A super common preschool or kindergarten goal for my students is spatial concepts (and also object functions and action verbs). To teach a skill effectively, you want to be confident in the why and how of what you’re doing, right?  Today, we’re chatting about the benefits of teaching spatial concepts and a few quick tips on how to do it! Why Target Spatial Concepts Locative prepositions (or positional or spatial concepts) are parts of speech that communicate a positional relationship between an object and a reference point.  So, what’s the point of teaching this to our students?  ..read more

When the air is chilly outside and the kids are cooped up inside, I try to pull out all the creative winter activities for speech therapy to make it a little more fun.  I do my best to make our sessions as interactive and engaging as possible this time of year. Doing fun, interactive games with your students doesn’t have to break the bank either. Here are eight low-cost snowy winter activities for speech therapy that your students will love! 1. Snow Sensory Bin My students always love anything hands-on.  It’s easy (and cheap) to buy or make some artificial snow.  I just put a l ..read more

Let’s talk about some easy goal setting activities for students!  We know that every student who walks through the door of our speech room has a communication goal… or two or five.  From the student’s perspective, their goals aren’t always clear to them.  Many think they’re coming to speech to play. As adults, we often set goals for ourselves like New Year’s resolutions, yearly professional growth plans, or life goals.  We know how empowering it can be to accomplish something you set out to do. Let’s give our students that same empowerment. Goal setting with students can b ..read more

As a school-based SLP, tackling preschool language therapy can be both challenging and rewarding. Helping young children develop their language skills is crucial to their academic and social success in the future. However, it can sometimes be difficult to find engaging and effective activities that hold their attention and provide the necessary stimulation for their language development. After years of experience in the field, I have compiled a list of my top 10 favorite preschool language therapy items! These activities have been tried and tested with lots of students, and have proven to be ..read more

Back to school in the speech therapy world means SLP data collection. It also means playing the scheduling Tetris game. You’ve got a lot of students, a lot of schedule restrictions, and only so much time in the day. Inevitably, you’re bound to end up with at least a couple of…cue the sad violins…mixed groups. As much as we’d love to group students however we want and to make the dream schedule, it never seems to work out that way, does it? Though I can’t fix your schedule, I can give you a few of my best tips for SLPs collecting data in mixed groups! 1. Groups within the group Identify common ..read more

Speech room decor and designs don’t have to be fancy. It can be as simple or as cutesy as you have time to make it! One thing it needs to be, though, is purposeful. Here are 6 different speech room decor tips to set up your speech room for success this back-to-school season! *This post may contain Amazon affiliate links, which just means I could get a tiny commission if you purchase from the link. 1. Function first You definitely don’t have to sacrifice a cute room for a functional one.  BUT, you do need to make sure you have what you need to keep things running smoothly. Decide on your ..read more

As SLPs, we all use prompting in our speech therapy sessions. It helps us build upon what a child already knows by scaffolding the skills that we target.  There are many forms of prompts and scaffolds.  We’ve spent time talking about the importance of verbal prompts and visual prompts in the past. Today, let’s chat about ways to use gestural prompting in speech therapy. WHAT IS IT? Gestural prompts are supports in the form of a gesture or action that the learner can observe the instructor doing.  This could include pointing, nodding, reaching, etc. Gestures give clues and inform ..read more

OK, so there really are no SLP products out there that can totally take away all your stress.  We’re human after all.  And I’ma be real with you for just one second.  if you’re a school-based SLP like me, we work for a broken system.   There will always be a measure of stress, but how you tackle and handle that stress is up to you.  Today, I’m sharing with you 7 SLP products that were game-changers for me and actually helped lower my feelings of stress at work.  (this post contains Amazon affiliate links) 1. Planner A good SLP planner can be incredibly ..read more

Effective group speech therapy activities are always hard to come by, but trying to deliver group therapy to preschoolers adds a whole new level of difficulty.  Whether you are doing group therapy in your speech room or pushing into the regular class, it’s not easy.  Today, let’s chat about a few tips and activities you can do with your preschoolers during group! This post contains affiliate links. If you have the privilege of working with these tiny humans here are a few quick tips that have helped me tremendously, especially during groups: Have a routine This will save your sanit ..read more

One of the main things that school SLPs struggle with is being effective in group speech therapy sessions.  We’ve all been there.  How are we supposed to keep up with everyone’s goals, make sure the students are engaged, and take all the data at the same time? I think the difficulties of group speech therapy come down to those three main things: It’s hard to juggle multiple activities It’s hard to take data on multiple students It’s hard to accurately target multiple goals Unless you are doing stations at each session, this isn’t easy.  As much as I love stations, it isn’t al ..read more