SLP Goal Bank App on Sale

I just found out that the SLP Goal Bank app for the iPad is on sale until May 20th. Normally the full price of this app is $29.99, but right now you can get it for $5.99.

This app is exactly what the title of it says. Its a goal bank of speech language therapy goals, categorize by disorder. There are educational and medical goals alike. Its meant to help you, as a starting point, when writing goals for your patients/students/clients. You can also add your own goals to the app, storing them for future reference. Then you can email your self the goals so you could simply cut and paste them wherever you need them.

If you are a brand new SLP and are struggling coming up with goals, or if you are seasoned SLP who would just like some new ideas, (oh, and if you have an iPad), then this app is for you.

Half Way, Hang in There

It’s around half way through the school year. They come and go so quickly, it’s unbelievable. The students grow up so quickly; they are in fact a few inches taller now. You probably have had more progress reports to write, or will soon. Those are always a joy. If you are anything like me, you likely have a few straggling referrals if not more. And the IEPs… Even though you are half way through the school year, you are likely only 1/3 of the IEP meetings that you need to hold (with a third of those due just in the month of May – how do we always end up doing that???).

Even though you have so much left to do, you are half way through another year. Boy they seem be getting shorter every year, don’t they? They sure do for me. Time just keeps speeding up and it feels like my grip on the handle bars has been loosening every year. I just keep on trying to hold on for dear life.

I have not been the best blogger as of late. I don’t know if I just got burned out of writing during the month of November, or what? But I’m going to try to be better to at least check in, write something somewhat useful/interesting once a week (my late New Year resolution). We’ll see if I can stick to it. I also want to attempt to spend time improving myself as a therapist. I think I have the tendency to get bogged down so much with paper work that I don’t give myself enough time read the journals or try to learn new therapy techniques.

Sometimes I believe it’s good that the New Year begins in the middle of our school year. It gives us an opportunity to set some goals right when we need them, when we’re in the thick of things. So, I give you all permission to write some late New Year resolutions before the end of January. Maybe you want to be better at keeping on top of the paper work or you want to improve your fluency therapy skills. Whatever, just take the opportunity if you haven’t already to think of someway that you can improve as a therapist.

And hang in there, did I mention that we’re half way to summer?

Twitter Shared SLP Goal Bank

Last week one of the SLPeeps from our twitter group of friends came up with an idea that we thought was fabulous. She started a shared ever growing twitter SLP goal bank.

We all jumped on it quickly and with in a few hours we had over two hundred annual and short term goals. We have it categorized according to the type of disorder. From articulation to dysphagia, there is a little of everything. And they are in many different formats, from SMART to IEP based.

Of course we don't suggest that you cut and paste these goals for your students/client. All goals should be individualized for the person that your working with. However, it's helpful to have some sample goals so that you can get fresh ideas, or see how somebody else worded the goal. Even if you are a seasoned veteran you can still benefit from perusing though these goals.

How do you participate? Well, the twitter goal bank is on a shared google document. In order to get access you need to send a direct message to @albrechtjn on twitter. She then can share you the document at which you can share goals with the rest of us. I debated about posting the goal bank here in it's entirety, but we got concerned with copyright issues and such, but needless to say if you struggle coming up with goals or you just want a fresh perspective then I highly suggest you give it a try.

Again, what you have to do is get on twitter (if you don't already have a twitter account then you'll have to make one - don't worry, it's free and easily done). When you are logged on to twitter go to the following page: http://twitter.com/albrechtjn then you'll want to follow her. After she gets a chance to follow you back (unless you are spam at which you'll probably just be blocked) then you can send her a direct message to request access to the goal bank. The reason we're having you send the direct message is so she can get your email address in privacy. She'll never spam you, promise. After she emails you the invitation then you need to go to google Docs. I'm realizing that you probably also need to make a google account for this. That's not hard to do, easiest way to do that is to set up a Gmail account (also free) by going to http://www.gmail.com. If you hadn't made a gmail account then you'll be happy you did, it's the best email out there, but now I'm getting off on a tangent. Access your google documents at http://docs.google.com.

There are a few rules stated on the top of the document. Basically, label any goals you add, don't change anybody's goals except your own, etc, etc. You can also chat with other people viewing the file, which was fun for us when we discovered it.

If you have and questions you can leave me a comment or you can email me at pathologicallyspeaking(at)gmail(dot)com.