Collaboration is one of the most meaningful aspects of my role as a school-based speech-language pathologist. As a member of my students educational team, I work closely with classroom teachers, paraprofessionals, related service providers, and families to ensure students are supported in meeting their goals across all environments. 

Through collaborative lessons and ongoing communication with classroom staff, I am able to integrate speech goals into authentic learning experiences. These opportunities allow me to share strategies, model language-facilitation techniques, support the use of communication systems, and create meaningful opportunities for student interaction.

I have facilitated a school store collaboration with classroom teachers to provide students with real-world opportunities to practice functional skills such as shopping, money management, and social interactions. The activity begins with a social story to introduce the shopping process and expectations, followed by structured practice using visual cues, scripts, and modeling to support communication with peers and adults. Students practice making purchases, requesting items, exchanging money, and using appropriate social language. Afterward, we review the experience with questions to reinforce comprehension, vocabulary, and social communication skills. A fun, rhythmic shopping and money song is often included as a sensory break to support engagement and regulation.

This activity addresses multiple speech and language goals, including social communication (i.e., greetings, turn-taking, initiating and responding), functional communication (i.e., asking for help, commenting, following directions), vocabulary development (i.e., objects, categories, money terms, colors, shapes, sizes), responding to questions, pragmatic language, and social-emotional skills. Through this collaborative approach, students generalize communication and language skills in a meaningful and functional, real-life context.

I have also facilitated a music collaboration with classroom teachers and paraprofessionals to support the social, communication, and literacy development of students through music and interactive activities. 

We start with greetings targeting peer-to-peer interactions and core vocabulary (i.e., “Hello” and “your turn __.” Visual supports help students identify peers, and turn-taking activities reinforce social communication skills.

Next, the mystery bag activity targets literacy and expressive language skills, including object identification, letter-to-object correspondence and commenting (“I see a ___”). 

During the shaker and drum activities, students practice a variety of communication functions, including handing out materials (“here + peer’s name”), naming animals and actions (i.e., hopping, galloping), following directions, and using core vocabulary. During the xylophone activity, students practice describing and opposites (i.e., stop/go, loud/quiet), waiting skills, patience, self-regulation, and turn-taking. The lesson concludes with activities that reinforce vocabulary, letter-object correspondence, and emotion identification. Students also engage in a goodbye ritual with the speech therapist, supporting functional communication in a meaningful context.

I frequently collaborate with my fellow speech therapists both during student sessions and outside of the classroom. Together, we organize, larger group activities such as games, crafts, or cooking projects, where each therapist supports their own students. These sessions allow students to benefit from small-group interactions while still receiving the individualized support they need, and they provide opportunities for students to engage with new peers.

Our speech team also collaborates closely with occupational and physical therapists to provide a comprehensive, multidisciplinary approach. I create visuals tailored to the OTs’ and PTs’ activities to support students’ language development, and I integrate strategies such as writing prompts or cutting techniques to reinforce fine motor skills. During some activities, we work together to target students’ goals across all domains, ensuring that each child is supported in communication, academic, motor, and social-emotional development in a meaningful, coordinated way.