Students Should Use Teachers Pay Teachers

There has been a large boom in the sharing of materials amongst professionals. Speech pathology (and audiology) is no exception. We've seen more Facebook groups, blogs, link-ups and Twitter handles related to speech, language and hearing and the professionals behind them. In fact, even within these media outlets, like Twitter, new hashtags and weekly discussion groups have been formed (see: Why You Should Join in on #WeSpeechies Chats). Although these tend to be more informational in nature, our profession has found another way to become more intertwined-- Teachers Pay Teachers!

Clinicians have been adding therapy materials to this cite for a few years now. Although we aren't necessarily clinicians yet, that doesn't mean we can't peruse the website or even find some items for ourselves! (Especially since the prices are reasonable and the profits go to the SLPs who take the time to make them.) So here are some reasons why you may want to start looking at this site:

Undergrads:

-Join to see what sort of materials are made and what areas might be lacking.
-There are materials from other professions, especially those educationally related, so you might be able to find some pamphlets on study skills or professional writing to benefit from.
-Study materials-- Although most products are geared towards therapy, there are some informational packets on different communication disorders or for remembering the cranial nerves, which can come in handy when study for classes like speech anatomy.

Graduates:

-You can find an abundance of therapy materials that are creative. This might help for when you have a tough client that you've tried everything with (or that just really likes a certain item, like cars or superheroes).
-Materials for client's families are on there.
-Resources, organization tips and materials and even data sheets are being sold by fellow SLP clinicians!
-You can sell items that you make. Which, as we all know, will probably help you when your wallet is slowly getting thinner over the course of graduate school.

*One item to remember: Therapy isn't about the materials; don't make goals based upon the items you have. Therapy first starts with a goal that you then find/create an activity for.

Can you think of any other reasons for students to use Teachers Pay Teachers? What do you find most helpful about this site?

Appreciating Small Triumphs in Speech Therapy

I've always been a fairly optimistic and goal-centered person. Within these traits, though, I am focused on the small steps that it takes to accomplish each goal-- whether it's reaching the first quarter of a five mile-long run or eating healthy three days in a row. This is partially due to the fact that it means I am that much closer to my goal, but it also is a small accomplishment in itself, as it's better than if I hadn't made any progress at all.

This thought was recently brought about by an article I read from a fitness website. Like myself, the author, who ran one of the toughest competitions in the nation (the Ironman), came to the same realization: yes, we have these general goals, but we should also celebrate the mini triumphs that lead us to the end. In fact, she states it quite eloquently: "Sure, [the 7th mile] was a small milestone compared to my ultimate goal. Sure, other people around me could go farther (and faster). I knew I still had a very long way to go, but this moment was still something to be proud of-- something to celebrate.*" It is this mindset that I think we should take to our speech therapy sessions.

Each client presents his or her own challenges. For some, their goal may be accomplished in a few sessions, while others you may end up in the same spot as where you began 10 sessions prior. It is important to not only keep our morale up but our client's as well, especially in cases where minimal progress might be made in the long-term. Rather than focusing on our client's long-term goal of achieving X task over a number of sessions, focus more on the short-term goal. Furthermore, focus on the achievements from each session. Yes, maybe the client didn't correctly identify family member's pictures 80% of the time that session... but at least she got them right 40% of the time, or she was more alert or finally identified her brother.

It can definitely be difficult at times, but if we keep this frame of mind then there will be some progress in every session-- even if it's not directly related to the goal.


This is not a paid endorsement of the magazine or its contributor.
* Source: http://www.womenshealthmag.com/fitness/change-fitness-goals-approach …

Literacy and Therapy

At first I was a bit apprehensive about taking a class about literacy for my "W' (Intensive Writing) credits. As with most people, I have my own concept of what literacy is and I just thought we'd be learning about applying literacy to our lives and writing a lot; after all, the class is called "Uses of Literacy." Maybe we'd just learn how it pertains to reading and writing, I thought... but it's turned out to be much more than that, which I think is valuable for those who want to be Speech-Language Pathologist or just want to work with children or community projects.

