I still remember how I felt walking into the first day of my new job as CFY. I was excited but beyond nervous. I remember sitting at the table with my first group and thinking that I had absolutely NO idea what to do or what I was doing, but I had the BEST group of teammates that I constantly turned to! Below are a few tips, that I hope you will find helpful.
1. FIND YOUR PERSON.
Get to know the therapists you’re working with and find that person (or people) that you can go to whenever you have questions or just need to talk to someone. I feel so lucky that many of the therapists I’ve worked with over the years have become some of my closest friends.
2. ASK QUESTIONS.
I can’t stress this enough. Ask your questions. It’s how we learn and become better therapists. Never feel silly or “dumb”. I still constantly ask questions. This field continually changes and so diverse. It’s impossible to be “good” in all the areas. Find out who has the strengths in different areas on your teams and learn from them.
3. BE ORGANIZED.
There are a lot of balls you have to juggle as a speech-language pathologist. Buy those sticky notes and make your lists. Start your progress notes early. That way if you need some more data on a particular goal or objective, you have time to get.
4. DO THOSE CHART REVIEWS.
I think sometimes we put off the chart reviews because there are meetings we have to attend or schedules to make, but it is so important to get to know your students and their needs. I send out Preference Assessments to parents at the start of every year. It’s a quick and easy way to get a variety of information that helps make the fist few days of therapy easier and also helps me to learn more about my students.
5. HAVE FUN!
You’re going to be AWESOME! Play the games with your kids. Do the fun crafts from time to time. Get to know your students and the other staff you work with. It will all be okay!
Still need more?
Email us or comment below. Check out our freebie library. We are happy to support you however we can!
If you would like a copy of the get to know you/parent questionnaire I use, you can grab it here.
If you’re interested in some more therapy ideas for the beginning of the year, you might want to take a look at might post 6 Back to School Activities for Elementary Speech Therapists.
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