It is a well-known common denominator in our profession: there just never seems to be enough time. If our goal in special education is to remediate a deficit and return them to the highest percentage of general education minutes in their day possible, then how do we make the most efficient use of our time, how do we get the most bang for our buck?
When I think about my students and the number of trips we made to and from classrooms, bathroom needs in the middle of a session or struggling to make a group activity work for a variety of goal types, I think about all the missed minutes. All the missed repetitions. All the missed sentences. All the missed vocabulary.
What if, instead of losing those minutes, we gained them? 5-minute artic drills have been a popular thing among therapists for a long time. Speedy Speech Therapy has created a full program that only requires 5-10 minutes in one-on-one sessions to quickly remediate articulation errors. They offer a one-minute log sheet, teacher and parent letters, and over 350 colorful picture cards.
While this program is written in English, the concept is evidence-based and could easily be transferred to Spanish or any other language with the help of a native speaker. Explore their website and do a little of your own digging! You may find that incorporating this into your regimen using Spanish artic cards may prove to be the most productive 5 minutes you’ve ever had with a child!
See their full program, iPad apps, and get more information here.
