#55. 3 Simple Systems for Data Collection
Episode Shownotes:
In today's episode, I'm sharing 3 simple systems to help make data collection quick, easy, and painless. Tune in to hear about each one, including the pros, cons, and ways to tailor them to your own unique needs. Share your thoughts in the SLP Support Group and reflect on potential changes to your practice inspired by this discussion.
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Episode Transcript*:
This is Your Speech Path: Mindful Time Management for the Busy SLP. My name is Theresa Harp and, as a mom and speech pathologist turned productivity coach, I know a thing or two about how hectic life can be. If you're an SLP who's overworked, burnt out and feeling like you're constantly falling short as a therapist and a mom, then this is the podcast for you. I cover time management and mindset strategies so you can learn to love your work and your home life at the same time. Let's dive in.
Hey everyone, welcome to episode 55 of the podcast. Today I'm gonna be talking about systems, and I went over this lots of different ways in my mind of how I could organize this episode for you, and I ultimately decided to break this up into separate mini I'm saying mini, but they probably won't be because I talk a lot, but mini podcast episodes, and this first one is all about a system for data collection. So today's gonna be talking about, today's episode is gonna be talking about data. I'm gonna offer you three systems, very simple systems that you can use to help you with data collection. So if that's something that's tricky for you, if that's something that you feel like maybe you do it a little bit differently every time, and you think it would be easier and quicker if you just kind of had a simple solution and did it the same way almost every time, or every time. How much easier that would be? Then definitely stay with me for today's episode, and then in upcoming weeks, there will be a couple of other episodes that are going to be released on other systems related to our practice as speech pathologists. So today's data, and next week, actually don't know which one is scheduled for next week, so I don't want to tell you the wrong one, but I can tell you a couple of other topics in the coming weeks for systems include...I have an email episode, I have an episode about tracking sheets for intake inquiries, and I'm sorry for inquiries and for intakes, two separate systems for that. And that's at least three right off the bat that I'm thinking of on the spot. So those are in the queue, and definitely make sure you come back to the show if you have struggled with any of those three things, because I will have something for you in the coming weeks.
But let's talk about data. Okay, so I just want to give a couple disclaimers, a couple sort of, you know, like I often do that number one, what I share today may or may not work for you. Please just take what works and leave what doesn't. And also, I want you to keep in mind that this is obviously not a comprehensive episode. There are many ways that data can look, data collection can look. And I also wanted to suggest that as you're listening, you might find elements of various systems. So I'm going to talk about three you might find elements of each one that you like, and then that might lead you to create a system that works for you, a unique system that works for you, that's fine too. Great, right? And then the last thing I want to say before we get started when it comes to systems, is that is that-- I'm talking to my ADHD ers out there. So those of you who are have a diagnosis of ADHD, or you believe you do? You suspect you do systems. You may have a, as you know, you may have a love, hate relationship with systems. Systems can be tricky, and I want to preface this episode by saying I am not at all suggesting that this system is going to be a permanent solution to data collection. In fact, for those of you, especially those of you who have ADHD, you will know that systems, you know, they come and go in our lives. And so I want you to ask yourself, as you're listening to this episode, how might I need to modify this in order to work for my neurodivergent brain? Okay, how might I need to modify this in order to work for my neurodivergent brain? And speaking of neurodivergent brains, I don't know if you have heard but later this month. I'm very excited I will be hosting a lunch and learn via zoom, a virtual lunch and learn in the SLP Support Group on Facebook. So if you are not tracking that, it's a free lunch and learn available to any SLP support group members. It's scheduled for Thursday, July 25 and it is all about time management strategies for individuals who are neurodivergent. So make sure you check that out if that is you Okay. All right. So we got all of that out of the way. Let's talk about the three systems, the three, you know, approaches to data collection. So none of these are fancy. Okay, by the way, none of these are fancy. I have found that the simpler a system is, the easier it is to maintain. So I like to keep things as simple as possible. And so as you're listening to this, you might be like, Oh, that's a system. Yes, it's a system. It's a system if it works for you, if it makes things quicker, easier, less, decisions being made, less, you know, thought process to go through. It's a system. So the first system that I have for data collection is a simple post, it or post its okay. Now I am a I have a love hate relationship with post it, so I'm going to talk about that in a minute, but let me tell you what this looks like first, and then I'll talk about some of the pros and cons and ways that you can modify it. Okay, now, if you are using a post it system. When it comes to data collection, this can be one post it per session. It might need to be more than one post it per session, depending upon how many goals you're targeting, how many trials you're hitting, all of that. But I'm just talking a simple post it. You can put it on your table. You could put it underneath your our your materials, right, your therapy materials. You could put it on I used to put it on my leg, like I would tape it to my leg when I was doing sessions with kids who were