My Simple Weekly Speech Therapy Routine as a School SLP

Simplify your weekly speech therapy routine with workflow and organization tricks.This article explains what my real week looks like as a school SLP, and how I stay organized without overplanning. Most school SLPs are so busy that it leaves little time for planning. SLPs attend IEP meetings, have loads of paperwork, students to test, and schedule changes to manage- and that’s without considering therapy. That’s why I realized I needed a simple weekly speech routine to cut out the overwhelm. This isn’t about a fancy, color-coded organization system for SLPs. It’s not even about becoming a perfect planner. This article is about finding a little more calm in your school SLP day. Here’s how I do it.

Starting My Weekly Speech Therapy Routine: Monday

On Monday mornings, I like to take my time getting ready, maybe enjoy a little bit of yoga- no, just kidding. That’s my dream, not my reality!

The reality is that I’m always rushing out the door. I wake up, toss my hair into a ponytail, listen to my kids argue over who gets to use the bathroom first, let my senior dog out, grab my lunch (packed the night before, at least), and run to the car.

A Quick Review of Any Schedule Changes

So by the time I arrive at the elementary school, I have to hit the ground running. That’s why orientation, and not overplanning, is the key to school SLP survival for me.

The first thing I do is review my weekly therapy schedule, which I keep stored in my planner. Here are ideas about how to organize your SLP Planner.

After that, I also check my Google Calendar, which hosts our invites to IEP meetings, ETR meetings, and IAT meetings. It also reminds me of any fire drills or other schedule changes.

Since I have mom brain, I write down any meetings and schedule changes immediately on a weekly organizer planning page.

Finally, if there’s time, I check my email. That’s only on a good Monday, though.

I grab the printed out data sheets I need for the day from my SLP planner– they’re already arranged in the correct order. They’re easy to locate, since I organize my data sheets into folders by the day I see the student.

Quickly Reviewing Therapy Plans

First, I review my morning data sheets and print out or grab any needed materials.

It’s essential to use my time wisely with my students. I always write down when their IEP meetings are due on their data collection sheets, so I know when to gather present levels. If I need to do that ASAP, I place a sticky note on the data sheet and write a quick reminder to myself so I won’t forget during the session.

Usually,I have a book ready to use with a lot of my groups. I save worksheets and materials that pair with them so I can just grab ‘n go each year on repeat.

My main goal isn’t to tediously plan every session: it’s just to orient myself to the day (and week) ahead. I have an idea of what I want to target, as well as some materials laid out.

I’m ready to tackle Monday.

I also open my speech therapy tools tab so that it’s ready to use. I can use the language prompt generator, articulation dice, group data collection tracker, or visual schedule creator throughout the day.

Sometime during that day, I check in with our OT. We do a rough plan for our Wednesday whole-group lesson for our K-3 cross-categorical resource room. I select the book and the general theme. I provide a visual schedule and create picture-supported WH-questions. She thinks of an activity that pairs well with the book and theme.

Tuesday Weekly Speech Therapy Routine

On Tuesday, things are a little more straightforward: by now, I’ve already noted any (known) schedule changes.

I often reuse a lot of the activities I used the day before- why reinvent the wheel if things worked well?

A lot of my groups will read the same book, play the same game, and we just individualize to target their goals.

Targets change- activities don’t have to.

That consistency helps my students and reduces my cognitive load.

I also love having my weekly organizer on hand, because I can quickly glance at it when needed. It reminds me of what’s been done and any specific tasks I need to tackle in-between sessions (hello, IEP writing).

One solid book (like feeding the Old Lady) or activity (creating a simple indoor obstacle course) can carry an entire week.

Wednesday Weekly Speech Therapy Routine

Wednesday is my whole-group lesson day.

As I mentioned, I collaborate with my OT for this.

We intentionally keep things simple: over-planning doesn’t always yield the best results.

Our visual schedule structure remains the same each week. This helps our students know what to expect, and it takes some stress of planning away from us. You can create a simple digital visual schedule easily using this tool.

Our visual schedule structure looks like this:

• greetings
• book (paired with an interactive element, such as “feeding the old lady”, or reading a repeated line as a group)
• answer WH-questions (I provide a field of picture-supported answer choices that I show on the board but also have a printed out copy)
• activity (my OT usually plans a motor or sensory-based activity- we do simple activities, such as walking across a balance beam with a stuffy, building themed- items such as candy canes made with fruit loops and pipe cleaners, or going “through” a tunnel after reading We’re Going on a Bear Hunt)
• all done (we wave good-bye and the group session is over)

In addition to my whole-group lesson, I also run individual sessions and group sessions as planned on my therapy schedule. It’s busy, but the day flies by.

End of the Week: Weekly Speech Therapy Schedule

I make sure to give myself some time on my schedule to test or screen students.

Since I need to calculate chronological age, I keep this tool available at all times.

The last days of the week are filled with more therapy sessions and meetings.

I also look ahead to the next week. I pick out a book and a general theme for next week. I’ll use that book in my whole-class lesson next Wednesday.

Weekly SLP Organization

I rely on my Weekly SLP Organizer.

It’s impossible to keep everything in my head- and sticky notes aren’t always enough (though I do love them).

I like to have one place to jot down any notes, visualize my week ahead, and track meetings and schedule changes.

The organizer allows me to map out my week simply, without overplanning.

Keeping Your Weekly Speech Therapy Routine Simple and Structured

There’s no doubt that being a school SLP can bring with it many challenges and a fair amount of chaos.

One thing that can help is simplifying your weekly speech therapy routine.

Remember, you don’t need to have everything planned to perfection.

Repetition is also fine. Repeat the same book, activity, or game that’s working well.

In conclusion, I don’t plan perfect weeks. I plan weeks that will help me survive the chaos and hopefully inspire a bit of routine and structure. Knowing what’s ahead (schedule changes, meetings, reports I need to write, students I need to test) helps me balance the busy week ahead and has been the trick to simplifying my weekly speech therapy routine.