Frenzied SLPs: Baselines and Progress Monitoring

https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh__8jIKDy5Yfbu8r4lR0lQKTAjbdIHeI3Dm-axz9IyyrfpZuSwxcglP6o1ZhjKp6_iwdshqcfWu2LoN9r8fGgnWypfFsNEZvXfYBeoC-ZHChDNSvm6IO0ncO59wsHoge-a9E8ksU6DJ14/s320/Frenzied+SLPs+Progress+Monitoring+and+Data.jpg

The Frenzied SLPs have a plethora of ideas for establishing baselines and progress monitoring.

Data. It's a necessary evil in our field. It can tell us so much useful information and really guide therapy decisions, but it can also be such a dizzying headache to collect and analyze frequently. Some jobs I've had required progress monitoring a certain number of times each month, and for others I've been on my own to monitor as needed. Either way, it can be a messy and overwhelming process if you're not organized.

Many SLPs have 50+ students on their caseloads and progress monitoring needs to be quick and efficient. That's why I tend to use data from regular therapy activities to collect my progress monitoring data. Since I am writing all those lines and circles every session anyway, I just look back at my data from a certain time frame and average it all out when it comes time to write progress reports. You can download the data sheet I use for FREE here.

Bonus quick tip: collect data in groups of 10 or 20 in order to make mental calculation of percentages quick and easy.

I frequently use my Ready, Set, Communicate booklets for quick data check-ins. Each page contains 10 trials making data collection quick and effortless.

What about those students who have goals with multiple objectives? I'm talking multiple speech sound errors, including various story grammar elements in a story retell task, or using language functionally in different ways such as asking/answering questions and using greetings appropriately.

Tracking data on so many different aspects of communication can get messy. None of us have the time to constantly round up several data sheets or log notes for every student every time we update their progress. In those cases, I prefer to use rubrics to track their progress.

Rubrics are an efficient way to track and score goals which contain many components, and also measure student progress over time.

Create your own rubrics in three easy steps:

1)   Determine the elements of your goal that need to be measured. This might be something like the steps to mastering a speech sound in conversation, or your short-term objectives.

2)   Set performance levels and assign points to each level. I like to set 3-5 criterion levels. Generally speaking, they range from "not yet demonstrating" to "proficient".

3)   Include descriptions/examples in your rubric cells of what would qualify for that score rating. Keep it simple! Your criterion must be clear and easy for others to interpret. If your student moves away and a new SLP inherits his goal/rubric, you want them to be able to continue using it with the same reliability.

If you'd like to start using rubrics to make progress monitoring easier, I've already done the work for you! Here is a collection of over 40 rubrics all bundled together. The download includes instructions, scoring examples, and editable rubric options!

How do you keep data collection a smooth process? Leave your tips in the comments! Be sure to read through all the posts below for a ton of tips from The Frenzied SLPs!

An InLinkz Link-up

2015 Speech Therapy Room Tour (Part 2)

a tour of my second therapy room this year

While one of my therapy rooms is full of soft muted colors, the room at my other school is bright, bright, bright! This is a classroom that I share with the special education teacher at this school. We work together with students in Kindergarten through 5th grade. The room can get pretty hectic with students, teachers, paraeducators, and the occasional student needing to visit the reset room, but it's fun! Take a look around:

This is the view as you walk into the room. As you can see, we are blessed to share a full-size classroom. The special education teacher works on the right side (with the blue rug and kidney table), and I work on the left side (by the windows). My roommate took the lead with the decorating, and I followed suit using the same color scheme. I love the bright green and black!

This is a close-up picture of my work area. I mainly work with students at the small rectangular table, but we sometimes overflow onto the round table. The game board under the window that says "We are stars!" is my reinforcement system. Students all colored their own stars, and each time they come to speech/language they get a chance to move their star one spot closer to the coveted prize space.

My desk area contains binders of printables used most often. The four file trays near the front allow me to keep materials I need for that week ready to go near the therapy table.