moving around, and I just needed to have it with me, you know, wherever we were going throughout the therapy room. So different ways that you can approach this, but it's exactly what it sounds like. You have your data collect, you have your post it, and you do the data collection on the post it. Okay. Now one way that I like to sort of level up, if you will, is either I would say in advance if I was being ideal, but I would say during the session, if I'm being honest, I would make little notations on the post it for the level of cue or the type of cue that I was giving. So I remember I'm not treating right now, but when I was treating, I had I, I would write I in a box for independent I would do VC for verbal cue, I think I did TC for tactile cue, and so I had just little shorthand abbreviations that told me exactly what cue I was using. And I would note the the response on the appropriate line. So, for example, if I was working on, let's say, expressive use of adjective, noun structure, so I was working, you know, little ball, red truck, you know, stuff like that, right? So the adjective noun structure in expressive language, I would have adjective plus noun as the goal, right? I would just write goal number one, adjective plus noun, and then I would write an E for expressive and then underneath that I would have three lines for my queuing hierarchy. Now this will be dependent upon what your cueing hierarchy is, but I would have an eye for independent. I would have, let's say, a verbal cue, and then maybe a gestural cue. And what I would do is give the child the opportunity to use that structure independently first and then if the if the child was not producing that structure, then I would put a minus next to the eye on the post it. And then I would go to my next level of cueing, so a verbal cue, and then I would, if that was no response, I would put a minus there. Then I would go to the gestural cue, and if I got it, I would put a plus there. If I didn't, I didn't, I would get a minus, and then we're moving on to the next trial. Does that make sense? I hope so. So I would have minus for opportunities that were presented but the child didn't, didn't use that structure. I would have a plus sign if and when the child did use that structure. Sure, and then at the end of the session, I could just tally up the trials, the number of trials and the number of pluses and minuses, and get my data that way. So that's how I would do it, very quick, very easy, right? Nothing fancy. I also wanted to offer a couple of, like I said, pros and cons and modifications, potential modifications for this so pros and cons are obviously how simple and accessible this system is. You just, you have a post it, you have a pen or pencil, and you're good. That's all you need, right? Really, really easy, easy to do on the fly. You don't even really have to think ahead all that much, if at all. So it's, it's incredibly simple and easy in terms of systems, in terms of cons, though, some of the shortcomings, or the short, the, you know, the the shortcomings of this system are that, if you're like me, I would lose post its incredibly easily. I mean, I and I used so many post its that sometimes it was getting to the point where it worked great in the beginning, and then I just sort of had stacks of post its and loose post its just, you know, post its everywhere, and it was sort of falling apart. So for me, that was one of the drawbacks of that system. But I'm not necessarily saying that's something that will be a drawback for you. It's just something to keep in mind. One of the modifications that you might make, and I've done this to sort of account for that, is once the session's over, take that sticky note and put it into the client's file. Now I don't know what your filing system is like. Most people, mostly everywhere, are electronic these days, I believe. But some of you who might be listening, you might still be using paper files. I don't know. I back when I was using this system, I was using paper. We would write. We would hand write our SOAP Notes. And so I would have that, that post it, and I would just stick it on the sheet or the session it was getting written, and then I would just transfer it over. But how awesome would it be if you could just take that sticky note, that post it, and put it directly into your session note? And for those of you who are maybe private practice owners or contractors, that might be something you could consider if you are not bound to specific a specific program for your session notes. So just keep that in mind. I think anything that makes us work a little bit more quickly, and you don't want to be you don't have to do this twice, right? You're already writing it on the post it, and then to have to transfer it over to a piece of paper or into your electronic record. That's an added step. So just something to keep in mind, and you might modify it in a way that works better for you. Okay, so that's the data collection system for post its now I want to talk about a similar system for data, and this one is using labels. When I say labels, I'm talking about the sticky labels that you can write or print on that are like mailing labels, return address mailing address labels. Okay, essentially, this is the same idea as the post its, the differences, though, with this so So, just to kind of remind you, with the labels, just like with the post its, you can write the type of Q that are that you would be using. You can write the goal, the type of Q. You can do the calculations right on the right on the label, just like you can on the post it, and then you can peel it and place it wherever you need it. Okay, those are obvious similarities, but a couple of the differences with the labels, I know some in some cases, people have, I think people have told me, I don't think I'm making this up. People have told me that they were able to then take that label and move it into their session note, just like we were talking about, right? It looks a little bit cleaner, looks a little bit more professional than, say, a bright yellow or bright orange. Post it, it's, obviously can stick and last a little bit longer, so you're less likely to leave them laying around and lose