Data Collection for Speech Therapy

Data, data collection, speech therapy notes… ARGGGG…

Over the years, I have tried multiple data collection strategies, some have worked and some have not. You know when they don’t last past the first 6 weeks, that you are in trouble. This year, I think I finally found a data collection system that works for me. How do I know this:

I actually used it all year long.
I have solid data for my students; date, time seen, and progress.
I am planning my sheets for next year.

I took inspiration from Queen’s Speech‘s post on the “Data Collection Dilemma”.

First, I created the data labels. I have two sizes depending on the students goals and amount of room needed for documentation. I normally use the larger ones for my students in our moderate/severe classroom, but it really depends on the amount of data I need.
- 2 5/8 inch x 1 inch – There were just under $10 for 3000 labels on Amazon.com and they lasted the entire year!!!
- 4 x 2 inch labels – They were under $10 for 1000 labels at Amazon.com. Since I use these with only some of my kids, I still have some left.
Then I create a data sheet for each student. I put this in a 3 ring binder organized by grade level. One of my co-workers organizers her alphabetically, whichever works best for you. The data sheet for each child has their goals, IEP dates, minutes, etc. If I need a reminder about their goals, I can easily flip to their data sheet in my binder.
Next, I put my data labels on a clip board, so I have something small and lite that I can take anywhere.
In a perfect world, I add the labels onto their data sheet at the end of the session. I will admit, that sometimes this happens at the end of the week. Even if I get behind, it is easy to get caught back up and I have documentation!

Click for a copy of my data sheets! labels 1 by 3 approx for therapy data and the speech therapy labels 2×4. I also have included the individual page form that I put the data labels onto. therapy data sheet for 1×3

How to you keep your data?