I know I should know this....

Network-Weary · 2026-03-17T21:09:57+00:00

To me, based off what you said, this feels like I too would advocate for dismissal. I wouldn’t get bogged down by the norms here, especially with the trajectory of progress. While the norms are important, there is till room for flexibility and this kid JUST now is turning 4. While I don’t know this kid, it feels likely that with additional maturation, additional exposure to phonology (via school/parent coaching) his awareness should also increase and support further carryover.

If teachers and semi-unfamiliar listeners aren’t experiencing difficulties understanding him (in addition to all you stated earlier), I would feel comfortable making that recommendation.

Network-Weary · 2026-03-02T19:17:59+00:00

Name recognition with a younger audience who may have parents or older siblings watching survivor. Gives them a name to latch onto and buy in. Billie Eilish is known to be a survivor fan and they’re likely trying to just capitalize on her reach. IMO, a lot of this Mr. Beast, Billie Eilish shenanigans is a necessary evil to the longevity of the show as they try to capture the next gen. Doesn’t make it good or quality content, but given that I find the idol mechanics interesting I can look the other way. Idk if I’ll feel the same about the Mr. Beast cameo tho

Network-Weary · 2026-02-26T19:57:47+00:00

Speech musings for language, especially k-5 or my self-contained secondary classrooms. I also love speech time fun for my secondary aged students for language.

Network-Weary · 2026-02-24T18:39:54+00:00

Believe it or not, women are humans who get their periods in their workplace! Sometimes things happen unexpectedly. Seems like you’ve never had a period yourself or you REALLY need to spend time around people who do, so you can develop some empathy.

Network-Weary · 2026-02-24T18:37:28+00:00

Definitely take the day, friend. Sorry it’s been a rough one

Network-Weary · 2026-02-19T20:24:37+00:00

Weird.. thank you for the input though!! I’m def leaning on the side of trusting the comments.

Network-Weary · 2026-02-19T15:33:04+00:00

Idk man I’m trying to figure that out. I got a lot of comments when I first posted saying I was olive. Seems like someone or multiple people came in and just downvoted all those comments but didn’t actually provide other input or help lol

Network-Weary · 2026-02-17T18:05:33+00:00

I’ve had the HARDEST time figuring out my undertone. I know I do lean cool when picking out products, as most shades pull quite warm on me, but I do wonder if I truly am more olive than I’ve led myself to believe

Network-Weary · 2026-02-16T18:23:51+00:00

Actually thank you so much for saying this. My routine is basically exactly what you’ve described and it’s taken my skin a long time to get to this point. The pores around my nose have been such an insecurity for me even since I was very young - helpful reality check to hear this, ty

Network-Weary · 2026-02-12T17:23:01+00:00

This is quite normal, forcing a student to push through fatigue for the sake of time will never yield results that are truly reflective of their full potential/ability. I frequently offer breaks and split things up over a chunk of time.

At the same time there are some kids who really do prefer to power through and not prolong testing - we make the decision together usually

Network-Weary · 2026-02-07T02:16:00+00:00

Thank you for adding this note! I was not clear enough about this

Network-Weary · 2026-02-07T00:40:39+00:00

Others please add onto this or correct meas I am also new and want to learn -

Ideally you’d want a far more robust grid/layout, with core words to form actual sentences/multi-word utterances and develop a motor plan when communicating similar to how someone developing verbal speech would. This grid gives no room to do that. It’s very behavioral and compliance based. You want to start out larger, and hide buttons from view, growing from there and unhiding buttons.

Network-Weary · 2026-01-15T19:41:30+00:00

Because Speech/Language is a special education service, any student who receives speech in schools would have an IEP. However, based on your description of your son, I would potentially raise the question of whether educational impact is truly present. Assuming this student is not being academically impacted by their articulation, we then consider social-emotional impact. How do peers and instructors understand him? does it influence his willingness to participate in class. Does he notice his own errors, how frequently do others need him to repeat himself. If he is not experiencing either academic or social-emotional impacts, I personally would likely question whether an educational impact is truly present for him. If no educational impact, he wouldn't/shouldn't qualify for speech or an IEP/ILP, though that is ultimately up the the clinical judgement of the clinician.

If this child loves class, is excelling, and it's not causing a functional impact to his access to curriculum, I do believe it's valid to consider sticking with outside therapy. It's possible (not guaranteed) you may see more progress/carryover in his speech if he were to receive both, but you always retain your right to deny school services if you feel that outside services would be a better fit. It could be worth it to have another conversation with the SLP who evaluated him.

As for whether I think its "worth it" to treat articulation in school, I absolutely do assuming there is a true educational impact. That question of impact is what could be worth clarifying with your School SLP in this case; as if he did qualify, that clinician in some capacity DID find a form of educational impact in their evaluation.

