I'm writing this blog with only four and a half more student days to go (followed by in-services on Friday afternoon, Monday, and Tuesday morning, but if students aren't there, does it really count as a workday?).  In some ways it seemed like it would never get here. On the other hand, didn't the year just start?  Either way, it's time ...

Classroom teachers see and work with the students in their classes daily for nearly 6 hours (not counting recess, lunch, or specials). During the course of a school year, teachers spend hundreds of hours with their students. We work with our students anywhere from one to maybe 3 times per week, the times of contact ranging from as few as 10 ...

I'm sure we are all more than ready for Thanksgiving next week! This year, I'm offering thanks for my wonderful SLP team! There are times when it's difficult to be the only SLP in a building, and it's so nice to meet with the district group for our monthly (and sometimes more frequent) meetings. In my district there are 7 of us, and I admire ...

Last month I wrote about needing help and wondering where to get it. Many readers offered great suggestions on how to get more help to make our jobs more manageable. I've started my pursuit of being able to recognize help when it is right in my face and to be able to accept that help. The control freak in me still has a hard time with this ...

(School Psychologist  x  Guidance Counselor  x  Special Ed Teacher )+ ½ OT = School-Based SLP You might be wondering, ''What's with the math?'' I know, I know. We school-based SLPs do very little math in our jobs except for calculating percent correct from data - most likely using a calculator or app to do so!  The ...

One of my goals as a school SLP is often to spend more time at recess supporting my students. I will be honest, I often start the year with good intentions to head out to recess, but as soon as I start running my schedule, it gets more and more difficult to carve out the time. I am fortunate to collaborate with some wonderful special ...

I'm writing this blog in the evening after the end of the first day of school for the 2012-13 school year. Some of you have already started school, others start this week, and even more will be starting next week after the Labor Day holiday. There are so many things on a school-based SLP's to-do list at the start of the school year that ...

An SLP isn't a celebrity, but we have influence in our school settings and communities. There are many celebrities who are speaking out against bullying: Justin Bieber, Queen Latifah, Daniel Radcliffe, Ellen Degeneres and Anderson Cooper, just to name a few. In the past few week's Autism Spectrum blogs, I've stated the language skills we ...

Across the country public education (and people who work in public education) has been on the news and in the papers, often in a negative way. One of the things that I often hear and read is, ''Teachers (or school-based SLPs) get paid for three months off in the summer.''  For me personally, I've had anywhere from a little under two months to ...

One hundred percent of children and adults with ASD are bullied at sometime. One hundred percent of the time, it hurts. I hope they are not bullied on a daily basis. I hope the hurt does not leave scars-physically or emotionally. Perhaps, being bullied should be right up there on the new DSM criteria for Autistic Disorder as an indentifying ...