Marisha

Professional Development for SLPs

December 26, 2017 by Marisha 5 Comments

I love a good professional development session! Being able to leave with ideas that I can use to provide better therapy for my students is so rewarding! That said, it’s not always easy to come by great professional development for SLPs on a budget.

Signing up for professional development is kind of like sampling a box of chocolates, isn’t it? You never know what you’re going to get!

Luckily, I have three “go to’s” for professional development that make the process a little bit easier!

1. The SLP Summit

This is 100% FREE! I host this online conference with SLP Toolkit every January and July.

We are always blown away by our speakers. They volunteer to present and truly deliver every single time. I definitely walk away from each conference feeling energized and ready to tackle some new projects!

2. SpeechPathology.com

This site got me through my CF year! I loved being to log on a view a webinar whenever I was feeling unsure of something (which was pretty much all the time!). I just love the convenience and was always able to find at least one course to help answer a question I had. It was a huge confidence booster for me! It does cost $99 a year, but you can earn unlimited CEUs, too.

3. State/National Conferences

These conferences are generally pretty affordable, and districts will often reimburse!

I appreciate being able to access courses on a variety of topics all in one go. I’m not going to lie! I probably wouldn’t have enough self-control to watch that many hours of PD on my own!

I also love getting to connect with other SLPs at a real, live conference! 🙂 It’s really nice to get out of my therapy room and meet people who “speak my language.”

Those are my three favorite CEU options! What about you? Comment below to share!

Other Resources

Looking for an easy and FREE way to track your CEUs? Check out this blog post!

Looking for more free CEUs? Check out my friend Sarah’s posts! She has a round-up of FREE CEU options.

3 Tips to Find the Best Books for Literacy-Based Therapy

December 20, 2017 by Marisha 4 Comments

So you’re trying to implement literacy-based therapy… Where do you start?!

It makes sense to start with a book, right?

Here are my top three criteria when selecting books to use in therapy.

Criteria 1: Able to Read in 10 Minutes (Or Less)

In order to really dive into a book, we want to have enough time to, well…dive into the book! If we spend 30+ minutes reading the story, that gives us a lot less time to really dive into the text. This is part of what sets us apart from teachers or other specialists in the schools!

Bonus Tip: This can also apply to other types of literature (not just picture books!). I select articles, chapters, sections of textbooks, etc. based on this criteria.

Criteria 2: Multiple Demonstrations of Targets

If a student is working on irregular plural nouns, we want to make sure we have multiple exemplars in the book! The same goes for any other goal we might target–from grammar to vocabulary!

Part of being therapeutic in context involves giving students repeated opportunities to practice their targets (Ukrainetz, 2006). Selecting books while keeping targets in mind helps to set us up for success.

Yeah, I know. The elephant in the room…

I don’t have time to analyze all those books!

The SLP Now Membership includes book guides that pull out all of the targets for you.

Criteria 3: Align with the Curriculum

If you don’t already know, I love contextualized language intervention!

It can be overwhelming to think about tackling this with your caseload, but it can really be quite simple!

If your kindergartners are reading The Gingerbread Man in class, then it makes sense to use that book for your literacy-based therapy.

If your 2nd graders are learning about the solar system, then pick a book about space.

If your 7th graders are reading Walk Two Moons, then pull a passage from the book.

It’ll make our therapy that much more relevant, and it can help increase our students’ abilities to participate in the general education classroom. Win, win!

Want to hear more?

Check out this post to help you find books on a budget!

Check out all of our literacy-based posts for practical tips and strategies. More coming soon!

Enter your name and e-mail below to get access to a list of my favorite books.

Why I Tossed My Decks of Cards

December 12, 2017 by Marisha 5 Comments

Don’t worry. I didn’t throw out hundreds of dollars of therapy materials. 🙂

Here’s what actually happened…

My first therapy room was brimming with materials. I felt like I had every therapy material out of every catalog I ever looked at! I had shelves filled with therapy decks.

