3 Things That Matter More Than Your Therapy Activity

I was commenting on a Facebook thread about school-based SLPs traditionally bringing home a lot of paperwork. Someone wrote: “What you bring home depends on your caseload number, how many sessions you have per day, and how much planning time you have.” This particular SLP was talking about how she has a caseload around 70 (K-5) which includes a self-contained classroom where she sees each of those students individually 3x per week!

First of all, the literature out there doesn’t really support this service delivery model.

Second of all, this service delivery model eats up a ton of your valuable time between planning those sessions and actually seeing those students.

You’ll wind up doing MORE work for LESS progress.

So I’ll say it again: your AAC therapy activity doesn’t matter.

I can’t drop that bomb on you without suggesting what matters more.

So here are THREE THINGS that matter more:
1. Staff coaching. Have you trained ALL classroom staff; paras included? Do you continue to coach them even after the training? How are you measuring their progress?

2. Teacher collaboration. Do you meet regularly? Do you have consult time scheduled on your calendar? Is it clear that you’re open to collaboration?

3. Building rapport. Do you have fun in the classroom? Have you incentivized the staff? Do you go beyond just working with their students?

Now it’s your turn. Tell me: how important do you think therapy activities really are? 

Drop me a comment, then head to my free aac resource library to grab your free AAC push-in therapy checklist & get on the list to be the first to be notified about group coaching starting in February 2021!