Happy Halloween! Carrie from Speech and Language Kids shares 5 fabulous Halloween freebies! #HappyHalloween #Halloween #SLPeeps #SLPLife

IEP Therapy’s Clinical Fellows (CFs) met last night to discuss behavior management tools and strategies! #SLPeeps #SLPLife #CFY #BehaviorManagement

It’s Halloween week! Check out this adorable glowing jack-o-lantern sensory bottle from Rhythms of Play. #Halloween #OTTipTuesday #Sensory

A mother from Hawaii is encouraging parents of nonverbal children with autism to use a blue trick-or-treat bucket this Halloween. Check out this video to hear why! #AutismAwareness #Autism #Nonverbal #Halloween

We are excited that you’re visiting our blog at IEP Therapy and wanted to take a minute to introduce ourselves!   We’re Erin Johnson, MA, CCC-SLP and Chrissy Mooney, MS, CCC-SLP, ASHA certified SLPs who work as the therapy managers and support a school-based team of IEP professionals at IEP Therapy.   Erin attended Southern Illinois University for her bachelor’s degree in Psychology and then Northern Illinois University for her master’s degree in Speech-Language Pathology. Erin has been working for IEP Therapy since 2009.  She has a passion for working with children using creative literacy-based language activities!  Chrissy attended Indiana University for her bachelor’s degree in Speech and Hearing Sciences and then Western Illinois University for her master’s degree in Communication Sciences and Disorders.  She loves finding ways to help IEP professionals stay organized and be efficient with time.

We will be sharing ways we are using books and materials with students. Since Halloween is just around the corner, we chose a brand-new book called “Snowmen at Halloween” written by Caralyn Buehner and illustrated by Mark Buehner.

“Snowman at Halloween” is the newest addition to the Snowman at Night series, which is a New York Times Bestseller. There are many opportunities to work on speech skills and language concepts in this book! We’ve outlined a few below help you keep targets in mind for grab-and-go therapy.

Vocabulary

• Basic – pumpkin, Jack-o-Lantern, snow, snowman, trick-or-treating, parade, spooky, bats, owls, costume (witch, ghost, pirate, cowboy, vampire)

• Advanced – autumn, moonlit, village, beckon, heap, disguise, anticipate, maze, fortune, fate

Compound Words

• Moonlit, Everything, Outside, Snowmen, Snowstorms, Overnight

Verbs (use the actions words to create present and past tense verb forms and to formulate descriptive sentences)

• Regular – Carve, glide, beckon, heap, follow, paint, bob, wink, paint, anticipate, wander, giggle, settle, melt, pass

• Irregular – bite, hang, give, see, tell, begin, make, get, find, think

Adjectives (to help form descriptive sentences)

• Gooey, scary, twinkling, spooky, afraid, full, twisting, orange, warm, fun

Wh Questions

• What costumes are the snowmen wearing?
• What did the snowmen get to carve?
• What beckoned the snowmen into the village square?
• What filled the snowmen’s buckets?
• What message did the snowmen leave for the children?
• Who made the snowmen?
• Who wore the costumes?
• Who painted the snowmen’s faces?
• Where did the snowmen go?
• When did the kids make the snowmen?
• Why did the snowman?
• Why did the sister have a box of dress ups?
• Why did the snowmen go see the fortune teller?
• How did the snowmen get gooey grins?
• Which costume is your favorite?

Other Activities

• Compare and contrast – pumpkin and jack-o-lantern; Witch and pirate (both wear a hat and have a spooky smile; different – one wears a cape and one wears a vest); autumn and winter; Snickers and Milk Duds; bat and an owl
• One of the best parts about using any book in therapy is that you can always find words that contain targeted speech sounds!
• If you’re working on phonological awareness, there’s a lot of rhyming in this book! Pile-smile; ghost-most; afraid-parade, etc.
• Practice trick or treating with your students to work on manners
• Make broader connections with your students by asking them personal questions such as
  • What are you going to be for Halloween?
  • Where do you go trick or treating?
  • What is your favorite candy?

Next week is Halloween! Check out these 45+ pumpkin activities and printables in this blog post by 3 Dinosaurs. 🎃 #Halloween#Pumpkin

Calming corners help students to feel safe and comfortable while quickly calming down and regulating their emotions. In this blog post, Laura, School Psychologist from the Social Emotional Workshop, offers 6 helpful ways to make a calming corner work. #KeepCalm #SchoolPsych

Fall is here! Get into the spirit with this fun pumpkin-themed pre-writing activity packet from Growing Hands-On Kids! 🎃 #OTTipTuesday #Fall #Freebie

Halloween is coming soon! Check out these creative Halloween ideas from Speech Room News to use in speech and language therapy. 🎃 #SLPeeps #SLPLife #Halloween

Asking for a raise can be a tough conversation to have for both the employee as well as their employer.  In today’s blog post, we discuss some of the best ways to help your argument for a raise.  The most effective arguments include enhancing your professional or the company’s value, bringing new ideas or processes to help the company run more efficiently, and promoting yourself through top performance or unique specialization.  Some arguments employers don’t like to hear are I don’t like my position, I have been underpaid for years, or I have another year of experience. Examples of each effective argument are broken down in the following paragraphs.

At IEP Therapy, we love to hear how you have helped our company in some way.  For example, you could say, “This year, I referred a therapist to the company that works at xyz district”.   Referrals are a great and easy way therapists can help their company grow.  Finding great SLPs, OTs, and PTs can be hard and require substantial costs and valuable time.  Referring excellent therapists to IEP Therapy is an easy way to support your company while enhancing your value within it.  

Helping a company grow its mission is not easy.  Anytime a therapist can help the company grow, they have enhanced both their company’s value as well as their own.  So, when it’s time to discuss salary, you could say “Remember when I discussed how great IEP Therapy is at providing quality therapists to the schools with Samantha at abc district, which prompted her to call you for services this school year? “  

Another great point to discuss is your overall performance.  A contractor could say something like, “Last school year I built solid relationships within my district and was recognized for my excellent performance, which led to the school wanting to retain my contract.”  Retaining a contract for a company like IEP Therapy helps reduce costs and builds value with the customer.

A final point of discussion might be how have you helped others around you.  As a Speech Language Pathologist, maybe you mentored a new Clinical Fellow through their CF year or designed an innovative therapy material/idea.  In general, maybe you were able to identify ways the company can do things differently that help cut costs or improve efficiencies.  Highlighting the many ways you have contributed to a company overall can improve your chances of receiving the raise you desire.