The Frenzied SLPs are bringing you different perspectives on work team relationships this month. Now that an entire quarter has passed, I'm definitely in the grove of working with a variety of staff members at my school. As an SLP it's pretty imperative to establish solid work team relationships as we interact with many staff members throughout our day/week/year.

You can read about my incredible work team relationship with my OT here. Since I already described why I love my OT and the benefits of co-treating, today I am choosing to talk about a new adventure in work team relationships.

I've been dabbling with providing push-in therapy over the years. This year I made an effort to be consistent with select groups. There were many emotions along the way and while I'm continuing to learn, I'm sharing my tips for encountering a new work team relationship.

1.  Be approachable.
A friendly smile goes a long way. Being easy to talk to when beginning a new work team relationship may help you to make it work!

2. Know when to follow and lead. 
My Type A personality has entertained B quite often these days. While I allow my Type A to fade into the background, I'm learning to follow the lead of others. Going into a classroom run by another professional takes someone that is willing to follow first and lead when the time presents itself.

3. Choose the path that works for both professionals.  
I consistently push into 6 classrooms weekly for a total of 11 sessions involving 24 students on IEPs. This accounts for just over one-third of my current IEP caseload. Each setting looks different. In my case, there was actually very little discussion about the path with each teacher. I followed #1 and #2 and found different paths within each setting. We are making it work in many different ways.

4. Be flexible. 
Know your students' goals and the evidenced-based strategies/methods to target those goals. Be ready to flex when an activity already in progress lends itself to great therapy. Be able to modify your plan and expectations.

6. Take notice of the positives!
Yes, the control I had over my therapy room, the activities I chose, the routines and environment I implemented are not present when I am in someone else's room. That doesn't mean that the therapy I continue to provide is not noticed or effective. I overheard an intervention specialist remarking about a classroom teacher that was implementing a following directions activity with an at risk student...I smiled inside knowing that it was the same activity I had done within her room the day before with my caseload students. In another classroom, I noticed the teacher doing novel studies and asked about her next book. Amazon Prime shipping, a search through my purchased clip art, recall of student objectives, and time spent creating a speech and language companion led me to a therapy plan for the week that incorporated the classroom plan. (You an check out my Crankenstein book companion here.)

I've chosen to make it work and appreciate what this new team relationship can offer to both myself and my students. What are your tips for making it work? What new team relationships are you experiencing this year?

An InLinkz Link-up

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Sparklle SLP

I might have mentioned it before. The friendships I have discovered since I started blogging and creating for TPT have been unexpectedly invaluable. Today, I'm sharing even more friendships while joining in on the Ghost Talk Blog Hop.

A group of SLP bloggers and TPT sellers collaborated by creating an original book and companion activities especially themed for Halloween! Just hop along to collect these fun and effective FREEBIES. Quick or no prep therapy planning will be complete!

I'll introduce you to my SLP friends and a snapshot of their freebies below. Then I'll tell you where to start if you happened to find me first!

While attending my state school-based speech language therapy conference last October, I had the privilege of meeting the adorable Pedi Speechie. She created a super cute original story. You will love The Ghost That Wasn't Spooky!

While floating in the lazy river at the Beach Club during the TPT conference this summer at Disney World, I talked life and all things speechie with SLP Talk with Desiree and Speech Wonderland! Desiree created a social skills companion and Speech Wonderland crafted up some positional concepts to accompany the story.

While my time with the Speech Attic was limited at the TPT conference as we both had family along for the work trip, first impressions were positively strong and you will love the freebie she created that targets sequencing. Actually, you will love anything she creates!

The Speech Owl was a blogger I followed early on and we were lucky to meet over lunch at the TPT conference. I just have a feeling our paths will cross again! You will love her describing vocabulary and comparing/contrasting companion activities.

While I haven't yet met (for real in person) Speechasaurus, I did buy some fun leggings from her virtual party, so we are real friends for sure! I'm so glad she made grammar companion activities.

Finally, for your articulation and phonology kiddos, I have created a freebie which includes a word list for /s, l, r/ sounds, an open-ended freebie worksheet, phonology flips booklets for targeting cluster reduction and fronting, and an open-ended game board to use with any sounds. Click here to download this FREEBIE!

So, in case you found me first, click the image below to start the hop! Have a spook-tacular Halloween! Thanks for hopping by!

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Sparklle SLP

Mixed groups of kindergarten students are taking over my speech room this year. While I'm continuing to push-in to many classrooms throughout my day (more on that topic when my emotional roller coaster finds a straight track), my kindergarten students are continuing to receive my support within the speech room for many reasons. It truly is the least restrictive environment for these littlest elementary students at this time.

Here's my hypothetical group. Student A speaks mostly in vowels with lovely intonation. Student B smiles often and glances in my direction; however, verbalizes minimally. Student C has quite a lot to say with speech sound errors that should be quick to remediate and receptive language skills that still require support. Student D has energy that I would like to bottle, along with phonology and grammar targets that get addressed in between behavior modification. Just another day or should I say twice weekly 30 minute session in my speech room.

I've planned books, games, card drills, craftivities, you name it. I'm juggling materials and targets and when the group leaves my room I'm ready for a nap. This too shall pass I say. This is not a new occurrence. Kindergarten students arrive every year and yet being in an elementary school just doesn't fit with the needs of these little beings. It will. They always adjust.  Their teachers are miracle workers and the support staff all rise to the occasion too.

While barrier activities are not a new idea, often times I forgot about their huge benefit. They keep little hands busy! You can target sooooo many goals using barrier activities.

Expanding mean length of utterance.
Following directions.
Sentence structure.
Narrative development.
Articulation.
Turn taking.

You can create your own barrier activities using stickers and coloring books.  Buy multiple copies of the same coloring books and sticker packs.  If you want students to take home their work, just stick the stickers onto the book. If you want them to be reusable, try laminating the pages or using sheet protectors. Do you remember Colorforms (no affiliation)? I loved Colorforms. Melissa and Doug also has reusable sticker pack sets, like these (no affiliation).

You can also grab toys from home like puzzles, paper dolls, or little figures and create your own barrier activities. You can even use mini thematic erasers and picture scenes.

I have made my own barrier activities and they are available in my TpT store here.  My newest barrier activity set includes football, cheerleading, and soccer.

Do you use barrier activities in speech therapy?  What goals do you target and what materials do you use?

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Sparklle SLP

October is here and I'm decorating for fall at home. Although I don't change my decor in my speech room, I do love using themes in therapy, which adds some fall colors.

I'm joining Speech is Sweet again for a Slice of Speech Monthly Lesson Plans for Speech Therapy. I'm sharing fall-themed and Halloween-themed plans for this month.

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 group plans, I quickly glance at the notes on the weekly plan.  I have a container next to my therapy table that houses all my chosen activities for the week(s), so it's grab and go (literally when I am pushing into classrooms).

Here are the books and companions I plan on using this month. If you have not yet tried using books and companions in therapy, I highly recommend their use.  Here is an excerpt from an earlier post. "I might have mentioned a time or two that I love using books in therapy.  It's seriously my favorite therapy activity.  Engaged students, rich vocabulary, plentiful and varied sentence structure, and articulation words galore.  You've got therapy!" #truth

My Monthly Speech and Language October is Back to Speech and Language packet will be my quick drill therapy this month. This product contains cards and activities for just about every student on my caseload. While it takes some time to prep, it can be used over and over again for skill and drill therapy.

For those mixed kindergarten groups...I'm covered with another barrier activity!

Some interactive following directions using leaves is also in the plans!

What materials are in your plans for October?

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Sparklle SLP