The Essential 55-book review

Apr 8, 2018 by Teresa Sadowski MA CCC-SLP

I was dusting some of my bookshelves and found this book The Essential 55 by Ron Clark. I remember being very impressed with this book back in 2009 and even wrote a book review. Remember something is a few years old doesn’t mean it isn’t very good or passe. Common sense and good manners go a long way. This book went beyond focusing on successful students (which seems to be the only focus these days)…it focused on creating successful people. From 2009 Your Middle Schooler: A Unique Age I’m always on the look out for common sense ideas that enhance more than just academics. In my field of Speech Language Pathology, pragmatic skill development is as important to us as receptive and expressive language development. Pragmatic skills are the social speech skills that help...

Just renewed my liability insurance…..don’t forget yours!...

Jan 6, 2018 by Teresa Sadowski MA CCC-SLP

Over the years I’ve had a habit of forgetting to renew my liability insurance. Now I just put it in my calendar and keep the bill with my personal bills. Trust Risk Management Services made renewel very easy this year letting me renew on line. Since I incorporated this year and started a private practice I did have to make some changes but usually the renewal is straight forward. While I’ve never needed to use my liability insurance I have carried it most of my professional career. Sorry here is my soap box…If you don’t carry liability you really should. Schools, clinics and hospitals all carry insurance that will cover you but in this very litigious world you can be sued personally. My fee for part time work was right around $125 which...

Accommodations are they really that effective?...

Jan 1, 2018 by Teresa Sadowski MA CCC-SLP

Every once in awhile I read back through my blog and look at the relevance and passion of my posts. I recently reread the post called “Are accommodations taking the place of specialized instruction” Looking at some recent IEPs I would think the answer is yes. I know I still write a lot of accommodations. My reasons are because I know I either don’t have the time to follow up on every thing during the limited weekly sessions or there are things I want to address (and do address) that just can’t be measured easily. Now I know most of the accommodations are related to testing but I have to ask are those accommodations being followed every time a test is given. With 20-30 kids in a classroom I seriously doubt it....

The Speech Teacher’s Handbook: Book Review...

Dec 28, 2017 by Teresa Sadowski MA CCC-SLP

I recently came across this book on Amazon. It piqued my interest so I bought it. It is called “The Speech Teacher’s Handbook, A Parent’s Guide to Speech and Language” by Molly Dresner, MS SLP-CCC. I found the title to be a little awkward but the information in the book to be pretty good. First of all I know a lot of you out there will take exception to the use of “The Speech Teacher”, you all need to get past that. Face it we have a branding issue, which is certainly a topic for another time. I can understand why Ms. Dresner used the title “Speech Teacher” because in the world of early intervention that is how we are known. In the book she makes it clear that she is a “Speech Language...

Visualizing and Verbalizing goals/objectives...

Oct 29, 2017 by Teresa Sadowski MA CCC-SLP

Several years ago I took the Visualizing and Verbalizing course. It must have been a 3 or 4-day course. I didn’t take it directly from Lindamood Bell but from a local agency that was approved by Lindamood-Bell and used Visualizing and Verbalizing in their practice. I was honestly very impressed with V and V. My initial impression was that it tapped into a lot of what I was trying to do with many of my students. Basically it presented me with a better-organized and sequential program that fit my needs at the time. At the completion of the course I wrote a reflection paper, which I feel is still relevant today. Now ironically, the V and V kit along with LIPS (then known as ADD) kit sat on my inherited shelves for years untouched....

Trust Risk Management Services for SLP Liability Insurance...

Sep 15, 2017 by Teresa Sadowski MA CCC-SLP

I just want to say thank you to Trust Risk Management Services for your continued support of my blog The School Speech Therapist the past 3 years. Trust Risk Management Services provides liability insurance for SLPs with comprehensive coverage and reasonable rates. I hope if you are a practicing SLP you already carry some type of liability insurance. However, if you don’t have insurance please take a look at the policies offered by TRMS. If you have insurance, next time your policy is up for renewal I hope you will take the time to compare your policy to what TRMS offers. My own personal feeling is that personal professional liability insurance is a must. Protection offered by schools, hospitals and agencies is usually there to protect their interests not necessarily yours....