by Anne Page | May 3, 2016 | Autism, Blog, Language Activities, Therapy Materials and Ideas, TPT Products
Do you feel like you are aimless or not at the top of you game when working on prepositions?
I can totally relate. I work with a lot of special education students. I tried taking pictures of students under tables, in chairs, next to each other. They enjoyed the activity but it didn’t stick.
I tried having them take turns putting a fun toy on the chair or taking it off the chair. Again fun, but not getting the concept.
I tried it with matching puzzle pieces, with apps, and games. Still no lasting success.
Talk about feeling like a Bad Therapist.
But I kept trying.
Then a combination of learning experiences came together. I noticed that teaching opposite prepositions didn’t work. I noticed that kids got distracted by little details in pictures. I went to an amazing presentation by Dr. Elena Plante, research SLP from University of Arizona and she talked about the importance of errorless learning and teaching one concept at a time.
I learned about fast-mapping. Fast mapping is the psychological term for learning a new concept after a single exposure to information.
Students with SLI and cognitive impairments are not able to fast-map like their typical peers.
So….
I tried making a book with simple visuals and white background. This way the focus was only on the relationship of the objects to each other.
There is a picture strip with words at the bottom of the page, always the same “Where is the _____”(object) The next page always has ______ (target preposition) the ___________ (relationship word).
Object remains the same. For example in “The Under Book” the object is always a banana, it is always under something. Going through the book once gives 12-15 repetitions.
The other important piece is that the skill needs to be taught in more than one setting. So with all of the prepositions books I offer examples for how to extend the new concept into different settings.
I’m still doing more investigating in this area but I can say, I’m having good results with these books. So are the people who have bought them.
” I am so excited about this book! I have several students who are working on positional concepts and it just takes so many repetitions to learn the concepts. I love that this book is full of repetitions. I am looking forward to more in the future!” ~Buyer
Here is the new “Next To Book”. This completes the first three prepositional concepts that children with typical language development acquire at the age of 3: “on” and “under” and “next to”. I’ll be working on the next ones soon.
While I was doing my research, I put together this handy little chart. This will be great as a parent/teacher handout and just to keep for your own reference. I’m giving it to you for FREE, just click here. As a Beautiful Speech Life follower, you are getting it early! I already gave it to my TPT followers, but if you missed it, here it is again. I’ll be putting it in my TPT store later. (It’s also included in The Next To Book)
So take charge of those prepositions and SLP Like a Boss,
Anne
P.S. Did you like this post? I’d love it if you’d share it with your friends. Subscribe at the bottom of this so you don’t miss any of the fun.
by Anne Page | Apr 20, 2016 | Inspiration, SLP Like a Boss
Dear young school SLP,[spacer height=”20px” id=”2″]
Congratulations on your graduation-you made it! I know it wasn’t easy. But you did it. You are the proud owner of a masters degree in speech language pathology. [spacer height=”20px” id=”2″]
Make sure you get a beautiful frame for your diploma-show it the respect it deserves. Celebrate and take a little time to relax. No more tests, finals or studying for the Praxis. No more research papers, at least not for a while.[spacer height=”20px” id=”2″]
You are starting an amazing journey. I’m sure you’ve had a taste of it through clinics and internships. Clinical fellowship is next. A time to jump in with both feet with a mentor who will have your back.[spacer height=”20px” id=”2″]
This job will delight you and at times exhaust you, but should never bore you.[spacer height=”20px” id=”2″]
You are now life changer.[spacer height=”20px” id=”2″]
You will connect with parents during times of doubt and vulnerability. You will teach them ways they can help their child. You will laugh with them and most probably you will cry with them.[spacer height=”20px” id=”2″]
You’ll have some great triumphs. Like the first time a previously nonverbal child speaks. You’ll have some epic disappointments. Because you care, you’ll feel the highs and the lows and all the emotions in between. And you wouldn’t have it any other way.[spacer height=”20px” id=”2″]
You will try all kinds of therapy methods and you’ll keep trying until you find something that works.[spacer height=”20px” id=”2″]
