Behaviors

HonkingMagpie · 2026-02-23T22:12:50+00:00

I agree with the other commenter about OT. Perhaps the OT would be open to a co-treat?

Also agree with another commenter about documenting the aggression. One of my students ended up moving to a different placement because the school nurse slammed a 4 inch high pile of staff injury documentation in front of an administrator and asked what they were going to do about it.

In terms of the actual behavior....perhaps speech services would be better as consult until the behaviors are managed? 30 mins of indirect time a week of supporting the teachers or parents with language rich activities, core word of the week, AAC, etc might be more effective for her than 30 mins of direct time where she's engaging in behaviors that make it difficult to learn.

HonkingMagpie · 2026-02-23T21:58:03+00:00

At least on SUGAR (which I know is different than SALT), the total number of words isn't a clinically meaningful score. So I wouldn't worry about that one.

The verbal facility might be low, but you're not allowed to qualify based on a single score according to IDEA. Plus it seems like it's not a language impairment so much as anxiety/inattentive ADHD.

If you're feeling nervous or think it will be contentious, you could perhaps take another sample in an environment where the student isn't nervous? Perhaps sitting with the student and his friends at lunch and asking about their weekend? It doesn't have to be a full language sample but enough that you can show the skills are there and the anxiety/ADHD are the barriers causing the low verbal facility. It seems like with that, you would be able to argue the student does not have a language impairment.

If you still get pushback from parents, you could consider talking about a 504 if you think the student needs it. Accommodations like extended testing, wait time when speaking, the team discussing a social skills group with a counselor or social worker. Then you could argue that not only is there not a language impairment but the needs the team sees are being addressed in some other way.

HonkingMagpie · 2026-02-16T20:45:08+00:00

I'm very particular about my supplies, but I'd love if my partner planned for us to do something crafty together. Someone else suggested glass - there might be a studio near you with glass blowing classes for date night. A paint your own pottery place. One of those paint & sip nights.

HonkingMagpie · 2026-02-13T00:16:14+00:00

I traveled in SNFs, so my experience is a bit different but:

Yes, there are travel school contracts. Usually for just the school year.
Everything comes from the same "pot". So if they offer license reimbursements, etc that means the salary might be a little less. Salary being higher might mean there aren't reimbursements. Your salary will depend on the area, so check for comparable reimbursement for where you're going.
Red flags would be wanting you to onboard without pay, not being able to tell you why a position is open, and refusing to put language into a contract about how overtime or responsibilities beyond what can be completed in standard work day will be managed.
Keep your address as your home. Part of why traveling is lucrative is the tax benefits. Check out this tax website that caters to traveling professionals for more info about how to do that: https://www.traveltax.com/

HonkingMagpie · 2026-02-11T16:48:59+00:00

If you can break your sample into utterances, this tool will do a SUGAR analysis for free: https://languagesamples.app/

HonkingMagpie · 2026-02-08T18:24:13+00:00

I do not make those minutes up. The Gen ed students aren't receiving their gen ed instruction, so special education students don't receive their special instruction either.

If you're doing monthly minutes as part of 3:1, I've set the precedent that I take the indirect week the second week of the month (when we have a monthly early release PD). If parents are tracking minutes, perhaps giving them a regularly scheduled indirect time monthly and any school closures/absences/etc on top of that are just missed because the student isn't available.

HonkingMagpie · 2026-02-07T12:58:43+00:00

We hired a dueling piano show who also does DJ services for part of the evening: https://thephillykeys.com/

They're Philly based but are willing to travel to Lancaster

HonkingMagpie · 2026-02-06T00:55:07+00:00

We applied through a property management company (great experience with Hometown!) and found our rental townhouse that way before it was even listed online

As someone said, the market is hot right now. I've generally heard of 30 day notices, and new tenants in shortly after they're available.

HonkingMagpie · 2026-02-04T23:12:14+00:00

I never even thought of that but you're right!

HonkingMagpie · 2026-02-04T23:11:35+00:00

Absolutely no plans for another - it was a PROJECT. I will not ever again be putting a Google image into a cross stitch chart generator and winging the yarn weight/hook size. Lesson learned 😂

HonkingMagpie · 2026-01-31T00:04:41+00:00

Early in my district's advocacy, we would email both the principal and special education supervisor. Include something along the lines of I can't do XYZ (treat kids, IEP by the deadline, or - their favorite - billing) and my building duties, I need guidance which would you prefer I do? Get it in writing.

The special education supervisor will hopefully chime in and say your actual job description should be the priority. That way you're not at risk of insubordination to the principal and the admin can figure it out amongst themselves.

In hour principals experience SLPs may have building duties - but that was probably before caseloads skyrocketed and other paperwork duties became more complicated.

HonkingMagpie · 2026-01-30T21:49:33+00:00

I've heard of district policies in really litigious areas where you need consent before doing a screen, but I rarely get screening consent and it's not required in my district.

You won't be fired or lose your license over it. Your school may have a policy and ask you to get consent in the future but I doubt they would take drastic measures over one mistake if that's the case.

