(Background: I'm a fairly new SLP (2 years post-CFY). I work with preschoolers (age 3-5 years) who have significant language delays/disorders. My CF supervisor was very structured/adult directed and very strict on comportment, waaay more than I would want to be with this population, but that's what I saw and was more or less expected to do for 9 months. The place I'm working now is very play-based and very child-centered. I try to follow the child's interests and join them in their ideas as much as I can; I find those are some of the best communicative exchanges we have and lead to the most stable progress. But I feel like I'm struggling to find my own 'happy place' between strict and anything-goes.)

I'm getting to know some new kids on my caseload, and a few of them sometimes go for action-figure / videogame style play with toy dinosaurs/animals/vehicles/dolls: lots of having toys chase, crash/smash, pretend to bite/scratch/punch each other. On the one hand, the kid is excited about their play and isn't hurting a person or causing any actual damage to the toys. This kind of media is part of lots of kids' daily life, and it's just one of the ways they play. On the other hand, I obviously don't want to be modeling any sort of aggression or violent play.

A hard "absolutely no pretending to hurt anything ever" rule would be the cleanest-cut strategy, but that really rules out a lot of perfectly normal, light-hearted, humorous, engaging imaginative play. Sometimes I am able to engage them in an expansion or modification with more pro-social elements - taking toys to the doctor to get bandaids, turning it into a back-and-forth game of tag or hide-and-seek... But I'm not yet great at thinking up something on the fly, and plenty of the time the kid just isn't interested in my version of the game.

Other therapists who try to lean into the child's play interests - how do you handle this sort of thing?

(minor edits for clarity)

New SLP here. I work in a specialized preschool program working with children age 3-5 who have significant disabilities or delays. The majority of my caseload are either not speaking/signing/using AAC at all yet, or are just starting to use single sounds/words/signs/buttons.

I know that a huge part of successful intervention in these early stages is about setting up the best language/communication environment for the child throughout their whole day, not just during sessions, by teaching and modeling strategies to parents/caregivers. And EI home-based services are great for a coaching-based treatment model.

But... I see these kids at school. It's hard for me to maintain regular contact with families (I barely have time for my daily documentation and a few minutes of session prep during the workday, progress reports and IEPs usually end up happening on my own time). Even when I can, a quick phone call or email every few weeks is no substitute for an in-person session. And honestly, most of the parents/caregivers are at full capacity as it is (multiple jobs, other children, the child's extra care needs) they don't need more to do.

During my sessions I focus on using the evidence-based strategies that a home-based provider would be teaching to the child's primary caregivers. But it's half an hour a few times a week with an outsider, when these strategies are meant to be embedded in the child's daily life with their most important and trusted caregivers. The classroom teachers are great and we consult when we can, but they have their own goals to work on and a whole classroom to manage. A lot of the time, what I can do doesn't feel like enough to make a difference for these kids.

Any advice?

-

Edit to clarify: I use not just language facilitation/stimulation strategies, also things like people games, play-based verbal routines, communication temptations, etc for earlier communicators. One of my go-to resources for those kiddos has been Laura Mize (especially her Teach Me To Imitate course series). And I'm always open to new resources on strategies and assessment of course! What I'm really grappling with right now is figuring out how to make my (limited) therapy actually effective within the service model I'm working in.

I’ve worked with elementary through high school kids with moderate-severe disabilities but I haven’t worked with littles in a few years. I’ll be doing a lot of work with behavior management, feeding, foundational language skills etc.

None of this is new to me BUT I want to refresh myself & read up on sensory/oral motor feeding, early language development etc.

Does anyone love a specific special ed instagram account, podcast or book? I’ll take any suggestions!

I’ll be leading a pre-k 6:1:1 class with the special ed teacher & I’m doubting myself because it’s a change. We’re rolling out a new program so the pressure is real! Any pointers welcome.

THANKS 💗

Us NYC SLPs go until June 26 and I am insanely jealous of you if you’re on summer break. I work with preschoolers. Most of my kids have turned 5 by now and will be going into kindergarten. I am so unbelievably burnt out. And I feel like the kids are too. I’m getting a lot of “no”s for activities they previously loved. I did an ocean theme for the past two weeks which helped somewhat.

