TNL), a norm-referenced test measuring story comprehension and retell/generation skills; the Edmonton Narrative Norms Instrument (ENNI), a free tool normed on a smaller Canadian sample, useful when the TNL’s norms don’t fit; and CUBED, which offers separate norms for bilingual English-Spanish populations and can double as a dynamic assessment. Choosing between them comes down to whether the test’s language and content are appropriate for the student, and whether the normative sample actually matches their background.

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This Week’s Episode: Formal Assessment Options

I am so excited to introduce Monica Lind! She is the newest addition to the SLP Now team! She is a lead SLP in Southern California, and she is just as nerdy about evidence as I am. She has a broad range of experience as an elementary school SLP and loves literacy-based therapy.

For this month’s podcast series we’re focusing on all things narratives!

Narratives are so functional and so important when it comes to success in the classroom. Not only are they closely connected with academic achievement but they and allow students to connect socially.

We discuss how narratives are a great way to naturally measure where a student’s skills are at while also encompassing multiple different goals. We will break down 3 of our favorite formal assessment options and how to choose which assessment to use.

Grab your favorite beverage and let’s dive into discussing formal narrative assessments! 🤓

Formal Assessment Options:

– Test of Narrative Language (TNL, Gillam & Pearson, 2004)
– Edmonton Narrative Norms Instrument (ENNI, Scheider et al., 2005)
– CUBED: Narrative Language Measures (Peterson & Spencer, 2016)

Cheat Sheet

Formal Narrative Assessment Cheat Sheet
Click here to access our free cheat sheet!

Links Mentioned

– CUBED Free Webinars
– CUBED Free Tests and Norms
– ENNI Free Tests and Norms

Subscribe & Review in iTunes

Are you subscribed to the podcast? If you’re not, subscribe today to get the latest episodes sent directly to you! Click here to make your listening experience auto-magic and as easy as possible.

Bonus points if you leave us a review over on iTunes → Those reviews help other SLPs find the podcast, and I love reading your feedback! Just click here to review, select “Ratings and Reviews,” “Write a Review,” and let me know what your favorite part of the podcast is.

Thanks so much!

Transcript

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Speaker 1: Hello there. Welcome to the SLP Now podcast, where we share practical therapy, tips, and ideas for busy speech language pathologists. Grab your favorite beverage and sit back as we dive into this week's episode. Hello.

Marisha: Hello there. Welcome to the SLP Now podcast. I am super excited today because we have Monica Lynn joining us. She's the newest addition to the SLP Now team. We'll hopefully be recording many more podcasts together, but just a little bit of background on Monica since you may or may not have met her yet. She is a lead SLP for a school district in Southern California, and she is just as nerdy and all about the research as I am. She has a broad range of experience as an elementary school SLP. She's focused a lot on literacy based therapy, which we talk a lot about here, speech sound disorders, and then also functional social and language therapy, and so she's been a blast to work with.

Marisha: I hope that you enjoy getting to meet her too. Our goal for today is to dive into all things narratives. We'll start out just with quick introduction of why we're even talking about narratives this month. Monica, do you want to jump in first and share a little bit of your experience?

Monica: Yeah. Sure. I think that I really just love narratives because they're so closely connected with academic achievement. It's so functional. It's just like... When you're at a meeting and you're talking about goals and the teacher's like, "No. That's perfect. That's exactly what we work on." I feel like that's always what I'm going for, so definitely for that. I also just love the complexity of it because it's just such a good functional, natural measure of where their language skills are at. I feel like it also is a great way to add strengths in a report when you want to do that. Sometimes when you have all those formal standardized scores, it's hard. It can be tough for some of those parents to read that. But then if you do narratives, you can really highlight where their skills are at.

