255: Bridging the Gap: How SLPs Can Empower Teachers to Support Students with Speech and Language Needs
Show Notes:
In this another energizing episode of SLP Coffee Talk, Hallie dives into actionable strategies for collaborating with classroom teachers to better support your older speech students (grades 4–12). From recommending simple accommodations to fostering generalization of skills beyond the therapy room, this episode is your go-to guide for making classrooms more accessible and boosting student success. 💡 Ready to make an impact? Let’s do this, SLPs!
Here's what we learned:
- Bridging the gap between speech therapy and the classroom.
- Advocating for students' needs and ensuring academic content accessibility.
- Extra processing time for students to absorb and respond.
- Using visual supports like graphic organizers (e.g., “Somebody Wanted But So Then” for summarizing).
- Allowing alternative ways to demonstrate knowledge (e.g., written reflections or recorded responses).
- Fostering independence by reducing future accommodation needs.
Remember: You are not the customer. Your perspective differs from your students’.
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JOKE OF THE WEEK:
Q: What do you call a classmate with a dictionary in their pants?
A: Smarty pants
Where We Can Connect:
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TRANSCRIPT
00:00:00 Hallie: Hey there SLP, working with grades 4 through 12. New school year, new you. Let's not go into this school year feeling overwhelmed and behind on paperwork. Let's not worry about students asking why they are coming to speech. Let's not have students shrug in their shoulders and looking at you saying, why am I here? I don't wanna be here. Let's instead have your students excited to come to speech, ready to take on the challenges you provide and make a massive progress towards their goals.
00:00:30 Hallie: If you are ready to make this school year, the year that you leave work promptly at the end of the day, plan in an hour or less a week and go into every session confident that your students will grasp the session objectives, then SLP Elevate is just what you need to make this school year a successful one. Either go to slpelevate.com or send me a DM on Instagram with the word club, C-U-L-B, and we can discuss if SLP Elevate is right for you and your students. Now is the time to get your time back. And now is the time to get your students excited to come to speech. SLP Elevate is perfect for you.
00:01:15 Hallie: Welcome to SLP Coffee Talk, the podcast designed exclusively for speech language pathologists who work with older students, grades 4 through 12. I am your host, Hallie Sherman, your SLP behind Speech Time Fun, the Speech Retreat Conference, and the SLP Elevate membership. And I'm thrilled to bring you conversations, strategies, and insights that will give you the jolt of inspiration that you need. Whether you're tuning in during your morning commute, on a break in between sessions, or relaxation time. I am here for you each and every week. Let's do this SLPs.
00:01:55 Hallie: Hey, hey, and welcome to another episode of SLP Coffee Talk. In this episode, we're gonna be discussing how we, as SLPs, working with secondary students, grades four through 12, can support teachers in accommodating our students with speech and language needs in the classroom. Granted, this episode is mainly for those working with older students, but a lot of the things we are sharing here today can still be applied to the elementary age students as well.
00:02:23 Hallie: We're going to walk through some practical tips for offering accommodation suggestions that are easy to implement and will make a meaningful difference for our students. So why do accommodations matter and why do our students need it and why is it so important for us to take the time to share this stuff with the classroom teachers? Well one, as SLPs, we're often working closely with our students on specific skills in a small group pullout setting in our speech closets where our teachers are not aware what we are working on.
00:02:59 Hallie: And when they are going back to that classroom or once they are done with us, the dynamics change. They're no longer in a group of five students and working on skills at their individual level and what they individually need. Accommodations in the classroom are essential for ensuring that the progress they make with us translates and carries over into real world academic success. And even if we are pushing into the classroom, we still need to make a game plan on how to help with carryover and how to communicate what we are doing with our students so that the teachers who might not be paying attention to what we are doing with our students are aware how they can support them when we are not around. We're often working with our students, like I said, in our speech closets, in isolation.
00:03:50 Hallie: And many people think we're working on the R sound all day. So it's a great way to also just advocate what we're doing with our students. But also, we only have them once, twice a week. The teachers are with them more often, and by sharing some accommodations with them can really help benefit our students. Also, it makes academic content accessible for our students. Our secondary students with speech and language needs can often face unique challenges when engaging with abstract ideas and the curriculum material.
00:04:22 Hallie: The curriculum is way challenging and very language rich for our students. And we are the language experts. So by recommending appropriate accommodations, suggestions to the teachers, we can help make this content more accessible and it creates a bridge between what we are doing and their work and help with academic success. So what are some key areas that we as SLPs can suggest to the teachers we are working with?