them, misplace them, mix them up. So I think it's a little bit can be a little bit more organized than a post it. Those are a couple of the differences. And what I also would offer is that you could take these labels, and if you don't use them directly in your session, note, you can keep them in your files, or you could keep them, let's say, printed out on a sheet, and keep those labels there so you can very easily see progress over time. Time. Okay? Now we can see progress over time in other ways, right? You can go to the session notes and look you can there's lots of ways that you can see that. This is another way that you can see progress over time in terms of performance for your clients. And I'm all about, how do we get information as clinicians? How do we make that information as accessible as possible. And for me, labels are a way to do that. And for you, labels might be a way to do that. Okay, so that's another idea when it comes to a data system, a system for data collection. Now the third system that I want to offer, third and final for today's podcast episode is a data sheet, so an actual sheet that you are printing out that has that is for your data collection. Okay, now there are a couple of different ways that you can do this, and I'm gonna sort of give you two approaches to a data sheet, and just to hopefully give you some ideas, and then what I want you to do is think about which of the two might be the best fit for you. Or can you think of another way to sort of modify this approach, this system? So first way that I would do this, or that I could do this, would be printing out a data sheet for the day. So let's say you've got six sessions. Maybe some of you are, like, six sessions, I wish. Let's say you have six sessions that day. You print out a data sheet and it has those six clients initials right there. Okay? Or if you're doing a group, it's got the individual clients, the individual students, their initials, they're on your data sheet, and it basically mimics your schedule, except that all you're doing is that on that one sheet is you are putting you're tracking the data right there, directly on the sheet. Okay, so it's one sheet per this, per day. This, the sheet matches your schedule, okay? And then you have all of your clients data right there or and this isn't the only option, but another way you can do this is to have a client specific data sheet so the sheet is specific to the individual client. So let's say your client is named Elijah, and you are printing out a sheet for Elijah that has his goals on it, and that's your data sheet. You could do one sheet per session if you want. I think that would probably be unnecessary and overkill, but it's possible you might also do one sheet. And you could do, you could do one sheet per week, so you could have, let's say you see him three times a week. Then you could have three blocks on that data sheet for Elijah, and then it just goes into your file for that child. You could also do this like per month, right? Think about the different ways that you could lay out the sheet, in terms of the number of boxes, if you will, the number of sections where you're actually writing in your data. That part you can very easily individualize, but you then have a sheet of paper where all of your client, that particular client's data, is right there. And so again, could we go and look at the session notes or or progress reports to see how you know what progress a client is making? Yes. And we could also look at the sheet. You have to collect data anyway. You have to write that, write down your data anyway, right? Might as well just write it in an organized sheet where it's still easily accessible and visually appealing, if that's how your brain works. Okay? So that's another that's the other approach to that third system, the data sheet. So that's a data sheet per client, or a data sheet per your schedule that follows your schedule, whether that's per day or per week, you get to decide. I mean, there's so many people that have so many different schedules, right? We all have so many different different work scenarios, and so you have to figure out how to individualize it to meet your own unique needs. Okay, some pros and cons for that, for that data sheet option, that data sheet system, one is one Pro is obviously, like I've said, it's easily accessible, and two is visually appealing, so it's all right there, easy to track you then are only using one sheet, potentially one sheet per day, so that you can, you only have to keep check of one sheet and not a million different post its it's all clearly outlined. I know, for some people, I like to write, if I, if given the option, I would like to write on a bigger piece of paper than a little post it. It sounds incredibly insignificant and unimportant, but it's an observation. Has definitely impacted the way that I track information, and so I am all about anything that decreases the inner tension that we have. So any resistance that you might have to data collection, if switching the color of paper or the size of the paper makes a difference, if switching the pen or the pencil makes a difference for you, it makes you less resistant to doing it, then, by all means, make that shift. Don't underestimate the power of those little changes, because they can add up to really big changes. Okay?
And then cons for that data sheet approach would be, yes, more paperwork, right? You've got now a bigger piece of paper that you're sort of floating around and keeping track of, you know, more moving parts. You know, those are a couple of the drawbacks for a system like that, but you got to do what works well for you. Okay, all right, so that's all I've got for you today, those three data collection systems I would love to hear which, if any of them really resonated with you. Pop on over to the SLP support group. Let me know what you think. And I also would love to hear what you do for data collection. How are you approaching it, and what might you want to do differently after listening to this episode. So come on into the SLP support group. Hope to see you there, and I will talk to you all next week you.
i*Please note that this transcript was generated by AI and may contain errors.