When providing school-based speech and language services, you often hear that Speech-Language Pathologists should center their therapy around the student’s curriculum. Goals should be academically based and relevant. One might wonder, how can you ensure that what you are targeting is academically relevant? Here are some tips and tricks that Speech Language Pathologists use during school-based services. 

1. Collaboration and Consult: Collaboration with the student’s teacher and guardian through a phone call or email. Collaboration is a great way to know what the student is working on in the classroom. That way you can implement their goal and what they are learning in the classroom in the session. You can consult with teachers and guardians about their strengths and weaknesses in regard to the student’s speech and language skills in the classroom.
2. Homework: Have the student bring their homework to the session. You can inform the student and guardian that they can bring one assignment or multiple assignments to their scheduled session. You can help them complete the assignment and indirectly target their goals. The student can bring a reading or math assignment, and answer questions based on the given assignment.  
3. In Class Assignment: Have the student bring a book or writing assignment they are working on in class. You can target the setting, plot, problem, solution, and characters as well as questions pertaining to the story. The student can also go over any words they may not understand the meaning of.  
4. Themes: Select a theme or topic that is relevant to what the student would be learning in their grade. For example: A first grader might be learning about wild animals. You can target categories, and what animals might live in the water, on the farm, in the jungle, and in the forest. A student can make comparisons about animals by how they look, what they eat, and where they live.  
5. Presentations: Work with the student to make a presentation informing their teachers and peers what they are learning in their speech and language sessions. The student can educate their peers and teachers about their feelings about receiving services, their goals, and how they target their goals in the session. They can also have their peers and teachers ask questions. The other option is that a student can practice for a presentation that they may have to give in class. That way they become comfortable and confident when presenting.