321: How the 3:1 Model Supports School-Based SLP Burnout

Show Notes:

In this episode of SLP Coffee Talk, Hallie chats with Lauren Cattelier—school-based SLP, mom of two boys, and co-instructor and owner of Therapy Advanced Courses—about a model every overwhelmed SLP needs to know: The 3:1 Model. Lauren shares her experience using this workload approach in her former district, gets real about the difference she felt when she stopped using it, and breaks down exactly how to implement it, document it, and sell it to the admins and teachers who will inevitably push back. From wording it on an IEP to using that flex week for AAC training, parent coaching, and classroom push-ins, this episode is full of practical strategies, refreshing honesty, and a much-needed reminder that advocating for a better schedule is the same thing as advocating for your students.

Here's what we learned:

  • The 3:1 Model is a workload approach — it accounts for everything you do beyond face-to-face therapy.
  • Plan how you'll use the flex week for each student before it arrives, not during it.
  • Teachers need the most convincing — come prepared with specifics about how their students will still be served.
  • Document every flex week so you can always show exactly how each child was serviced.
  • If it's not written into the IEP, it doesn't exist — get it in there explicitly.
  • Pushing into classrooms gives you context you simply can't get from a pull-out model.
  • Spring is the best time to pitch this to admin — everyone's already thinking about next year.

RESOURCES

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TRANSCRIPT

00:00:00 Hallie: Hey there, SLP. I have a quick question for you. What if you could have just one book on your shelf that actually gets the challenges of working with middle school and high school students? Well, it's here. Well, actually the pre-order is here, but hey, I'm so excited to let you know that my brand new book, The Secondary SLP Guide is available for pre-order. And when you pre-order, you get an exclusive bonus that you won't wanna miss.

00:00:30 Hallie: It is packed with real talk strategies, quick tips, and inspiration that you can use with your middle school and high school students all year long. This is the perfect book for a book club, a grad student group, or just flipping through when you're stuck and in a IEP writing spiral. So head to speechtimefun.com/preorder or head to my Instagram and send me a DM with the word pre-order, and I will send you the link so you can pre-order now. And I cannot wait for you to get your hands on this book in November, but the sooner you grab it, the better the bonus. 

00:01:17 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 even during a well-deserved relaxation time, I am here for you each and every week. Let's do this, SLPs.

00:01:57 Hallie: Hey, hey, and welcome to another episode of SLP Coffee Talk. You might have heard this floating around the internet, maybe Facebook groups about the three-to-one model. It's something that I've never experienced, and I've heard so many SLPs use it, love it, swear by it, and I know you're gonna love this topic that we're gonna be talking here today. So, Lauren, welcome to the show. 

00:02:21 Lauren: Hi, thanks for having me. 

00:02:23 Hallie: Tell everyone listening a little bit about yourself and your SLP journey to what you are doing today.

00:02:29 Lauren: Sure, so my name is Lauren Cattelier. I am a school-based SLP based out of New Jersey. I have worked with preschool, elementary, middle, you name it, and I'm also co-instructor and owner of Therapy Advanced Courses. So I have several courses aimed directly towards school-based SLPs. I'm sure we'll talk about that a little bit later, but that's a little bit about me. I'm a mom to two boys, so life is interesting and busy and crazy, hence why the three-to-one model really means so much to me.

00:03:01 Hallie: So what age group do you work with in the schools? 

00:03:03 Lauren: So currently I work with preschool, kindergarten, and middle school. Most of my experience has been like pre-K to two, so this year has been interesting with the middle school population, to say the least. 

00:03:15 Hallie: …use the three-to-one model with all ages. 

00:03:17 Lauren: Okay, so I have been in my new… this position for about a year and change, and we are not using the three-to-one model right now. So I really miss it. In my last school, I was there for over 10 years and we had been using it, I would think about six, seven years, they're still using it. And I can definitely tell you that I felt, I feel a difference now not using it.