When I moved out of state, I was given a completely fresh slate. My therapy room was empty (with the exception of a few games).

First, I started to panic…

How am I going to do therapy without all of my stuff?!

But then I realized… I don’t need all that!

After some trial and error at my previous job, I started implementing curriculum- and literacy-based (i.e., contextualized) therapy.

I wasn’t using those materials anyway.

I no longer had a lot of materials on my shelves, and it ended up being a good thing!

• Students were no longer distracted by piles of materials floating around my room.
• I felt less overwhelmed.
• It was easier to plan for therapy.
• My students were making more progress!

Therapy Without Materials?!

Okay, okay. I did have some materials.

The best part about contextualized therapy is that it’s really easy to find free materials!

The library was filled with picture books (which I paired to match what my students’ were learning in the classroom).

I was also able to pull curriculum-based activities (e.g., a reading passage, a research paper, etc.) from the classroom.

That’s pretty much all I needed to plan my therapy sessions! *

How is that Therapy?

Great question.

If we’re just using the curriculum, aren’t we teachers (not speech/language pathologists)?

The good news is that we can use our therapy toolbox (the one we worked so hard to build in graduate school) in just about any context.

It can be a little uncomfortable to step away from what we’ve always known.

After all, a therapy deck and board game reinforcer were definitely not uncommon therapy choices as I went through my training!

Sidenote: There is a time and a place for this kind of therapy. (I know, right?! If only things could be black and white.) This is where clinical judgment comes in–that mushy skill we worked so hard to build!

I found that I was able to make a more significant impact on my students’ when I stepped out of my “card deck/board game” therapy box.

The best part? It doesn’t have to be hard!

That said, I know it can be overwhelming to think about making that shift.

I’ve made a lot of mistakes along the way (and learned a lot, too!). I’m so excited to share what I’ve found with you. We can do this together!

* More on this soon! Stay tuned! 🙂

The Two Biggest Mistakes I Made as an SLP Clinical Fellow

December 5, 2017 by Marisha Leave a Comment

So, there I am…walking into Johnny’s IEP meeting ready to celebrate all of the progress he’s made. He met all of his goals this year!

I make my way towards my usual seat when I overhear the general education teacher chatting with the resource room specialist…

“Johnny’s doing okay, but he just can’t seem to follow directions.”

“I agree. He needs so much support in the area.”

I quickly glance at Johnny’s IEP.

Johnny will follow two-step directions with 80% accuracy. Goal met.

via GIPHY

And then I panic…

What am I going to say?

What do I do?

Will they think I’m a fraud?

I’m really not the anxious type. 😉

In all seriousness, I just wanted to run and hide at this point!

Have you ever been in my shoes?

This happened when I was a CF.

I was so embarrassed.

I never wanted to be in that situation again.

So, I took action…

After the meeting, I called my clinical supervisor to debrief. We talked about what happened and did some brainstorming.

My Mistakes

I knew I should have checked in with the teachers ahead of time. That was Mistake #1.

I did chat with the teachers prior to the IEP meeting, but I should have checked in with them on a regular basis. I also should have asked for input on Johnny’s specific goals. (It turns out she didn’t even realize Johnny was working on following directions, so I had some work to do there, too!)

But then we started talking about the bigger issue… Mistake #2.

What I was doing in therapy was not relevant.

We were playing really cute games and having fun. However, what happened in the speech room, stayed in the speech room… And that’s not what we want!

It didn’t matter if Johnny could follow 38-step directions in my room. He needed to be able to follow directions in the classroom!

And Johnny wasn’t the exception…

I wasn’t doing enough to help my students connect the skills we were targeting in therapy to the “real world.”

And let’s be real… I was totally and completely overwhelmed.

How in the world was I supposed to help my 60+ students generalize what they were learning?

What I Found

I did some research and kept reading this phrase: Contextualized Language Intervention.

