The arrival of a new school year means setting lots of goals.  For the SLP, it might be setting goals for student success, paperwork completion, classroom push-in supports and many more. For students that receive my services, goal setting in speech therapy is just as important. My students working on articulation have their target skills down. Many can recite each and every target sound. My students working on language fall short when trying to identify objectives. Language skills are much more difficult to define for students. That doesn't mean I stop trying to reinforce this necessary part of therapy.

Here are the ways I try to help my students understand therapy goals at the start of speech therapy.

I use my target skill posters. The ones pictured below are part of my Back to Speech packet. Each target area includes a CCSS link and an "I can" statement.

Also taken from my Back to Speech packet, I use communication contracts, communication foldable packets, and speech and language snapshots to help my students identify their target skills.

We talk about the word communication and focus on why communication skills are important. I paraphrase from their IEPs and we select which target area of communication matches their IEP goals. Then we break down the areas into "I can" target statements.

How do you work on identifying goals with your students in speech therapy?

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Sparklle SLP

Did I mention that school starts tomorrow? What better time to link up with the super sweet Speech is Sweet for a Slice of Speech Monthly Lesson Plans for Speech Therapy.

I had the privilege of meeting the lovely Speech is Sweet while attending the Teachers Pay Teachers Conference in July. I wanted to spend more time with her and in due time I believe I will.  Until then, I am going to try and link up each month to bring you my lesson plans. Let me start off by saying that I do not generally organize my lesson plans monthly. I focus on weekly plans that often center around a theme and contain materials and reinforcement activities that I corral around that theme.  My specific plans are detailed within my individual data sheets for each student.

I use a form that is contained within my SLP Planner workload forms and usually write down activities that fall into each speech and language area. When I write out my individual plans, I quickly glance at the notes on the weekly plan.  I decided to attempt a visual set and again plan loosely for activities and ideas to address individual goals.

My first weeks will involve screening 5 classrooms of kindergarten students. I will be using my Kindergarten Speech and Language Screening product.

My Back to Speech product will be used for creation of a parent letter, home communication logs, and student folders. Each student will also complete a Communication Foldable or Speech and Language Snapshot. This will help me to get to know my students and review goals and objectives targeted during therapy sessions. It also serves as home communication!

As I work on my schedule, I will use a therapy schedule template and then fill out reminder cards for my students using this FREEBIE! I was tipped off to use Google Calendar to schedule from Word of Mouth. Check out this fabulous post to try it out yourself.  I cannot wait!

I have used informal baseline measures, my favorites from Nicole Allison and Super Power Speech; however, I found using these measures at IEP time for present levels is much more beneficial for me. That doesn't mean I don't take baseline.  I will document 50-100 word language samples and chart observational documentation using my data labels within my Back to Speech packet.

That is it for August!  Make sure to head back over to the link up to get even more ideas about lessons to use in August as you head back to school!

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Sparklle SLP