00:03:42 Hallie: Okay, so for those listening, and are probably like, okay, what is the three-to-one model? Okay, so.

00:03:48 Lauren: Yeah, so it's more of a workload approach. It takes into account all of the other things that we do on the day-to-day, outside of just face-to-face direct therapy. So what it is, is you work your regular schedule for three weeks. And then on that fourth week, it's like an indirect week. In my last district, we called it our flex week. We plan it out at the beginning of the year, we know when they're coming. All the teachers know in advance when that fourth week is coming. And I think the key to remember here is that it is not an off week. It is an indirect week. It is when you can hold your meetings. It's when you can change your service delivery a little bit. You can push into classrooms. You can collaborate so much more. You can do makeups if you cancel sessions. I have nothing but positive things to say. 

00:04:40 Hallie: Okay, I have so many questions. Okay, so was this brought up by administration or you guys as the SLPs? Like whose idea was it? And how did that go down?

00:04:51 Lauren: So when we started it, it was actually my administrator, my supervisor that brought it to us because we were in it. 

00:04:58 Hallie: Oh, I feel like praying hands here. 

00:05:00 Lauren: She was amazing. Yes, she was and is amazing. And the district I was in is part of a consortium, part of like a region. All the other nearby towns were doing it. So we just kind of followed along, which was helpful. They kind of paved the way for us. But we have since, you know, we've created like a guide for people so that they can do what we did to kind of help them. So she kind of spearheaded it. But then we were the ones on the face and on the front lines really dealing with, oh, are you just in your office eating bonbons that week? 

00:05:39 Hallie: That was my next question.

00:05:41 Lauren: Yes. Yes. That was really like the hardest sell was to the teachers, not even to the parents. You know, the parents had some questions about it. But I think what is helpful when we have IEP meetings and when a child is initially classified, we would always say, okay, this is what we do here. We follow this three to one model. Your child's going to get therapy X amount of times per week for three weeks. And then that fourth week, it's just going to look a little different. Your child is going to be serviced in some way. 

00:06:14 Lauren: And I was always very clear and specific to that child. So I would think about, okay, how would I use it for that child? Maybe I would see them their regular session. You know, some kids, they know you're coming 8:45 on Tuesday. And if you don't show up 8:45 Tuesday, they're like passing you in the hallway. Where were you at 8:45? So you just keep them at their regular time. 

00:06:34 Lauren: The beauty is, is the flexibility is yours to do what you want and what you need. So you can program that AAC device. You can have parents in to train them how to use that AAC device. You can push into the classroom during a lesson to either use that AAC device or just support them with writing or support them with their articulation. Maybe you need them, you know, you're working on carryover and you want to support them there.

00:07:01 Lauren: I've also used it just to kind of change up the groups. You know, sometimes the group dynamic is just not working and you need to try something else or that child really needs some one-on-one attention. So you can see them individually that week. So anyway, when I'm in that meeting, I really try to think about the child and how I would use it. And I'm honest with parents and I say, I might just follow my regular schedule if that works best for them. Or we might try X, Y, and Z. I didn't get any pushback from them. Usually it was the teachers that had more questions about it.

00:07:33 Hallie: Like why are you getting less face time with the students as I am? And we're, you know, on the same pay level or whatever. Those kinds of things.

00:07:43 Lauren: Yeah. And to be fair, like, you know, teachers are so overworked and like, I get it. They've had a lot on their plate too. I think where it really hit us was like during COVID, you know, the sub shortage was really bad in our area as it was everywhere. And so the teachers were getting pulled. They were missing a lot of their preps to do coverage. And so they kept questioning, why can't they like during the flex week, just cover for like a whole day. [inaudible] And so, yeah, our administration was really great in having our back and explaining that is not what that indirect week is. They are still seeing their students. They are still, you know, responsible for IEPs and et cetera.

