Some Practical Telepractice Lessons for Your Speech Therapy Sessions Right Now

Switching to telepractice due to Coronavirus has been a challenge for SLPs in many settings. Particularly in the pediatric setting, in can be challenging to find materials that engage learners while still targeting their speech and language objectives for effective sessions. This post includes several practical suggestions for lessons at the Elementary and Middle School level.

Elementary Ideas

• Use the Toy Theater Snakes and Ladders game as an open-ended board game for practicing targets, if your platform allows you to screen share.

• Read books - yes, physical books. If you want to try out some online options, the Epic App is free for teachers, and your library may give you Hoopla access so you can check out kid’s books from the library as well.

• YouTube videos can be a great way to have a topic to discuss. You can watch a child’s favorite (school appropriate) video and earn points for a few minutes at the end for demonstrating listening behaviors and giving points for this (eyes on teacher, mouth taking turns, ears listening, brain thinking and doing its best). I particularly like to find a video in a child’s interest area and turn off the sound, so the child practices story retell and answering comprehension questions about what is happening in the video.

Middle School Ideas

• Toy Theater Four Colors game (a lot like UNO) as an open-ended reinforcer activity or to practice the /R/ sound.

• Reading passages (free with a teacher account) from Readworks

• While reading a passage, use annotation tools on your PDF reader or on your telepractice platform for students to self-identify vocabulary words they don’t understand and need to learn.

• After reading the passage, open up a Google Doc to practice defining words, answering questions about the passage, and identifying the main idea and details. Screen share and write in the Google Doc so you can both see what you are working on.

Overall, these are low prep ideas for both elementary and middle school articulation and language sessions that don’t require too much extras and are (mostly) free to teach. If you’d like more ideas like this, we hope to continue to post lesson ideas in this space.

Sponsor

This blog post was sponsored by the SLP Happy Hour Teacher’s Pay Teachers store, specifically the R Taco Truck Boom Cards Deck. This resource allows students to have fun building tacos and visiting a taco truck and practicing /R/ in words, phrases and sentences. This material is great for grades three and up.

Dos and Don'ts of Telepractice Assessment

Are you an SLP doing standardized assessments via telepractice for the first time? Given that these are unprecedented in the time of Coronavirus, many SLPs are completing virtual standardized assessments for the first time. Many of us (myself included) weren’t trained how to complete these assessments virtually, and aren’t even sure if the scores are valid. In this blog post, you’ll learn some dos and don’ts for completing assessments via telepractice, plus a resource to go to to learn more. 

1. Do wear a headset for your assessments 

Noise canceling will help you stay focused and hear your client better.

2. Don’t include blanket statements in the assessment report 

Here is an example of what not to do: “results should be interpreted with caution as testing was completed via telepractice.” 

Instead, Here are some statements (from Pearson’s Webinar) you may want to try:

“This assessment was administered via telepractice. The _______ (test name) was used as a normative measure, and initial evidence for equivalence of scores with face-to-face administration has been established by empirical research.”

“_________ (name of test) was administered to assess (articulation/language/x). The following tasks have not yet been validated in empirical research as resulting in scores that are equivalent to a face-to-face administration (list), however these tasks show evidence for empirical equivalence (list).

“The examinee was attentive/distracted throughout the test and responded/did not respond to the examiner’s prompts. Due to the high/low number of modifications/lack of modifications needed and the examinee’s attentiveness and responsiveness, it is my professional opinion that it is appropriate/not appropriate to use normative scores.”

3. Do consider multiple factors before determining if you can/should report norms.

Some are similar considerations as when testing in face-to-face situations (audio video quality, type of response and is there evidence of equivalency for that type of task, how much deviation from standardized procedure, student behavior/attention).

4. Do practice ahead of time

Learning new skills can be intimidating and challenging, so preparing yourself will lower the stress. Remember to be kind to yourself.

For more dos and don'ts of Telepractice Assessments, listen to Episode 75 of the SLP Happy Hour Podcast. You can listen on Apple Podcast or on Stitcher here.

Four Books on White Privelege for SLPs

Are you an SLP looking for resources on antiracism? There are so many books and resources that it can be difficult to know where to start.