You’ll get hugs and high-fives every day. You may be the one person that is a constant source of love for a neglected child. Your heart will be broken. I’m sorry but it will. Maybe by a story a child tells you about his home life or by having your favorite child move without saying goodbye. Or even worse, by having a student die. But you will keep coming back.[spacer height=”20px” id=”2″]
You’ll work with so many amazing teachers who inspire you and a few negative teachers who will draw you into their disappointment if you let them. Protect yourself from The Negative Ones.[spacer height=”20px” id=”2″]
You will have scheduling challenges and conflicts. At times you’ll be overwhelmed with progress reports and IEP’s. But you’ll figure it out.[spacer height=”20px” id=”2″]
Even though you learned so much in grad school, you’ll wonder about all the practical things they didn’t teach you. Remember, you don’t have to do it alone; you’ll find other SLP’s to support you and who’ll share their ideas.[spacer height=”20px” id=”2″]
As the years go by, you will shape lives. Yes, you. You are helping children to communicate. You are giving them a voice for their thoughts. And sometimes you are giving them the building blocks to create new thoughts.[spacer height=”20px” id=”2″]
You are helping them have rich conversations with friends and giving them strategies that they will carry with them for the rest of their lives.[spacer height=”20px” id=”2″]
It is with honor, laughter, knowledge and kindness that you will guide your students to experience success. You will love it.[spacer height=”20px” id=”2″]
Welcome. The world needs you my friend, wishing you all the success you deserve. [spacer height=”20px” id=”2″]
With love,[spacer height=”20px” id=”2″]
P.S. Have you heard? We are having a huge SLP2Bgradgift giveaway and there’s still time to enter.
Click here to find out all the amazing details. The prize is worth over $500. Hurry! Giveaway ends on Friday, April 22.
by Anne Page | Apr 5, 2016 | Inspiration, SLP Like a Boss, Uncategorized
How do you SLP like a boss? Someone who SLPs like a boss, is professional, compassionate, organized and inspirational. An SLP boss gets things done!
In this series I’m interviewing SLP boss women who work by day as speech language pathologists, but at night (and on weekends), they are business builders. I’m talking about running websites, writing blogs and creating therapy materials for their fellow SLPs and teachers. They not only serve as advocates for their clients (students); they are advocates for our profession. These are the strong, amazing women that I admire and who inspire others.
Today I am talking with SLP Boss-lady Felice Clark from the creative website The Dabbling Speechie. You know when you meet someone for the first time and you like them right away? That’s how I felt about Felice. Friendly, funny and smart; she personifies SLP Like A Boss. I met her last year in Las Vegas at the Teachers Pay Teachers Sellers conference and saw her again briefly at the ASHA convention in Denver. Her TPT store features over 165 products. My current favorite is “Help! I Need Social Skills Pack”. Felice is currently working as a school speech language pathologist. Let’s dive in.
Tell me about yourself in seven words: creative, caffeinated, innovative, mommy, story teller, wife, and witty.
Where did you go to grad school?: Sacramento State University
What are your top three SLP must haves?: This is tough! Youtube, dry erase plastic pouches, and my magnetic scenes
What do you love most about what you do?: I love planning engaging therapy. I feel like I hit a home run when one of my lessons really helped a student make progress toward one of their goals.
Tell me your advice for the newly minted SLP: Set healthy boundaries for yourself. It’s okay to say “no” to something that you can’t accomplish or finish in a timely manner. It will help you with managing your caseload and ultimately keep your stress down. When I over commit myself, I usually am more grumpy with my colleagues and speech students. If you are taking work home more than 3 days a week, you either don’t have an adequate workload or you aren’t setting limits with your work life.
Tell me about your blog: My website is for busy SLP’s that have limited time to plan and find resources for their students. I find and/or create engaging therapy ideas for those SLP’s that desire to keep a “sparkle” in their speech room.
Tell me about your TPT store: My store has lots of goodies in it! I have a wide variety of resources, but I would say my most popular resources are my social skills packs, grammar sets, no prep activities and my big time saver AAC starter kit for students who are non-verbal or limited verbal. For spring, you need to grab my Nature Walk FREE printable for some outside therapy fun!
What SLP-boss inspires you? That’s hard, there are so many. I always like Nicole Allison’s items and the way she approaches therapy. I admire that she is methodical and the way she takes data. And Natalie Snyder is also very knowledgeable in this area.