Behind the green curtain is where I keep all my therapy games, and the doors under the windows slide open for additional storage for articulation cards, etc. I made my own bulletin board between the windows by stapling bulletin board paper/border and nailing thumbtacks into the wall to store task cards and materials on binder rings. You can also see one of my all-time most often used therapy items - Articulation Cans (LOVE them!).

Finally, the view towards the back of the room. We arranged a bunch of file cabinets to have a little break area in between (you can see this area in the first picture - it's full of cushions and visuals to calm down), but that left me with a big blank file cabinet to stare at. So I taped up some fabric and created another "bulletin board". This one is magnetic! I keep a "Mystery Object" of the week up there, and sometimes attach articulation pictures on the bottom half for target practice. The blue curtain in the back of the room hides a reset room, and a bathroom :D

That's it! Let me know if you have any questions or comments below. Thanks for reading!

Frenzied SLPs: Favorite Organization Tips

start the second half of the school year off with revamping your organization

I'll admit it. Organization is not my strong suit. In my home life I live in what I'll call "organized chaos". There are usually a few piles of mail on my kitchen counter, a craft project might sit out for a few days before I put it away, and I usually don't have all my clean laundry in the closet before it's time to wash another load. But the good thing is that I typically know where things are when I need them. I've learned to accept this and love me for me.

At work, however, I operate a little differently. I'm a spontaneous SLP - meaning I typically don't plan out a day's or week's lessons in advance, but there are little tricks I use to help me stay organized and on top of things while splitting my time between two different buildings.

1) Clean up after myself.

At the end of each day, take a few minutes to put away your materials from the day, and clean anything "extra" off your desk. Sometimes this means I'll still make a pile of things that need to be immediately addressed the next day, but if they're there in plain view for me, I'm more likely to remember to get them completed. And it's so nice to arrive to a clean desk in the morning.

2) Keep supplies handy.

I keep a three-shelf cart of my most-used supplies right next to my therapy table. The cart carries markers/pencils/dry erase, magnetic chips, dry-erase sleeves, game tokens/dice, and student learning goals. That way, I don't have to get up to collect these small items in the middle of a therapy session, and since they are things I use multiple times per day I don't have to spend time taking them out and putting them away again.

3) Write everything down.

My memory is terrible. Really awful. I can't rely solely on my Google calendar to keep every due date and meeting and task in mind. I need to see things written down in front of me to remember. My Post-It Note lists were getting out of control, so I created a Sticky Note Command Center that is on top of my desk at both of my schools. It is a life saver to help me prioritize my to-do list and remember the important things each day/week. Download yours for free here.

I'm so excited to read through the organizational tips from the other Frenzied SLPs! We'd love it if you'd share your tips in the comments, or add a blog post to the linky below. Thanks for hosting this week Speech2U!

An InLinkz Link-up

2015 Speech Therapy Room Tour (Part 1)

come see how I set up one of two therapy rooms I share this year

The new school year brought a lot of changes to my assignment this year. Instead of working full-time in one building, my assignment is now split between two buildings within my district. I spend 40% of my time (2 days per week) at the same school I was at last year, but I moved from 3rd-8th grades down to Preschool and Kindergarten. I had to change rooms, and this meant going from a full-size classroom all by myself, to sharing a room with the occupational therapist. Come see how it's turned out!

This is the view when you walk into the room. The OT has all her stuff on the other half. (The bookcase with the pinwheels is the divider.) I chose teal, apple green, and pink as the main colors, with snippets of orange throughout.

To the left of the doorway there is a narrow storage area. Two 2-door cupboards, a bookshelf, and this shelf set with paper cubbies. I keep handouts and homework pages for each speech sound and many other therapy targets stored there. It makes grabbing practice sheets quick and easy for this last-minute-planner.

Continuing around the room, there is a bookshelf where I keep therapy books. I also have a small whiteboard in this corner.

In the center of the room is an interactive white board. I added some positive quotes around it to try and cover up the green chalkboard peeking out. Did it work?

My one bulletin board is brightly decorated, but holds minimal items at the present time (including FREE Speech Sound Banners!). I was planning on hanging a bunch of my materials that are on rings, but they were too heavy and I couldn't get them to stay hanging on the bulletin board! Any ideas? Underneath the bulletin board I have milk crates holding all my picture books, pockets with artic cards, and my precious laminator.

