Once you have your excel spreadsheet completed with all of your due dates, it's time to get your data system ready. There are many options out there:
- SLP Toolkit
- SLP Now
- paper or notebook
- binder
- excel spreadsheets
- OneNote
- and so many more...
There are a few things that should be included no matter what:
- goals
- attendance tracking
A few considerations:
- You'll have to decide if you want the goals to be in a list at the top or data sheets for just that each specific goal.
- You'll also have to decide if you want to have data for multiple kids on the same page (if students are seen in a group) or not.
When I first started out as an SLP, I used a notebook and wrote in my groups and what goal(s) I wanted to target that day on a Microsoft word document. Then I would use my notebook to take data. The problem was at the end of the day, I would spend lots of time going through my notebook and transferring all my data to my data binder (totals only).
If you have 60 kids on your caseload, it becomes a really time consuming task. Granted, I wouldn't see 60 kids in one day but I would see about 20-30 kids when I was seeing kids in groups on a given day. The thing about transferring only the totals is that you miss out on the qualitative data that you might need to hone your therapy. Sometimes we write notes next to our data about patterns that we noticed, like "Bobby has trouble with /s/ at the ends of words only" or "Bobby needs lots of visual cues to be successful with X goal". I would attempt to use these notes when I would plan out my therapy for the next day or so. I had templates so I could write in what each kid would work on that day so I would ensure that all goals were targeted.
The other problem with a binder is that the pages get worn over time and rip or fall out. Missing data pages create chaos. Needless to say, the next year, I tried a different data system as I was tired of taking data and then transferring it at the end of the day.
Before I came to Sidekick Therapy Partners, I worked in a district that had access to SLP Toolkit. It takes some time to set up but once you do it, it works pretty well and has a host of other features as well. I have also utilized Microsoft's OneNote during sessions as well. I have a notebook for the school year (ex: 2025-2026 SY) where I can list out each student's name in a separate tab. Then under each tab, I can make further tabs that include data for each month or just have 1 tab with all the data. It's really up to you as to how you do this. You'll want to make sure you have some sort of template that might include date, goal targeted and data collected. If they were absent, then you can easily write in absent. Of course, if you have a separate sheet for attendance, then you would mark it there.
Ultimately, you have to look at how often you are taking data. If it is daily like me (granted, there were days when I was teaching a skill and didn't take data), then you need a robust system. If you aren't taking data very often, then a simple system might work where you do attendance and you work on a goal of your choosing and maybe take data 1-2 times a month or whatever your preference is. Personally, I never liked this method because I could not tell if what I was doing was helping or not, particularly with articulation. I like to see an upward trend so I know if it is going well or not. If not, then perhaps I need to try different approaches. In addition to that, you need to be able to show data if asked and be able to look at data when writing progress reports. Most progress reports like to see that the goal was met repeatedly over several sessions, so without continuous data, you don't really have much to support your statement that a child has met a goal.
Katelynn Gibson, M.S., CCC-SLP