What is your favorite children’s book? At the moment, one of my favorite books of all time is Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs.
What about picture books? I love using books in therapy! Some of my favorites for spring are In The Tall, Tall Grass, A Tiny Seed, The Gardener and The Hungry Little Caterpillar.
I really enjoyed catching up with Felice. There’s always something magical about talking to other SLPs, it’s like we’re all a secret society of smart women. To learn more about Felice, check out her website
The Dabbling Speechie.And in case you missed it, here is the article about
Kim Lewis, another SLP Like a Boss.
Did you like this post? If you did sign up for my email list, so you never miss another post.
How do you SLP Like a Boss?
Hearts and hashtags,
by Anne Page | Mar 29, 2016 | SLP Like a Boss, Therapy Ideas
(This photo is very tongue in cheek btw, just in case you don’t know me very well yet) [spacer height=”20px” id=”2″]I learn new skills in layers. I bet you do too.[spacer height=”20px” id=”2″]
First, I figure out the new vocabulary and jargon. Next, I figure out the general structure and maybe how other people have done it. Then I look at what the basic expectations are.[spacer height=”20px” id=”2″]
I spend some time practicing and with time build the skill. This applies to how I practice speech therapy, too.[spacer height=”20px” id=”2″]
My SLP journey was first get a bachelor’s degree, then work as an SLPA and SLT to get hands-on experience. I really thought I knew a lot (I did but not as much as I thought I did).[spacer height=”20px” id=”2″]
Then many years later I got my master’s degree. That was the layer of theory, clinical practicums, and clinical fellowship. This came with a whole lot of stress and a really HUMONGOUS learning curve. That was just three years ago.[spacer height=”20px” id=”2″]
Now I find myself moving to another deeper layer.[spacer height=”20px” id=”2″]
I’m calling it metatherapy. Thinking about thinking about therapy.[spacer height=”20px” id=”2″]
Instead of doing therapy and evaluations just to get them done, I’m asking myself a lot of big picture questions. [spacer height=”20px” id=”2″]
Questions like: I know my students need to build their vocabulary but what is the one skill that is going to help them the most? Yes, they need to know synonyms, antonyms, and categorization. But they also need to be able to transfer these skills to all the new vocabulary they will be exposed to throughout their school years. Of course, I look at best practices. And I’m thinking beyond that too.[spacer height=”20px” id=”2″]
How can I make them fall in love with words?[spacer height=”20px” id=”2″]
How can I make them love descriptive terms and all the beautiful nuances?[spacer height=”20px” id=”2″]
How can I make them excited that there are 16,000 different species of trees?[spacer height=”20px” id=”2″]
How can I make sure that when I ask them to tell me about a tree, they won’t just say it’s green and it grows.[spacer height=”20px” id=”2″]
I want them to be able to tell me a tree gives us shade in the summer, that we can climb it, that it can be a home for squirrels. It can have pecans or peaches or pine cones. It can be covered in pink blossoms in the springtime or flaming red leaves in the fall. That the leaves make music when they rustle in the wind. That trees shelter us and give us wood for fires. That some trees can tower to over 360 feet. That trees can have a multitude of different leaf shapes and shades of delicious green. That their bark can be smooth and cool or rough and scratchy. That trees can gather together to create a sacred space.[spacer height=”20px” id=”2″]
I want to open that world for them, to help them see and form beautiful word pools in their little brains. Such a beautiful, sparkling goal.[spacer height=”20px” id=”2″]
But of course, reality dictates that we have to write measurable, curriculum based goals. (And I do).[spacer height=”20px” id=”2″]
But is that our ultimate therapy goal? [spacer height=”20px” id=”2″]
Is it to have a student learn “x” number of new vocabulary words or is it to help him build a rich lexicon by inspiring him to read, ask questions and get excited about learning?[spacer height=”20px” id=”2″]
When I read Donalyn Miller’s book “The Book Whisperer” and understood how she thought outside the box with her approach to reading, I wanted to take that approach to language and language therapy. (I’ll put a link at the end of this post if you want to know more about this book).[spacer height=”20px” id=”2″]
