Q-Global Survey

Nov 30, 2014 by

Q-Global Survey

Hi Everyone, I’m still looking for a few more SLP to complete the Q-Global survey I put up earlier this month.  Right now it looks like most of you are not using it, trusting it or can afford it.  I’ve worked with Q-Global and they have responded to our needs.  However, I am really disappointed with Pearson.  Like they will ever care. If you have a few minutes to fill out the survey please follow the link to my original article.  https://theschoolspeechtherapist.com/survey-q-global-and-the-celf-5/ Thanks in advance Teresa Sadowski Professional Liability for SLPs...

read more

Have a good chuckle but think while you’re laughing...

Nov 29, 2014 by

A few weeks ago I saw this “Buzz Word Bingo Card” floating around Facebook.  So much of this buzz word bingo had to do with measuring what students have learned rather than how/what students are being taught.  I assumed that that was why it made it on some of the funny education and anti-common core pages.  Does any buzz word here actually tell you anything about what the students are learning?  I’ll let you generate your own opinion on that.  Now compare this buzz word bingo card to the one below. Here is the Buzz Word Bingo that teachers might have shared in the late 1960’s.  Granted someone would have had to recreate it and run it off on on mimeograph machine (which were still used until the early 80ies).  It is important to note that using the...

read more

Thanksgiving Humor

Nov 28, 2014 by

Thanksgiving Humor

I found these Thanksgiving themed jokes floating around Facebook this week.  Even though it’s after Thanksgiving I am going to use these (or some of these) in therapy this week.  I believe they’re still relevant because the students just experienced Thanksgiving and with any luck remembered some of the details.  I am big on teaching how to recognize and understand humor.  Understanding humor is a huge part of social pragmatics.   I often have an objective focusing on humor written into my student’s ed plans. If students can’t “get it” they are often left behind both within the social realm and as curriculum/materials becomes more challenging.  Subtleties in language are all around us, from tv to textbooks.  Some kids “get it” easily and naturally and some do not.  Most of our language disabled kids...

read more

Shopping on Amazon this Season

Nov 28, 2014 by

Shopping on Amazon this Season

With Cyber Monday beginning for some probably today, if you order from Amazon remember to order through your favorite blog (such as mine)  Look for the Amazon link on the site and order from there. Or sign up for Amazon smile and send a few pennies to your favorite charity. It truly is only pennies but every little bit adds up. Since I can’t order through my own blog, I support the Trustees of...

read more

Survey: Q-Global and the CELF-5...

Nov 8, 2014 by

Survey: Q-Global and the CELF-5

Last January I wrote a couple of articles about Pearson’s Q-Global scoring system. As result had some nice conversations with Pearson regarding the scoring for the CELF-5 and how we use the data. In response to my concerns and the concerns of many other SLP’s, Pearson made some nice changes to the Q-Global system. Q-Global Scoring and the CELF-5 Q-Global Follow Up This week I ran into a new challenge with Q-Global, I had to purchase some scoring credits. My school system does not have an account. I assume my colleagues are scoring by hand and without complaint since I haven’t heard anything. I wanted to buy 10 scoring credits. Pearson’s web site made this difficult to do quickly. I ended up having to spend time calling Pearson only to be told the credits...

read more

Is the gap widening between School Speech Language Pathologists and Clinical Speech Language Pathologists?...

Nov 2, 2014 by

Is the gap widening between School Speech Language Pathologists and Clinical Speech Language Pathologists?

Reading articles and comments on my blog I’ve begun asking myself what I think are a couple of key questions. Is the gap widening between the school speech therapist and the clinical/hospital therapist? Why don’t we function the same way? Actually I’ve been thinking of this for a long time ever since an administrator, in passing at a staff meeting said something like, “They have to realize this is a public school”, in reference to a parent who wanted extra services in the ideal setting. At the time I thought privately to myself, why wouldn’t you want us providing the best services possible on parr with clinical or private therapists. So do school Speech Language Pathologists and Clinical Speech Language Pathologists function the same way? I know the answer to that would be no....

read more

Have school Speech Language Pathologists lost their focus?...

Sep 28, 2014 by

Have school Speech Language Pathologists lost their focus?

When I went to school my courses focused primarily on child development, language acquisition, understanding how the brain worked (and didn’t work), remediation techniques for articulation and language and learning about disabilities that resulted in a language delay or impairment. We didn’t just learn about working with kids or adults but all ages and disabilities. My coursework was clearly based on a medical model but I was trained to work in all settings. Throughout my career, I’ve carefully evaluated my students, identified their strengths and weaknesses through testing designed specifically to assess language functioning across receptive, expressive and pragmatic areas. Based on my testing, I wrote goals that focused on improving “language” abilities. I always felt that my purpose was to target and improve underlying language skills. The goal was to improve language abilities...

read more

Professional Liability Insurance-a must...

