We all know what the IEP team is. We can name the members: special education teacher, general education teacher, related service providers, and more. I always knew they were part of my team but I didn’t know what that means so let me break it down for you. You don’t have to do it alone. Your team is there to work with you for the benefit of the students. When I finally started seeing all the ways my SLP and OT could help me do my job, we built a strong relationship that benefitted the students in the end.
We will break this down into 4 main components: techniques to communicate, things to communicate, times to communicate, and tips to communicate. Whenever you get stuck, think of the T’s: Technique, Things, Times, and Tips. (Yes, same T as the home school communication. I am trying to make it easy for you guys!)
Techniques to Communicate
Techniques for communicating with your related service providers are going to look a little bit different than your techniques for communicating with parents. For this section, we are going to look at techniques as different ways to approach collaborative meetings.
Common Planning/Lunch: This can be a really difficult one to try and orchestrate, but some years it worked really well for me. I didn’t often have an actual planning or lunch period, but there were times when I found myself able to leave the classroom for 15-20 minutes. My OT was able to arrange her schedule to also have that block free, and we met once a week. We both had time constraints so we had to make our meetings quick, but it was nice to have a weekly check-in on the calendar.
Meetings Before and After School: You might find that this is the only way to get the meetings in. It might be a pain to schedule, but it is so important to have that collaborative time planned with your team. I liked the meetings before school because my team members usually didn’t have any other obligations. They just had to get to school 20 minutes early. The downside of this was we were again capped on how long we could talk.
After school meetings were a great choice because we had unlimited time to talk. The downfall here was that we were all more likely to have something pop up that would get in the way of whatever we had planned. Another idea I wanted to share was try having a meeting with all related service providers. I know I know! This is even tougher to orchestrate, but hear me out.
A lot of the times our students have complex needs. It usually wasn’t clear cut into categories. I rarely found that something just related to OT, or just related to Speech, or just related to behavior. When there was a problem, it might have seemed like I just needed the OT perspective, but the speech therapist might have had really good input too. Sometimes having a “mastermind” come together was the best thing when it came to supporting our students.
Digital Forms: I got this idea from Kim with Little Miss Kim’s Class. She said that her team uses a google doc to communicate. All team members, including paraprofessionals, have access to the document. Whenever they thought of something that they needed to mention the related service providers, they could jot it down on the form. This is such a smart idea. I can’t tell you how many times I finally sat down with my OT and I had forgotten half of what I wanted to talk about. The digital form would be a great tool to organize and track concerns.
Times to Communicate
Consult Minutes- Consultation minutes are determined in the IEP. Consultation minutes are an opportunity for the related service provider to teach skills. For example, if you have a child with AAC device you might have consultation minutes and the speech therapist might use that time to show you how you can embed use the AAC device in the lessons in your classroom. It’s a really valuable way to make sure that you’re getting hands-on training and support and it allows the SLP‘s and OT‘s opportunities to train you so there’s implementation of skills across all areas.
Team meetings-If you don’t have consultation minutes, team meetings are a great way to keep everybody on the same page. During these team meetings, you can be discussing progress on IEP goals and strategies that can support those goals. It’s also a great way to bring concerns to the SLP and OT. Even if you’re not confident or well-versed in that language of SLP or OT‘s you can still describe what you’re seeing and then the SLP and OT can help you figure out appropriate accommodations and strategies. Open lines of communication foster collaboration, which only benefits the child. Another thing I like to do was plan lessons with my SLP‘s and OT‘s. This was a great way to use the utilize push-in service delivery model. The SLP could join me for a reading lesson and it was a really great way for me to see exactly how she would use communication strategies during reading. That allowed me to practice in a lesson with her and then carry the strategy over to a reading lesson on my own when she was not there.
A specific example is we had a student working using 5-6 word sentences. My SLP used a strategy where she tapped out with her fingers as a prompt to help the student expand. She joined my reading class and demonstrated how I could easily use the strategy. I was able to practice with her present and carry the strategy over when she was not there.
The IEP–You should be working closely with your related service providers during the IEP. I’d like to sit down with them and work on assessments and present levels together, that way we are on the same page. We also crafted the goals together. It’s really important to remember that IEP goals that are supported by the SLP and OT are not solely the responsibility of those related service providers. If a child has a goal working on articulation and the SLP is only seeing them for 60 minutes a week and you have the child for 30+ hours a week it makes sense that you’re taking data on that goal as well. You are seeing way more opportunities for the students to pronounce words. Work with related service providers to figure out a data collection system that gives them the information that they need when they are not present and then work with them to communicate what you are seeing in the classroom so you all can monitor progress and craft IEP goals together.
Things to Communicate
IEP – As we’ve talked about IEP goals that have SLPs and OT tag on them are not the sole responsibility of those people. It is your responsibility as a case manager to keep your related service providers up-to-date on what’s going on in your classroom. Using examples given, if my SLP is coming to the reading lesson that might mean that she never gets an opportunity to see what the student looks like during morning calendar, a content lesson, or art. I might see different levels of communication during different parts of the day and if she’s not present to see it I need to communicate that with her that way she can stay up-to-date on the student’s progress.
