Building Rapport with Speech and Language Students

This is my third year as a Speech-Language Pathologist. Over the last few years, I have learned the importance of building good rapport with the students I serve. My first year, I dove right in to therapy and did not pay too much attention to getting to know my students likes and dislikes. My second year, I tried an interview type format with my students. I learned that the interview format did not go over well. It was very difficult for my new students to interview me--even with help. This activity seemed to also be a little too much for the first week of school. It was a too formal for building a relationship with my students. This year, I began each first session of the year with a "Tell me 3 LIKES of your summer and 1 DISLIKE." The students seemed to enjoy this very much. We had a casual conversation of our summer activities and we also discussed WHY we are in speech, WHAT we do in speech and HOW we can obtain our goals and objectives. I have used the topics we have in common to plan for other therapy sessions and to strike up conversations in the hallways at school. Building rapport with students will create a more productive learning atmosphere, give the student a good sense of a connection with the SLP and build trust.