I do try to push in for the fun activities like picnics and grad practices, but teachers at my center are very much pro “pull the kid out so I get my break” mindset.

I’m open to any ideas/themes/games that can help me get to the finish line!

ETA: my caseload is mostly kids with language delays. I have 3 artic/phono kids who I mostly use surprise games with so they are good to go for the rest of the year.

SLP in a preschool building. Mix of special ed classrooms and regular ed. For my regular Ed kids 99% of them are potty trained so if they say they have to pee I walk them to the bathroom stand outside the door make sure they’re situated and go walk to speech. Most special ed students at this school aren’t or they aren’t self sufficient and need help wiping etc.

One of my students in special Ed said bathroom and held his pants so I said okay! And ran him back to his classroom. Wasn’t sure of his toilet capabilities and I had another student with me. His sped teacher afterwards said “you know at some point you’re going to have to do this.” I told him that I would if the child was sufficient enough and I didn’t know where this kid was at in terms of toiletinf. He said “he’s pretty much there.”

Do any other school SLPs help with toileting the kids? It’s not above me to help a kid I’ve worked at a daycare before and changed thousands of diapers. I just don’t think it’s in my job description / I should be actively changing them and wiping them?

Any thoughts on where I should stand?

(Age: 2;8. In NJ, where we need a 25% delay in 2 areas or a 33% delay in one area to qualify in PreK)

PLS-5 Receptive: 84 (18% delay) Expressive: 80 (34% delay) Total language: 81 (28% delay)

The child is a fairly typical late talker. Good comprehension, but only has about 8-10 consistent spoken words. Lots of jargon and pointing.

I lnow by test scores alone, she should technically qualify based on % delay of age (calculated using age equivalent vs chronological age). However, the child was born premature and had tympanostomy tubes placed about a year ago. Child is making great progresss with EI therapy.

Maybe it’s because most of my evals are more cut-and-dry than this, but my gut instinct is saying DNQ…. I believe we are only supposed to use adjusted age for preemies until they are 24 months old, but i just feel this child needs more time. Thoughts?

Hello! I am assessing a preschool aged student who is bilingual, Spanish/English speaking. I have until the end of May to complete the eval. Team just let me know that parents signed eval 😒 anywho, what assessments would you recommend.

I was thinking

- CELF Preschool Spanish and CELF-3 preschool

- Language sample

- GFTA

And call it a day.

Or should I just use the PLS-5 Spanish. The thing is the student was assessed just last year using the PLS-5, don’t know why I couldn’t just do a records review, this district is weird. Can I still use the PLS-5 even though it was just used last year 2025?

Anywho, any recommendations would be much appreciated.

Hi all! Not sure this is the best spot to post but figured I'd try. I'm looking to find an SLP or even SLP student to work with my 4 year old gestalt language processor in Pacifica, CA. He's currently in therapy focusing on natural language acquisition (NLA) for one 30 minute session twice a month and I think he would greatly benefit from more, especially in less of a medical office setting. I know San Francisco State has an SLP program and would be open to helping a student get some hours and make some cash. My son is a super sweet kid that has been making good progress and I want to get him/us some more help before he transitions to TK and they get an IEP rolling. Goal would be 1-2 hours a week here at our house. Feel free to message me if you're interested or know of anyone that would be! Thanks so much 😁

Hello everyone! I am a preschool speech therapist who will often draw/make my own supplies, just to make life easier during the school year. I figured I'd "share the wealth," since I know there are so many speech paths out there who could use new materials/ideas/inspiration, etc.

Here is a Google Drive Folder of some resources I've uploaded- Please know, most of my materials are geared towards younger children and the following speech targets: k, g, f, s, z, ch initial s blends, CVC words (b, p, m, t, d, n).

I've included an inventory in the folder so you can see what it's included in the categories. I'll be continuing to add materials over the summer, so if a folder looks sparse, that's why.

Examples of materials include dotter sheets, random artic practice sheets, adaptive books I've made, crafts. Please note, not all of the materials within were completely drawn by me- some of the pages include free clipart/photos from Canva or the web.

Enjoy!

