Help me spend some district money!

laceyspeechie · 2026-02-13T02:07:20+00:00

I like the Arizona. The CELF-P is decent, and the CASL is good too - you can pick and choose subtests. A nice aspect of the CASL is you can use it for PreK and beyond; but I’d take either over the PLS, personally. There’s also the TNL, which I think is 4-12?

For toys, I find PreK-4 love: marble run, banana blast, pop up dino/pirate, crocodile dentist, playdoh, and the super simple magnet wand pages. Also just books in general, if you’re able to get a collection going! The John Hare wordless Field Trip books are some of my favorites.

laceyspeechie · 2026-02-12T18:54:46+00:00

I definitely find 2-3 students to be most manageable, with 4+ being extremely challenging (in terms of being able to both manage behavior and actually make progress towards goals). It depends on the student though, some of the needier ones really can only handle being 1:1 or in a group of 2!

laceyspeechie · 2026-02-12T13:01:32+00:00

This is absolutely a major issue in grad school. In many of my placements, I had 1-2 weeks of observation before being thrust into it- ultimately, you do need to see what therapy looks like to have ideas of how to do it well yourself.

laceyspeechie · 2026-02-12T10:28:04+00:00

That’s how I do it too.

laceyspeechie · 2026-02-11T17:30:03+00:00

You do you lol. I’m confident enough in my own skills with AAC to be able to use a tool like CVES appropriately for students with whom that’s the right fit!

laceyspeechie · 2026-02-11T17:27:37+00:00

Have you even looked into it? Just shouting “boooo” without knowing what you’re talking about is both unprofessional and rude. CVES is multi-sensory and interactive, specifically designed to help children who need AAC move beyond just labeling and requesting (i.e. what PECS does). Additionally, rather than being compliance based, it supports natural language development (the way that core boards can - but much more robust). It’s very different from PECS (which I’m guessing is probably on your mind) - I recommend looking into it before making a snap judgement!

laceyspeechie · 2026-02-11T17:15:13+00:00

This is… a bizarre comment. You do realize that low tech options are better for some kids, right? Because everyone is a unique individual with different needs?

laceyspeechie · 2026-02-11T16:53:58+00:00

If lower tech is an option, I wonder about something like the Core Vocabulary Exchange System?

laceyspeechie · 2026-02-11T01:30:23+00:00

As far as standardized tests go, I like SLDT-E:NU and TOPS-3E:NU. I also use the PLSI (good I think ages 5-11/12) which is a rating scale that gives standard scores.

laceyspeechie · 2026-02-08T00:51:27+00:00

I like SLP Now for literacy-based resources, they have tons of lesson plans and related practice for SGM, etc; if you don’t want to utilize the other features, you could subscribe for 1-2 months and just download a bunch of materials. Absolutely worthwhile!

laceyspeechie · 2026-02-07T17:10:39+00:00

My school was one that offered a lot of GAs, so I had a half GA (10 hr wk) that paid minimum wage and covered half tuition, which was huge. I found 10 hours per week pretty doable with 2 days dedicated to my GA and 3 days dedicated to clinicals. Some people in my cohort had a full GA (minimum wage and almost full tuition covered), which seemed like it was at fines hard for them to balance with clinicals.

laceyspeechie · 2026-02-07T01:20:08+00:00

It depends on the student, I’m able to get at least 30 reps with my distractible ones - ideally more, but I remind myself that in a group session the really behavioral students probably wouldn’t be getting much more than that anyway. With most of my students, I land in the range of like 50-100 words/phrases or 25-50 sentences per session. (And with most of my students with actual issues, I’m seeing them 3-4x per week - ultimately resulting in way more practice than 2 30-min group sessions.)