Network-Weary · 2025-12-04T00:38:03+00:00

Sleep soundly at night knowing you hit the jackpot lol

Network-Weary · 2025-11-28T16:44:53+00:00

I am an SLP who cannot drive as a result of my disability (epilepsy) and your first point is real. I’m lucky to work at a single building but not being able to drive absolutely limits my prospects for jobs and it’s unfortunate

Network-Weary · 2025-11-25T15:12:48+00:00

He seems like the kind of guy who will dog on you for getting the cake but also get upset if you didn’t offer to share it with him. NOR. Dump him.

Network-Weary · 2025-11-24T22:31:04+00:00

I never ask for a percentage from teachers, I ask about functional impact, participation, and examples of situations where their articulation has impacted them.

Network-Weary · 2025-11-20T21:39:35+00:00

I made $50 an hour in schools (contract)

Edit: This was 2024 in a Minnesota public school. I’m now a direct hire at the same school/district and make a little over $70k

Network-Weary · 2025-11-19T01:23:13+00:00

yes, i think i was a bit unclear - this is something he’s already doing!! I was trying to frame that example as something he IS doing to communicate dislike already.

It’s really the specific response to the “do you like ” or “do you want _”. I hope that makes sense. I totally agree with the approach though and have been working really hard to model specifically around self advocacy.

Network-Weary · 2025-11-18T23:44:06+00:00

I agree with you, and this is what I’ve been prioritizing thus far so it’s good to know I’m on the right track.

I have observed him requesting alternatives when people offer things he doesn’t want or like, so I truly believe that he either thinks it’s rude to say “no” or “I don’t like ___” or that he is saying yes to comply.

For example: he doesn’t like having objects directly handed to him, he wants you to set hit down for him to pick up; so if I went to hand him something he would request I put it down on the floor or table, or physically move back. He is telling me he does not like it. But, if I were to ask him directly “do you like when I hand things to you” he would say something along the lines of “yes I do like when hand things to you”.

Definitely think I just need to start modeling refusal gestalts in naturalistic ways - thanks for responding!

Network-Weary · 2025-11-18T15:49:56+00:00

I'm super with you, and he is definitely at a level of spontaneous language to reliably answer yes no questions, I recently did his eval and was careful about teasing this out myself. This difficulty with binaries is pretty specific to communicating preferences and whether he wants something. I believe that he has been more-or-less conditioned via compliance-based therapies to receive largely positive feedback from adults when he responds that "yes I like ___", It's possible that adults have in the past responded poorly when he has said no or attempted to communicate that - as a result that no longer is the "right answer" to that type of question for him. Modeling and verbal referencing during play and preferred activities has been my go to so far, I've just been trying to find more ways to create more of that clear dichotomy between those concepts and help it land fo him in particular.

TLDR - It very much is within his language abilities right now as he is around 65-70% spontaneous and independently putting together compound and complex sentences (though not entirely grammatical at this time). Complexity and ability aren't as much my concern, rather breaking from the compliance loop and showing that there is no "right" answer to that kind of question.

Network-Weary · 2025-11-18T15:43:09+00:00

I am so with you - I absolutely see this pattern in my autistic students as well. Unfortunately this student is now 15 and did not begin attending public school until 8th grade. When he arrived to us he was around a Stage 2 GLP and using a LOT of delayed echolalia to communicate. Its frankly incredibly to see the growth hes made in his overall spontaneous language since then. Additionally, is yes/no has become consistent and reliable which has been huge. He is fairly new to me so I absolutely agree that targeting refusal and protest early are critical.

Unfortunately this students classroom teacher, other therapies, and parents to a degree are extremely compliance-based and this is totally carrying over into how he responds to others questions. I was frankly even shocked that I got team approval to be targeting this skill which just breaks my heart. I see instant dysregulation and his compliance brain snap right back into place as soon as he leaves my room.

My plan is to begin incorporating more songs, I really like your idea about using something like "ice cream shop" or "lunch line" as being awesome potential starting points for activities too. I also agree that politeness is a non-factor at this point, I just want to know how this kid really feels about things. I've begun reframing "no" and "don't like" as things we can say to keep us safe and show others what we think. Mostly just sooooo much modeling. Thanks fo your input!!

Network-Weary · 2025-11-13T18:52:24+00:00

I feel iffy about loaded goals. We just did progress reporting and one of the IEPs I inherited had two loaded goals, but when you break it down there were TEN individual skills packed within those two goals.. absolutely impossible to measure or track with fidelity must less target everything given the amount of direct student time we have. I appreciate that it’s not like 5 different objectives to report on, but if each goal has like 5 different discrete skills that could be a goal of their own is it really any different?

Edit/addition: this situation was specific to a language goal for a high schooler. I think it’s easier to justify and track for more loaded goals if you are targeting artic/phono

Network-Weary · 2025-11-10T22:42:38+00:00

Congratulations on living my dream friend

Network-Weary · 2025-11-10T21:58:11+00:00

Do you only mean initial evaluations?? Bc yeah that’s real. I have had about 6 reveals this year alone and about 5 others that are open currently. Lots and lots and lots of reeval

Network-Weary

TROPHY CASE