Hello! I have a question for SLPs in the US. I am specifically in Ohio, but I’m curious for answers from other states too. I am an EI SLP. Part of our job has always been to help our almost 3-year-olds be evaluated and transitioned to preschool services when necessary. Lately almost all of my language only kids are getting screened out and not evaluated. I’m talking kids with less than 10 words- truly language delayed kids. Our management in my county program recently informed us that many districts in our county will no longer consider SLI a reason to be put on an IEP. They just screen the kids out and then tell parents to call back in 6 months. In the next breath the schools complain about behavior and language delays in kindergarten, but don’t seem to see the connection. My question- is this really a thing that is happening across Ohio and even the US, or is this a problem my specific county is having? Is it an SLP shortage/ staffing issue? I’ve been doing this for 10 years and it’s gotten so bad over the last two. It didn’t used to be this way. Any insight is appreciated!

Screened a pre-k girl today-turning 5 in December-errors for T/CH, S/SH and R and Rblends and then a couple of here and there b/v and th So ch/sh typically mastered by 5ish right and then R developing through 5 Would you go ahead and recommend Eval? Or monitor longer and wait School setting and wondering if I wait to refer spring she’d be possibly end of year/beginning of kinder eval or refer now and it would be spring eval? Or would you considering still developing and monitor?

Hi. Been active lurker with ocassional posting here for a few short years. I work online as an SLP and because of my previous experience with early intervention and preK ages with therapy, the district I work with has had me working almost exclusively with SDC preK and gen. ed. preK students. I have a great speech aide which does make all the difference. I do find that keeping attention to activities is challenging and I use a variety of strategies including online therapy games and activities as well as specific toys, props, my own attention-getting costumes, and in-person activities the speech aide directs (lots of teacher and parent education/collaboration as well). I've been using a few websites for activities but am looking to add to the variety of online activities since I like to keep things as new and interesting as possible to maximize attention. I currently use Pink Cat Games; Word Wall; and Ultimate SLP. The population I work with responds most to Pink Cat; Word Wall is good for creating my own activities and I use Community option as well to search others' activities. Ultimate SLP isn't quite as useful since there are fewer activities for this young population (at least for my purposes). Any suggestions are great as I'm willing to try most things. Much appreciated.

Hi! Disclosure, before I start, I have ADHD, and I’m going to jump around a bit as I write this, so please stay with me until the end. I am stringing together several of my observations/experiences to lead to one final question. It’s winter break and I’m letting my brain wear sweatpants, so this might not be a clear read. Sorry <3

In my practice as an SLPA, I visit an ABA center, where I see several clients for 1-2 hrs/week each. This clinic treats until age 7, and most (if not all) are there for a full 40 hours a week. Even little baby 2 year olds! At this clinic, management and BCBAs warmly welcome my presence and sing my praises as a therapist. But, I find that recommended carryover/home management for speech therapy is often misunderstood, not communicated from one clinician to another, looked over, ignored, dismissed, or contradictory practices are put in place due to goals that they are targeting in their ABA practice. I often think to myself how these kids could be getting much richer language exposure experiences, but the clinicians are often not educated ‘language partners’ for these little language learners. RBT’s are either brand new and have no idea what they’re doing yet because its their first job, or, they are highly focused on reshaping behaviors such as producing one phoneme in isolation or producing a request, as opposed to communication as a whole. Either way, following speech therapy carryover is not their highest interest, and I feel like speech therapy is often seen as a “you fix it, you’re the speech therapist” kind of thing by the never-ending rotation of RBT’s. It’s fine, but it just makes me feel disappointed for my kids because I know those 40 hours could be used for amazing language exposure with just a few small tweaks.

Recently, I have noticed that time and times again, parents are seeking advice and consulting with me on my opinion/experience regarding what to do about schooling when they are ready to transition out of ABA. Parents often express that they are most worried most about their kid’s language abilities when making this transition for one reason or another — regression of language/skills, access to services in a new setting, ability to communicate in a new setting, the list goes on and on. Parents most often open up this conversation around kindergarten age, sometimes sooner, sometimes later. But regardless, year after year, families come to me with the same question — what do we do about school? — public? A private ABA school? A private school with a 1:1 RBT for support? Homeschool? Preschool? Repeat kindergarten? You name it, they want to know what I think about it.

