Welcome to my site.
My name is Cindy Montalbano and welcome to my web site. I am a retired ASHA certified speech and language pathologist. If you are a teacher, parent, or speech language pathologist looking for lessons to address communication skills, you have come to the right place. I created this site mainly to make lesson planning easier for my fellow speech and language pathologist. If you are a parent or teacher that has concerns about an individual student, please refer to a licensed speech and language pathologist to get an individual student diagnosis and treatment plan. I do not guarantee results from independent use of materials you have obtained from this site. This site is a digital record of materials I have used over the last 30+ years. I am happy to share them with you. However, please do not copy them, post them on another to site, or claim them as your own in order to sell or redistribute them.
I converted to a paid web site a few years back to avoid those annoying pop up advertisements and restrictions for links and downloads. I have free materials and free samples of my Teachers Pay Teachers (TPT) products on this web site. If you are starting out, you can get a variety of therapy materials free or for minimal cost. Funds from the TPT store allow me to operate this web site free to visitors.
If this is your first time visiting, you might like to hear a little bit about my background. I have a career that extends back to 1980s. It is so far back that I was able to work in the schools with a teacher certificate for Communication Disorders. I worked in North Dakota and I eventually went back to school at the University of WA to complete my Masters. I then obtained my Certificate of Clinical Competence from ASHA.
More than half of my career was spent following a military spouse. This brought me to some interesting work locations and positions. I have worked for a March of Dimes program in WA, at a tribal school with the Native American population in ND, Dept. of Defense Schools overseas, and as an augmentative communication consultant in Oregon. My assignments have varied from school districts with elementary to high school populations, and county programs operating programs for children with multiple handicaps. I used augmentative communication methods and devices as they were first developed. I worked with a variety of cultures and social economic groups. I have worked in 6 states and two countries. Being flexible became the name of the game.
One problem with frequent job moves, I found I was often lacking materials at a new work site. I often had to carry my materials with me from school to school. That is why I found that task cards were the best way to go. Later I started uploading my self made materials so I could access them electronically when I didn’t have them with me. This site is a log of the lessons I used from about 2006- 2018. I often found myself referring to this site rather than dealing with a file cabinet. I was happy to go digital.
My work experiences taught me you can find gold nuggets anywhere. A setting that doesn’t seem great on the surface may be one of your best places to learn and expand your knowledge base. I learned not to under estimate the abilities of my students despite their cognitive and behavioral challenges. It is often our approach that prevents them from succeeding. Sometimes we need to except that progress is not measured in data points and adapt our goals so that we can measure progress.
For those of you just graduating from a speech program; here are some words of wisdom. Some of my work locations were better than others, but I was willing to try the less trodden path. Don’t underestimate the value of a less ideal setting for the experience you will get. This may lead you to a position you really want later on. I found that I never had difficulty finding employment. Cultivate friendships and they will serve you well. Fortunately I met some great teachers and SLPs along the way. This field is ever changing and never boring. Keep yourself current with new research. Finally, If you know job changing is in your future, collect your own stash of materials.