Marisha: Yeah. You can always find something that they're doing well with when it comes to narratives and communication and all of that. Yeah, I totally agree. I think it's cool to... Just piggybacking off of what you said, it is incredibly educationally relevant just across the curriculum, whether that's in the classroom, retelling a story that they read or on the playground, telling their friends what they did over the weekend. If they can't structure a narrative to tell that funny story or talk about what they did with their friends over the weekend, then they're really going to struggle with those social connections. Or if there's an incident on the playground and they can't tell their side of the story, that can be really frustrating for the student as well. Empowering to build those skills that they can use educationally as well as socially is incredibly rewarding. I love targeting narratives because I think we've established that it's a very meaningful context, but it also integrates a lot of different skills because we're producing sentences, which requires grammatically correct constructions and the use of vocabulary. There's also social language aspects.

Marisha: It's a really nice way to encompass a lot of different goals and we can do some really discreet practice on the different sub skills that the students need support with and then build that into similarly cool final products. Hopefully, you're on board with us too.

Monica: Yeah. You can't see because it's a podcast. I'm just sitting here nodding my head. It is. As school SLPs, we're always thinking about where can we get that big bang for your buck in narratives and putting that in part of your assessment. inaudible.

Marisha: Absolutely. Today, we are focusing a lot on assessment because we talked about why we want to target narratives in the first place, but how do we get started with them? What data do we want to collect? The first thing that we'll be diving into are some formal assessment options. I have used the Test of Narrative Language quite a bit, the TNL. The TNL is a test developed by Gillam and Pearson. It's in the second edition now. When I first started using it, it was in the first. This is a formal assessment. It's a norm-referenced test and it measures children's narrative language abilities. In other words, their ability to understand and tell stories. There's a series of stories with a series of different tasks. There are some retell involved, there's an opportunity for story generation, there's also some comprehension activities. I really liked this too. I will piggyback the assessment.

Marisha: I'll administer it as indicated by the manual and then get the standard score, but then I'll also record one or all of the retells and generations and all of that and I'll do some additional analysis on that, which we'll talk about when we get to the informal assessment option. A lot of what we'll talk about is informal assessment. This is a nice way to get some of those numbers, although we don't want to base all of our decisions off of a number. But that's a discussion for another day. Then another tool that I've learned about is the Edmonton Narrative Norms Instrument. This is the ENNI, E-N-N-I. It's another assessment tool and it's normed on children four to nine years old. It also uses a similar structure where they have illustrated pictures and then there's protocol to follow in terms of how we administer that. It's similar to the TNL, but it only has local norms.

Marisha: It was collected from 377 children in Edmonton, Canada. If you don't have access to the TNL, that can be a good option. Then if the normative sample doesn't match your students, it can also be a great additional tool to collect additional data. It's all free to access. They have some really cool demos and all of that on their site.

Monica: Then the next one is the Cubed. That's by Peterson and Spencer. They, I think relatively recently, have the norms for that. The cube has two parts. One is the narrative language measures and the other one is the dynamic decoding measures, and so I do the narrative language measures one. That one is preschool to third grade. You can use it as a progress monitoring one, so it has fall and winter. It has listening retell, comprehension, and personal generation. I really like it because it has norms. You can do it either for the entire normative sample or you can do it just for bilingual English-Spanish only. The school that I work at has a really large English-Spanish bilingual population, so I can make sure that I'm comparing the norms to that. It can also be used to do a dynamic assessment if you want to do that.

Monica: You can do the first benchmark one and then you can do a teaching part, and then you can do the second one because... We'll talk about one in a little bit that's called The Diamond. That one's grades one through six. If you have preschool through third grade, that works really well for that. They also have free recorded webinars on their website, not for CES, but it's just cool to be able to have those webinars so you can see it and you can see how the assessment is done. Sometimes it's overwhelming to think about learning a new test to give, but it's got the videos there so you can see how that's done.

Marisha: That's awesome. We'll link to more details for all of these assessments in the show notes, so you can take a closer look. We'll make sure to make it super easy for you to find those free recorded webinars. I think it'd be interesting to chat a little bit about how do we decide which formula assessment we want to use. We're going to dive into the informal assessments in the next segment here, but do you have any tips on how you decide Monica?