Sep 21, 2014 by

The School Speech Therapist welcomes a new sponsor, Trust Risk Management Services. TRMS provides Professional Liability Insurance for Speech Language Pathologists offering comprehensive policies tailored to your specific needs and reasonable rates. You can request an instant quote and learn more about professional liability insurance by going to the TRMS site or clicking the link located in the menu above. I feel very strongly about the need for Speech Language Pathologists to carry personal professional liability insurance. While the schools and agencies I’ve worked for over the years obviously carry liability insurance, I understood that I couldn’t always depend on my employer for enough protection or cover me if I was sued personally. Carrying my own liability insurance also gave me the flexibility to work with private clients as the opportunities arose without worry. Professional Liability insurance for...

read more

Osmo-I do like this new product!...

Sep 19, 2014 by

Osmo-I do like this new product!

Over the summer I was inundated with ads from a new educational product called Osmo. It’s basically a very unique app that works with your iPad and incorporates manipulative. After seeing the demo video I was hooked and I had to have one. Mine arrived this week. The special edition pack came with 2 sets of game manipulatives, Tanagram and Words. A third game called Newton was available for download (using the manipulatives of a paper and pencil or any solid object, including your hands). What puts a different spin on the Tanagram game is that the child has to shift their eye gaze from table to iPad to complete the tasks rather than lay an tanagram on top of a copy. It’s a fairly simple task but for young children or those with...

read more

Are you a CELFie?

Sep 14, 2014 by

Are you a CELFie?

With the update and name change of the Test of Language Competence (TLC), the term CELFie takes on a whole new meaning in the world of speech and language pathology. The TLC is now The Clinical Evaluation of Language Fundamentals 5 Metalinguistics. Now that we have two major CELF test batteries, I’m curious. How many of us SLP’s out there are now true CELFies? I guess I’m a CELFie. I’ve been using the CELF probably since it came out. I easily remember using the CELF 3, 4 and now 5. I used the CELF, back when I still had a typist typing my reports. I’ve always liked it and found it easy to use and reliable. I also liked the Test of Language Competence and used it often with my middle school population and...

read more

SMART Goals..It’s that time of year...

Sep 9, 2014 by

SMART Goals..It’s that time of year

Beginning of the school year and it is time to think about SMART goals again. Over the years I’ve posted a few articles on the subject.  An SLP named Holly just posted two comments with some very good ideas to this previous post What is your SMART Goal. One of my SMART Goals focused on parent education around language development along with suggestions to enhance language development at home.  I did this through a series of articles written for our school newsletter.  If you want to do something similar don’t reinvent the wheel, you can purchase copies of these articles on my TPT site. Your school newsletter and your smart goal   Last but not least, Share Your SMART Goal.   SMART goals are pretty difficult to come up with so share your ideas or even complete...

read more

55 Movies Every Kid Should See and Talk About (before they’re 13)...

Aug 19, 2014 by

55 Movies Every Kid Should See and Talk About (before they’re 13)

As a speech language pathologist I always look for fun ways to encourage language development. No matter what I am looking at or reading, my mind is always thinking about how I can present or modify the information/activity to benefit my students (or my own kids). This week I read an article in Entertainment Weekly titled “The 55 Essential Movies Kids Must Experience (Before They Turn 13).” Then I noticed my own young adult children joking with each other by quoting lines from TV/movies or talking about characteristics of memorable characters. Sometime these conversations go deeper discussing the music used in movies, the historical relevance/mistakes, continuity/goofs and trivia. There is a lot of language that can be learned from TV and Movies. Think about some of the animated Disney or Pixar films that constantly...

read more

First Impression CELF-5 Metalinguistics...

Jul 15, 2014 by

First Impression CELF-5 Metalinguistics

I was a big fan of the Test of Language Competence (TLC). Almost every middle school student I tested received the TLC. It looked at areas of language not addressed by most basic language batteries. The only problem was, it was seriously outdated. Whenever I lost access to the test, I called Pearson to find out if an update was in the works. The answer was always no but I could never bring myself to purchase the TLC because it was so outdated. You can only imagine how thrilled I was to learn they were finally updating the TLC. The Test of Language Competence has finally been replaced by The CELF-5 Metalinguistics. The CELF-5 Metalinguistics just arrived in the mail a few days ago so I won’t get a chance to administer it until the fall but...

read more

Fed Up With Lunch – Book Review...

