Survival Kit: Assembly Guide and Materials
No-Prep Therapy Activities at Your Fingertips!
Have you ever walked into a session and thought “Oh crap, I totally forgot to plan for this one!”? Or have you started an activity that you thought was going to go great and it totally bombs?
I’ve had far more of those sessions than I care to admit. But I have a secret weapon for those “Oh crap” moments.
Introducing…. The SLP Survival Kit!
The SLP Survival Kit contains a backup supply of therapy materials for a variety of topics so that you are ALWAYS prepared, even when everything goes terribly awry and you have 20 minutes left in your session with 4 screaming preschoolers and your administrator is sitting in the corner judging you because OF COURSE today was the day he decided to do his surprise observation. (Isn’t that always the way it goes??)
Plus, this won’t take up very much of your already-scarce planning time. Just a few minutes today and then each week, I’ll send you exactly what you need to print and stick in the kit. A couple of minutes each week is going to save you time and stress when it comes to planning your sessions.
Let’s Get Started!
Step One: Gather Your Materials
Here are the things you’ll need in order to create your Survival Kit. Feel free to get as elaborate with this as you want! Or if you’re just looking for simple, do the bare minimum. This is YOUR kit and you’ll get out of it what you put into it!
Find a 3-Ring Binder (as big or small as you want!) or a Small File Box
You can use whichever is more convenient for you. I like the binder because it travels better, but if you’re in one place, the box may be more appealing!
File Folders or Notebook Dividers
If you got a binder, find 10 divider tabs. If you got a file box, find 10 hanging folders.
Page Protectors & Dry Erase Markers
Get a big pack of plastic sheet protectors, some dry erase markers, and maybe a pouch to keep them in. This part will make it so that you can re-use these worksheets and activities in therapy over and over again, making this a truly valuable tool!
Printable Worksheets:
Here comes the good stuff! This is the first week’s worth of printable therapy activities. There is one for each category of therapy that you may work with (see the list below). For your kit, you’ll only assemble the materials that you need for your caseload. So if there’s an area you don’t treat (like fluency), you don’t have to print out that activity. Click the image to the left to open the printables and get to printing!
Step Two: Assemble the Kit
Let’s put it together! Follow along as I make the kit on this video. Or, read the instructions and assemble at your own pace.
The Steps:
- Place the SLP Survival Kit Cover page on the outside of the box or binder. If doing a binder, place the spine label on the outside of the binder.
- Insert the 10 divider tabs into the binder or 10 hanging files into the box.
- Add one table of contents page to each folder to divider. If you don’t do therapy for one particular category, you can omit that section.
- Label the dividers or folder tabs for each of the 10 categories (use the titles from the table of contents pages).
- Add several plastic sheet protectors to each section.
- Place the first week’s activities in the sheet protectors for the appropriate category. Write the name of the page on the table of contents for that section and number the pages for easy reference. Again, skip any that don't look like they'll be particularly helpful for your caseload. We want this to be a 100% helpful tool!
- Add the markers to the kit.
- Enjoy stress-free sessions when you know you have your Survival Kit nearby in case of speech-related emergencies!
Which Activities Go in Each Section?
In case yours got all mixed up in the printing and organizing process, here’s a cheat sheet of what goes in each section:
- Speech Sounds: Structured Conversation Pack
- Language: Epic Mixed Questions Collection
- AAC: Basic 12-Picture AAC Board
- Apraxia: Tree-Picking Edible Game (CV, VC, CVC)
- Autism: Encouraging Children to Talk During Play
- Fluency: Discovering Emotions Workbook
- Functional Communication: /m/ Articulation Book for Beginning Communicators
- Resonance/Voice: High, Low, or Normal Worksheet
- Behavior: Self-Calming Strategies Visual Aids
- Social: Making Inferences from Pictures Activity
What's Next?
That’s it! Your Survival Kit is ready to go! Each week, I’ll send you a new set of worksheets to add to your survival kit each week. Now that you’ve set it up, it will only take a few minutes each week to print off the worksheets and stick them in. And the longer you stay in The SLP Solution Membership, the bigger your kit will get and the less time you’ll have to spend on planning!