As many of you know, I used to work with preschool-aged students in a public elementary school. The students on my caseload were all in a full-day program, including those with autism, sensory disorders, and other developmental or medical challenges. I absolutely love helping these groups and creating ideas to help them learn and grow.
Challenges for Minimally Verbal Students
There are a few things that can be tricky when working with non-verbal or minimally verbal preschoolers. One of those things is evaluations! While I did enjoy evaluating my students to see how much progress they’d made and which goals or objectives they’d mastered, it was definitely a challenge when I had large groups of kids.
Administering evaluations, doing classroom observations, consulting with teachers, and reviewing data and notes for each student was a lot to manage. And all of that had to be done while still seeing my students for their regularly scheduled speech sessions, doing in-class group speech, SEMI logging, and more! I'm getting overwhelmed just thinking back about it!
First Steps to Stay Organized and On Track
First things first, here’s what to do to stay organized—trust me, this is what a lot of planning and prep over the years has taught me!
- Plan and organize: Start by mapping out dates, students, and the tests you need to administer.
- Gather resources: Collect the assessments, materials, and checklists that will be needed for each student.
- Set priorities: Focus on gathering comprehensive data that will help you write effective goals for each student.
- Stay on top of deadlines: Track all the timelines to ensure you’re meeting important deadlines and staying on schedule.
Resources to Use
1. Preschool Language Screener
This Preschool Language Screener is an excellent tool for working with minimally verbal students. For these students, it’s important to assess not just verbal communication but also their receptive language skills and understanding of concepts, as they may not yet be able to express everything they understand.
What makes this screener particularly beneficial is that it targets a wide range of language skills, both receptive (what the student understands) and expressive (what the student can say). This is crucial when working with minimally verbal preschoolers, as it helps you gather a fuller picture of their abilities.
For example, even if a student struggles to say words or form sentences, they might still understand concepts like nouns, actions, or categories. This screener will help you identify exactly where they are struggling and where they are excelling.
What It Includes:
- Targeted Skill Areas: Nouns, Actions, Object Functions, Categories, Pronouns, Adjectives, WH Questions
- Engaging Hands-On Activities: Use magnetic chips, play-doh, bingo daubers, or markers
- Color-Coded, Easy-to-Assemble Cards
- Data Sheets: Record correct/incorrect responses and progress
- Informal Screening Tool for assessment and progress monitoring
- Comprehensive Data Sheet to track areas needing further assessment
- Adapted Developmental Norms based on Poole, Sander, Hena, Fudala, Templin & Wellman
- AND MORE!
For minimally verbal students, this screener can be a HUGE help in accurately assessing their language abilities and planning for future intervention. It will help you track progress, identify areas of need, and build comprehensive goals that will guide your therapy sessions throughout the year.
2. Grab N' Go Articulation Screener
The Grab N' Go Articulation Screener is a useful tool for assessing the speech sound development of minimally verbal students. It helps identify whether their articulation skills are progressing or if additional support is needed. Even if a student isn’t fully verbal, the screener can provide insight into their understanding of speech sounds.
By tracking their progress over time, you can ensure that you’re meeting their specific needs with appropriate goals and interventions.
It’s simple to use in therapy sessions, centers, or on-the-go, and gives you the data needed to guide IEP goals and monitor progress throughout the year.
What It Includes:
- Early & Later Developing Speech Sounds: /p, b, m, h, w, n, d, t, k, g, f, y, ng, v, l, j, sh, ch, r, s, z, th/
- Color-Coded, Easy-to-Use Cards
- Data Sheets to track correct/incorrect responses
- Progress Monitoring Form for year-round tracking
- And MORE
This screener helps you evaluate speech development and provides valuable data to plan targeted interventions for your students.
3. Communication Matrix
While my district primarily used the PLS-5 as our standardized assessment, I came across students who didn’t quite fit into that framework. That’s when I discovered the Communication Matrix! This free assessment tool was perfect for students with autism, non-verbal students, or those who were at the earliest stages of communication.
The Communication Matrix was simple to use and provided a clear, one-page profile that highlighted a student’s communication skills, whether they were using gestures, symbols, or even verbal communication. All I had to do was create an account and go through the questions, and I’d receive a comprehensive snapshot of my student’s abilities.
This tool was ideal for gathering valuable insight into my students' communication and helped guide interventions and goal-setting.
For more details, I recommend heading over to www.communicationmatrix.org to see how amazing it is for yourself!
Tools That Make a Difference
Using these assessment tools made a big difference in how I approached working with minimally verbal students. They provided clear, valuable insights that guided my decision-making and helped me develop more effective, individualized goals.
Whether you’re looking to screen speech sounds or evaluate early communication stages, these resources are essential for making sure your students are getting the support they need. Remember, the right tools can make all the difference in providing the best care and intervention for every child.
