School-Based SLPs: Enhancing Your Informal Assessment Practices To Best Identify and Target Student Needs (Grades PK-12) Presented by Gina England, MA, CCC-SLP Outstanding Speech-Language Pathologist and National Presenter

SpecificallyDesigned

Practical Ideas and Strategies

As school-based SLPs we've all faced numerous challenges in completing timely and informative speech-language evaluations. Often, the single greatest challenge is the time required to do so amidst increasing caseloads and demands on our time. In this NEW seminar with Gina England, you'll explore a wealth of timesaving informal assessment resources, many of which are free! Discover quick assessment activities that target speech, comprehension, verbal expression, emerging language, fluency, and social communication/social pragmatics. Increase student engagement, while gathering more relevant information. See practical ways Artificial Intelligence can enhance your informal assessment efforts to quickly, easily create more personalized assessment activities based on student needs and interests. You'll receive Gina's comprehensive digital resource handbook, complete with clickable web links, and filled with numerous informal assessment measures perfect for grades PreK-12 students with a variety of speech and communication challenges.

Join Gina for a day full of use-tomorrow informal assessment measures you can use to better identify and target student needs.

Ten Key Benefits of Attending

1. Save Time With Outstanding, Ready-to-Use Informal Assessment Tools
   You need not start from scratch – Gina has done the hard work for you! … Quickly access handpicked, readily available informal assessment measures with clickable URL links in your digital resource handbook
2. Discover Emerging Artificial Intelligence Assessment Tools and Resources – Applicable to School-Based SLPs
   See firsthand how AI can support the creation of personalized, developmentally appropriate assessment materials … Empower and engage students while streamlining your evaluation process
3. Strengthen Your Clinical Confidence in Using Informal Assessment Measures
   Explore the benefits of incorporating informal assessment measures into your school-based practice … Understand how IDEA law and ASHA support the use of informal assessment measures in your practice so you can make informed, defensible decisions
4. More Effectively Evaluate Challenging Students
   Discover common antecedents to noncompliant behavior that can impede the evaluation process … Select informal assessment measures that play to student strengths and interests to reduce resistance and facilitate more successful completion of your evaluations
5. Maximize Your Time and Efforts With a Personalized Diagnostic Toolbox
   Receive a wealth of use-tomorrow informal assessment resources … Create your own personalized informal assessment physical or digital binder to enhance your evaluation process
6. Quickly Adapt or Create Your Own Highly Effective Informal Assessments
   Explore ready-made informal measures you can easily use to adapt or create your own assessment measures … Get started with some of Gina's very favorite informal assessment measures she has created
7. Gather Richer, More Authentic Assessment Data From Multiple Settings
   Discover low- and no-cost rating scales you can share with teachers and families to quickly acquire data from multiple environments … Bridge data collection, capturing a more complete picture of student needs
8. Streamline Assessment Completion With Play-Based Assessment Tools
   Learn how to gather multiple informal data points in a single session using engaging, developmentally appropriate play-based assessment tools … Save valuable time while strengthening your evaluations
9. Individualize and Personalize Your Student Assessment Plans
   Learn how targeted informal assessment activities tailored to your students' unique needs can yield more functional results … Determine when additional probes are indicated to supplement standardized testing and strengthen your overall evaluation
10. Receive an Extensive Informal Assessments Digital Resource Handbook
    Leave with a comprehensive digital resource handbook filled with use-tomorrow informal assessment tools, strategies, and examples featured throughout the seminar to enhance your assessment practices … Click the embedded direct URL web links throughout to quickly access the assessments

Outstanding Strategies You Can Use Immediately

Here's what you'll learn:

• Specific informal assessment tools in the areas of articulation, language comprehension, verbal expression, emerging language, phonological awareness, Autism, and social communication/pragmatics
• Ready-to-use summary tables to guide your clinical decisions regarding the use of specific informal assessment measures
• Ways to keep students highly engaged during the evaluation process, yielding better results
• Useful strategies and activities stemming from the "Authentic Assessment Approach" and key implications for school-based SLPs
• Multidisciplinary rating scales to both "share the load" and include teachers and school staff in the evaluation process
• A comprehensive summary of numerous informal assessment measures, including their cost, skills assessed, and target age ranges
• A specific way to identify language differences vs. a language disorder, especially with English language learners
• Receive an easy-to-adapt template to help you record intra-test observation data for inclusion in your evaluations
• Keys to creating a personalized physical or digital informal assessment binder to organize targeted measures aligned to the unique needs of students on your caseload
• Case studies illustrating how you can easily and seamlessly integrate informal assessment measures into traditional speech and language evaluations
• Ways to adapt or create your own screening tools for articulation and linguistic concept development based on provided examples
• AI tools with practical implications for your informal assessment work and speech-language evaluations