 

It is known that there's some amount of literacy building in a SLP's therapy. Some clients has Dyslexia, some are little children still learning how to put the pieces together, some have trouble recognizing the symbols and connecting them with sounds and words. The list can go on. But have you actually thought about the concept of literacy in a broader, more socio-developmental sense? How does the area where one lives affect their literacy and language capabilities? What about identity and literacy. Your literacy can affect who you identify as, and visa versa. There's also different domains of literacy, including technology, which has created a whole literacy type of it's own.

 

If we can formulate an idea about how our client's culture and identity affect language skills, then that could help us understand what approach to take for therapy. Maybe the client is more literate in one domain, like computers, but not as competent  in social "literacy." Or, perhaps the community and culture surrounding this person and that have cultivated this person into his/her being have given way to a literacy that is different than what you are used to but is the "norm" where that person was brought up. This can be dialect, idioms, how they use language/ use it to express their thoughts, social behavior, etc. You have to be sensitive to all of these things in order to find the perfect piece to complete the therapy jigsaw puzzle. If you don't account for these types of literacies and try to treat each client with similar problems in the same way, it might not always click. You need to customize it to their level and type of literacy.

 

Maybe you can ask you client some questions, like:

*What are your favorite memories of reading and writing?

*How did you learn to read and write? Did anyone help?

*What are some of your favorite traditions?

*What re some things you like to do in your town/community?

*How do you normally talk to someone (write, talk, sing, ...etc)?

*What confuses you about language, reading, writing and speaking?

*When is it difficult for you to understand others, or for them to understand you?

 

Basically, just ask them anything to do with literacy. This can expand from just reading and writing; in fact, it includes much more than that. Try to think of  definition of literacy... does yours reference to sign langauges/body language or how culture, society and events maybe shape one's literacy? There's also literacy "events" (like, remembering when you first learned to read a book, or reading/decoding a street sign, eavsdropping and understanding someone's conversation... basically anything can be a literacy event). Another thing is literacy sponsors... who or what has helped lay the foundation of your language and literacy skills? It can be people, places (school, library, home, travel), or things (books, websites, magazines, technology) or even abstract stuff like dreams,languages and age (your literacy changes as you age) .

 

Hope this helps you customize your therapy plans or understand a new way to tackle some speech and languages issues!

SLP Skill Saturday #3:Patience

Patience is not just a necessary skill, it's actually elevated above many... after all, not many desirable characteristics can say they have proverbs written concerning them. Can't think of it? Think of the term 'virtue.' Still not ringing a bell? Well, there's a saying that patience is a virtue.' This holds very true, not only in life, but within the professional world as well.

As with many jobs, especially those working with children or in medicine, patience plays a key role. You need to be able to keep your calm and wait out the rough patches. Maybe the parents of a child are thinking more progress should be made; maybe an adult patient is having a hard time overcoming a pronunciation barrier; or, just maybe the weekend can't come soon enough. You need to be able to understand and find a way to be patient and cost through these, as well as find ways to overcome them in the best way possible. If not, the saying's cousin "haste makes waste" might pay you a visit. Perhaps you fill out some forms too quickly because you just want them to be done with, but later you realize that you marked some things incorrectly due to impatience. Now you have to fill them all out again. Sometimes, it is out of your control as well.

Sometimes, patience comes in the form of waiting for progress. This is a major part of the speech-language pathologist's career. Progress almost certainly never comes instantly. So for those who seek instant gratification from major accomplishments should not seek this career. It takes time to build the concepts and skills for a client to begin to overcome their impediment. Even more time if it is a larger issue to tackle or if it is due to other underlying causes. Let alone, the client may have it "click" while in therapy, but might not actually incorporate the therapy into his/her actual every-day life. This job require lots of patience, as it can take weeks, months or even years to make progress. Don't let that discourage you though, as there are minor victories along the way to help boost morale and show you it is possible.