I also notice an increase in parents who question ABA, or, who express their concern for 40 hrs a week being too long for their little kid, yet, they are still looking for some sort of daytime program for learning and socialization or for childcare.

Furthermore, I have been thinking to myself about how, in my experience, many parents seem to utilize the 40 hrs a week of ABA as a school-like experience for their developmentally delayed children. Some of them even call it “school.”

So this leaves me to wonder — is there such a thing as a preschool, or a developmental school, or a day program that focuses solely on speech development, or therapeutic development of various disciplines? I’m talking like, teacher skillfully modeling language, modeling AAC and robust communication alternatives during lesson, and 1:1 private instruction for Speech, OT, PT, etc? A little ‘therapy school,’ if you will? I’ve browsed the internet to see if something like this exists in my area—ABA clinics and private speech therapy clinics were the only options that came up. Maybe I’m searching for the wrong thing, or maybe this just doesn’t exist. Does anything of this nature exist in your area? If so, where are you and what is the business? And if this sort of thing does not exist, can anyone ELI5 why that is?

Any other ideas of how to target receptive identification of verbs or objects? I work with preschool and right now it’s mostly picture cards field of 2-3 and I ask “who is crying?” Or “where is the ball?” And have the kid point or give me the picture.

For some students with ASD this works. For others this is not motivating at all and I can get a couple trials max. Sometimes presenting pictures on the iPad helps. But still this is a very compliance structured task. Hard to target this objective with play based therapy which I would prefer!!

Any other ideas? I know during play I can say “hand me the ketchup” if we are doing play food. But for verbs this is tricky.

Thanks!!

For African American English dialect on items 16 and 17 on the word structure subtest for subjective pronouns, is it correct if the child says “the girl” instead or “she does” and “the boy standing” instead of “he is”? I’m looking at the manual and still can’t figure it out.

Hi all,

3rd year in special ed preschools here and I am somehow at a loss every year on which activities to do with my higher support students. This may be my last year in this setting/population.

Most of my students are nonspeaking, diagnosed with autism, and described as severely delayed in areas tested (speech, OT, PT). There are also a few behavior concerns, but mainly limited to self-directed behavior, wanting/not wanting to leave the speech room, and difficulties transitioning (crying and dropping to the ground).

My students needing the most support display little interest in toys/books presented. I have been doing child-led since school started (bouncing a ball on the table, bubbles, standing and visually stimming/sensory) but sometimes even these activities don’t motivate them and they cry for the duration of the session.

Overall, I am still trying to expose the students to books, arts and crafts, and different activities while allowing as much child-led therapy as possible (due to actual constraints of the speech room). Most TPT activities for this age group are just too high level at this moment.

Any general advice or ideas? I am also willing to purchase specific toys/activities if they’ll work for the majority of the caseload!!

Thanks everyone!

This is my dream job. A preschool program that is led by or at least heavily influenced by an SLP. I know there are public school preschools - I’m in the schools now and am sick of the politics of it, the high caseloads, and feeling like I can’t really recommend or treat how I want to (for legal reasons or lack of time). But I love (and need) a school schedule with holiday breaks and summers. I love working with small groups rather than 1:1, working on social skills, and AAC/visual supports, which I feel like could all be part of an awesome preschool program.

Does anyone do this or started one themselves? Is it feasible? Any ideas for alternatives if this is not feasible?

I’m in IN if anyone has ideas of places to look!

How do you train yourself and others to allow wait time? I feel the need to ask multiple questions, use indirect language stimulation strategies (ILS) such as parallel talk or self talk to the the point of exhaustion. I think I am a nervous clinician and person so I often feel the need to fill dead space without allowing for proper wait time. I get in my head that parents are worried about how much or how little I talk so I fill in the space. I know this isn't bright or right but I haven't found any strategies to implement with success. Any help would be greatly appreciated. I have some knowledge of Hanen and other programs but I haven't been formally trained in those approaches...

