SOAP Notes for Speech Therapy
SOAP notes give speech-language pathologists a consistent, defensible way to document each session. Here's the four-part format, a full example, and the mistakes to avoid.
What is a SOAP note?
SOAP stands for Subjective, Objective, Assessment, and Plan. It's the standard clinical documentation format used across healthcare, including speech-language pathology. Each section serves a specific purpose: what the client (or family) reports, what you measured, what you conclude, and what happens next.
The four sections of an SLP SOAP note
S — Subjective
The client's or caregiver's own report. What did they say about the problem, the week between sessions, or their goals? Quote directly when useful. For paediatric clients, this is usually the parent's report.
O — Objective
Measurable, observable data from the session. Percentage accuracy on target sounds, number of correct productions out of trials, SALT transcription metrics, cueing hierarchy used, response times. Anything another SLP could replicate from your note.
A — Assessment
Your clinical interpretation. Is the client progressing toward the goal? Are the current cues still needed, or can they fade? Is the plan of care still appropriate? This is where clinical reasoning shows up in the chart.
P — Plan
What happens next session and between sessions: target selection, cueing changes, home practice, referrals, when to reassess the goal.
A worked SLP SOAP note example
Client: 6-year-old, phonological disorder, targeting final-consonant deletion of /k/ and /t/.
- S: Mother reports intelligibility improved at home this week; teachers still requesting repetitions in class.
- O: Final /k/ at word level: 18/25 correct (72%) with verbal + tactile cues. Final /t/ at word level: 22/25 (88%) with verbal cues only. Sentence level not yet trialled.
- A: Meeting short-term goal for final /t/ at word level (criterion 80%). Final /k/ progressing but still requires tactile cueing. Ready to trial final /t/ at phrase level next session.
- P: Introduce final /t/ at 2-word phrase level. Continue final /k/ at word level, fading tactile cue. Home practice: 10-minute daily word list, provided to caregiver.
Common mistakes to avoid
- Subjective bleeding into Objective. "The client did well today" is subjective, not objective — put a number to it.
- No clinical reasoning in Assessment. Restating the data is not assessment. Say what it means.
- Vague Plan. "Continue current plan" is not a plan. Name the target, the cue, and the criterion.
- Copy-paste from last week. Auditors and funders spot this immediately, especially in NDIS and Medicare contexts.
How long should a SOAP note be?
Long enough that a colleague could pick up the case without you. Typically 4–8 sentences per section for a standard therapy session. Assessments and reviews are longer; brief maintenance sessions are shorter.
Drafting SOAP notes faster
SLPGPT will draft a SOAP note from your session data — targets, trials, cues — and cite the underlying evidence for the clinical reasoning in the Assessment. You review, edit, and export. It's free to try.