The 12 questions, in the order to ask them
Your first meeting with the school speech-language pathologist (SLP) is usually short, so ask in this order: what your child is working on, why that target, what mastery looks like, how progress is measured, how often data is taken, what the last data showed, how many minutes they get, individual or group, what a session looks like, what to do at home, how you will hear about progress, and what happens at the annual review. If time runs out, the first six matter most.
Keep the list open on your phone and write the answers down during the meeting rather than after. Each question below comes with why it matters and what a good answer sounds like, so you can tell a real answer from a reassuring one.
One note: a vague answer is not always a red flag. School SLPs carry large caseloads and may be meeting your child for the first time this month. Early in the year, ask when they will have specifics rather than pressing in the moment.
Write the answers down during the meeting. The details you want in March are the ones you will forget by Friday.
Questions 1 to 3: what your child is working on and why
These three establish the target. If you leave with nothing else, leave with the answer to question one. It is what makes home practice possible at all.
1. What sound or skill is my child working on right now, and at what level? Why it matters: practicing at the wrong level is the most common way home practice goes wrong. Levels run from isolation to syllables to words to phrases to sentences to conversation. A good answer names both, as in the r sound at the start of words. A weak answer is just articulation. Write down the exact cue words the SLP uses, and use the same words at home.
2. Why that target first? Why it matters: SLPs choose targets on purpose, often by which sound affects intelligibility most or which is closest to emerging. A good answer explains the reasoning in one sentence. 3. What will it look like when this goal is met? Why it matters: a goal you can picture is one you can notice progress on. A good answer is concrete, such as using the sound correctly in sentences most of the time, at which point they move to conversation.
Questions 4 to 6: how progress is actually measured
This is the group parents most often skip, and it is where a stalled year gets caught early. Speech goals are measurable by design, so there is a real answer.
4. How do you measure progress on this goal? Why it matters: without a measure, everyone is guessing from impressions. A good answer says what is counted, such as the share of correct productions out of a set number of trials. 5. How often do you take data? Why it matters: data taken once a quarter cannot tell you whether the current approach is working. A good answer is a specific frequency, often weekly or every session, even if the sample is small.
6. What did the most recent data show? Why it matters: it turns the meeting from plans into evidence, and it is fair to ask any time after the first few weeks. A good answer gives a number or a trend and says what it means for the plan. If they are still gathering a baseline, ask when the first real data point will exist.
Questions 7 to 9: minutes, format, and what a session looks like
7. How many minutes a week does my child receive, and does that match the IEP? Why it matters: minutes are written into the Individualized Education Program (IEP) and are the one part of the plan with a number attached. A good answer states the minutes and frequency and matches the services page. If sessions have been missed, a good SLP says so and tells you the plan for making them up. 8. Is my child seen individually or in a group? Why it matters: group size and mix affect how many turns your child gets. A good answer names the size and explains why the grouping suits your child's target.
9. What does a typical session look like? Why it matters: it is the best single question for understanding the service, and the answer gives you activities you can echo at home. A good answer walks through the arc: a warm-up, practice trials at the target level, a game that gives repetitions, and a carryover task. The printable worksheets are organized the same way, by sound and level.
Questions 10 to 12: home, communication, and the annual review
10. What exactly should we practice at home, and for how long? Why it matters: generic encouragement to practice produces nothing, while a specific word list and a time cap produce a habit. A good answer names the level, gives you a word set, and suggests a realistic daily amount, usually a few minutes for younger children. Also ask whether to correct errors or simply model the correct production, since that depends on the level. 11. How will I hear about progress, and how often? Why it matters: it decides whether you find out about a plateau in weeks or at the annual review. A good answer names the formal reporting schedule, usually tied to report cards, and an informal channel such as email or a backpack notebook.
12. What happens at the annual review, and when is ours? Why it matters: the annual review is where goals and minutes are rewritten, and it is the meeting with the most leverage for you. A good answer gives the month, explains that the team looks at progress on each goal and decides new goals and minutes, and mentions the roughly three-year re-evaluation that decides continued eligibility. Rules vary by state and district; there is more in this walkthrough of the IEP process.
How to run the meeting so you get through all twelve
Send the list ahead of time. An SLP who sees your questions on Monday can pull the data folder before Thursday, and you get better answers than from a cold start. It also signals that you are organized rather than adversarial.
Lead with a question about your child rather than the system. Asking what they are like in the speech room gets you an honest picture of a child who may behave differently than at home. Then work down the list, and email whatever you do not get to that same day.
Bring your own examples. A short note of what you hear at home, especially with unfamiliar listeners, is information the SLP cannot collect in a pull-out session, and it is the same evidence that carries weight at an annual review.
- Send the questions in advance so the SLP can bring the data.
- Take notes in the meeting, and read the key answers back to confirm you heard them right.
- Bring two or three home examples, with the words and who could not understand them.
- Ask one closing question: what would you like from me this year?
Two questions to skip, and one to save for later
Skip asking how long until my child is done. No honest SLP can answer it. Progress depends on the sound, the age, the severity, and how much practice happens between sessions, and a number given to be helpful only becomes a disappointment later. Ask what the next milestone is instead.
Skip comparing your child to the others in the group. It puts the SLP in an impossible position and tells you nothing actionable. If you want a benchmark, ask about typical development: which sounds most children have by about age five and which are commonly still developing. Later sounds like r and th are often the last to settle, sometimes into the early school years, and ranges vary by source and by child. The speech sound development chart lays it out, and only a licensed SLP evaluating your child can say whether a pattern is a disorder.
Save for later: whether services can increase. Ask once you have a few months of data, because a request backed by a trend gets a different reception than one backed by a feeling. If something went backward over a break, this piece on summer regression helps you describe it precisely.
Bringing it together
The twelve questions are really four: what is the target, how do we know it is working, what is the service, and what do I do at home. Ask them at the start of the year, ask the measurement ones again mid-year, and you will not be surprised at the annual review. Keep the answers in one place, dated.
Question ten is the one that keeps paying off, and it is easier to act on when the material is already sorted by sound and level. The word lists and pronunciation games on SpeechTherapyMagic score each attempt in real time and show whether the target sound came out right, so a few minutes after school lines up with whatever the SLP is targeting. It supplements therapy rather than replacing it. For the rest of the month, see the back-to-school checklist.