On the other side of the room are file cabinets full of student files, testing materials, and themed/seasonal therapy materials. Three bookcases full of goodies also help form the divider between my half of the room and the OT's side. You can see her therapy balls peeking out behind the tallest bookshelf. I sewed a curtain for the shelf that held the games, but I think I need to add a second curtain to cover the tallest bookshelf too. All those fun toys are right at eye level for my 3-year-olds! By the way, I bought a clearance set of sheets from Target and used that for the curtain material. Yards and yards of material for $8!

I. love. having. windows! The sun shines in during the morning and it's so cozy. The windows look out onto a small courtyard that is between two wings of the building. It's been nice to see the leaves changing! A simple fabric garland and leftover wedding lanterns decorate the windows. I also crafted up some pinwheels and a banner for my desk. Plants are also something I love having in my therapy room. They just seem to make things a little more homey.

Desk organization: student working folders on the left, office supplies in front, sticky note command center next to my chair. Don't forget family photos on your desk!

That's it! Any questions?

Sticky Note Command Center {free download}

use this free download to help keep your to-do lists organized

Hello friends! By now I'm sure you are all getting into the swing of the new school year, but if you're anything like me you have a million things on your list of things to get done, and random sticky notes posted everywhere! I had so many notes and reminders jotted down that I was actually forgetting things, so I decided to do something about it.

I created a sticky note command center for my desk! Now all my notes are in one spot for each building I work in and hopefully I won't be forgetting any more important things.

You can download your own sticky note command center here. The pages are editable so you can label the boxes to suit your own needs. There are two colorful versions, a grayscale version, and a blank version so you can add your own background to match your room decor. Enjoy!

(Please leave feedback if you download - it helps me know what to keep or change about the materials I create. Thanks!)

Using Rubrics to Track Speech Therapy Data

rubrics are an efficient way to track student data 

Raise your hand if you have a student or two on your caseload who has more than one speech goal. Raise your other hand if you have students who have really extensive goals which require you to track many different elements. I'm talking multiple speech sound errors, including various story grammar elements in a story retell task, or using language functionally in different ways (i.e. asking questions, answering questions, and using greetings).

We all have these sorts of goals we address every week. Tracking data on so many different aspects of communication can get messy. None of us have the time to constantly round up several data sheets or log notes for every student every time we update their progress. How can SLPs quickly and efficiently track student data in a way that measures their true progress and still makes sense?

Rubrics. Rubrics are the answer! *cue angelic music* Rubrics are an efficient way to track and score goals which contain many components, and also measure student progress over time. They are also an excellent way to give students more credit for the progress they are making, or measuring the amount of prompts/cues that are required for success.

So what kind of communication goals benefit from using rubrics? Well let's see, I have used rubrics at some point for each of the following goals: MLU, AAC, story retell, articulation, wh-questions, functional communication, vocabulary, semantics, phonological processes, and fluency. So, really, rubrics are appropriate to use with any speech goal and can help you determine the course of instructions (i.e. increasing complexity of speech targets or fading prompts).

Create Rubrics in 3 Easy Steps:

1)   Determine the elements of your goal that need to be measured (i.e. steps to mastering an articulation goal). This could be the same as your short-term objectives, or might be in-between steps for reaching the ultimate goal.

2)   Set performance levels and assign points to each level. I like to set 3-5 criterion levels (generally, they are: not yet demonstrating, approximate, and proficient).

3)   Include descriptions/examples in your rubric cells of what would qualify for that score rating.

There are three things I like to keep in mind when I am creating my speech therapy rubrics:

1)   Include a score for each element of your rubric.

2)   Keep it simple – Just say no to 150-point rubrics! Your criterion must be clear and easy for others to interpret. If your student moves away and a new SLP inherits his goal/rubric, you want them to be able to continue using it with the same reliability.

3)   Allow yourself to score several weeks’ worth of data on one piece of paper. I don’t like rubrics that take up a whole page for each data point. That bulks up my student folders too much when I have to print off a new sheet every other week. Plus then I still have multiple sheets to sort through when it comes to writing progress reports. Not to mention the printing/environmental costs.

