Five in Five: Five Benefits of Daily Speech Services

For the last few years, I have used a daily articulation service delivery model, providing services for five minutes per day.  Initially, I panicked a bit (well, ok, maybe a bit more than a bit!), wondering how in the world was I going to provide services any differently and be effective.  I was used to the 20-30 minute groups 2x/week.  I was able to see several students and get quite a few trials in during that time IF the students came to their sessions independently.  IF they were able to attend to the activity.  IF I had my data tracking and activity set up and ready to go.  IF I ended on time with the previous group.  IF  I didn't get pulled in to a meeting, have to problem solve with a student, answer a classroom teacher's question...you know!

As I reflected on the way I was delivering services, I realized that my time was not as effective as I had planned and hoped.  Despite my best intentions and time spent prepping and organizing, it just wasn't happening.   So,  I decided to try out the "new" model and LOVE it!  Here's why!

EASIER TO SCHEDULE
Yes!  My scheduling is so much easier, with speech, that is.  First, I group students by location in the building.  I calculate five minutes per student and then take the number of students in that location to determine the "chunk" of time I need to provide services.  Grouping students by the same location is necessary so that I can pull students from their classroom into the hallway to work and then make my way to the next room.  Yes, that's right.  I work with students in the hallway!  I don't assign students a specific time, but I tell them I will see them during a window of time.  It alleviates several issues:  students coming independently and on time and wasted hallway time walking to and from therapy.  The best part of this all?  That problem with those few 10 and 15 minutes increments I can't use to see a group of students that I typically have to use as fractured prep time?  Problem solved!  I schedule two or three students for services!

LESS TIME OUT OF THE CLASSROOM
One of my initial concerns in trying out this type of service delivery was decreasing the quantity of service, but on the flip side, the frequency of services increased.  Generalization always seems to coincide with the frequency of practice, so it wasn't too hard to convince me, and the parents really like the idea of having daily contact with their student.  Even more so, they like the idea that their student misses only five minutes of class everyday.  The teachers love it too!  I have far fewer conflicts with scheduling students' speech sessions using the five minutes versus 20-30 minutes.

1:1 SERVICE
Yes.  I almost always see students 1:1 with a caseload of 50+.  At times, I put two students together for conversation or if the students seem to have a friendly competition that is motivating.  I feel like I really know the students and can give them quality time even for the short amount I work with them.  I also find the quality of my feedback is much better, more concise, and more effective.

JUST DRILL-NO FRILL
Can I really meet all of speech needs in the hallway?  Will the kids still enjoy speech?  Won't they get bored with just drill?  Yes.  Yes.  No!  I was surprised at how easy it was to grab a few materials and just drill.  The key is finding the right resources and having a few of those "gems" that target multiple speech sounds.  I use a lot of HELP for Articulation or Super Duper's Webber Articulation lists.  I put them in a small binder, and carry them with me.  Once you find your materials, it's a breeze!  (I also have access to a personal iPad, so I have several apps that I use, so I can just carry it with me instead.  It's a perfect option if you have it.)  Drilling is so much easier than having to worry about whose turn it is to choose a game, who gets to go first, setting it up the game and putting it away, etc.  All of that wasted time!  Instead, the students know the drill (pun intended), and the "game" is trying to see how many trials or the quality of trials they can get in their five minutes.  They enjoy that challenge and become motivated by "beating" their previous percentage.  It all depends on the student and his/her needs.  They still love speech.  It is all about the relationship that I build with them.  I find I get more trials in the five minutes than I did in the 20-30 minute sessions.

EASY MAKE-UPS
I always dreaded when I had to miss groups of students, especially if happened a few times in a short period of time.  There just wasn't time in the day to make up the times!  This service model alleviates that stress.  If I miss a session, I can easily put students together for 10 minutes to make up times. If students are absent, on a field trip, or whatever the situation, they only miss five minutes, which mathematically and logically is far less missed service time.  

The transition was so much easier than I expected and was well received by the parents.  I had much more data to share, and the students really made more progress!

Zaption for Speech, Language and Pragmatics.

We are just a few days into summer, but it gives me some time to write some posts that have been sitting as draft ideas. A few months ago I learned about Zaption a fantastic video editing tool that can be used with videos from around the web (PBS, National Geographic, Youtube) or with your own videos. You create a "tour" with a video and then are allowed to add captions, questions, other clips or pictures together to create your own unique learning "tour" or formative assessment. It can be used to introduce content, test content or further learning. I love, love, love Zaption, as it eliminates the pop-ups (like on youtube) and allows you to shorten clips (to eliminate extra or inappropriate content.) It also eliminates the video ads that also may not be appropriate to show in the classroom.