00:04:50 Hallie: Here are just some suggestions and there are so many under the sun, but I just wanted to give a few here just to give you a little idea of why it's so important for us to have these dialogues with the teachers. Okay, well processing time. Many of our students benefit from extra processing time to absorb information and formulate responses. We can just suggest that teachers incorporate wait time after posing questions, and are considering allowing these students to preview questions or discussion prompts ahead of time.
00:05:20 Hallie: This gives our students a chance to feel prepared and to participate. Another suggestion that we can give to our teachers, visual and organizational supports. Visual supports, like graphic organizers, can be incredibly helpful for our students who struggle with organizing their thoughts or listening for key phrases. When we introduce these tools in therapy, we can suggest these ways that teachers can incorporate them in the classroom as well.
00:05:47 Hallie: For example, if we can share with our teachers the graphic organizer for working on somebody, such as using somebody wanted, but so then for summarizing. We want the graphic organizers that we are using to be the same graphic organizers that they are using in the classroom. If it's completely different what we are doing with them in our therapy room, with what the teachers are doing, we're setting our students up for failure. We're not setting them up for success if it's not the same exact thing. Another area that we can suggest accommodations for is alternative ways to demonstrate knowledge.
00:06:25 Hallie: Another effective accommodation is offering different ways that our students can show what they know. Instead of just putting them on the spot in front of class, we might suggest that they can provide a written reflection or a recorded response. We can suggest that teachers give students the option that align with their strengths, which can reduce anxiety, while allowing them still to participate and demonstrate what they know. So these are just three examples, but obviously more can come into play, especially if we have students working on articulation. Something I've done with my classroom teachers is sharing with them a hand signal that they can use with the student if they want the student to repeat themselves or say it again in a slower rate of speech or something.
00:07:09 Hallie: This way they're not embarrassed in front of their peers. How can we share some of these things with our teachers so that what we are doing in our therapy room can be carried over into the classroom? Okay, so now you're probably saying, okay, Hallie, but I am so busy. I have 100 students on my caseload. I'm in three different buildings. When am I supposed to present accommodations, suggestions to the teachers?
00:07:34 Hallie: And again, we have a lot on our plate. We don't always have the same common planning time as the teachers. Oftentimes, we might have a different prep period or if you have prep at all or if you're pulling students out of specials and that's when the teachers have off or whatever. And also, it can be intimidating to tell others how to do their job. Maybe you're a CF or still newer in the field or new working with this age group and you're working with or maybe you just don't like having that confrontation.
00:08:05 Hallie: Just know that it's for our students' best interests and it's not us telling them how to do their job, it's us sharing our expertise and how we can help them do their job. So it's serving our students, not telling others what to do. Okay, so here are some tips to help relay this information with ease. One is just communicating it clearly and practically. Teachers are busy just like us.
00:08:32 Hallie: So keeping suggestions concise and realistic is essential. Present the accommodations in a way that highlights the ease of implementation and the benefit to both the student and the teacher. An example could be saying something like, hey, so and so. A simple way to support student name in the area of blank can be, you know, and then just give them a quick example of how you used it, you know, how they did with that suggestion in your therapy room sometimes just showing them, hey, you know, I noticed so-and-so did better when I did this. I want to share this tip with you.
00:09:09 Hallie: And it could be a quick email. It could be a quick, you know, sharing it in passing. It doesn't need to be fancy. Okay? So just hitting it quickly and giving an example of how it can help them, done. Number two is connecting it to the learning goals of the student. So by linking each accommodation that you're sharing with the teachers to the students' learning goals and how it's gonna help them academically can help the teacher see the why behind it, right? We are always wondering, okay, like why am I working on this school? How is it helping them? Same thing for when we're expressing this to the teachers.
00:09:45 Hallie: So for example, you know, hey, just so you know, allowing some extra processing time will help student better organize their thoughts, which is really gonna support their ability to participate in discussions and improve their confidence. So I just wanted to share that with you.
00:10:01 Hallie: When teachers understand that connection, they're more likely to be willing to listen and take the suggestion. When we're showing them how it's gonna show how the student can be successful in their classroom, they want that as well. We're all in this for the better of our students. And lastly, another tip is just quit a quick reference guide or just using a quick reference guide or checklist. By providing the teachers with a one-page guide or a quick checklist of accommodations that could be helpful to them, can be very, very helpful.
00:10:31 Hallie: It's a simple way to reinforce the strategies that they can use on a daily basis and say to them, hey, I'm only working with the student, not enough times in the week, you're working with them more. This will really, really help them. It's a great reminder that we're not immediately always available. It's showing them, hey, I want to help you, but I might not be available, so here's a quick guide for you. And actually, if you're selling these things to them in passing, they might not remember either if they have a million things on their plate.