If you'd like to start using rubrics in your own speech therapy room, I've already done the work for you: here are 21 rubrics all bundled together. The packet includes instructions and scoring examples, as well as blank rubrics ready to print and use. So go ahead, try rubrics out for yourself! I bet you won't go back :)

==========
Abby typed the word rubric 18 times in this post.

2014 Goals

What are your professional and personal goals for 2014?

I debated setting New Year's Resolutions this year because, like most people (I think), I'm not very good about keeping them through the year. (Case in point: I've had the same quilt I've been working on for, um, 8 years now?) The more I thought about it, though, the more I realized there were definite ways I'd like to improve various aspects of my personal and professional life in 2014. After some time reflecting on these goals this week, here's what I've come up with:

 graphics credits: Graphics From the Pond

Personal Goal: Procrastinate Less
I'm a huuuuuuge procrastinator and always have been! In college and grad school, I found that I would strive when deadlines were looming and I could maintain the most focus when time was short and I didn't have any other option! However, now as a working professional I'm sick of it and I'm going to do my best to change!

SLP Goal: More Timely Paperwork
This goes along with my personal goal. No more finishing progress reports in between parent/teacher conferences or printing out student graphs as I walk into an IEP meeting. No more waiting until the end of each month and entering in all my data into student graphs at once! No more waiting until the night before a meeting to write an evaluation report!

Blog/Teachers Pay Teachers Goal: Average 2 Posts Per Week
My goal is to average 2 posts per week. Some weeks may be more, and some weeks may be less. I don't want this blog to take over my life. I want it to be a creative outlet for me. And with less procrastinating from now on (see Goal #1), I hope to start scheduling more posts in advance if I know work or personal commitments are going to amp up during a certain month and take away from my blogging time.

Organization Goal: Create an App Spreadsheet
The agency I work for generously provided me with a 16GB iPad, but this is nowhere near enough memory!! I am constantly downloading free apps, and deleting apps to clear more room, and then the apps I delete get lost "in the cloud" and it's difficult for me to find them again. Or, if I go back and look at apps, I can't remember what they're for! So, my big goal for the year is to create a spreadsheet with the names of the apps I download, and categorize them into goal areas. That way I'll have a quick reference to help me reload apps, and to find the apps I need when lesson planning. It seems pretty daunting right now to think about starting this process, but I know it will be super helpful for me!

Just For Fun Goal: Read 25 Books
This summer I got myself a library card and went to town reading just for fun. I don't think I've read recreationally since before college! I'm using Goodreads to keep track of the books I've read, and the books I want to read, and have set a goal to read at least 25 books in 2014. I've already read two so far this week! (If you haven't read "The Paris Wife", I highly recommend it!) What is the best book you've read lately?

September SLP Link-Up

It's a new month! Time to check in and see what all the SLP Bloggers have been up to! Click here to see everyone's entries, and find out how you can participate!

This month I am...

Schooling...myself in Spanish! I recently found out about the Duolingo app, and I am loving it! Duolingo is FREE for Apple or Android products, and has been a great way to brush up on all the Spanish skills I've lost since high school. Try it out!

Excited...for our patio garden! We have two tomato plants, a green chile pepper plant, and a pot of herbs with parsley, oregano, and basil. Our peppers are growing like mad, and we've already harvested a few for soup and we even canned our own salsa! Can't wait for our little tomatoes to ripen :)

Prepping...preschool themes! This year I am providing services for children ages birth - Kindergarten, but the large majority of my caseload is 3-4 years old. I am going to attempt having weekly therapy themes this year, and have been super busy planning! What are your favorite themes to use with preschoolers? (I'm mega excited for ROBOTS!)

Trying...to blog in advance. These last few weeks have been SUPER motivating for me to blog. I just have ideas flying out the wazoo! I think it's because I've been at work for three weeks now and just keep getting more and more inspired by my kiddos. But of course, time is really valuable now that school is back up and running. I just don't have the time to blog like I had this summer. I finally created a blogging calendar, and I have a tentative schedule of what posts I'd like to write between now and December. Hopefully this calendar will keep me on task and updating regularly. I can't wait!!