How do you use it?

This is a screen shot of their webpage. You will need to start with the orange JOIN FREE button in the bottom left to create a user name/login. You could also press the WATCH A QUICK DEMO button on the bottom right to learn how to put together your first "Tour." The quick demo shows you everything you need to become the Zaption pro you were meant to be:)

What else I've learned about Zaption:

There are two versions, a free version and a paid version (roughly $75 a year). I have only used the free version thus far, but LOVE it! I believe the paid version allows a teacher greater control with data tracking and greater editing ability (putting two videos together, adding their own photos etc).

Zaption App: 

Zaption also has a viewing app on iTunes, but can also be streamed on android tablets by going to their website. I currently work with a district that offers all students 1:1 technology with every student having a iPad to utilize. All of my students have been able to view my video tours through the app or by sending them an email link.

My Sample Tours: 

Reading Response or Language Questions:
http://zapt.io/tp6nm3f3

Analyzing Social Scenarios:
http://zapt.io/t9mgqqsh

Articulation/Rating Speech:

http://zapt.io/tymmp43y

After watching the tours all 25 of my students who used it, liked it!  I hope you and your students also love Zaption. Have more Zaption Questions? Click here for their FAQs page.

What's In The Bag?- Valentine Articulation

This year I have several students who are at the sentence or even conversation level for articulation. To incorporate some holiday fun this week we will play What's In The Bag. Let me just state that there are maybe a dozen ways to play this game and none are wrong. I will tell you how we plan to play but you can change it up as you see fit.To start you have one student leave the group with the bag full of the objects. They will return with just one object in the bag. Other students in the group ask yes or no questions to see if they can figure out the object. If they need additional clues the student in charge of the bag can give them more of a description. Everyone practices their sounds in sentences or conversation. This game does not have a winner per say, but is fun and something different. 

It can be changed to a directions following or describing, comparing/contrasting activity as well for language students. 

Here are the photos:

The objects we have are a combination of things from a dollar store or left over decorations from past school years. 

Super Summer Artic Practice!!

We have been out for summer for almost a week and it feels amazing. However, the break often means that students are away from speech services for roughly 30% of the entire school year. WIth this in mind at the end of every year I send home worksheets for students to practice their speech sounds. This year I sent my resources out via email as a reminder to parents as well as to save some paper. Parents and caregivers can help articulation students by giving feedback and make carryover skills much more successful. Like any other skill like piano, playing sports or reading, the more you practice the faster you improve in most cases. Here are some resources we sent home. Hope you enjoy them:

http://portlandlanguagelab.com; Word list that include a MineCraft theme for video game fans. 

http://slplessonplans.com/artic.html Word lists for several sounds, bingo pages, games and printable cards. Great for parents with carryover or SLP activities in therapy.

http://heatherspeechtherapy.com/worksheets/: Worksheets for each one of the consonant sounds and some holiday worksheets as well. 

http://www.communicationconnects.com: This is a great link for students who are able to read and are for speech sounds in sentences. Students could read to their parents or relatives at home. It has stories for many consonant sounds in initial, medial and final position. 

http://superpowerspeech.com: Amazing Word lists.

http://www.speech-language-therapy.com: More amazing wordlists for articulation practice.

www.quia.com : Matchup, concentration and battleship Java games created by Tracy Boyd for her Articulation students. Several sounds such as ch,sh, r, l, and s practice. 

http://www.eduplace.com/tales/: This is a great link for students who are at the reading or conversation level for speech sounds or who are working on parts of speech (nouns, verbs etc.) By creating their own fill- in stories. Called Wacky Web Tales, they can be quite wacky when you have creative students. 

The Future of Articulation Therapy?

Last evening I was reading about The SmartPalate System from CompleteSpeech which uses biofeedback to help articulation clients with appropriate tongue positioning. The system consists of a custom retainer with sensors that track both tongue and palate contacts. After a dental impression,  the CompleteSpeech firm creates a mouthpiece that can be connected to special software to show articulation movements in real-time. This technology is available for the clinical setting and with the support of speech therapy may also be available for home practice in between speech sessions (through their student membership program.) It may be one of the only ways to quantify exact placement of articulators when talking and may assist with the effectiveness of therapy and help with carryover. Biofeedback may in fact be the future of Articulation therapy! If you want to know more, Check out a video here.

From their website Completespeech links to Speech Therapists throughout the United States who use this technology:

http://www.completespeech.com/speech/slp_near_me/