I started implementing some of the ideas and strategies that I found in the research, and I was hooked.

My students were just as engaged (if not more!), and we were making real progress.

I saw it. The student saw it. The teachers saw it.

It was amazing!

Contextualized Intervention?

Okay… Let’s back up a second.

What is contextualized intervention? It is when we “provide explicit skill instruction in ways that are meaningful and purposeful to the student” (Ukrainetz, 2007).

We can make sure that what we are doing is meaningful and purposeful by communicating with those around us! I started communicating with teachers to find out what students are working on in the classroom.

The context is clearly very different depending on the age of the student!

Preschool is filled with games, music, and crafts. Early elementary students are reading picture books and doing science projects. Secondary students are diving into textbooks and writing papers.

The context can also vary by classroom and by teacher, which is why it’s so important to communicate.

Being relevant is key!

We need to consider our students’ context when writing goals and developing treatment plans.

Don’t Just Take My Word for It

Here’s what others have to say about this approach…

“I have been advocating that SLPs engage in ‘curriculum-relevant therapy’… that they use curriculum as context for language therapy but not try to teach curriculum per se. In this approach, an SLP would focus on language processes, or ‘underpinnings'” (Ehren, 2009).

“Gillam, Gillam, and Reece (2012) provided small-group intervention three times a week over 6 weeks. The intent of the research study was to evaluate narrative intervention that is contextualized (literacy based) versus decontextualized commercially available games and drill cards designed to increase vocabulary, sentence complexity, and social language. The contextualized intervention used explicit and implicit questions, vocabulary, and syntax thematically tied to literature. The results indicated that students’ comprehension and story retelling/generation skills improved more with the contextualized intervention as compared to decontextualized intervention” (Brandel, 2014).

ASHA has something to say about it, too…

“Individualized programs always relate to the school work. Therefore, materials for treatment are taken from or are directly related to content from classes.” (ASHA Guidelines)

But…

Yeah, I know.

There’s a big “but” there.

This sounds amazing, but how do I find the time to implement this with my caseload of 100 students?

It sounds like a lot of work.

It definitely was not an overnight win for me, but it is totally do-able. We can do this together!

If you’re on board, stay tuned! I’m going to be sharing tips, tricks, and resources to help you make this happen.

Easy Therapy for Preschool SLPs

November 18, 2017 by Marisha 2 Comments

Many of you have asked… Is SLP Now appropriate for preschool SLPs?

Now you don’t have to take my word for it! Kayla from Kayla SLP is guest blogging today to share how she uses SLP Now materials with her preschool caseload.

My caseload is made up of one-third preschoolers. This means, at any given time, I am planning speech and language activities for 20 three-to-four-year-olds. It can be a little overwhelming! Preschool requires a very different style of activities than my older students.

As you may already know, I am an SLP Now subscriber. I use materials from the site with almost every single student on my caseload, preschool included.

I’m here to tell you my favorite ways to use the SLP Now membership with my preschoolers.

1. Books and Companions

I often use books with my preschool students. SLP Now has tons of book suggestions appropriate for preschool, along with book guides and activities.

Let’s say you’re using themed therapy, and your current theme is bugs.

SLP Now has a book guide and activity pack for In the Tall, Tall Grass.

I typically spend one session just reading the book and talking about it with my students. We look at the pictures together, talk about the vocabulary, make our own sentences (“I see the ___ in the grass”), and describe the characters. Oftentimes, I will have the students take turns retelling the book by flipping through the pages and looking at the pictures. (I love hearing their storytelling abilities, and they love getting to “read” the book back to their peers.)

During the next session, I will bring out the comprehension activities in the book guide – answering wh- questions, sequencing the story, and doing a craft (as time allows). Sometimes I carry the craft over into a third session.

Speaking of crafts…

2. Crafts

In my opinion, the best preschool therapy is hands-on. One easy way to make therapy hands-on is to use crafts. The crafts on the website are themed to match the books and other activities, so you can build your therapy around a topic.

