If the profession of speech-language pathology no longer existed, I would choose to be a timekeeper.

For the last decade, I have thought about speech sounds, literacy-based interventions and theory of mind activities.  Regardless of my setting and caseload, I always find myself being a slave to the clock.  In the back of my head, I am keeping track of the minutes that have been dedicated to goals and objectives, the commute time to the classroom and the important time dedicated to speaking with parents.  The hour and minute hands keep me on track, and it overwhelms my daily infatuation with my profession.

Time is a great thing.

The problem arises when there is too much to do, and there are not enough hours in the day to accomplish all tasks.  So, I started to use speech therapy strategies (while transitioning) in the hallway.

Anyone else feel this way?  On this day, I want to share one way to maximize our precious time— In a nutshell, it’s speech therapy in the hallway.

3 speech therapy strategies to use while walking down the long hallways

1. Counter Magic

Have students practice their sounds while walking down the hall.  Once my students are able to self-gauge their own speech performance, this is a perfect way to get in 50-100 repetitions of a sound even before you even step into the speech room.  I hand each student a counter, give him a task and model the (quietly spoken) task.  “Your job is to work on your beginning /r/ sound at the sentence level. I want you to say, ‘Rob rocks at reading,’ while walking down the hallway.  Let’s see how many repetitions we get!” For my students working on language concepts,

2. Address the parts of a story

In order to maximize our students’ performance, I used a brain-based strategy of reciting the parts of a story through a rap.  So, as the student walk down the hallway in a line, we are quietly rapping the story grammar components.  Click here and then scroll down to see our story grammar rap.

3. Work on following directions

As the students walk down the hall, I am at the front of the line.  I face them (while carefully walking backwards) and give fun action items.  “Touch your head three times, tickle your left ear and rub your belly.  Go!”  It’s amazing how following directions while moving is a great motivator.

Let’s get to work, use these speech therapy strategies in the hallway and walk the talk.