Teletherapy: What to Do the First Week of School

Starting back to school with students is a few weeks away but my nerves are flaring.  I have a new assignment at a new school with new kids and a new staff. As a teletherapist, I have experienced periodic, if not frequent, reassignments. I don't know my caseload yet but I'm itching to prepare. In the past, I have started off the year with get-to-know-you activities, reviewing speech room rules, and collecting baseline data. The first round of progress reports come quickly and I like to be prepared. I am still tinkering with ice breaker activities but I did decide to put a new twist on my typically boring speech room rules review. I made a video of myself on webcam, in Zoom, demonstrating less than stellar etiquette for the students to critique. My goal is to have the students observe my behaviors, discuss my behaviors, and generate a short list of speech room rules. I uploaded the video to You Tube, set the permissions to unlisted, then copied the link to SafeTube to get rid of the advertisements. I made a very basic slide show in Power Point with a link to my video, then saved it as a PDF. I use Adobe Acrobat Reader for my PDF's. This tool allows me to click on the video link, which will open in a new window, then annotate the slides if the students have more ideas or comments. I also plan on creating a Google Document for each group where I can write down student thinking and post the rules list. That way I have a running record of session activities, homework assignments, and a way to review rules as needed. Now I have an activity I'm hoping to be able to use with the majority of my students and their families. 

Teletherapy: How to Create Game Stamps in Adobe Acrobat Reader Part 2

In How to Create Game Stamps in Adobe Acrobat Reader Part 1, I explained how to create images as PDF's that can be used in Acrobat Reader. In Part 2, I will show you how to save your PDF images so they can be used as game stamps with any game board that is also saved as a PDF using Acrobat Reader.  To make your saved PDF images into game stamps, open a PDF document or game board in Acrobat Reader. Click on Comment in the side tool bar. There should be a yellow speech bubble by it. This will bring up another tool bar that appears at the top. Select the game stamp icon. Scroll down to select custom stamp and choose "create". A new dialog box will appear. Click on browse to surf through your own saved PDF images. Select the one you want and it will appear in the dialog box. Remember, it MUST BE A PDF. Create a category and name for the stamp and save it.

Teletherapy: How to Create Game Stamps in Adobe Acrobat Reader Part 1

As a novice telepractioner, saving money is important. Learning how to utilize game boards I had already made to use in my former brick and mortar school in Adobe Acrobat Reader has been critical. Adobe Acrobat Reader is free and allows you to view and mark up PDF's. After downloading Acrobat Reader, the next step is creating or saving game boards as PDF's. When a game board PDF is opened in Acrobat Reader, you will see some tools on right side. Select the comment icon, which adds another tool bar at the top.

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Teletherapy: Using Board Games in Telepractice

Games. Sometimes when students are asked what they have been working on in speech, they respond with, “We play games.” With a cringe, SLP’s hope that the student and their family have a solid understanding of their speech goals. On the other side of the coin, games are motivating and productive speech and language therapy activities. I use a lot of games—all types of games with students.  But the one thing I have learned about games and therapy is that a game is only as good as the quality and quantity of student responses that it helps me to facilitate. When I use games, it is less about the game and more about how I am able to cue the student. In teletherapy, interactivity is a factor I am constantly attending to. As the SLP, I still need a level of control that allows me to respond to the student's speech and language output and how to further cue the student. For me, there is an interactivity “comfort zone”  when the child is engaged in a telepractice session.