For example, let’s continue with the bugs theme. You can use In the Tall, Tall Grass craft alone or in conjunction with the book activities. If you read the book first, you can carry over the craft into the next session and send the finished product home as extra practice. The students are able to keep their hands busy while working on sequencing, vocabulary, articulation, and more! This makes the session more engaging for everyone!

3. Extension Activities

Finally, I tend to also use the extension activities with my preschool students. These activities are also hands-on and are a good way to continue building upon your theme.

Continuing with the bug theme, there is an extension activity for a scavenger hunt. Depending on your preferences, you can go on an actual bug hunt outside, hide printed bugs around the room, or hide plastic bugs in a sensory bin.

The extension activities are what I use for carryover. Students are able to use what they learned during previous lessons during a less structured activity, and we all know how important carryover is!

In summary, there are tons of ways to use the SLP Now materials with your preschool students. You can use the themes as a whole, or use bits and pieces of each theme, depending on your students and their needs. Either way, there’s plenty of activities that both you AND your preschool students will love!

How to Track ASHA CEUs: A Simple System for SLPs

November 15, 2017 by Marisha 2 Comments

So, it’s New Year’s Eve, and you’re rushing to submit your ASHA dues.

But wait… You realize you need to submit your hours, too.

Oh man! You start racking your brain to figure out which CEUs you’ve completed.

You know you have some certificates in your desk at work… And some must be in the pile of papers in the kitchen.

What a mess, right?!

The good news is that ASHA doesn’t require you to submit your certificates when you enter your hours.

“You must keep documentation of these activities. You do not need to send your documentation to ASHA unless you are notified that you have been selected for an audit.” – ASHA

Yeah! That’s good news! No need to sneak into our speech rooms on New Year’s Eve.

However, we do need a way keep track of our hours in case we are audited.

ASHA gives us a handy record keeping form.

You could print the form and keep it in a special CEU folder. Just fill in the required information and attach your certificates. Easy enough, right?!

If you’re like me and will do anything to cut down on the paper clutter, you might be interested in the paperless system I set up for myself.

I made a Google Form, and you can use it, too.

Here’s how to set it up!

1. Click the link. (This will copy the form to your Google Drive.)
2. Bookmark the link. (BONUS: You can add the form to your iPhone home screen.)
3. Fill out the form whenever you complete a course.

Optional: Upload the certificate for the course. (You can even snap a picture of a certificate if you’re using the form on your phone/tablet.)

Just fill out the form every time you complete a course, and it’ll make a log for you!

If you’re taking courses in the SLP Now Academy, we will email you all of your course details and a certificate. You can easily copy and paste into your Google form!

Here’s how to view your log!

Click the “Response” link, and then click the little green icon (“View Responses in Sheets”).

This matches ASHA’s form, so it’ll be really easy to copy and paste the information if you are audited (or if you’re submitting hours to other organizations). You’ll also have easy access to all of your certificates (if you choose to upload them). Win, win!

You might be wondering…

How do I actually submit the hours I tracked myself?

If you signed up for the ASHA Registry, certain courses will automatically appear on your transcript. (Be sure to check with the CEU provider. Not all courses will appear on the Registry.)

If you are logging your own hours, ASHA gives us some helpful instructions. All you have to do is submit the compliance form at the end of your interval. You don’t have to enter your hours or share your log unless you are audited.

What hours actually count?

ASHA outlines the requirements for professional development and acceptable activities that can count toward your 3-year interval.

How to Set Up Working Student Folders for Speech Therapy

October 18, 2017 by Marisha 5 Comments

Piles of papers stacked on all desks and tables. Therapy materials scattered across the room. A to-do list that’s a mile long.

This unfortunately isn’t an uncommon situation in the life of a school-based SLP.

Sometimes some of that clutter is inevitable, but I absolutely hate it when I can’t find the materials that I need for a session.

