Basic Concepts for SLPs

Building vocabulary skills are so important for my students.  One area that always needs to be targeted is basic concepts.  Everyday in school my students are expected to understand basic concepts, but they often struggle to be successful.

My students have a great deal of trouble with the concepts of most, least, fewest and equal.  We play a fishing game to work on that.  As we fish we talk about who has the most, least or are the number of fish equal. We play this game frequently to reinforce these concepts. Click on the link below to get a copy of this free resource.

Free Fishing Concept Game

Every month we make a small basic concept book that is related to the season or a holiday.  These books target next to, beside, between, in front, above, below, under, over, left and right.  I use the pages that have concepts my students need to learn.  The monthly repetition helps my students learn to understand and use these concepts. I can also add concepts as my students master them.

Target basic concepts every month

Play-Doh is one of my favorite toys to use in therapy.  One last activity that I use with my students is  basic concept Smash mats.  They target whole, half, all, some, first, second, third, between, through, above, below, left, right, around, in, out and next to. I select mats that target the concepts each individual child needs to learn.

Basic Concepts Seasonal Mats

It is always exciting when my students start to learn their concepts.

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Easy Data Collection for the busy SLP

Are you looking for an easy way to collect and store data. As the new year starts one of my goals this year is to keep up on my data collections. It seems to be a never ending task for me. I need to collect data every session and also data for my IEP goals.  This year I am going to use a group data sheet for each session. This seems to be a natural part of therapy. I use this data to drive therapy and I use it when I bill for Medicaid.

My biggest challenge is keeping up with the data for my IEP goals. My goals are written without all the prompts and scaffolding I typically use in therapy. I also want my students involved in their own data collection. Last year I decided to create lap books with graphs inside for my 4th and 5th graders.  My students created a lap book and every two weeks we added a data point.  It was be a good way to review their goals and talk about their progress.  I gave out brad tags when my students beat their previous score. It was so successful with my older students that this year I am going to expand it to all my students. 

Progress Monitoring Lap Books

Bar graph for Vocabulary Words

Page to glue on Brag Tags

Goals, a line graph and a place for more brag tags.

 I am excited to see how it goes. It is always exciting when data collection goes well.  I get such a feeling of accomplishment.  I hope your do too.