First Up! The winner of the Easi-Speak Microphone Recorder from Learning Resources was Colleen Occhino! Congrats!
Parent communication is such an important part of therapy. When you work in a clinic and get the opportunity to be see parents each week, communicating strategies and therapy ideas is relatively easy. There is a significant challenge to attain the same amount of communication as a therapist in the schools. With 66 students currently on my caseload, this is one area I always find a challenge. I thought I would share a few things I do to communicate with parents.
For preschool each week I prepare a sheet like this. I can't take credit for the outline. My fellow SLP, Kara, was using a sheet like this last year when I started in the preschool. I love how she has it laid out and I've been using it consistently! This is my sheet for this week. I'm reading Sheep In a Jeep at circle and completing related activities with students. The sheet lists the book and brief description. It lists the IEP/Curriculum objectives targeted. It lays out some other social pragmatic ideas targeted and then lists an easy carryover idea to be used with an attached homework sheet. The bottom part of his page is cut off but it is a big box that I use to write therapy notes and comments. It's so nice for parents of our preschoolers to have an idea of what we did that day! Many of them can't go home and tell their parents what happened at speech, so taking the time to write this note is so helpful to them!
If there are weeks when I don't do a group circle or I am in a structured class where the kids aren't participating in as many group lessons, I use this worksheet. I'm not sure which colleague I stole this from, but I adapted it from one of them! This worksheet continues on to include pragmatics as well. Grab your copy HERE!
For school aged children, I don't send treatment notes home. I put this communication log into their folders. It allows the parent and I to write notes back and forth as needed. Some parents write every week. Most only write back when I write something! Which is fine with me! Grab your copy HERE!
For school aged kids I usually send home a half sheet of paper with language ideas once a month. Depending on how busy life gets, it doesn't always get done! The one pictured above had some ideas to complete in the car. The October ideas included ways to sort candy and talk about Halloween costumes. I know how busy life is for parents, so I try to make it ideas to fit into their regular life.
Those are a few things I am doing to communicate with parents! What are you doing in your speech room?
