I’ve been fortunate to have worked in public schools for 24 years, both as a special education administrator and a speech-language pathologist, and I’d love to share my knowledge with your organization. I recently retired from the highest-ranking school system (in special education) in my state and have spent the last several years re-energizing the speech/language and deaf education programs in my district. I can do the same for your district or private facility. Does your staff need training, observation, or motivation? Do your policies and procedures need streamlining or updating? Are you unsure how to manage the huge task of keeping up with the legal and ethical requirements of our field? Do you have CF-SLPs or SLP Assistants in need of supervision? Are you considering a shift from a caseload approach to staffing with a workload approach? Let’s talk. If you’re interested in learning more, email me at miamcdaniel@gmail.com
Speaking- it’s what we as SLPs do, and it’s what I’ve been doing for over 15 years. As a leader in my public school district, speaking is something I do continually…mostly in the form of professional development for SLPs and other educators. I have years of experience presenting to special educators who teach autistic students or non-speaking students, general education teachers earning certification in special education, SLPs, teachers who work with students who have severe behavioral challenges, and even other special education leaders. I’ve had the honor of presenting at the district and state levels, and I’d love to take my presentations even further! I currently have the following professional development courses available for your clinic, school district, or facility:
- IMPLEMENTING INCLUSIVE LANGUAGE THERAPY -WHY YOU SHOULD & HOW TO MAKE IT WORK (In Person Only) Having provided inclusive language therapy in classrooms from PreK through 8th for over 15 years (before it was even “a thing”), this is a topic I am passionate about. While providing inclusive services can be challenging, it can be done, and I’ll explain and show six ways to get it done. (1.5-2 hours)
- Audience: School SLPs and SLPAs or School SLPs and their co-teacher counterparts, if possible
- WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT WORKING WITH CHILDREN WITH AUTISM (In Person or Virtual) This training has been a favorite of SLPs in my district, and it’s frequently requested by special education and early intervention teachers. It includes a little bit of eye-opening research to help attendees understand what makes kids with ASD tick along with many practical strategies that teachers and therapists can start doing right away to gain students’ attention and reach them. This 3 (or more) hour training covers everything from strategies that develop joint attention to teaching students how to wait. Participants will also learn how to prevent prompt dependency/learned helplessness, how to respond appropriately to echolalia, and SO MUCH MORE!
- Audience: All Pediatric SLPs, SLPAs, OTs, PTs, Special Education Teachers, Early Intervention Teachers, Adapted PE Teachers
- IMPLEMENTING SPEECH AND LANGUAGE RTI FROM START TO FINISH (In Person) Response to Intervention (RTI) has been mandated in our state for over a decade now. As a result, all students with speech and language concerns/referrals must undergo a multi-tiered system of support before an evaluation is conducted. I had the opportunity to be involved in this process since the beginning, and it’s been quite an adventure trying to work out all the kinks. Don’t reinvent the wheel; let me show you how to systematically make it happen – including with grab-and-go materials that therapists can start using right away! (3 hours)
- Audience: School SLPs, SLPAs, Speech Program Coordinators
- VOCABULARY STRATEGIES THAT WORK (In Person or Virtual) Learn about what factors impact a student’s vocabulary and how vocabulary impacts literacy and school success. THEN, learn what to do about it! Walk away with numerous proven strategies to improve your students’ vocabularies, and see them at work in classrooms. Attendees may be shocked to learn that some popular practices we’ve all used to improve vocabulary are a colossal waste of time! Finally, leave with clever ideas to engage students and a list of Tier 2 words to teach (K-12th grade) and why! (1.5 hours)
- Audience: SLPs, SLPAs, Special Education Teachers, General Education Teachers (particularly ELA teachers)
- SELECTIVE MUTISM (In Person or Virtual) Learn about selective mutism and what it takes to reach students with this disorder that is on the rise! Uncover what’s behind a student’s lack of communication (without them uttering a word). Leave with a plan to help your students with selective mutism along with a tool to educate staff about this disorder. (1-1.5 hours)
- Audience: SLPs, SLPAs, Special Education Teachers, General Education Teachers, Interventionists
- BOOSTING ENGAGEMENT WITH MOVEMENT Do you have wiggly students who are hard to engage? Do they have trouble focusing on tasks you ask of them? Do you have many children with ADHD on your caseload? Those factors can make therapy quite a challenge, and therapists can quickly start to feel unproductive. Furthermore, it leaves children with sensory and motor needs feeling frustrated. That’s not a situation conducive to progress, and as much as we love it when children sit still and cooperate, that’s not always our reality. Learn how to work with your students’ cravings for movement by incorporating simple movement activities into your therapy sessions. I’ll teach you how to feed your students’ need for movement while still having productive therapy sessions! (1 to 1.5 hours)
- Audience: SLPs, SLPAs, Special Education Teachers
- CONTROL THE CHAOS – MANAGING YOUR CHALLENGING WORKLOAD Are your therapists feeling overwhelmed by their caseloads? Are you struggling to keep therapists? School-based therapists work with more students than any other special educator. Their jobs are extremely taxing and full of unique challenges. Unlike other special educators, SLPs engage in all aspects of screening, diagnosing. and treating students… from Response to Intervention (RTI) to evaluating students and writing evaluation reports. Furthermore, they develop IEPs, lead IEP meetings, and…OH, provide therapy for all communication disorders! This course helps SLPs learn how to manage their caseloads without losing their sanity. SLPs will gain ideas for scheduling inclusive classroom services, learn strategies for data collection and paperwork completion, and learn how to manage their very full inboxes. This course also includes a discussion of alternative service delivery models (along with the research that supports them) that are proven to be effective for remediating communication disorders in a fraction of the time traditional models can. Lastly, SLPs walk away with many helpful documents that will help them work smarter instead of harder. (1.5 hours)
- Audience: SLPs and SLPAs.