I will keep digging, experimenting and exploring this juicy approach to therapy because it feels so right.[spacer height=”20px” id=”2″]
And of course I will share everything with you.[spacer height=”20px” id=”2″]
I do know that a good start is to share our love of words and language with our students.[spacer height=”20px” id=”2″]
We can find what really fascinates them and help them expand the subject and learn more. We can do that by walking them through our thought process, so they can start building those neuronal pathways for themselves.[spacer height=”20px” id=”2″]
This just makes me fall in love with speech language therapy all over again. I’m so meta (meta’s in the Urban Dictionary, check it out).[spacer height=”20px” id=”2″]
Meta Speech Language Therapy: it’s mindful, it’s looking at each child as an individual. It’s giving students a valuable gift not just applying a “speech band-aid”.[spacer height=”20px” id=”2″]
So what do you think? Are you with me?[spacer height=”20px” id=”2″]
Leave a comment below.[spacer height=”20px” id=”2″]
Go think deep thoughts and SLP like a boss,[spacer height=”20px” id=”2″]
by Anne Page | Mar 22, 2016 | SLP Time Hacks, The Organized SLP
SLPTimeHacks
Last Spring at this time, I was REALLY frantically busy. So…I didn’t do my Medicaid billing until May. That’s three months worth; it took me two solid days of desk work, gave me sore neck and had me singing the blues! I would much rather have been spending time with my students. I knew there had to be a better way.[spacer height=”20px” id=”2″]
Do you have to do Medicaid billing?[spacer height=”20px” id=”2″]
Do you dread doing it and save it till the end of the month? Or even worse save it till the end of two months?[spacer height=”20px” id=”2″]
In my district we do Medicaid billing. So that means in addition to gathering data, we need to submit that information through a third party billing company. It can be tedious and feel redundant but that’s how the school funds part of our services.[spacer height=”20px” id=”2″]
What I’ve done in the past (after my 3 month nightmare) is at the end of the month, panic, gather my notes and data and then spend a full day billing. [spacer height=”20px” id=”2″]
A whole day…no! Not gonna happen anymore.[spacer height=”20px” id=”2″]
So in January I tried a little experiment. Instead of saving up my Medicaid billing, I decided to bill immediately after a group when possible. If I have several back-to-back sessions, then bill at the end of the day.[spacer height=”20px” id=”2″]
I kept track of the time spent billing, which averages out to about 30 minutes a day. I made sure I scheduled that time for the rest of the month. [spacer height=”20px” id=”2″]
I noticed that once I got into the habit of billing daily, it was pretty doable.[spacer height=”20px” id=”2″]
I loved myself on that last working day of January. All I had to do was hit the “confirm all” button.[spacer height=”20px” id=”2″]
As a result, I have done this for February and March. Never gonna look back.[spacer height=”20px” id=”2″]
There is truth and value in “a stitch in time saves nine” and even in “how do you eat an elephant?” (one bite at a time, okay but I still think that’s gross).[spacer height=”20px” id=”2″]
One other thing I did that has been a huge time-saver/blues reducer is I spent some time really getting to know the system. I learned several shortcuts about the calendar feature and the group notes feature. I also identified exactly what information was needed by Medicaid in our state. Combined, these shaved off several more minutes daily.[spacer height=”20px” id=”2″]
I know it’s frustrating to juggle so many demands. But by planning ahead to bill daily and taking time to fully learn your billing company’s system, you’ll be amazed at how much more manageable this chore can be.[spacer height=”20px” id=”2″]
Keep coming back to read about my continuous search to help you find ways to streamline and save time, so that you can stress less and spend time doing what really brings you fulfillment.[spacer height=”20px” id=”2″]
Did you like this post? If you did please sign up below to be on the email list so you’ll be the first to know about more time saving tips and fun, engaging therapy materials.[spacer height=”20px” id=”2″]
For more time saving ideas read these posts:
SLP Time Hack: SLP Toolkit, Dream or Reality
SLP Time Hack: SLP Toolkit How to Stop Dreading Progress Reports
SLP Time Hack: Work Life Balance 7 Strategies
Keep doing what you do, you are making the world a better place,
Hey there I’m Anne Page. I help heart centered SLPs and educators put the fun in functional communication. 