I needed a streamlined and efficient way to organize my students’ data and activities.

I tried a number of systems (file folders, binders, portfolios) in attempt to keep track of it all.

The New Student Folder

Here’s a quick peek at how I organize my student folders:

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by SLP Therapy Materials and Organization (@slpnow)

I was browsing on Amazon for cheap solutions, and I came across these adhesive prongs.

I stick them in regular folders. They make it so easy to quickly add new pages (and flip through old ones).

I keep a two-hole punch by the therapy table. This makes it so that my students and I can quickly add new pages to the folder.

What Can You Keep in the Folder?

• Visuals: I love having easy access to visuals so students know what they’re working on, and it’s easy for me to quickly scaffold a new skill. (I store most of my visuals in my therapy tote, but I use student folders to store visuals that I customized just for the student or visuals that the student created.)
• Vocabulary Journals: Vocabulary journals are my favorite! There is so much research on the benefits of vocabulary journals, and the sheets can be easily stored in the folder.
• Goal Cards: Increasing student goal awareness is related to better outcomes. I want to give my students ownership of their data.
• Therapy Activities: I also add in any paper activities completed during our sessions. It’s nice to have a mini-portfolio to share with parents/teachers at conferences.
• Curriculum-Based Therapy: I set up a folder for every student, but I also use it to keep track of activities that teachers share with me.

Here’s a link to some of the materials I used to set up my folders!

How to Use a Pocket Chart for Easy Literacy-Based Therapy

October 11, 2017 by Marisha 7 Comments

How can I possibly target all of my students’ goal in one speech therapy session? Johnny is working on describing and past tense verbs. Chloe has goals to use pronouns and answer WH questions. Zach is working on multiple meaning words and compound sentences. Yikes! Those mixed groups seem tricky, don’t they?

They don’t have to be!

You can check out the video (above) for a walkthrough of my “system.”

Want a quick overview? Scroll down to read more!

Why Pocket Charts?

I was reading a lot about literacy-based therapy. I read a lot of articles, and the second chapter in Ukrainetz’s book (Contextualized Language Intervention) was what helped me piece everything together. Ronald B. Gillam and Teresa Ukrainetz shared a five-step “protocol” for literacy-based therapy.

Want to learn more about the five steps? Check out the book or the webinar in the SLP Now Membership for a closer look!

Now that I had a framework, I started trying to think of a way to actually implement this in therapy. I knew I needed…

– something visual, making it easy to scaffold a variety of skills (e.g., articulation, grammar, language, pragmatics).
– something simple, so I wouldn’t have to spend hours prepping for every unit.
– something versatile, with the ability to target basic levels (e.g., drill-based practice), as well as the ability to build up to larger skills (e.g., generating a narrative).

I was observing in a classroom where the teacher happened to be using a pocket chart to organize her sentence strips. The rest is history!

After some fine tuning, I was able to use a pocket chart to target my students’ goals in a visual, simple, and versatile way.

The Process

Now, let’s chat about how we can use the pocket chart in therapy!

NOTE: You’ll want to make sure your students are aware of their goals before jumping into using a pocket chart in therapy.

Step 1: Create Cards

We have two options here!

1. We can use index cards and write on words.

2. I created templates for the parts of speech (e.g., conjunctions, prepositions, etc.) and for vocabulary words (to guide students when defining the words). You can find these tools in the SLP Now Membership!

Ideally, we would involve students in as much of the process as possible. Stay tuned for more tips!

Step 2: Practice

This may happen before/during/after the actual book reading.

What does this actually look like?

Check out the video at the top of this post for some general suggestions.
I shared some ideas for grammar intervention.
I am working on more detailed posts/videos for a variety of target areas!

Step 3: Build Up

After repeated opportunities for practice, we’ll start building up. Students will start to combine sentences to retell the story and/or generate parallel stories.

The best part? We already have visuals on hand to scaffold these skills! We can use the target cards/sentence strips to support our students as they begin to use their new skills in an embedded context.

