thedabblingspeechie

Welcome to today’s episode, where we chat about sensory bins and the incredible benefits of sensory bins for your preschool and elementary speech therapy students. Whether you’re a seasoned SLP or just starting out, sensory bins are a fantastic tool you’ll want to incorporate into your practice. Kids dig them and once you know how to use them, you will too! What is a Sensory Bin? So, what exactly...

In this episode of the Real Talk SLP, Felice welcomes Daj Mitchell, a seasoned Speech-Language Pathologist who loves using artificial intelligence to streamline her caseload management tasks in the school setting. Daj shares her journey with getting started using AI tools for speech therapy to help her save time and brain energy with tasks like progress notes, IEPs, documentation, speech therapy p...

Today, on the Real Talk SLP podcast, we will discuss tips for picking speech and language therapy books for your caseload. Most school-based SLPs have larger caseloads, so finding a speech therapy book to cover every age and goal is tricky. I am going to help you narrow down the book selections so that every month, you can use 2-4 books to cover the majority of your speech therapy caseload.   In e...

When it comes to reading books in your speech therapy sessions, it’s hard to keep all the students engaged. And, your therapy time is short, so keeping kids attentive is important for therapy. Today, on the Real Talk SLP podcast, we are talking about 10 ways to increase engagement when reading speech therapy books. You will get practical tips for your literacy-based speech therapy sessions that yo...

When you are pulling out a book in your literacy-based speech therapy sessions, it’s natural to want to jump into reading the story with the group. But, there are some easy strategies that you can do before you begin reading the book to your speech therapy students. In fact, doing these strategies will help your students with understanding the content in the story better. Plus, they will have more...

When it comes to lesson planning for your mixed speech and language groups, using crafts can be super effective! But, I know some of you may be thinking, “I don’t do speech therapy crafts because it’s too much prep and mess.” Now, I definitely agree with you that crafts can distract from sessions if they have too many tedious steps, or don’t ensure enough practice on speech and language goals. But...

If you plan a spring theme for your preschool and elementary caseload, you will love all the spring toys and games shared in this podcast episode. When we think of spring, we often think of holidays such as Easter, insects, planted flowers, spring picnics, and outdoor activities. You will get a variety of spring toys and games that you can use to bring to life the concepts of your spring theme. Th...

When we plan themed therapy lessons for our speech therapy caseloads we want them to help students make progress on their goals. In this episode of the Real Talk SLP podcast, we are going to be talking about how to play speech therapy themes by month and learning how you can theme smash two themes together! I will be sharing what theme smashing is, how to do it, and ways to think through the theme...

Using YouTube videos in your speech therapy sessions can be a great way to increase engagement and help you plan quick, effective lessons. Because YouTube is one of my go-to speech therapy material resources, I like to find tools and tech tips to make finding and organizing my videos easier. Today in this Real Talk SLP podcast, I am sharing my top tips for using YouTube videos in speech therapy to...

In this episode of the Real Talk SLP podcast we are chatting about 5 things you can do to get stuff done for your speech therapy caseload. We manage a LOT of students in the school-based setting, which means we don’t just do speech therapy sessions. Just to list a few of our speech therapy caseload tasks, SLPs are responsible for attending IEP meetings, taking in new speech referrals, billing Medi...

In this Real Talk SLP podcast episode 108, I share the top toys for teaching CORE words open and closed in your play-based speech therapy sessions. We want versatile toys when picking toys for our preschool and elementary caseload! That’s why the toys I recommend can work on AAC CORE words for open and closed and other speech and language skills Why Teaching the CORE word Open & Closed Are Eff...

In this episode of the Real Talk SLP podcast I am sharing easy, low prep Christmas social skills activities to help you rock your pragmatic language groups without stressing. Between the IEP meetings, finishing assessment reports, progress monitoring and running groups, you have zero time for planning. That’s why this round-up of Christmas social skills lessons will help you get to winter break wi...

