Rules are IMPORTANT!

Wouldn't it be awesome if all of our clients came with little halos and had perfectly angelic behavior? Well we all know that is not the case. Honestly, their little quirky personalities and hyperactive smiles make my day, so I'm glad they aren't drone-like. However, sometimes it is necessary to bottle up their overflowing enthusiasm. I quickly found out my first year that it was absolutely 100% necessary to have rules in the speech room. Having them posted with visuals (for those who can't read yet) and using them consistently is also key.

I have this thought that it would be awesome next year to start the year off making a "behavior contract" with my students. We would have a discussion the first day about their goals in speech and what they hope to accomplish. Then we would write a goals sheet and keep it in the front of their speech homework folder. Then maybe we'll have a discussion about why how we speak matters, why we need to work hard and why messing around during speech would get in the way of those goals. Then we will make the "behavior contract" and both sign it. Good idea, right? Well I'll let you know how it goes this fall when I try implementing that with my students.

What rules/behavior systems have you found to work best for you with your speech kids?

These are my rules from this year. It's been good to have a visual and I love that whenever I need to help a kid remember that being on top of the desk is not really where they are supposed to be I can just say "Hey Drake, Remember Rule #4" and then point to the picture. Then Drake says "oh yeah, vats da one I always foget!" Gotta love that kid!