Data Collection from a Minimalist Point of View

*Please note, this post I also write about in my monthly “The Minimalist SLP” newsletter. If you would like to be included, you can sign up HERE.

We all know that data is HUGE in our field, and we’re taught that from the very first lesson in our undergraduate course.

But here’s the thing: OCCASIONALLY, I come across an SLP who doesn’t take enough data. You might stumble across one of these SLPs yourself and it makes itself pretty apparent real quick.

HOWEVER. I would dare to say the vast majority of us actually do the opposite: Take TOO MUCH data. We measure, probe, ask, write, sigh, and then measure again. We TAKE.

Data collecting is TAKING, teaching is GIVING. We should be giving to our students more than taking from our students.

So here’s the thing, this post isn’t going to tell you how to take more data. Instead, it’s going to tell you to take LESS data, focus more on TEACHING, and effectively USE the data you have.

In general, there are two types of data collecting I perform during the year.

1. Baselines:

In general, I take baselines 3 times per year.

• At the beginning of the year
• Before a student’s IEP or Evaluation
• At the end of the year

When I say “baselines,” I am referring to measuring a student’s current abilities across multiple areas of language. When I measure baselines, I am not just assessing their progress on their current goals. Rather, I am looking across a broad spectrum of language skills that students should be learning and mastering at their current grade level. To collect baselines, I use either my Curriculum-Based Language Assessments or my Screening Toolkits. Baselines are helpful when I am gauging a student’s understanding of general language skills, seeing how they compare with grade level material, and when writing new goals for an IEP.

2. Progress Monitoring:

When I say “progress monitoring,” I’m referring to measuring how well my student’s are doing with their current goals throughout the school year. This is used to quantify a student rate of improvement or responsiveness to instruction and performed on a regular basis. For progress monitoring, I use my Ultimate Data Collection Binder. However, we should never devote more time to progress monitoring than we do teaching. Here’s a few ways I keep progress monitoring at bay and from taking over my therapy:

• Devote 1 week per month to absolutely NO data collecting. You can read how I do this in my post HERE.
• If Medicaid requires you collect data every session (ridiculous, in my opinion) BUT…devote the majority of your session to teaching and then use the last few minutes to progress monitor. After all, we want progress monitoring to reflect how student’s are doing with the skills they have been exposed to and given strategies for and the only way to do this is to assess them AFTER we TEACH them.

Example:

Let’s look at an example student and see how this plays out:

Joey Smith, 3rd grade, IEP due 3/15/2019. Goals include writing complete compound sentences, naming irregular verbs, and naming irregular nouns.

• At the beginning of the year, I assess Joey’s baseline skills. I do this by giving him a second grade Screening Toolkit (since he should have been exposed to all the second grade skills last year). I find that in addition to writing sentences and grammar skills, he also demonstrates needs in vocabulary (naming antonyms and synonyms). I make a note of this.
• From the beginning of the school year until his IEP, I focus on teaching compound sentences, irregular verbs and nouns and breaking down those skills. I regularly assess his progress in these areas by giving him a quick 5 minute check most sessions using my Ultimate Data Collection Binder.
• In March (or late February), I assess Joey’s baseline skills again using a third grade Screening Toolkit and find that his grammar has increased but again, he demonstrates a need in vocabulary. I write his IEP using this information.
• From his new IEP until the end of the school year, I focus on teaching vocabulary, antonyms, synonyms, analogies, and word relationships. I regularly assess his progress in these areas by giving him a quick 5 minute check most sessions using my Ultimate Data Collection Binder.
• At the end of the year, I again assess Joey’s baseline skills by giving a third grade Screening Toolkit and mark any areas of strengths and weaknesses for the following year. (If an IEP falls at the end of the year, I don’t perform another baseline, I just use the IEP data).

I hope this helps refocus your purpose in data collection. It is to benefit us and the student, but all to often it’s just over-done and under-used. I hope this year you can turn it around and focus on TEACHING more than COLLECTING.