FAQ Friday: Tracking Progress {with Freebie!}

I am SO glad it’s Friday!  It’s that time of year that’s sooo crazy busy.  The countdown to the end of the school year has already begun for us…25 school days left!  I know my kiddos are definitely ready for a break.  What about yours?

Of course, Friday also means FAQ time!  🙂

This week we’re going to chat a little bit about tracking progress.  Tracking progress is a great way to get parents involved in their child’s speech at home.  I also love to get the kids involved in tracking their own progress, if they’re old enough.  So today’s question is for parents:

For some of us SLPs, tracking data has become second nature, mostly because we’re required to do it everyday.  We can easily teach parents and kids to do it as well while they work on their homework!  The benefits of data tracking are great.  It can:
-Give students a visual to know how far they are from reaching their goal
-Motivate students to practice harder
-Let parents know exactly how their child is performing
-Be a great incentive to actually get their homework done

If a parent is willing, I’m a believer in teaching them to be their own mini-SLP at home.  I give them tips on what kind of responses I’m looking for.  For articulation, I show them what the error sounds and looks like versus what the correct sound is like.  If I can’t trust that the parent and student can correctly tally the errors, I suggest recording them practicing so I can check.  Most cell phones have a video recording feature, so they could easily whip it out and record without having to purchase another device.

Ok now on to the good stuff!  To track progress, here are some tips to share with parents:

• Grab your homework sheet – whether it be a worksheet, cards, an app, etc.
• Write down how many total items you practiced.
• While practicing, circle or mark the items that you have difficulty with.
• Count how many items that were easy or that you know you said correctly.
• Grab a calculator and divide the number you got correct over the total number of items.
• Multiply that number times 100 to get a percentage.
• Mark your percentage on a chart or graph.