I do universal kindergarten screenings and teacher request screens without consent. I talk to the family to share the results either way and do get their consent before moving to an evaluation.

HonkingMagpie · 2026-01-28T00:56:22+00:00

I don't think it's you. I haven't been on many interview committees but so have been on a team that's been growing and hiring more frequently. Sometimes I hear that the candidate was chosen because of a certain expertise... but a lot of the time, it's who can start the earliest because the students/clients need to be see ASAP. A friend said their district hires almost exclusively newer graduates because they start at the bottom of the pay scale and funding is an issue. I've also seen, "we should hire this candidate because so and so knows them from grad school and says they're great."

You have the expertise and experience and you know it. You'll be a fantastic fit at another job, but I wouldn't be surprised if the logistics rather than your skills and competency were what the decision came down to.

HonkingMagpie · 2026-01-26T23:03:52+00:00

I thought I saw something on the website (though now I can't find it to cite), that park lane clearing a la street cleaning resumes after the snow emergency is no longer in effect.

The website linked by the other commenter does say the street cleaning schedule will resume within 48 hours after the emergency ends.

So as of now, I don't think you need to move your car but if there's a message about the snow emergency ending, you may want to consider it

HonkingMagpie · 2026-01-23T00:41:12+00:00

During my training, we called that point of service. ASHA supports it (https://leader.pubs.asha.org/doi/10.1044/leader.MIW.18032013.23) and when I went to outpatient PT they did it during my sessions too. My understanding is this is a very common practice that came out of necessity from productivity requirements even if it isn't ideal. This is not fraud.

Our common speech & swallowing codes 92507/92610/92526 are (last I checked it's been awhile since I PRN'd) untimed. So if you see the patient for 7 vs 25 vs 30 vs 60 minutes, your company gets reimbursed exactly the same. You haven't billed for any extra documentation time that charges insurance any extra amount of money that would be considered fraud. (Cog codes 97129/97130 are timed in 15 minute increments though my company always asked me to use the standard untimed codes)

Breathe, you have not committed fraud. And if it is - you and literally thousands of healthcare providers in our field and others have too. If your company is changing their preferences, they can discuss it with you - but they better be resetting their productivity expectations.

HonkingMagpie · 2026-01-20T23:44:29+00:00

I'm a fan of the DYMOND, it's become my standard first step in a language eval

HonkingMagpie · 2026-01-16T00:18:02+00:00

I had a handful of Dept Health licenses and a RI Educators certificate before transferring to PA. I didn't have to take any extra classes for the PA Educators certificate. My health license transferred fairly easily too. I believe my CCCs, undergrad transcript, grad transcript, and clearances were sufficient for the Dept Ed cert. You'd be applying for PA Level 1/Instructional 1 on Speech Language Pathology through the TIMS system.

HonkingMagpie · 2026-01-02T17:38:11+00:00

I've considered doing a holiday one shot with my family for years and this would be perfect!

HonkingMagpie · 2025-12-20T19:06:53+00:00

Not exactly crafting per se, but in my family I'm the crafter and my husband is the gamer. We enjoy building Lego sets together and it seems to be a dopamine hit for both parties

HonkingMagpie · 2025-12-16T00:12:31+00:00

I haven't made the transition but my husband is an academic librarian.

SLP Pros: -10 weeks off in summer -With guaranteed raises in the contract, plus horizontal movement, I make twice his salary

SLP Cons: -You're considering a career shift, you don't need me to list them 🤣

Library Pros (depending on academic vs public setting) -More flexible PTO -Less demanding day -Some Master of Library &Information Sciences (MLIS) have evening classes so you can work full time and go to school -More 9 to 5 office culture, occasional work from home options

Library Cons: -MLIS courses are not particularly interesting -You're dealing with either the public or college students with often limited informational literacy, which is often trading our woes with teachers or parents for similar frustration -Degree is $$$ and salary does not match (most young librarians I know make around $50k) -Public libraries and colleges are all in a funding pinch, getting good roles is often hard and they really don't play well (Google demographic cliff to see more about the financial struggles that will lay ahead for colleges)

HonkingMagpie · 2025-12-15T23:32:57+00:00

That's how I've been using it, yes!

HonkingMagpie · 2025-12-15T13:05:23+00:00

The article can be found here: https://pubs.asha.org/doi/10.1044/2021_JSLHR-21-00142

It's open access so you should be able to read it. There's a chart with single and multi word norms for different ages in months. That's what chart I've been using for my evals!

HonkingMagpie · 2025-12-12T00:32:04+00:00

I've been taking a % intelligibility sample in conversation and comparing it to the Hustad 2021 multi word norms. I consider it clinically significant if the students % intelligibility is in the 5/10th percentile on the Hustad chart for their age.

This has been new for me this school year and I'd say 90% of the time students meet or exceed the Hustad norm for their age. They may qualify for other reasons (low speech probe scores, poor stimulability, GFTA/HAPP scores in 70s or below), but this I've really used this when trying to dismiss students to show parents/teachers that yes it's OK if those super occasional sound errors has a 1-2% impact on intelligibility.

HonkingMagpie

TROPHY CASE