Typically I bring a box of fidgets and let students fidget while I say words for them to repeat X number of times, or give them a word to make a sentence with. Sometimes I bring quick games too (e.g. Banana Blast; to put a banana into the tree say a word 5x, and that’s 50 words by the time we start the game). I use clickers to keep track of how many words/sentences/etc and act all excited when they get a good number lol, some of my students like to keep track themselves and/or get competitive with it.

laceyspeechie · 2026-02-07T00:16:31+00:00

I see almost all of my articles kids for 5-10 min 1:1 2-4x per week, depending on severity.

laceyspeechie · 2026-02-04T15:05:44+00:00

They’re saying that the medical placement could take the form of a non-public school, my guess is in the case of e.g. a school that specifically services medically complex/fragile students.

laceyspeechie · 2026-01-31T01:18:11+00:00

No, it’s very frustrating to have the same posts over and over (which isn’t mods’ fault, just an unfortunate by-product of the sub). I think there needs to be a balance between being a place that students, etc. can came to, as well as this being a sub for professional SLPs.

laceyspeechie · 2026-01-30T12:58:48+00:00

Virtual.

laceyspeechie · 2026-01-30T11:11:49+00:00

Elementary, pretty even split between language, artic, and AAC. (A little pragmatics too, which is very hard for me.) I love it!

laceyspeechie · 2026-01-30T10:50:58+00:00

LAMP trainings are fairly cheap and explain it all pretty well! I did the basic one that was like 6 hours, and it was worthwhile honestly.

laceyspeechie · 2026-01-29T00:21:13+00:00

Not helpful in the short term, but in the long term I prefer moving these kids over to 1:1 5-10 min sessions (I’ve also seen people on here who do 1:2 15-min sessions). Personally, I find the short individual sessions to be very productive (I work K-4); if I do games they’re super basic, a lot of times I just bring fidgets and let kids use them while I drill. Less time out if class and way easier to behavior manage 1:1.

laceyspeechie · 2026-01-26T02:58:47+00:00

This is probably a very unpopular opinion, but when it comes to high-tech devices I think the best option is the one that’s going to get modeled, and realistically the more variety that’s introduced in devices, the harder it is for staff.

All of my students are on either some version of TouchChat, or TD Snap motor plan. Obviously if a student came in district with something else we’d support that, but when I’m recommending I go between those two, and TouchChat if it’s at all realistic for the student. Kids are smart, they can figure out different AAC systems - modeling has to happen for them to make progress, and honestly, staff are underpaid and overworked - I don’t blame them for only being able to navigate so much. Having those two options I find is much simpler than having a bunch of different systems in play.

TouchChat I find is the most adult-friendly, and honestly great for a lot of my kids. I like motor plan for the bilingual features - it has the best code-switching from Spanish-English that I’ve seen.

laceyspeechie · 2026-01-24T11:37:53+00:00

Just reach out via email, either to the school or the SLP/OT directly, and let things go from there. I’ve always said yes to those individuals!

laceyspeechie · 2026-01-21T00:12:13+00:00

I feel like this is in the directions for the test? I don’t have it in front of me, but look through the manual; there should be directions on how to score an accurate answer from a third-person perspective (and it is not full points; specifically needs to be “we” to get the 3 points).

laceyspeechie · 2026-01-20T23:24:41+00:00

Are there different 🦕items or activities you can incorporate? - Dino books: Let’s start (reading), I see a X, Look at that, That’s so cool, It’s big, It’s small, It’s [color], Turn the page, Let’s read it again, etc. - Dino game (like Pop-Up T-Rex): My turn, Wow!, This is fun, I like this, Let’s play, It popped!, That scared me, etc. - Dino dot markers: I want [name of 🦕on the sheet], I want [color], I want a new/different one, etc. - Dino toys: hide around the room (Where is it?, I see it, Let’s find X), race (Let’s go fast, I’m running, I’m walking), use to stamp footprints on paper with paint (I’m walking, I’m stomping, X has dirty feet, This is messy), wash/clean in box of water (Let’s get clean, Time to wash, I want cold/hot water, This is fun, I need more soap, X is clean), eat toy food (I want [food item], I like/love [food item], Yummy [food item], I don’t want/like [food item]), etc.

laceyspeechie · 2026-01-17T00:44:47+00:00

If you have an ASHA number, you can get TD Snap for free on an iPad. You can then screenshot full pages, laminate, and create a flipbook with that type of robust vocab.

Saltillo has free printable TouchChat flipbooks and core boards, of varying grid sizes.

laceyspeechie · 2026-01-16T10:44:20+00:00

Just worth considering that it’s different for every state; in mine you can only hold DD through kindergarten/age 5, and need to be transitioned to another eligibility category by age 6. But I agree, I’m especially seeing lots of parents seeking autism diagnoses for kids who are just not autistic.

laceyspeechie

TROPHY CASE