00:08:28 Hallie: And I see so many positives because the amount of times I would have to cancel my sessions to go to meetings, like that could easily be remediated if I had allotted times in my month to do it.

00:08:43 Lauren: Right. And it doesn't always work out. I mean, we've got like the certain timelines that you still need to abide by. So it doesn't always work out, but I would know, okay, if I missed that session, I would just add their name to my makeup list. And then I knew during that flex week to make sure like that I actually saw them face-to-face and I wasn't spending my time doing prep or something like that. 

00:09:05 Hallie: That’s so amazing. I'm sure people listening are wondering, how does that look? Like, how is that worded on an IEP?

00:09:12 Lauren: So we have a very clear statement that's under the related services saying related services will be delivered three weeks, something to that effect. It's… we copied and pasted it. It's in my guide if people want to go and check that out. But we have it just very explicitly stated. I have also heard people, you can write it by the month. So instead of saying, math is not my strong suit. So two times, two times four, instead of eight, you know, instead of two times a week, you do six times a month. So in essence… 

00:09:43 Hallie: I've heard like minutes per month. 

00:09:46 Lauren: Some people get crazy and do it like per… for the year, you know, you can get creative with it. I think what was helpful for us was that we decided we were doing it. And then it was just kind of like, everyone did it. OT, PT, speech, we all were on the same page and we started at the beginning of the year. So like, as the IEPs were coming through, we just kind of tweaked it. And again, we had that support from Uptop, which really helped.

00:10:15 Hallie: In case someone listening is not familiar, what's the difference between caseload and workload when it comes to like…

00:10:21 Lauren: So caseload would be the number of kids on your students, on your… the number of students you see. I'm laughing because I'm like approaching 70 right now in my current job. And it's insane. And workload is all of the work that goes with those children. You know, the direct face-to-face time, all of the paperwork, all of the IEPs, all of the collaboration, parent emails, parent meetings, everything else you do in your day-to-day that is not face-to-face with that child.

00:10:50 Hallie: And how can this help with like SLP burnout? Because we know SLP burnout is a real thing. I see people commenting in Facebook groups saying I want to switch out of this field or I want to leave the schools because there's so much paperwork and demands and large caseloads. How can this model help in your opinion?

00:11:09 Lauren: It just really helps to have that flexible week where you can do what you need to do without, you know, you're still seeing the kids in some way. You're still servicing them in some way, but you have the flexibility to schedule it. If you want to stack Monday and do back-to-back therapy so that you've got a little bit more time Tuesday to really plan. I don't know about you, but when it comes time for me to sit down and type reports for my evals, I need like a two block window where no one's going to talk to me, no one's going to interrupt me. And that's really impossible, honestly, when you're working your regular schedule. So it just gives you a little bit more flexibility and just a little more time that's outside of that face-to-face time that we're so used to.

00:11:58 Hallie: And now that you've seen both sides, now you said, you know, the middle school is not doing this model. What advice would you give to someone like?

00:12:08 Lauren: Yeah, so it's hard, right? It's hard. So I'm in a new… a brand new district. So I'm non-tenured now. So it can be like scary and intimidating as the new person to be that advocate. But as my caseload has been rising and rising, it is, you know, it's… obviously, it's on the forefront of my mind. Like, okay, if this is not going to change, like this is a solution. This is how we solve this problem. If you're not going to hire another SLP, you know, this is the only solution at this point because I can only do so much. I'm one person. 

00:12:41 Lauren: And I'm not the only SLP in the district. So it's something that we're starting to talk about. And I am a strong, you know, I'm a strong advocate and proponent of listen, like it really works wonders. And here's why. It's just going to be, I think, a matter of getting our administrators on board with it. And then hopefully we can implement it here too.

00:13:03 Hallie: So since you're in that boat right now, and there's probably people listening saying, okay, so what is she going to do? What would you say to someone who's a little unsure, especially like being [inaudible] tenure, it's scary to approach an administrator and be like, hey, I want to change things and we're doing things wrong or whatnot.