Want to learn more? Stay tuned for more blog posts with more specific activity ideas.

My 6-Step Process to Quickly & Easily Collect Language Samples

September 22, 2017 by Marisha 46 Comments

When you’re first starting to work with a new student, one of the “go to” assessment tools is a language sample.

But wait…

What if you don’t have time to collect language samples?! Aren’t they incredibly time-consuming?

They don’t have to be!

What is a language sample? Why is it important?

Before we jump in, let’s chat a little bit about why we should even bother with language samples.

Language samples, and particularly narrative language samples, may offer a valid complement or even alternative to norm-referenced testing (Ebert & Scott, 2014).

1. Language samples address many of the weaknesses of norm-referenced testing.

2. They provide rich, in-depth information about a child’s use of language in real-world situations (Costanza-Smith, 2010; Hewitt, Hammer, Yont, & Tomblin, 2005), resulting in strong ecological validity and the ability to derive language treatment targets.

3. They place very few behavioral requirements on examinees, allowing for flexible use across children of diverse ages and types of impairment (Costanza-Smith, 2010).

4. They have been shown to be a valid assessment for diverse populations, including bilingual children (Restrepo, 1998) and speakers of nonstandard dialects (Stockman, 1996).

And guess what?! It doesn’t have to take you hours to analyze your samples.

6 Steps to Streamline Your Language Sample Collection

When documenting my language samples, I wanted some quick and easy data to share. The mean length of utterance (MLU), or the average number of morphemes per utterance, is a quick, easy, and useful measure. Several research studies cite MLU as an “index for language development” (e.g., Condouris, Meyer, & Tager-Flusberg, 2003; Tager-Flusberg et al., 2009). We also know that students with language delays/disorders produce shorter utterances and use fewer grammatical morphemes. We even have some norms that we can refer to when making clinical decisions. (MLU isn’t the only measure we can look at, but it is a very helpful starting point!)

I used to manually count all the morphemes/utterances and pull out a calculator to do the math, but I knew there had to be an easier way! I did some research, and I was able to create a smart spreadsheet that automatically calculates MLU for you!

A post shared by Marisha (SLP Now) (@slp_now) on May 1, 2017 at 7:48pm PDT

Here are the steps to use it!

1. Enter Student Information

I typically only include my student’s initials. My school district didn’t purchase the HIPAA-compliant version of Google Drive, so I want to avoid including too much student data.

I also include the date, time, and type of sample collected.

2. Start the Timer

Give the student a prompt (e.g., a conversation starter, a wordless picture book, sequencing cards, etc.) and start typing away!

To calculate mophemes (instead of words), just want to add a space in between every morpheme. For example, “The cats walked across the room” would be “The cat s walk ed across the room.”

I hit “Enter” to move each utterance to a new line.

I usually record the sample so I can refer back to it, if needed.

3. Add Relevant Notes

I make note of anything that struck me in regards to language content, form, or use.

4. Delete Extra Rows

I delete extra rows, so the spreadsheet only calculates the MLU using the student’s utterances.

5. Update the Number of Utterances

I highlight the utterances, and Google Sheets automatically calculates the number for me. I update that number on the bottom of the sheet. (We typically want to shoot for 100 utterances in a language sample.)

6. Language Sample = Complete

Now, it’s time to “plug and chug.” I move the data into my report. Because I took notes in “real time,” it makes it really easy to describe what actually happened during the language sample (rather than guessing…!).

You can also print the sheet to attach to your report.

Want access to this spreadsheet and a special cheat sheet?

Click here for a free copy!

3 Insanely Easy Steps to Inventory Your Books

September 20, 2017 by Marisha 2 Comments

Have you ever bought the same book twice? Three times? Four times?

I may or may not be guilty of that… 😀

I started using the BookBuddy app, and it is AMAZING!

You can try it for free (up to 50 books). If you have more than 50 books, then you can upgrade for $4.99.