*****
Click on over to All Y'All Need to read what other SLP Bloggers are up to this month. If you're not a blogger, let me know in the comments what you are Schooling, Excited, Prepping, and Trying this September!

Back to School Week: Scheduling Tips & Tricks

Back to School Week continues with tips and tricks for scheduling

Back to School Week continues here on Schoolhouse Talk! In case you missed it, yesterday's post was all about 6 Helpful Documents for the First Week of School. Today, we'll be thinking about the dreaded task of scheduling! 

This post originally appeared on September 19, 2012, but has been slightly updated.

As a student, the beginning of each school year comes with lots of exciting things. Shopping for a new outfit to wear on the first day of school, checking off the supplies on the classroom supply list, etc. Picking out folders was my favorite - what other children of the 90s out there can remember Lisa Frank school supplies?! I secretly was excited at the end of each summer when the class lists were posted. Summer always seemed to last too long, and I was always excited for school to start again. I was a huge nerd.

As a school employee, the beginning of each school year has a bit of a different feel. Yes, all the newness and excitement radiating from the students is a bit contagious, but mostly we long for summer break to start all over again. And as a school-based speech-language pathologist, the beginning of school means scheduling. Bleh. I am so fortunate this year as my caseload is starting out relatively low. I am serving two elementary schools plus birth-3 home visits in two neighboring towns. But I know some SLPs whose caseloads are pushing 80 students or have 3-4 buildings to schedule in the same 5-day school week.

My first year working in the school setting, scheduling 53 students at 2 different buildings was such a big source of stress. I had at least two different excel spreadsheets, class lists, a list of how I was going to group the students together, and a school calendar all on my desk at once. I think it took me a whole work week just to get the schedule to fit. It was a nightmare!

source

I was determined to complete my schedule differently this year. Somewhere over the summer I read the idea of using Post-It notes for scheduling, and I thought it was genius! So here is how I completed my scheduling this year...

I gave each teacher this form that listed the students in their classroom who have speech services along with the minutes required each week for services, and asked them to attach a copy of their class schedule or list the times that will NOT work to pull students.

Click here to download your own copy of these forms. I had more of my personal information on the slips I gave to teachers, but modified the document for general use for the purposes of this upload.

Once most of the teacher slips had been returned, I was ready to get scheduling! First, I organized my Post-Its by grade: preschoolers off campus got orange, preschoolers on campus got blue, Kindergarten got green, and 1st grade got pink. Home visits got yellow. I wrote administrative/lunch/regular meetings on purple notes. Each student got a Post-It with their name/grade/teacher, how many minutes of therapy they were required each week, and the times the teacher had said were okay to pull the student. If a student was to be seen twice a week, they got two Post-Its with their name.

Then I made a giant 5-day schedule, divided into 20-minute increments (mostly for a guideline - it would be unrealistic to be able to fit my students perfectly into the designated time slots). A white board would work really well too.

From there, I went to town sticking Post-Its into time slots that worked based on the times teachers had given me. I didn't need to keep referring to an excel spreadsheet to see teacher times or look back at old emails - everything I needed was right on the Post It. If a time didn't work, or if I needed to move a student to a different time, I could just pull off the Post It and move it to a different spot.

Scheduling was still a bit tedious since these students are all new to me, but it only took me one day to finalize my schedule this year. Woohoo! Of course, I know it's not actually final, and that conflicts and additions are bound to arise. But I think this was a pretty great system to use this year and I will more than likely tackle the project the same way in the future.

Leave a Comment: What tips do you have for making scheduling easier?

*********************************

UPDATE (2013): I've read some great tips on Crazy Speech World's instagram photo. I especially like basketball_mom_23's idea:

"I start with a document with all of the kids names down the left side and time slots across the top. I fill the squares in red for the Times that they are not able to be pulled (recess, specials, etc.). It makes it easier when I put groups together to find the common white areas to schedule those groups in. Also a quick reference for the rest of the year to check availability to do makeup therapy."