00:13:21 Lauren: Yeah, I think every week I get like a new kid or two that's like, hey, Lauren, tack these onto your caseload. So the next time… I've been having little conversations with my supervisor, and I really do plan to kind of sit down and say, this is an option. We know our numbers are growing. We know, and here's why it worked. Here's the research behind it. 

00:13:45 Lauren: And I'm going to be completely honest with you. I felt like I knew what was going on in the classrooms so much more when I was doing that than I do now. Now, you know, I go in, I pulled the kid, I bring them back. I go get the next kid, bring them back. I have no idea what they're doing in the classroom. And especially at the middle school level, that's like really hard. You know, I'm just like picking and choosing random things. I'm like, I don't know if this is helpful for you. I hope it's helpful in some way. 

00:14:12 Hallie: But especially when they have seven teachers, how are you going to contact them all? Like, let's be real there. 

00:14:18 Lauren: No, but like if I could sit in the room with them or, you know, I don't know, have more time to talk to their teachers and know like, oh, this is what you're working on. Oh, okay, I can help with that. You're not in a silo with this model. It's so much more collaborative, which can be scary, I think, to especially like newer SLPs. You might not feel as confident or as experienced to kind of do this, but it really is helpful. And you'll get to see the kids in like different arenas, like going to recess, going to lunch, seeing what they're like in those environments, or even like library, music, art. There's so much language there too that we can support with. I don't know.

00:14:59 Lauren: I was watching my son at basketball the other week, and I was just thinking to myself, oh my God, like he's yelling at them to like, go to this line, go to that line. And I'm watching on the sidelines being like, oh, that kid's having trouble following directions. Like that kid could use some help. And it's all in the way he was wording it. And in my head, I'm thinking, I think he needs to repeat it or he should be saying it this way. So that's just like another example for gym class, like how much we can help in so many different parts of the day and not just our speech room.

00:15:30 Hallie: Especially those specialists, they're not trained to work with, you know, special needs students, let alone like students with language disorders and language deficits and things like that.

00:15:40 Lauren: So I feel like I didn't really answer your question though. So I'm sorry.

00:15:42 Hallie: No, you kind of did.

00:15:44 Lauren: Spiraled. 

00:15:44 Hallie: No, you did. 

00:15:46 Lauren: Yeah. To be honest, like it's a scary thing to have to sit down with administrators. But at the end of the day, I do think it shows that you care. It shows that you're thinking. It shows that you're trying to solve the problem that they may or may not know exists. And, you know.

00:16:03 Hallie: I love it that you said that you're already starting the process now. Like you're not going there in August and saying like, let's change things up. 

00:16:11 Lauren: No, I think you have to start. 

00:16:12 Hallie: …change IEPs. Like there's going to be parents on board. Like it's not something that can happen overnight. So I think that's important too.

00:16:20 Lauren: Yeah, I honestly think, I mean, springtime, this is like the best time to be having these conversations is you're all… Everyone's starting to plan for next year already. You're doing your, you know, class list. And now might be the time to say like, hey, if you don't want to hire another speech therapist because the money's tight, here is something that I think we could try. Here's how we could try it. Here's, you know, again, the benefits to it. And hopefully it will be well received. 

00:16:47 Hallie: And I [inaudible] think staff retention. 

00:16:49 Lauren: Exactly. It definitely helps with the burnout. And yeah, for sure. 

00:16:55 Hallie: So how do you determine, like… you already said, like which students would benefit, not benefit. Like what if a teacher came to you and said, well, you took this one. Why don't you see all of them? Like, how would you respond to teachers that are talking about seeing someone at all?