Monica: I think about the language that's used in the testing since I usually have younger kids. If the language used in the testing, they're not even going to be able to understand that, they won't understand what the story means, they won't understand what the directions are necessarily, I'm thinking about, is that actually going to test what I want, first of all. Then if it's appropriate for them... The Cubed has a lot more they're skateboarding or they're going to the park. It's a lot more relevant, so I like it. I Usually have younger students, so that's first how I'll do it. Then second, I'll look at the normed population. Is that relevant to my population? Do I feel like it's representative of them, so it'll be a really accurate score for me to compare to them? I think that's where I start off.

Marisha: Yeah, absolutely. Especially with your population because it sounds like you use the Cubed most often because that normative sample, the other assessments, you wouldn't be able to use the scores because they don't match up. That's one thing that we mentioned about the ENNE. If we want to use the norms, we do have to consider that population. It still can give us really great information. I think all of these assessments, there's definitely quite a bit of overlap in how they're gathering samples and having us take a look at it. Just the different samples and slightly different setup as tasks. I think if you're wondering which one to use with your caseload, do consider the normative samples and then take a look at the assessment and see which one you think would give you the most helpful information.

Monica: Then of course, if you really wanted to nerd out all of the sensitivities, inaudible in there in the technical manuals, they're there for us.

Marisha: I was looking through some journal articles and one of those came up talking about how a lot of us, we don't look at those metrics as well. It'd be cool if we made the little cheat sheet, just so it's easy to compare these three assessments. We should totally do that.

Monica: We should. We definitely should.

Marisha: We're going to do that. That'll be in the show notes as well, just to give you one additional resource to make it a little easier. Maybe we can just have a little breakdown table that makes it even easier to compare. Anything else that we need to think about for the formal assessments?

Monica: Probably just a general note, especially for all those new clinicians out there, that your assessment should not stop at formal assessments. Especially in school, if your district requires that you have a score, some districts do have a little more give, but just think that more and more people are realizing that there's a wealth of information in informal assessments and it is well worth your time. Formal assessment's definitely important. It's important to get that number and have that score, but just know that it shouldn't stop there.

Marisha: I could not agree more, which is why we are going to talk about informal assessments and give you lots and lots of options to gather additional information to make that decision in the next segment.

Speaker 1: Thanks for listening to the SLP Now podcast. This podcast is part of a course offered for continuing education through speech therapy PD, so yes, you can earn extra CEUs for listening to this podcast. If you enjoyed this episode, please share with your SLP friends and don't forget to subscribe to the podcast to get the latest episodes sent directly to you. See you next time.

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How to Write SMART 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 Cycles 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.

FAQ

What does SMART stand for in speech therapy goal writing?

Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic, and Timely, a goal should clearly define the setting and target, be trackable with data, be feasible for that student within a year, generalize meaningfully to school, and be achievable within the recommended service time.

Do speech therapy goals need to be based on developmental norms?

No, to align with IDEA, goals need to be selected based on the educational impact of a student's speech or language errors, not solely on typical developmental milestones.

Why shouldn't fluency goals target a specific percentage of fluent speech?

Current thinking, grounded in the social model of disability, shifts the focus away from eliminating stuttering and toward supporting the student, building self-advocacy, fluency strategy awareness, and a comfortable environment, rather than measuring success by a fluency percentage.

How should social language and pragmatics goals be approached for autistic students?

Goals shouldn't be compliance-based or push a student toward masking (suppressing their natural communication style to appear neurotypical), since research links masking to worse mental health outcomes. Instead, goals should support the student's actual needs and communication style.

How can SLPs work on executive functioning within their scope of practice?

By embedding strategies like working on descriptive vocabulary instead of rote memorization, or targeting story grammar instead of isolated sequencing tasks, both of which support working memory and planning skills in ways that generalize to the classroom.

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!