A Message From Your Seminar Leader

Dear Colleague:

As a Speech-Language Pathologist with decades of experience, I've always appreciated both the challenges and the rewards of the evaluation process. In many ways, it's the most critical part of our role on the special education team because it allows us to create IEP goals and objectives that are truly informed, relevant, and functional.

Working with countless grades PreK-12 students, I have often asked myself: Why is learning such a challenge for this student? Over time, I've found that my observational data is often as valuable – if not more so – than the formal test scores I collect. And though we're well-versed in administering and interpreting standardized assessments in our day-to-day work, we don't always realize just how many other great assessment tools are available to us. That's what this seminar is all about!

During our time together, I'll introduce you to a wide range of informal assessment measures I've used and refined over the years – tools that are practical, timesaving, and tailored for school-based practice. These measures span grades PreK-12 and reflect the most common communication challenges we encounter. I'll also share real case studies that illustrate how informal testing can help you create more personalized, meaningful evaluations that highlight not just a student's challenges, but also their strengths.

Our students are so much more than a standardized score, and your evaluation process can better reflect that. I'm excited to equip you with a fresh perspective and new tools to greatly enhance your assessment of students in ways that are efficient, engaging, and impactful.

Sincerely,
Gina England, MA, CCC-SLP

P.S. Informal assessment measures are quick to administer, easy to score, and target very specific skills. Your students will also enjoy the fact that they are brief and easier to complete.

Who Should Attend

Speech-Language Pathologists Serving Grades PreK-12

About BER Live Online Events

With the current health challenges, all BER in-person PD events are currently being presented in a Live Online format:

• Outstanding Instructors
  All programs are led by outstanding BER national trainers
• Extensive Resource Handbooks
  You'll have access to an extensive digital Resource Handbook before, during and after your seminar
• Highly Interactive
  You'll be able to ask questions in real time and interact with the instructor and other participants
• Program Guarantee
  As we have for 49 years, we guarantee the high quality of our programs. If you are not satisfied, we'll give you a 100% refund.

Special Benefits of Attending

Extensive Informal Assessments Digital Resource Handbook
You will receive an extensive digital resource handbook specifically designed for this seminar. Included in the handbook are:

• A comprehensive summary of informal assessment measures, including their names, web links, cost, age ranges and targeted skills
• Informal assessment measures for articulation, speech, language comprehension, verbal expression, fluency, emerging language, play skills, phonological awareness and social communication/social pragmatics
• Resources for locating additional readily available informal measures online
• Advantages/disadvantages of both standardized assessments and informal assessment measures to inform your decision making regarding their use
• IDEA law and ASHA's position statement to support the use of non-standardized assessment measures as part of a more comprehensive and authentic evaluation
• Samples of informal assessment tasks Gina has created and used with success

For in-person seminars, registrants will also receive a printed copy of the resource handbook as long as their registration is received in the BER office at least 15 calendar days before the event.

Share Ideas
This seminar provides a wonderful opportunity for participants to share ideas with other school-based SLPs interested in enhancing their informal assessment practices to better identify and target student needs.

Consultation Available
Gina England will be available for consultation regarding your questions and the unique needs of your own speech-language program.

ASHA - CEUs


You will be required to fully attend the program, actively participate, and complete a self-assessment and program evaluation.

ASHA-Required Disclosure Statement for Gina England:
Presenter for the Bureau of Education & Research and receives honorarium compensation.
No relevant nonfinancial relationships exist.

Semester Credit Option
Up to four graduate level professional development credits are available with an additional fee and completion of follow-up practicum activities. Details for direct enrollment with University of Massachusetts Global, a nonprofit affiliate, will be available at this program.

Meet Inservice Requirements
Participants of both the Live Online Seminar and those completing the Recorded Version online can receive a certificate of participation that may be used to verify five continuing education hours. State CEUs are available for both versions of the course. For specific details, visit www.ber.org/ceus.

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