Jul 10, 2014 by

Fed Up With Lunch – Book Review

Book Review “Fed Up With Lunch” By Author: Sarah Wu As a 30 year veteran of the public school system, I can tell you honestly that I haven’t voluntarily eaten a school lunch since 1983. I won’t go into the gory detail but lets just say that the meal of pulled BBQ pork just didn’t sit well. I’ve worked in many school systems and have witnessed many attempts to upgrade school lunch programs. These changes included hiring a new person to run the school lunch program, new schools with elaborate cafeterias, bringing in an outside service to run the food program, salad bars, menus with fun upbeat names and finally the worse going from a lunch lady who actually cooked the food to a service that provided styrofoam trays pre-filled with extremely small portions...

read more

The Fantastic Speech Therapy Blog List...

Jul 2, 2014 by

Hi Everyone, It’s been awhile but I finally added a few more sites to my SLP blog list.  Welcome to the following blogs The Sassy Speech Chick Stages Learning Apps For Speech Therapy You can link to my entire page of SLP blogs at https://theschoolspeechtherapist.com/slp-blogs/.  I am always looking to add new and interesting blogs to highlight.  If you’re a blogger and believe you have something unique let me hear about it.  Comment below....

read more

Book Review: Preschool Stuttering-What Parents Can Do...

Jun 23, 2014 by

Book Review: Preschool Stuttering-What Parents Can Do

Mirla G Raz author of the Help Me Talk Right Series, which focuses on how to teach /r/, /s/ and /l/ in 15 Easy Lessons has come up with another winner. This time she focuses on helping parents of preschool stutters in her new book “Preschool Stuttering, What Parents Can Do”. This book is a common sense guide for parents, giving them all the information they need to give and get their preschooler the help they need. “Preschool Stuttering, What Parents Can Do” is also designed to try and help alleviate concern through knowledge. The initial chapters help to demystify disfluency in young children. Ms. Raz thoroughly explains stuttering risk factors and typical vs. atypical disfluencies observed in preschoolers. She goes on to give many important tips an examples on how to respond to...

read more

Product Review: RAVpower Luster Mini 3000mAh Portable Charger...

May 11, 2014 by

Product Review: RAVpower Luster Mini 3000mAh Portable Charger

RAVpower has asked me to review one of their newer products the Luster Mini 3000mAh Portable Charger Lipstick-Sized. At this point the product gets a thumbs up from me. However, initially I had a difficult time figuring out how to use it and if I really needed a small portable battery charger. At first I was a little unclear about the purpose of the portable charger. This charger is designed for a phone not for a iPad or tablet. After reading the directions I charged up the unit overnight. Nowhere in the directions (that I could find) does it tell you that the unit is fully charged when a light changes from red to blue. After charging overnight I thought I saw a little red/blue thing going on but I wasn’t sure. The Luster...

read more

Your School Newsletter and Your SMART Goal...

Apr 6, 2014 by

Your School Newsletter and Your SMART Goal

For the past year and a half I’ve worked for a school district a couple days a week.  When you work very part time in a school you usually get to slip under the radar for many things.  SLPs in my position are sometimes even considered consult types.  You tend to miss a lot of information on procedures.  Anyway, SMART goal writing finally caught up with me.  I was there during the initial explanation of SMART goals at the beginning of last year so I wasn’t totally unprepared.  I had an idea of what I wanted to do and have actually been implementing  my ideas.  I even had a rough draft of my goals.  Last week I was finally asked to input my goals and it was extremely simple. My one specific professional goal...

read more

What is your S.M.A.R.T. goal?

Apr 6, 2014 by

What is your S.M.A.R.T. goal?

Looking in my archives, back in September 2012 I wrote an article on SMART goals and asked people to share their own smart goals.  At that time I had searched and searched and found no specific examples for speech language pathologists.  I would love to know what other SLPs ended up writing for their SMART Goals and if I get enough responses keep a data base to help others.  If you want to share your SMART Goal(s) to help others please pass them along.  I would also be interested in knowing how your goal was developed, who you worked with, if extra time was given to implement your goal, your caseload and if your goal was achieved.  No reason to reinvent the wheel. Teresa Just a thought:  I was speaking to a non-teacher friend...

read more

Lets be realistic about school wellness programs…then maybe they’ll work...

Mar 1, 2014 by

Lets be realistic about school wellness programs…then maybe they’ll work

Last week a friend sent me another article on Michelle Obama’s Lets Move Campaign. The article focused a new policies where “unhealthy foods” would not allow to be advertised during the school day. In particular the article referred to the advertising of certain CocaCola company products not being allowed in schools. Keep in mind how much support the Coca-Cola company has given to many causes over the years, especially the Olympics. “The idea here is simple – our classrooms should be healthy places where kids aren’t bombarded with ads for junk food,” the first lady said. “Because when parents are working hard to teach their kids healthy habits at home, their work shouldn’t be undone by unhealthy messages at school.”  M. Obama I am a little perplexed by what Mrs. Obama is trying to...

read more