BONUS: How One Student Changed Everything

Show Notes:

In this bonus episode of SLP Coffee Talk, Hallie’s keeping it real with the story that changed everything: how one tough fifth grader inspired her “Quick Wins” strategy and reshaped her whole approach to therapy. If you’ve ever struggled to reach a resistant student, this one’s for you. Hallie shares how understanding, creativity, and compassion can turn frustration into progress, and why helping students feel seen and successful matters more than any worksheet ever could.

📘✨ Grab your copy of The Secondary SLP Roadmap here! https://www.speechtimefunpd.com/stf-book 


🎉☕ Celebrate with Hallie at the Virtual Launch Party! Save your spot here: https://www.speechtimefun.com/launchparty

Here's what we learned:

  • Small wins build big confidence for your students and for you. 
  • Meeting students where they are creates trust and real progress. 
  • Success starts when students feel seen, capable, and safe. 
  • Every tough session is a chance to rethink, adapt, and grow. 
  • Helping students believe they can is the most powerful therapy of all.

RESOURCES

Learn more about Hallie Sherman  and SLP Elevate: 

JOKE OF THE WEEK:

Q: Why did the student eat his homework?

A: Because the teacher said, it was a piece of cake

Where We Can Connect: 

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TRANSCRIPT

00:00:00 Hallie: Hey there, SLP friends. It is me, Hallie, popping in here with a super exciting announcement. My brand new book, Secondary SLP Roadmap, is officially launching and we are celebrating in style. Join me for a virtual book launch party on Wednesday, November 5th at 8 p.m. Eastern time. We will have prizes, games, giveaways, and of course, tons of laughs and inspiration for all my fellow secondary SLPs.

00:00:28 Hallie: It is totally free to attend, but you need to save your spot. Head to speechtimefun.com/launchparty to register right now. If you work with grades 4 through 12, you do not want to miss this. It is again, speechtimefun.com/launchparty. Grab your favorite mug, bring your speechy besties and come celebrate with me. I cannot wait to see you there.

00:01:02 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.

00:01:42 Hallie: Hey, hey, and welcome back to another episode of SLP Coffee Talk, the place where we keep things real, caffeinated, and doable for our school-based SLPs, especially those working with older speech students. Here is a bonus episode I'm giving you today. And today I'm sharing the story behind a strategy that completely changed the way I do speech therapy. It's something I now call quick wins, and it was born out of sheer desperation and one very challenging student. This approach helped me stop fearing working with older students, especially those resistant students, and gave me the tools to build confidence and trust fast. And trust me, it all started with a student who did everything but speech work.

00:02:34 Hallie: Okay, so let me introduce you to this student we're gonna call K. K gave me a run for my money. Okay, he would walk into my speech room like he was entering enemy territory. Constant, instant eye rolls. If there was a way to derail the session, K had it covered. He made me question everything, every single day. He made me brace for impact every single time he was about to enter the room. And let's be real, he was never absent. And he was a fifth grade student. He would torment me, he would torment the other students in the group. They would just not want to participate because they were afraid of what K would say.

00:03:13 Hallie: I felt like I was walking on eggshells and I would spend hours planning for these sessions twice a week because I was like, I need something that's going to motivate him. Let's try doing sports. Let's try making games. No matter what I did, he didn't want to do it. And here I was working on his goals that he had. He had main idea goals, inferencing goals, these were goals that I inherited from… that he had. And I was giving him fifth grade passages and this and that and he was not having it.

00:03:44 Hallie: So I realized I had to do something different. This was not gonna last. I was going to, I don't know, want to retire in my twenties. So I did something that I should have done much sooner and I asked his teachers how they were dealing with him because I couldn't have been the only one struggling. And I found out K couldn't read. Here he was in fifth grade reading at a kindergarten first grade level. And here I was handing him fifth grade reading passages, trying to challenge him, trying to build his skills, but he was sitting there completely shut down because he couldn't even access the material and he didn't want others to know. No wonder he hated speech. No wonder he acted out. He wasn't lazy. He wasn't defiant. He was protecting himself from feeling embarrassed yet again. And that was my wake up call.

00:04:41 Hallie: I tossed out those fancy reading passages and created materials at his actual level, first grade reading level. It was hard to find. I couldn't give him… anything I found first grade reading level looked like first grade reading level. And that's when I started making my own materials. And that's when Speech Time Fun was born. And guess what? Because I was looking for this stuff. There was nothing out there. So I started making my own. I created these short high interest passages that were designed for him, but for all the students on my caseload.

00:05:11 Hallie: And they were designed activities that didn't rely on reading at all. I even gave him… like empowered him to like, hey, we're doing a reading task. You don't have to read. I'll read to you. And I did this for all my students after that. And things really changed. I started using YouTube videos and pictures and doing things other than just boring work sheets, boring passages, and using materials at their grade level just because I thought I had to. Okay? And that's when everything started to change.

00:05:47 Hallie: He started participating. He started feeling confident. He realized he was stronger actually and stronger skills than the other students in the group. When you took the reading piece out, he was actually very strong language-wise and clearly socially wise. That he was so socially savvy he knew not to want to read in front of other students. And he ended up becoming my star student. I had to use a different approach. I had to show him that he could be successful. I had to show him that he was empowered to kind of create the learning environment that he wanted to have.