I was able to inventory hundreds of books in 1-2 hours. I did this about a month ago, and I’ve already used it several times. 🙂 Once when I was about to buy a book but I wasn’t sure if I already had it. A few more times when I wanted to use a book in therapy but couldn’t remember where I put it. I just pulled out the app and found the answer to my questions in seconds.

Why inventory books?

Easily find your books.
Avoid buying multiple copies.
Quickly identify books for specific therapy targets.

So, how does it work?

1. Scan the barcode.

This app has thousands of books in its library, so it automatically pulls a cover, title, and other details for most books.

If a book isn’t in the app’s library, then you can enter your own details. I only had to do this for a few books!

2. Enter a tag.

You can use tags in a number of ways…

You can tag the location of the book. (The app also has a place to enter the physical location. It was just a little easier for me to add the tags.)

You can tag the age range.

You can tag possible goal targets. As I’m using books in therapy, I’m adding tags for possible goals. For example, Pirates Next Door would be perfect for a social skills group. I can add a “social group” tag. I could also tag certain speech sounds, specific language/vocabulary targets, etc.

3. Easily find your books!

Hit the search button on the bottom bar of the app. You can search by the title of the book, by author, by any of your tags…

The app also gives you the option to adding ratings, reading levels, genre, number of pages, and more.

The possibilities are endless! You can really customize this to organize your books in a way that makes sense to you.

Not ready to invest $4.99 on an app?
Sarah from SLP Toolkit also shares how she uses Evernote to inventory her books.

Wondering how to store your books?
Check out this post for some ideas!

Easy Craft Organization for SLPs

September 13, 2017 by Marisha 1 Comment

I’m always looking for ways to make therapy easier. It’s frustrating when I have an amazing activity planned, but I can’t find the materials!

I like using crafts to supplement my theme-based therapy activities. However, it can be easy to lose track of all the odds and ends.

I knew I had to do something to make this easier for myself!

Step 1: Choose Simple Crafts

The first step was simplifying my crafts!

Some crafts require a lot of little pieces. It’s easy to rack up quite the bill purchasing these materials, and we haven’t even found a way to keep track of all the bits and pieces! After a few “Pinterest fails,” I decided to only create crafts with a simple set of materials.

Side Note: If you’re looking for inspiration, the SLP Now Membership includes 50 different crafts that use a few inexpensive and easy-to-find materials. They also include visual directions, which work great as visual supports in therapy.

Step 2: Find a Storage Solution

Last year, I stored my materials in a therapy cart, which worked really well.

However, I changed jobs this year. I have a lot less space and am “on the go” quite a bit of the time. I needed something small and compact.

These craft boxes were the perfect craft organization solution! I found the satchels at a local craft store, but you can also find them on Amazon.

I love them because they’re stackable and easy to carry. It makes it so easy to keep everything organized!

Anyone else obsessed with those compartments?!

I use one satchel with compartments to store odds and ends.

I use another satchel (without any compartments) to store the larger pieces (e.g., paper plates, paper bags).

Step 3: Reap the Benefits

Whenever we do a craft in therapy, I pull out the satchels. No more running around the room or digging through cabinets to find what I need!

Bonus! I may pull out the materials for my students, but–depending on the students’ goals–I can also use it as an opportunity to target a variety of skills (e.g., receptive vocabulary, following directions, and more!). Students can gather their own materials while practicing their speech and language skills. Perfect dual functionality! 🙂

How do you organize your crafts? Let us know by leaving a comment below!

How to Reduce the Overwhelm: A Tutorial for SLPs

September 4, 2017 by Marisha Leave a Comment

“I’m so busy! I don’t have enough time!”

Those are phrases that I said out loud (or to myself) multiple times a day.

But then I started thinking…

Are we ever not busy?

What does a “not busy” life look like? Is that a thing? Do I even want to be “not busy”?

