What Speech Therapy materials do parents find useful? - SLP asking for advice

[SLPatHome]

Hi

I am a Speech-Language Therapist.  I have been trying to create a side business by making programs that parents can use to help children work on speech sounds.  I've had limited success.  I'm hoping that you could give me some advice on what parents are looking for when they do need to help with speech sounds or with language skills.  If you want, you are welcome to download my speech programs - right now I am simply giving them away to try to get interest and to hopefully get feedback.  My site is www.speech-therapyathome.com.  I hope it is ok to give my site address.  

Let me know what you think - thanks for your help.

[PeterPan]

On 1/13/2022 at 12:07 PM, SLPatHome said:

I've had limited success.

Have you thought about vending them through TPT=Teachers Pay Teachers?  A lot of SLPs (and teachers and parents) buy things there, and it's the place I look for self-published, affordable materials. I'm going to look through your downloads, but I would suggest that if they're high quality you simply increase the price to cover the cut TPT will take and let that price reflect the quality you see there. Under-pricing your materials will *not* communicate value or quality and in fact it can be just the opposite. Don't under-value your work. 

If you want to see a site that does well integrating their blog and store, try Christine Reeve of https://autismclassroomresources.com/  I think the other thing you'll notice there is that it's sort of *personality* driven. When I go to your site, I don't see YOU. I don't see your face, your personality, your enthusiasm, etc. People, in reality, are looking for someone to follow. I see you have a FB link on your site, so I'll go click that. I expect to see enthusiasm, you, maybe live chats, that kind of thing.

Are you active on any of the SLP-only FB groups? Oh my, your link is broken.

Ok, I'm flipping through one of your pdfs (Fixing Stops) and it's AMAZING!!! You definitely have good stuff here, and it's stuff I would have used (maybe in a different, more apraxia-specific way, but definitely used) when my ds was 4-5. (He had mod/severe apraxia and we were doing PROMPT.)

So I'll go through the materials more thoroughly, as I may have more thoughts. That's where I would start though, getting your materials to show up in the most common engine for people looking for self-published materials and amping your social media presence. I'm not seeing *you* even in the pdf, and it's really surprising. If I buy something from Super Duper Inc or ProEdInc, I usually see a small picture of the author, a professional portrait. For me, and this is just me, the challenge is always assuring quality. Just looking through these materials quickly, I don't think you have an issue with quality. I'm going to be looking at format/organization, because published materials usually have predictable organization and chunkings that are conducive to a school year (32-36 weeks of material). So one long flow isn't as helpful as chunks and clear structure. Also I'm looking for how easy it will be for me as a parent to print or prepare to use. If everything is in order (explanatory text and worksheets) then that's easy on an ipad. However if I want to *print* those worksheets to hand to my dc one at a time or throw in page protectors, that will be a pain. So I'm all over the one click and it's printed and ready to go thing if I'm going to need to print. That's just me.

Well good luck and feel free to pm me if you want to gab more. 

[PeterPan]

Btw, you also don't *show up* when I search "speech therapy at home" on FB, so you definitely need to do some work there to build presence, make sure you're showing up in search engines, etc.

 

[SLPatHome]

Hi

Thanks for all the good ideas.  I do have lots of work to do if I want to make this more successful.  

[Porridge]

I just downloaded 2 of your modules (S and TH). Will let you know if I have any helpful feedback. Thanks for offering these. 

[Porridge]

Hi @SLPatHome - I've looked over the S module and I personally think it's really good!  I'll give you my personal thoughts, then I'll give you some guesses for why you're not attracting a broader audience.

My DS is 11 and started Speech therapy when he was 8. We are still working...  He was discharged from speech therapy from a local university hospital clinic after about 6 or 8 months (I can't remember)-- they have a long waiting list, and felt that he had a good enough foundation that he could do with just me working with him at home. He didn't make any further progress. I contacted his former speech therapist and she basically said to keep working with him, and that for some kids, they won't improve until they are socially shamed into really making the effort to improve.  I had limited success with a school-district based speech therapist. We sought out a speech therapist who offered online therapy during COVID. Throughout this time, I was (am still) working with him 20 min/ day on school days (so 5 days/week). 

None of them ever gave me anything like the list of exercises, games, and techniques that you spell out in your module. Usually, they would give me lists of S words or sentences with lots of S words. 

On my own, I deduced that if he does the D and T sound correctly, the S usually falls into place. So I make him over emphasize the D and T sounds during therapy, hoping to strengthen those lingual muscles.  You mention this D and T link in your guide. I appreciate that. I wish the prior therapists had told me that from the beginning.

I'm very thankful to have this list - I'll be referring to it frequently in our speech sessions at home moving forward. Hopefully we'll see some "carryover" (I had not heard that term before I read your module). DS has ADHD, and that makes it more challenging for him to remember to consider his tongue position.

I do think that adding a video or audio component would be helpful.

Distinguishing between a frontal and lateral lisp is going to be challenging for most parents. Your explanation isn't bad, but I think most people still won't feel confident in telling the difference between the two. This is where audio or video could help. There are likely other phonemes that may be confusing for parents as well. You could have a youtube channel with short videos that help the parent understand what to look / listen for. 

I prefer print, but we're increasingly a visual-media-based culture. Many parents might prefer to have what you explained in print explained to them by video.  The video or audio could be an adjunct to the print material.

I also think your website could look cleaner, for lack of a better word. It looks a bit cluttered. If you feel comfortable putting an "about" section that tells a little more about yourself, it helps the viewer feel more connected and creates a sense of trust. It also helps the viewer feel more comfortable with your reported credentials.

 

Thank you so much for offering this program free. I will definitely be trying some of the techniques and games you described.