Classroom Management Isn't Just for Teachers

Finally, a post that's really about speech and language therapy in the school setting!

Before I get into the meat of the post, here's some backstory. My bachelor's degree is in Applied Linguistics and Spanish (double major, since my university didn't confer dual BA's) and I also earned a TESL (teaching English as a second language) certificate with a few extra applied linguistics classes. I am not a certified or licensed ESL teacher! I just learned how to teach ESL in case I decided to pursue that line of work. I've used almost everything I learned from my applied linguistics and TESL classes with regards to classroom management and curriculum design in my practice as an SLP. That's what inspired this evening's post.

If you are a school-based clinician, then you rarely see individual kids all day. Your caseload numbers are far too high to accommodate individual sessions for each student. So you end up with lots of dyads, some triads, and more and more you may find yourself taking on a whole classroom of students (this is a great way to do an informal, very basic screening of kids that a teacher is concerned about!). Your graduate program will touch on ways to do group therapy and design curriculum-based materials, but that doesn't necessarily prepare you for three kids at a table who are all vying for your attention. Here are some strategies I've used with at least moderate success.

1) Print out copies of practice materials. If you want each student to practice their sounds and not create a cacaphony of voices when it's not their turn during a game or activity, then give them a sheet of practice words or sentences for them to peruse quietly. I tried this first with a couple of loud, enthusiastic groups. It took some training for everyone to self-monitor their vocal volume and ability to stay on task, but after a couple of weeks I saw and heard a big difference in noise-level, on-task behaviors, and even cooperation between students when I was working with their fellow speech buddies. This is especially helpful for groups in which each student is working on a different sound or structure.

2) Ask classroom teachers what they are teaching in science and social studies. I hated language arts as a K-12 student. I didn't feel very good at it and I thought most of it was boring. Many other kids feel the same way about math. But Science? Social studies? Those were and are cool! They also lend themselves well to what SLPs do in therapy because of all of the vocabulary, sequencing, relational concepts, and high interest level. A student who's interested will learn more.

3) Make your speech room rules concise and small in number. Too many rules will turn into a wall of text and a barrage of auditory information that is completely uninteresting. Ms. Persistence's Speech Rules are very simple and easy to review at the beginning and end of therapy sessions. I only have five of them:

1. Listen to Ms. Persistence
2. Try your best
3. Keep your hands and feet to yourself
4. Show respect
5. We play games to have fun, not just to win.

For #4, I made sure to talk with each student about respect, how to show it, and how not everyone can or has to show it exactly the same way (eye contact, augh!). As an added bonus, my first graders who are learning to read like to read my speech rules and tell me how well they followed each one.

4) Have a system in place so that each student in a group will have a chance to choose the game, take the first turn, etc. I wouldn't suggest rolling dice each time because of the potential for one person getting to choose a game more often than their speech buddies. With a dyad, this is pretty simple because you just alternate weeks. Triads are a little trickier because it takes time to write everything down and remember. My CFY supervisor writes a dot, a 1, or a 2 next to each kiddo's name for that day's session. A dot means that student chose the game today, a 1 means that student got to take the first turn and will pick the game next time, and a 2 means that student will get to take the first turn next time. I've found this to be useful and you might find it useful, too.

5) Don't beat yourself up when something doesn't work. When you're new, this happens a lot. It can set the tone for your whole day if you're not careful. But it's not just you! It happens to everyone. Instead of spending hours reflecting on what went wrong, have a few contingency plans in place for next time. Ask another SLP or school clinician what they would do (our OT is a great resource for me). Ask a teacher what they find useful and think about whether it might work in a small group setting. Groups are tricky and they can take some trial and error.

I'm looking for more strategies for groups. If you have one, tell me about in a comment!

What I Would Buy With $300

Fair is fair, so here's my shopping list:

1. Candyland

Everyone loves it. You can target basic concepts such as colors, pragmatic skills such as turn-taking and good sportsmanship, following multi-step directions, counting, and you can use it as a game for articulation or language therapy (e.g. three words/sentences with the target structure, then pick a card).

2. No Glamour Articulation
3. Webber Jumbo Artic Drill Book

These two books have everything I need for articulation therapy. They're fantastic for when I'm rushed. I would recommend having one of these in book form and one in CD-rom form. That way you can pull the book out when you're transitioning quickly between students, and you can print out nice-looking pages for homework. Plus you can make copies, do some coloring, and voila you have a set of articulation cards!

4. No Glamour Language & Reasoning

This book has a really solid foundation for language activities. I use it as a jumping off point. It can give you some direction when designing your own therapy materials.

5. Crayola Markers

I picked these because they last the longest and have the most colors. More colors means you can target descriptions, comparatives, basic concepts, and using specific vocabulary (I do not accept "that one" or "here" as answers to "wh" questions!). Plus, who doesn't love markers? I find them far superior to crayons because I don't have to push as hard in order to get good, uniform color. It's the little things that make a difference.

6. Stickers!

Extra bonus points if they are smelly. I have a file folder of assorted stickers of varying shapes and sizes (and smells). Some of them are for rewards, some are for therapy activities.

7. Sorry

I like this for the same reasons I like Candyland. And it's a little more time/effort intensive for older kids.

8. Granny's Candies

My favorite language game! My version is pretty old; it was passed down to me by my mentor. I use it all the time because there's something for everyone. One variation I like is to see if we, as a team can beat the number of candies I write on the board, usually 30 or 40. That way it's not always a who-can-beat-whom game.

9. Construction paper, glue, and scissors

Kids love to cut and glue things. It often drives me nuts, but it's tangible. It's also more fun for language-delayed preschoolers to cut and glue big and small objects onto different halves of a piece of blue paper than it is to read a book and point.

Note: None of this is meant as an advertisement! It's more of a list for the me of six months ago.

Next post: What it's like to go to a seminar on ASDs when I have one myself.

Therapy On A Budget: A Challenge

During my second semester of grad school, I took a class on school-age language development and disorders. One of the best activities of the whole term was dividing up into groups of 4 and deciding how best to spend $1000 on therapy and testing materials (or was it more? $1000 seems about right). $1000 goes really, really quickly and it's also an unlikely amount to be given for materials, especially if you work for a public school district. She gave each group a stack of catalogues and a calculator. I don't know how many of us realized that therapy materials such as articulation cards were just part of what we'd need. We had to consider supplies such as dry-erase markers, time timers, portable whiteboards, board games, stickers, tokens, and construction paper.

This year, I was allotted $200 by the district and another $440 by Medicaid. The catch was that I had to buy everything myself and then be reimbursed. Everything bought with district or Medicaid $ is technically owned by the district - I can't take it with me if I ever leave. At this point in the school year, I've blown through this money and also spent close to $400 of my own on treatment materials, books, games, and school supplies (however, most of the games and books are mine to keep!). Adding up how much I've spent on materials reminded me of the challenge set forth by my School-Age Language instructor. And I've decided to pass the challenge on to anyone who reads this blog.

Let's pretend you are a new SLP in either a school district or a clinic. You can be reimbursed for some of your materials, but no one is giving you any money up front. You have $300 saved up so that your shelves at work are not full of borrowed and possibly-falling-apart games. Let's also presume that your district/clinic provides you with all of your testing materials (mine does, thankfully) and that you have two drawers full of pretty much every type of assessment you could need (again, I do). You need to use your $300 to find treatment materials, activities, and miscellaneous supplies to get you through the first couple months of work and beyond. I'll let you decide your age range, but I'm going to stipulate that your students/clients have a wide range of needs.

Reply to this post with a list of what you would spend your $300 on! I'm curious, and I'll make a post later on with my own list.