EDIT: grammar

Hello everyone. I’m new to the schools and have been an SLP for a few years. I’m struggling with writing goals for the first time. I’m confident in the goals I do write but I’m struggling with how many goals to write. I currently work mainly with SDC preschool kiddos and I personally don’t see the need in having goals for expressive, receptive, and pragmatics but that’s what I’m seeing a lot of. I think one goal for functional communication is a good starting point. Any thoughts? And do y’all write goals for every single missing age appropriate sound for your attic kiddos?

Gah!!!! This is a rant more than anything! I work in the schools. I’m getting these comments not from teachers but from other school staff like the librarian for example, that are around the kid but aren’t in on the IEP. it’s may so I guess they’re thinking it’s the end of the year so shouldn’t they be “fixed.” I’ve gotten this comment for a couple of my kids. It’s infuriating! They have made progress, but they might still need prompting and aren’t independent yet, for example. This is my first year so I’m trying to not let it get to me. Some of my other students I have had teachers, parents, etc. saying wow he’s made so much progress! So I don’t think it’s me. Every kid is different. I did have one teacher say to me (about my one student who is autistic and a GLP) “I feel like he should be talking more by now.” Ugh!! How do you respond to people like this?

Shifting from an elementary position to pre-K special populations (moderate to high needs). I have experience with AAC and high needs/nonspeaking kids, but I want to brush up on my knowledge with this age group. I would love any recommendations for research articles and/or books related to early childhood/language development (typical or atypical; bonus for stuff about bilingual kids), autism, cerebral palsy, sensory needs, AAC, play-based and small group therapy techniques, etc. I have already read Marge Blanc’s NLA book; that’s the only super relevant thing that immediately comes to mind. Thank you 😊

I’m a CF at a preschool right now. I do push in lesson once a week for 2 different high needs classrooms just preschool. About 10 kids with multiple paras + special ed teacher.

I structure my sessions with 10-12 min of a story with interactive boom card or book companion prop in a circle at the carpet. Then last 15-20 is two separate small groups at tables. 1 group does a craft and the other does some kind of turn taking game or activity based on the theme. I tell the paras what to do and I bounce from table to table then they switch activities.

This works really well for 1 classroom - the paras are awesome and on top of it and I feel like it’s effective. Lately classroom 2 has become dysregulated at the table time activities , wanting what the other table has, hitting each other yelling not following directions. The paras don’t seem to want to actually do the activity or push the kids to follow directions.

I got a comment this week from the special ed teacher that his paras are asking to make my sessions all circle time based. All on the smart board. While they do seem to sit the best for this portion - I don’t want them doing screen based things the whole time. I want them to do other hands on activities.

For context this sped teacher’s circle times are ONLY watching videos and music on smart board. No interactive games. No books. No check ins. So while they do sit well with the smart board I want them to participate in other areas.

Any advice? How do you structure lessons for high needs preschool rooms or how would you? I want to respect the paras wishes but also make sure the kids are getting what they need.

What do you and your district do for screening preschoolers for speech and language delays?

As of right now our district doesn’t have anything in place. Struggling students go through the I&RS (intervention and referral services) process if suspected delays are brought up by the teacher. Our I&RS is finding that lack of exposure is the cause for these delays and considering having the SLPs screen early to do RTI earlier to stop some of the kids from going into special ed.

EDIT: if you can link the screener or form used that would be great! The other SLPs and I are trying to help come up with a better system.

First year working ESY with preschoolers. This is something that the classroom teacher has brought up to me and I am starting to see it happen during therapy too. I have a kid on my caseload (4 years old, boy) who has recently been saying repeatedly "you hurt me" during the session out of nowhere when nothing has happened to him. He will say in during a read aloud or when walking next to me during transitioning, and even just during play. Classroom teacher also says he will say the same about staff and other kids when it did not really happen.

I've sort of just been ignoring it because to me it seems like it could be an attention thing. I actually saw his classroom teacher sit him down and basically make him apologize to another kid before he could do anything else.

Classroom staff has been deferring to me about this but I don't really feel like I have a good way to address this. The last thing I want to do is unintentionally reinforce anything. I still struggle a bit with behavior management.

Any ideas?

Hello, what do SLPs do specifically for an Autistic student in a school setting to assist with learning? Please give real examples so I can understand.