Like many educators, my own realization this summer came as a surprise and shock of how little I knew about these topics and how much there was to learn. 

The opposite of racist isn’t neutral, it’s antiracist. 

~Ibram X Kendi in How to Be Antiracist 

Should educators talk about race? 

Absolutely. By not talking about race we are ignoring the issue, and are allowing racial inequities to continue. As Ibram X Kendi notes, the only way to undo racism is to understand what racism is, name it, dismantle it, and not allow it to freeze us into inaction. 

There’s so much to learn, and learning will take a lifetime. Although there is so much to continue to learn, here are some books I’ve read lately that have informed my own learning. I do want to make it clear that I’m not a racial educator and have no specific training on this, but instead I’m sharing what I’ve read. I’ll give a short summary of each book in case you are interested in any of these books, and would like more information so you can know where to begin. The books here are in the order that I read them, and are in no particular order as far as how highly I recommend the book. 

Please feel free to purchase these books anywhere you buy books to support local businesses. For easy reference, I’ve included Amazon links in this particular article, but they are not affiliate links and I do not gain a commission or any financial rewards for sharing. 

Books - Here I’ll share just three books I read this summer, if you enjoy this blog post, there are more recommendations on the SLP Happy Hour Podcast.

Stamped from the Beginning by Ibram X Kendi 

Dr. Kendi is a writer, author and historian and is currently the director of the Center for Antiracist Research at Boston University. 

This book is more than 500 pages and is a historical journey exploring racism from the Greek Philosophers to present day. This book dives deep into history and is a recommended read for anyone who wants more context to understand antiracism as Dr Kendi explains it today and I’d recommend reading it before reading Dr Kendi’s book called How to be Antiracist (discussed later in this article). 

Be ready for a detailed historical journey as you read this book. As a warning, this book does take quite a while to finish because of its depth and detail, so I recommend being ready for a longer read before you start reading. That said, by gaining a historical view you’ll have a much more nuanced understanding of the present day, and for that reason I highly recommend this read. 

I’m Still Here: Black Dignity in a World Made for Whiteness by Austin Channing Brown 

This memoir is a powerful journey into Brown’s life growing up Black in America. If this title sounds familiar, you may have heard of the author or the title from Oprah’s Book Club, Reese’s Book Club, or Brene Brown’s podcast. 

The book starts with Austin describing how she learned, at age 7, that her parents named her Austin so that others would assume she was white. Austin talks about evangelical Christianity and the work place in particular. As someone who grew up in the evangelical Christian church and has been processing racism within education at the workplace, Channing explores these themes within this fantastic memoir that will make you laugh, cry and maybe even throw the book across the room. 

Well, That Escalated Quickly: Memoirs and Mistakes of an Accidental Activist by Franchesca Ramsey 

In this book, Ramsey discusses her journey from a YouTuber with a day job to a network TV commentator and comedian. This book is a series of essays that are funny, personal, and insightful. Ramsey starts by discussing what happened when a YouTube video went viral, and she became YouTube famous, with all the accolades and criticism that came with it. Ramsey’s viral YouTube video called “What White Girls Say….To Black Girls” was both praised and criticized. Through this, Ramsey discusses what she learned about “call in” versus “call out” culture and navigating the online space while discussing racism and white supremacy. 

This book is a recommended read for anyone who is in the social media space and wants a thoughtful (and funny) discussion on these topics. 

How to Be an Anitracist by Ibram X. Kendi 

I recommend reading Stamped from the Beginning first, this book really discusses the 1980s and onward. Dr. Kendi talks about his own childhood, his own experience and his parent’s experiences with racism and offers a guide on how to be an Antiracist. Kendi discusses how to move forward for those who want to move forward from an awareness of racism to learning what antiracism is and how to work towards it.

This book came highly recommended to me, but I found it just as dense and academic as Stamped, but a lot more wandering. This particular book wasn’t my favorite on the list - but again, reading is personal. I know this book has been transformative for many people.

There are so many wonderful book lists out there if you want more information, including this list from the NY Times and this list from Goodreads.

If you want even more book recommendations on this topic, you can listen to Episode 74 of the SLP Happy Hour Podcast.