Planning whole class push-in lessons for your special education classrooms can be stressful because you have a LOT of deadlines before winter break. In this Real Talk SLP podcast episode, I share December special ed lesson plans you can do as a co-teaching activity. Planning engaging Christmas speech and language activities for the whole class doesn’t have to be stressful because you walk away fro...

When it comes to speech therapy report writing, most SLPs let out a huge groan because writing a legally defensible speech therapy assessment report can take hours! And, with large caseloads finding the time and the brain energy to analyze your assessment results can be very draining. That’s why I invited Michelle Boisvert, Ph. D., CCC-SLP, RSP-ADHD, the co-founder of Easy Report Pro , to discuss...

When it comes to making your speech therapy schedule in the school setting, the process can be overwhelming and ever changing. There is no PERFECT way to make your speech therapy schedule, but after making a schedule for many years, I do have some tips and tricks for you. In this Real Talk SLP podcast episode, I share my biggest piece of advice for how to approach the speech therapy schedule as we...

When it comes to speech therapy lesson planning, it can get a big overwhelming because we don’t just serve one specific treatment area. We serve articulation, phonology, language, social pragmatics, fluency, narrative language, etc. So, today I wanted to share how you can use the book If You Take a Mouse to School by Laura Numeroff to cover a LOT of speech and language goals. Updates and Resources...

If you are working during the summer months planning a 4th of July themed unit for your speech therapy groups can be easy with all the ideas in this podcast episode! Your students probably celebrated so it’s fresh on their minds. Today, you will get some great 4th of July speech therapy activities that you can use with preschool to middle school students.   Amazon affiliate links are included in t...

If you are new to being an SLP in the school setting or have been trying to find an organizational system for managing all your students therapy materials and logs this episode is for you! I will be sharing the pros and cons of making speech therapy folders for your caseload, so that you can figure out if investing the time to make these will be worth it!   Digital Speech Therapy Folders   For SLP...

Whether you work in the school or private practice setting, many SLPs serve students with a speech sound disorder diagnosis. For many approaches for apraxia, articulation, and phonology, you need to get a high dose of trials in your sessions to see improvements in producing the correct sound in spontaneous speech. But let’s face it. Keeping students motivated to practice 100 trials for speech ther...

During the summer,  you can have your speech therapy sessions outside to get some vitamin D. Plus, there are lots of great, easy water play speech therapy activities that keep kids engaged and cooled off from the hot sun. And if you are implementing a coaching model with parents or educators on the IEP team, doing water-themed speech therapy activities can be a great way to teach communication str...

If the weather is nice in the spring and summer months, taking speech therapy outside can be just what you need to re-engage your students! In today’s Real Talk SLP podcast, I am sharing LOTS of easy outdoor speech therapy activities you can do that don’t scrimp on targeting speech and language goals. It’s okay to ditch the worksheets and target goals outside in a naturalistic setting. I hope you...

If you have students on your speech therapy caseload with language disorders, particularly with areas of need in vocabulary development, you can improve vocabulary skills by implementing a coaching model in the classroom setting. Oftentimes SLPs serve students in a pullout model to work on language goals. But, what if you did pullout sessions paired with a weekly or monthly coaching model to help...

Taking a language sample for your speech therapy assessments can feel daunting because you are on a time crunch to get all your assessments done. And, if your students aren’t the most chatty, it can be really difficult to get those 50-100 utterances. Even though informal language samples can feel like a pain, it is a great assessment tool that can give you valuable information about your student’s...

As SLPs, we are juggling A LOT! Especially if we work in the school setting. Between the high caseloads, piles of paperwork, and trying to stay up-to-date with best practices, it’s easy to get overwhelmed with the job. And, staying inspired about being an SLP when you feel ineffective with the giant workload given to you is real. In today’s episode of the Real Talk SLP podcast, I will break down a...

Sometimes, all the caseload management tasks come to a head as a school-based SLP. At certain times of the year, everything is due at once for you. Increased assessments and IEP meetings, progress reports, new student transfers, and Medicaid billing due around the same time leave NO time for speech therapy planning. In this Real Talk SLP podcast episode, I will share three easy speech therapy acti...