Stay Connected with Progressus Therapy Industry Leaders

Summer is an excellent time for school-based therapists to learn new techniques, acquire new skills and review best practice. In my school district, I have shorter days during Extended School Year (summer school), giving me a little more breathing room in my schedule. This extra time allows me to read and review materials from courses I have taken in the past. It also enables me to register for a couple professional development courses that I have wanted to take.

Summer is quickly approaching. My school district’s last day of school is June 25. Some students participate in an extended school year summer program, but not all parents choose to send their child to “summer school.” Here are some ideas to get you started on crafting some summer home programs for your students.

Recently, a new speech pathologist joined our school district. When we met, she was very excited because she explained that she loves to do co-treatments with PT. She wanted to know if we had any shared students that might be appropriate candidates for co-treatments. As it turned out, none of our shared students ended up being appropriate for collaborative sessions, but her comment inspired me.

Just about this time of year, I begin to feel like I need some rejuvenation in my therapy sessions. One of the most fun ways to achieve this is through a toy shopping spree. On my spring vacation I did a scouting expedition with my mom, who is a speech-language pathologist in Northern California. We found some really fun toys to share!

In my school district, we are not supposed to pull students for therapy sessions during lunch or recess times, but sometimes this guideline gets overlooked. At a recent IEP meeting, I was recommending reducing a student’s PT service frequency because she had made so much progress in PT. I told her parents...

Recently, I was observing a preschool classroom. They were participating in a circle-time activity with a silly song that had motions for the students to follow. I found myself looking on in amazement; my students were attempting to participate and imitate the motions. I wondered why they were doing so much better in circle time than they do in my pull out therapy sessions. Could it be the music?

The start of a new year is always a good time to think about goals. You may be coming up with personal resolutions at the start of the year such as losing weight or saving up more money.   Professional goals should be an equal priority.

At the beginning of the school year this past July, I asked each clinician on my team to write up a couple professional goals for themselves and a couple for our team. I review these goals every quarter to see how we’re doing and what progress we have made.