Concerns-Having trouble figuring out how to implement the communication device during an art lesson? Not sure how to support your students answering comprehension questions during reading? Notice that your student having difficulty grasping his pencil or he’s unable to space his writing on the line? These are all things that you can take to a related service provider! Just because you don’t have an accommodation right now doesn’t mean that one isn’t necessary. If you have any concern at all, even if you’re not 100% sure that it’s connected to Speech or OT it definitely doesn’t hurt to ask. The worst-case scenario is they might say that it’s not an issue that they can help with and you’re right back to where you started. The best-case scenario is they might have a strategy, accommodation, or intervention that you can try to help support
Classroom Events– My SLP and OT loved to know when we are doing different events in the classroom. My SLP might typically come for reading, but if I had a cooking lesson that she felt she could assist with we might move her therapy. If my SLP and OT couldn’t come for fun activities, they might decide to carry it over during pull out therapy. If my class is learning about weather concepts, the SLP might pull that into what she’s doing in her session just to help me reinforce the concepts. This is nice because it helps you establish that the SLPs and OTs are teachers just like everybody else in the room and if they come for a party, craft, snack or special activities it allows you to build that classroom community that’s dedicated to supporting the students.
Tips for Communication
Be confident-I used to get really nervous talking to my SLP and OT because I didn’t understand the terminology and I had no idea how to say what the issues were. I really was doing myself and my students a disservice because I didn’t just tell related service providers in my own words what I was seeing. SLPs and OTs understand that you don’t have the same background they do and they genuinely want to help. If you just go and say in basic language what you’re seeing happen in your classroom it gives them the opportunity to either make suggestions or come and see it themselves so they can support. They can’t help you if they have no idea that you’re having issues so don’t let the fact that you don’t know what proprioceptive needs are and that you can’t name 5 AAC device types stop you from telling them that there’s an issue that you need their help with.
Be respectful-Sometimes you and your related service provider might see things a little bit differently. It can be frustrating at times but remember, they have degrees just like you do and if they’re suggesting something it’s for a reason. If they recommend in the strategy that you don’t agree with or you would like an accommodation that they don’t agree with, try having a conversation and understand why they have an opposing viewpoint. They might be able to provide you with research, best practices, or articles that help explain why they have their opinion or you might be able to give them a perspective that helps them shift so they can help you deal with that issue.
I also want to put this in as a sidenote. If you strongly feel like something needs to be done and your SLP or OT is not in full support you might want to go to your special education supervisor to help. For example, it is absolutely best practice to have your SLP be involved if you are looking to get a child an AAC device but if for whatever reason your SLP is not able to support in that area and you really feel like when it’s necessary, you might need to go to an administrator or contact assistive technology to get the ball rolling. As long as what you’re doing is in the best interest of the student and you’re trying hard to work proactively with your team then you can be confident in asking questions to help your students succeed
Compromise-This goes with the tip above but sometimes you might need to compromise. Take into account the fact that your related service providers have their own backgrounds, expertise, and knowledge that they bringing to the table. If your OT tells you that perhaps the way your classroom is decorated is causing more sensory issues for your students she’s probably saying it because she has research to back her up. I have this exact scenario happened and I was completely resistant to my OT because I spent so much time and money setting up my classroom but it turns out when I finally listen to her and took everything down then things to get better.
Let me give you another example that was just a little bit more complicated to work through but the open lines of communication helped. In Virginia, we had to do the Virginia alternative assessment portfolio. It’s a portfolio-based assessment that we turn in at the end of the year to demonstrate what our students learn as per their curriculum. This is required for all students who are on the aligned standards track and have not been exempt from the portfolio. My last year teaching was a little bit more challenging and we had some trouble getting content running. I remember in November I started to roll out the core content lessons and my SLP and OT encouraged me to back off because we were still trying to get things steady with behavior, classroom management, and basic reading and math rotations, but then I explained to them that I had a state portfolio that I had to get done and it was due in about four months and it typically took me a couple of months to get it done. I shared that the state-mandated the curriculum and I didn’t have the option to put it to the side.
Once I explained the pressure I was feeling as a teacher and my requirements they better understood why I was insisting that we need to go ahead and do our lesson on past present and future for social studies and the solar system for science and they were better able to help me figure out how to take these academic concepts and make them meaningful to my class. It was a complete compromise and it was all about the open lines of communication and when I told them how I was struggling we were able to work together to find a solution.
Be sure to go into your TpT folder and download today’s freebies. You will get a handout that summarizes everything in this blog and a service documentation log for meetings. You will also find a lesson plan template. Use this to plan a dual lesson with a therapist. My example is again a reading lesson.
Let’s say I want to do a thematic lesson on the zoo before taking my students on a field trip to the zoo. My overall concept is exposure to zoo animals. On the related service side of the template my SLP might record all of the speech goals we can target during the lesson. On the teacher side, I might record the academic and behavior goals we can target during the lesson.
The last portion is a therapist role, Teacher role, and both role section. The teacher might be responsible for preparing the adapted book to read and locating zoo animal figurines to use. The SLP might create fringe vocabulary strips to target the animals we are going to talk about. Together, we might decide on three questions we can ask each of the students in the group. The lesson plan template is meant to help you plan everything out. Enjoy!