00:17:10 Lauren: So one of the things I will say with this model is you have to be organized and you have to kind of keep yourself… you have to document, you know, so I would always make a list of the students and I would write how I serviced them that week. So if anybody ever came back to me and asked, you know, well, you didn't see so-and-so. I would say, oh, but I was actually in a meeting with their parent or I was on the phone with their parent instead for an hour or whatever it would be. But again, I really think it depends on the kid and what would make sense for them. 

00:17:43 Lauren: So a lot of times I did just stick with my regular schedule or a different group or, you know, seeing them the same time if it worked for my schedule and theirs. A lot of times, like if I had meetings, I would have to miss, but I genuinely, there's like very rare cases that I think it doesn't work for a student. I think it does work for them. It's just a matter of how you're gonna make it work for them.

00:18:09 Hallie: Are there any other challenges that you found that you faced with this model, whether it was parents, admin, colleagues, the students, like you said, you're not organized. Anything else?

00:18:20 L :So being organized and just kind of getting that message out there that you're not sitting in your office all week planning. We know everybody's short on prep time. Everybody's short on planning time, but there's so much more to it than that. And again, just that organization piece because before you know it, it's that Friday of that third week and you're like, oh my God, what am I going to be doing on Monday? So you've got to kind of have a plan, at least in your head, maybe even ideally on paper of how you're going to service some of those kids next week. Reaching out to teachers, hey, is there anything I can help with? I did a bunch of like whole group lessons too. That's another thing you can do with this model. You can just push into classrooms and teach a whole lesson to the class if it's helpful. So there's really so many options.

00:19:10 Hallie: Did you guys have to get trained in order to implement this model or do you kind of just learn it on your own? How did that work?

00:19:15 Lauren: We went to like a one day training on it where they talked about the benefits of it, but I don't think you need to do that. I think if you go in with some background knowledge of what this is, how it could help you, how it could help reduce some of your burnout, how it can keep you happy. And again, like really help the kids. This really is better for them. Honestly, you're going to be a better SLP because you're going to know more about what's going on in the classroom. You're going to have more contact with their parents and their teachers, and you're just going to be happier.

00:19:48 Lauren: If you can go in there with all of that, I think like you have a good chance of getting admin to understand it. And if they don't, then you bring it back up again, like later when more kids get dropped on your caseload. And hey, you remember that model we talked about?

00:20:04 Hallie: But you also can see that going into the classroom, you can reduce kids on your caseload. Like seeing the carryover, you can say, well, they've used the strategies I taught them in the speech room in the classroom. They don't need speech anymore.

00:20:16 Lauren: Yes. Yes. And when you are able to see them in different environments, it is easier to feel like you can dismiss them. I feel like sometimes if they're just coming out to our room, a lot of times you're like, well, they're doing it here, but are they really doing it outside? I don't know. So then you ask the parent and the parent says, no, like they still need your help. And it's like, okay. But if you can see for yourself them in the classroom doing perfectly fine or them at recess doing perfectly fine, then yeah, it's so much easier to go back to the parent and say, hey, I saw them here, here and here, and they were doing fantastic. And they're doing great in my room. I think it's a disservice at this point to be pulling them out of the classroom. That's an easier conversation to have.

00:20:59 Hallie: I see so many pluses more than minuses. Can you share any other success stories that you've had like where this was a success?

00:21:07 Lauren: Yeah, so I've used it… I've talked a lot already about the different ways I've used it, but I think it really comes in handy when you have students with AAC on your caseload. If you're just pulling them into your room and doing AAC, that's a snippet of time. But if you're able to kind of go with that student to music or go with that student, just push in and see, okay, how can the student access their device in this setting? What is best? What do they need on their device?

00:21:38 Lauren: In situ, I feel like is so much better for those kinds of cases. And also just having the parents in to see the device. A lot of times that device can go back and forth from home to school. And you can check the history and you can see that it's been sitting in the backpack all night. And those parents are likely scared. They don't know. They're afraid to touch it. They're afraid they're going to mess something up. They don't know how to use it. So I have found it really helpful to have parents in. I'll call the student in and I'll show them, this is how we're using it. This is,,, these are just my ideas you can do at home. So those are a few, I think, examples of how I've used it really effectively.

