7th grade and the SLP

Aug 27, 2015 by Teresa Sadowski MA CCC-SLP

Yesterday I received a question that had to do with transition to 7th grade “I find it difficult to transition students from 6th grade to middle school, meaning targeting appropriate goals/etc. What are the areas you find critical to this age? Do you have a screening tool you give to your students? What are the main areas you look at to gauge success in junior high/middle school?” First lets talk briefly about 7th grade. 7th grade, no matter what middle school model your school has, is a significant bump up in academics, expectations, higher order language (understanding and usage, texts, adult usage, peers……) and higher order thinking. 7th grade is the year the speech and language students dismissed from therapy a couple of years ago will end up back on your radar. The reason...

The Practical SLP: Middle School...

Jul 27, 2013 by Teresa Sadowski MA CCC-SLP

Back in 2007, when I was taking a computer course and needed to put some teacher training together I chose to write about the roles and responsibilities of the School Speech Language Pathologist. It was a nice introduction for the teachers and for those who paid attention, I think they learned something about our field. This was just before RTI, core curriculum and the new teacher evaluation process took over. Reflecting on what I wrote 6 years ago, our job hasn’t changed that much…..it’s just been added to. So take a look, please note the word “Practical” in the title. At the time when all these changes were looming I thought it was appropriate (and still do). The Practical SLP powerpoint 2007 copy Teresa...

When does a Middle School Child need a Speech and Language Evaluation...

Jan 30, 2012 by Teresa Sadowski MA CCC-SLP

By law every child who receives special education services has to have a Core Evaluation every three years. Depending on the child’s current needs and services it is not unusual for psychological testing or IQ testing be eliminated from that years test battery. We don’t always expect big changes with IQ over time. However, Speech and Language testing should be included in every three year reevaluation where the student currently receives therapy. During the middle school years the hope is that language will develop in leaps and bounds, even in children with language disabilities,. Think of how much a child grows and matures during the middle school years. Changes in a child’s language understanding and usage should be equally as dramatic. The middle school student should be developing higher order language skills that...

Being There for Your Middle Schooler...

Jan 26, 2012 by Teresa Sadowski MA CCC-SLP

While our kids are young we go out of the way to make sure our kids are safe and cared for especially in our absence. We adjust our schedules, search out the best (and often the most expensive) daycare, enroll the kids in after school programs, take them to lessons, make sure they are active in sports, organize play dates, help with homework/projects, know all their friends and basically supervise all waking hours, just to make sure our kids have a chance and stay out of trouble. All of a sudden, the kids are older, better able to take care of themselves and frankly pushing their parents away. There is no need to be home the minute they walk in the door. You may want to go back to work or increase your hours...