00:11:00 Hallie: So how can we put it in writing, in a guide, in a quick checklist for them, so that they can refer back to it at a later basis or as needed? And just so you know, you don't have to reinvent any wheel. I have a guide for you that you can use for free. Just send me a DM on Instagram with the word “guide,” and I will send you automatically, it's automatically automated, that you will get the link in your DMs, in your messages, and you can get access to it for free. So just, you know.
00:11:28 Hallie: I know you're probably driving doing a million things right now. Instead of going to a show notes and finding this, go to Instagram when you can and send me the message with the word “guide.” That is it and you will get it for free. Okay, what are some long-term benefits of using consistent classroom accommodations with our students? Well, again, of course, it's going to support generalization. When teachers use accommodations that we suggest it reinforces the skills our students are working on in speech therapy. This support helps students generalize these skills and it makes them more likely to apply what they learned with us across different settings, which is what we want, right? We wanna show our students how, hey, what we're doing in speech is relevant to their world.
00:12:15 Hallie: So the more exposure they have, the better. The more practice, the better. And also it empowers our students, accommodations empowers our students because when they feel more supported in the classroom, they're going to be more willing to take risks and engage. And over time, this increased confidence can lead to more independence and fewer accommodation needs as students become more capable in these areas. So it's showing them, hey, with some support now, you may need less support later. And that is our ultimate goal, is that they are going to know what to do without our help. So again, remember, accommodations.
00:12:55 Hallie: What are some strategies? What are ways that we are teaching our students differently, whether it's using visual aids, sentence strips, chunking of information, graphic organizers, checking for understanding, simplified language, whatever you're doing in the speech room to help teach our students differently in a language approach, using their strengths to help compensate for their weaknesses, right? And I talk about all this stuff inside of SLP Elevate and I provide you with tons and tons of trainings and support on this.
00:13:25 Hallie: If you're unsure of how to teach these skills differently, you know, I can, you know, help support you with that inside of SLP Elevate. But in case you are, you've got that down path and you're teaching your students differently and helping them see so much success, we want them to have that same success in the classroom. By sharing what is working with us in the speech room with the teachers is a great way to show our students that they can be successful in other locations as well. Although, of course, we want to be their favorite teacher, favorite educator.
00:13:54 Hallie: SLP, you know the deal. But we also want them to be successful outside of our speech rooms. That is the ultimate goal. So thank you for tuning in today. I hope you got a little tip, new thought idea. Even if not, maybe this just made you feel more confident in what you were already doing. And if you found this helpful, definitely share this out with a fellow SLP, with a CF, with a grad student, someone who can definitely benefit from hearing how it is so important for us, especially if you're working in a school building.
00:14:24 Hallie: That's why I love working in a school, because you're not just doing things in isolation. And I love the collaboration with the other professionals. And by being able to share what you do, and not just at an IEP meeting, but always and on a regular basis, really makes such a difference. So I shared a whole bunch of practical ideas, always, that you, as an SLP, can support teachers that you are working with, teachers that your students have.
00:14:51 Hallie: Granted, all teachers can benefit from this, but the teachers that your students have in making classrooms more accessible for our students, it really makes such a difference. With clear communication and a few targeted suggestions, we can help teachers create an environment where our students with speech and language needs can thrive. Make sure you send me that DM on Instagram with the word guide, G-U-I-D-E, and after you send me that message, you'll see automatically a message back from me with my free accommodations guide that you can get access to and you can just print or share it with your teachers. It is free. I did the work for you. I have a whole bunch of suggestions for grades 4 through 12. Since that is my jam, that is what I help you with. That is what SLP Elevate is for. SLP is working with the grades 4 through 12. So those suggestions there are for speech and language needs of your older speech students.
00:15:46 Hallie: So definitely go check that out, especially if students with learning disabilities and all those other things and having a lot of those academic goals that you're trying to work on it differently in your speech room. Definitely go check out that guide. And as always, I have a joke for you, so not to worry. What do you call a classmate with a dictionary in their pants? Smarty pants. Ba-dum-ching!
00:16:13 Hallie: Alright guys, until next week, I hope you found this episode valuable and helpful. Stay out of trouble.
00:16:24 Hallie: Thanks so much for tuning in to another episode of SLP Coffee Talk. It means the world to me that you're tuning in each and every week and getting the jolt of inspiration you need. You can find all of the links and information mentioned in this episode at my website, speechtimefun.com. Don't forget to follow the show so you don't miss any future episodes. And while you're there it would mean the world to me if you would take a few seconds and leave me an honest review. See you next week with another episode full of fun and inspiration from one SLP to another. Have fun, guys.