00:22:15 Hallie: That's awesome. And you mentioned you have a guide or something for those that want to learn more on how to implement it in their therapy rooms or I mean their schools and whatnot.

00:22:25 Lauren: Yes, we have… So Therapy Advanced Courses is the name of the company. And we have… it's a three to one model toolkit. And it has in there some of these different… a checklist of kind of how to get yourself organized. Some different fillable documents for you to put like the names of your students and you can type in how you service them, a blank schedule to kind of help get yourself set up for when you get started. So there's just some helpful – and also in there is kind of what to say to your administrators, what to say to families, an FAQ for staff. So we tried to go back in time and think like, what did we face and what do we wish we had had? And we tried to create something that that would be helpful for others to get started.

00:23:14 Hallie: Sounds amazing. Where can everyone learn more about that and everything else you have to offer? 

00:23:20 Lauren: So you can find more about us at therapyadvancedcourses.com. We do offer self-paced graduate courses for anybody who's looking to move up on their salary [inaudible]. We're all about keeping things affordable, keeping things manageable. We know everybody's short on time these days, but we also, everybody's also looking for more money. So hopefully our courses can help you kind of get that salary bump that you all deserve.

00:23:48 Hallie: And that 3-in-1 guide is available on that site as well.

00:23:50 Lauren: It is. Yes. Yes. I mean, like the end of the link is a little bit different, but yes, you can find it there as well. 

00:23:55 Hallie: Other people can find that. You're on Instagram and Facebook, all the things at? 

00:24:04 Lauren: @therapyadvancedcourses.

00:24:06 Hallie: Awesome. Thank you so, so much, Lauren. I always end my episodes with a joke because jokes build rapport and SLPs can use it with their students. Who makes money by driving their customers away?

00:24:20 Lauren: Makes money by driving their customers away? You got me.

00:24:25 Hallie: An Uber driver. 

00:24:27 Lauren: Oh, okay. 

00:24:30 Hallie: They're driving their customers away.

00:24:32 Lauren: I gotcha. I gotcha. 

00:24:33 Hallie: Badum ching, guys. I never said these jokes were not corny. If your students like them, you can take credit for them. If they don't, you can blame me. It is okay. I can handle it. Thank you so, so much, Lauren. This is so great because I've never done the 3-in-1 model. I've always wanted to, but I was scared. Guilty, guys. I was scared to bring it up to my admin and I knew I'd have all those different challenges with the creeping caseload as well. But I wish I did mention it because my caseload was getting too big. I didn't have time to go into the classrooms. I was canceling sessions left and right and I wish I had the guts or the knowledge base to know how to go about advocating for my needs and my students' needs and even just the district's needs. So thank you so, so, so much, Lauren, for sharing this with us. 

00:25:20 Lauren: Oh, it's my pleasure. Thanks for having me. 

00:25:22 Hallie: And until next week, everyone, stay out of trouble. 

00:25:31 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.

00:26:12 Hallie: Hey there, SLP. I have a quick question for you. What if you could have just one book on your shelf that actually gets the challenges of working with middle school and high school students? Well, it's here. Well, actually, the pre-order is here. But hey, I'm so excited to let you know that my brand new book, The Secondary SLP Guide, is available for pre-order. And when you pre-order, you get an exclusive bonus that you won't want to miss. 

00:26:43 Hallie: It is packed with real talk strategies, quick tips, and inspiration that you can use with your middle school and high school students all year long. This is the perfect book for a book club, a grad student group, or just flipping through when you're stuck and in a IEP writing spiral. So head to speechtimefun.com/preorder or head to my Instagram and send me a DM with the word pre-order and I will send you the link so you can pre-order now. And I cannot wait for you to get your hands on this book in November. But the sooner you grab it, the better the bonus.

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