One of the biggest challenges I observe in our profession is finding time to plan effective therapy lessons. Between writing reports, billing for Medicaid and responding to emails, we all struggle to find time for planning. I am here to share 5 ways to plan smarter, not harder for speech therapy. These tips will help you be more productive with your time when planning for speech therapy.
1. Use Google Slides for Lesson Planning
Using Google Slides to plan my lessons save me so much time and keep everything I need in one place. I add links to YouTube videos, online books, Boom Cards and PDFs in my Google Drive. Here are a few examples of my Google Slides.
I add YouTube videos directly to the slides and then add a link to the Boom Cards that I was using for that lesson.
I also add the visuals that I will be using during the lesson or activity. For this lesson, I took my students on a virtual field trip. I was able to target multiple language skills.
The best part about using Google Slides for lesson planning is that I am able to have all my links in one place.
2. Use Game Companions
Game companions are a great solution for mixed groups with students working on a variety of skills and make planning easy- one activity, several skills targeted. I frequently use literacy as the central activity for mixed groups, but I have found that game companions are a highly reinforcing alternative. By selecting game companion mats with a variety of target skills, I can ensure that students receive reinforcement (by taking a turn on the game), yet still provide multiple opportunities to probe the students’ individual target skill.
Here are a few of favorite game companions that I use weekly!
Pancake Stack
Ball Bounce
Play Dough Mats
3. Find Materials with Print & Digital Options
Finding resources that had both a digital and printable version make lesson planning extremely easy. Digital versions may include Boom Cards, Google Slides or Interactive PDFs. Here are a few resources that make lesson planning less stressful.
Articulation Plus Describing with Boom Cards
Basic Concepts: Prepositions with Boom Cards
Articulation Homework Packet (with Google Slides)
4. Reuse Materials and Re-read Books
I am giving you permission to REUSE THE SAME material/activity for consecutive therapy sessions. Yes- I said it! This is okay! This is also going to save you so much time in planning. Here’s a quick example for how you can do that- for the first session, stick the activity page in a page protector and complete the activity with play dough or mini erasers. Then, for the next session, use dot markers or scarps of paper. You can also reread the same book!
5. Remember to Keep it Simple
I am all about making cute crafts, elaborate book companion activities and room transformations to match your monthly theme. However, these can often distract us from the main focus of our sessions- providing functional strategies that lead to communication and language growth. Sometimes, it’s important to take a step back and go back to the basics. Here are 5 items that you can use to provide effective therapy and that require NO PREP at all!
- Dry erase marker
- Dice
- Play dough
- Mirror
- Pencil/paper
You can read more about how I use each item in this blog post.
I hope these 5 tips will help you be more productive with your time when planning for speech therapy.