00:06:23 Hallie: And I actually ended up… when he finished sixth grade, I actually discharged him from speech because he didn't really need it. He needed more just reading-based services than language. His language skills were intact. He just needed more phonics and other things that he was able to get from the reading department. But anyway, that was how the quick wins strategy philosophy was born. That's when I realized he didn't need necessarily  just more practice of these skills. He needed to experience success. He needed a win. And that's where quick wins come from.

00:06:59 Hallie: The faster we can give them a win, the more willing they're going to be to work with us. Okay? Giving students early doable success in speech therapy. Wins that feel authentic, not watered down, not too easy that it's insulting and not so hard it's defeating will make such a difference in your day-to-day sessions, especially in the beginning of the year. But you can do this all throughout the year. If you're starting a new skill, you wanna make sure, I call it like the Goldilocks rule, not too easy, not too hard, just right. Just enough challenge to build that confidence. Because when our students believe that they can, they actually will start to try. And when they trust that our speech room is a safe place to make mistakes, a safe place to take risks, they will start to grow.

00:07:55 Hallie: So that experience with K shaped my career. That was how I tried… I just changed my method of what materials to use, that I shouldn't just be doing their grade level materials just because that's the grade level they were in. I didn't get stuck that I needed to use certain material types because that was what the goal I inherited was, or what they were expected to do in the classroom. I really truly got to the nitty gritty of why they were there and how I can help them differently.

00:08:27 Hallie: And that experience with K helped me shape what I now call my speech therapy recipe. A mix of four key ingredients that I believe are essential for any successful session. One is understanding, knowing exactly where to start and how to teach those skills differently. Okay, so just because they're working on inferencing in the classroom doesn't mean we're working on that in speech. It's where are they individually at because we want them to get those quick wins.

00:08:52 Hallie: Creativity, using their interests to make therapy fun. Adapting materials so you can use one activity across grade level, goals and levels. And having compassion, realizing the emotional weight that students carry. We really need that because especially a student like K, I needed to understand where he was coming from and how he felt about reading to use that to the way I approach the activities.

00:09:17 Hallie: Quick wins sits right in the understanding bucket. Because once we truly understand where our students are, not where their IEPs say they should be, we can adapt to be, what we do is accessible, meaningful, and motivating. And then when we add in that adaptability piece, we can make one activity work across multiple students without having to prep for hours. So you can take any level, again, do you need to chunk the information? Do you need to read it to them? How can you take that activity and make it work for all students reading it all different levels?

00:09:52 Hallie: I go more into this recipe and more into the quick wins in my upcoming book, just so you know. Okay, the Secondary SLP Roadmap is coming out November 11. So you can read more about this there. But just I want you to know that you can start using quick wins tomorrow. So here are some quick ways that you can use this this week, today, tomorrow, if you want to see for yourself that you too can have a quick win.

00:10:18 Hallie: You can offer a choice between two tasks to your students. Let them feel more in control. Do they want to read it themselves or do they want you to read it to them? Giving them that choice. You're gonna see your students are gonna be shocked, that they're gonna feel empowered and they're gonna be more willing to work. Again, if I'm reading to them, doesn't mean they're passively learning. I always have to remind them, okay, what should we be doing when we're actively listening? Okay.

00:10:50 Hallie: But maybe using a YouTube video instead of a reading passage. Take the reading piece out. Those are two quick ways. Giving them the choice if you can, if they want their things read to them. Or again, maybe using a YouTube video and taking the reading – or using a wordless picture book, taking the reading piece out and working on those comprehension skills without it. Okay? Because remember, we want to build trust and trust leads to progress. And don't worry, I share tons more examples of how you can adapt materials for your students, how to learn their levels, how to know how to teach those skills differently so they can finally grasp it and get those quick wins. I go more in depth, so, so thoroughly in depth in my Secondary SLP Roadmap book. So stay tuned for that.

00:11:39 Hallie: So here's my final takeaway for all of you listening. Older students don't need drills and drills and drills of the same skills over and over and over again and feeling frustrated. They need to feel seen. They need to feel safe. They need to believe that they can succeed. Remember, although we are clinicians, we need to teach them. I know we don't like being called speech teachers, but if we're just taking data the entire session and not taking the time to get to know our students and teach the skills so they can grasp it, they're never gonna grasp it. Student K taught me that.

00:12:18 Hallie: And I hope this story encourages you to look at your toughest students a little bit differently. Ask those questions. Why are they there? Why are they acting this way? And who can I ask for support with working with these students? And here's a reminder, you're gonna learn more about this story and more about my quick win strategy in chapter one of my upcoming book, Secondary SLP Roadmap, which is launching November 11th. It'll be available on Amazon, Barnes and Nobles, anywhere that you can get it. And you can learn more about where you can get it at speechtimefun.com/preorder. It's everything I wish I had when starting working with older students. And I can't wait to get it into your hands so you can see a difference as well.

00:13:02 Hallie: All right, I always end with my joke. And you already got a joke because this is a bonus episode, but you're getting a bonus joke too. Why did the student eat his homework? Because the teacher said, it was a piece of cake. Thank you so much for joining me today and until next week, till next time, take those small wins, build that confidence, and as always, stay out of trouble. You guys rock.

00:13:33 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.

00:14:15 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.

00:14:44 Hallie: It is packed with real talk strategies, quick tips and inspiration that you can use with your middle school and high school students or 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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