Many of us are professionals with families and aspirations outside of work (whether that’s crafting, running marathons, quilting, or creating materials to share with other SLPs).

It’s kind of…overwhelming!

That said, I know I put a lot on my plate. I choose to put a lot on my plate. I want to do all of the things that I’ve committed to doing, but there must be a better way. (I mean, there has to be a way to be healthy, happy, and successful, right?!)

In search of “the answer” to reduce the overwhelm, I read several books and listened to countless podcasts. The one resource that made the biggest difference for me was Chris Bailey’s book (The Productivity Project).

Last year, I implemented a lot of the concepts and strategies that Chris shared in his book, and I’m excited to share some of my own “experiments” about what worked (or didn’t work) from the perspective of a school-based SLP.

First up is…feeling busy!

Chris talks about this in his book (which you should definitely check out if you’re feeling overwhelmed like I was), but he also published an awesome article on his blog. He argues that we’re not as busy as we think. He cited a study where people overestimated the time they worked by more than 18 hours (on average).

My first thought?

“Suuuuure, Chris! You don’t know all the things that school-based SLPs have on our plates.”

In true SLP fashion, I set out to collect data so I could prove him wrong. 🙂

Chris shares a time-tracking template in his post, but I downloaded this handy time-tracking app (Timeular). They have a fancy tool that you can buy, but the app is totally free. You can track your time from your phone or desktop, which is really handy!

I added in my most common tasks (therapy, billing, report writing, meetings, collaboration with teachers, planning therapy, e-mails). I also added an “other” task–just in case. I told myself I wouldn’t track activities that weren’t directly related to my job (e.g., eating lunch, socializing with teachers, procrastination).

I tracked my time for a week… (It’s really easy! You can do it all from the mobile or desktop app. Just hit “play” and you’re good to go–as long as you don’t forget to turn it off. You can also easily go back and edit/delete/add entries if you need to.)

I tried to stick to my usual routine, but–I’m not going to lie–the first day or two felt like a game. I was so incredibly productive, and I did work nearly every second of the day. By the time Wednesday came around, I was beat, and my “productivity” was much lower. Let’s not even talk about how Friday went…!

I did another round a few weeks later. I didn’t try to beat the clock this time around, so the results were more indicative of a “typical” day. I was still surprised at how much time got sucked up by random things that weren’t actually helping me do my job.

Here’s what I learned:

Lesson #1: I’m not as busy as I think I am. (Don’t tell Chris, but he was right.)

Lesson #2: I found some of my biggest “time wasters” (e.g., dead time between sessions, spending time chatting after a meeting) and “time eaters” (e.g., billing, writing evaluations).

Lesson #3: There are easy things that I can do to maximize my time at school so I don’t have to stay late or bring work home. Once I figured out what my “time eaters” were, I was able to focus on “working smarter” in these areas. I did some research, asked other SLPs for advice, and looked into tools/resources to help make those tasks easier.

Now I wish I could show you the actual reports, but this smart SLP didn’t save them. (I know, right?!)

I did recreate some fake logs just to give you a peek at the app.

It generates these pretty reports so you can easily see where you’re spending your time.

All in all, this was a useful “experiment” for myself. This is not something I would need to do every week. I plan to track my time once a quarter just to see how I’m doing.

Why would you use this?

You could use this if you’re like me and feel overwhelmed. You can use it to identify for “time wasters” and “time eaters” to help you reduce the overwhelm!
This could also be interesting for a group of SLPs to share their results. It’d be a great discussion point to figure out exactly how much time everyone is spending on different tasks and to share tips to “work smarter.” Everyone is bound to have different tips and tricks.
It might also be worthwhile to share with administrators. I shared a time study during the year when my caseload doubled (and I actually was working mega overtime), and it worked wonders. Administrators tend to respond incredibly well to data!

What are your biggest “time eaters” and “time wasters”? Comment below and let us know!

Check out this video for a closer look at the Timeular app!