One way to see this in perspective is illustrated by what my one teacher continually tells us hopeful Audiologists and Speech-Language Pathologists, which goes something along the lines of: "Your role as a Speech-Language Pathologist is not to cure these people; your job is to help them gain a better quality of life." So, if you find your patience wearing low, try not to focus on the big picture and attempting to cure your client. You need to focus on helping him/her and finding hope and joy in the smaller triumphs that lead up to major progress. As long as what you are doing is helping them feel better and have a better quality of life, then you are successful. You just need to enjoy the ride at a pace set for them, and not lose patience in our high-paced, goal-oriented world.

Funny Video!

Soooo... the other day we were learning about typical speech and Autism Spectrum Disorder, especially about gaining friendship and positive association with your clients (particularly the younger crowd) to be placed in their "trusted" circle to promote willingness to participate in therapy. It also helps to get their peers involved too. The guest speaker then showed us this video, which I find pretty hilarious. This demonstrates the outside-in approach to therapy, except in a more abstract way, not necessarily therapy related. But the concept is "shown" when you get further in the video. It may possibly be a stretch, but either way, here's the video. Hope it brightens your day!

Pintrest

If you haven't heard of this wonderful and creativity-inducing website yet, you should probably get on it! Pintrest is such a great website full ideas, websites and blogs ranging from food to travel to education to weddings... basically you name it, someone has made a "pin" on something related to it! And as an (emerging) SLP, this is an excellent thing to have in your arsenal... but I'll get to that in a second.

The gist of Pintrest is that it's a new way to store your "favorites". But visually. Instead of placing a website into your favorites folder or bookmarking it, you "pin it" to one of your pinboards. You can have pinboards for anything. Like quotes? Have a quote board. Planning a wedding? Have a wedding board. Are you a pastry chef looking for inspiration? Have a board for new pastry ideas. Like I said, you name it, you can pin it. Besides being able to store your findings visually, with a caption, there's another great thing. You can search for what you want and it'll load all the pins related to your search. You'll be surprised at what a variety there is in just your search sometimes! You might search "apple pie", and get results for normal apple pie, caramel apple pie and crustless apple pie. Crazyyy. Another great thing is that you can FOLLOW others or SPECIFIC pinboards people have. This way you can see when they post something new in general or on that board to find new ideas and add it to yours!

So, what does this have to do with Speech Pathology? Welllll... similar to the boom of SLP bloggers, there's a burst of SLPs and other therapists, educators, etc on Pintrest as well! Even ASHA and PediaStaff have their own Pintrest.  There's plenty of information on here for professionals and (under)grad students alike! Many have pinboards for therapy ideas, other blogs, tips and tricks, disorders, organization ideas, disorder information, etc. So, if you want to find a new therapy tactic for, say, phonological disorders, just search it and you should find something! It's a great way to connect with others as well, as professionals, organizations and businesses are on Pintrest. So I suggest you get on that!

http://www.pintrest.com

What'd Ya Say? Wednesday: Speech Accent Archive

Hey all, I've found this nifty little ditty while rummaging through the internet the other day, and I think it's great! This will come in handy for anyone working with a bilingual, multilingual or foreign speech therapy client. It's called the Speech Accent Archive, and it has a few forms that you can use to find out more information on foreign languages and pronunciation... it even gives the PHONETIC inventory for each language (and there are lotsss of languages on this site. I probably haven't even 80% of them.) Of course, American Sign Language doesn't have a phonetic (sound) alphabet, but it is listed on this website under the search page.

One of the neat things this website has, is the ability to browse. You can browse by speaker/language, the region of the native language or you can look up the language's native phonetic inventory... which I think is very helpful, especially in accent modification!

Under the search area, you can even put in the onset of the speaker starting English, what language is native to that person, how that person learned English (naturally or academically), how long the client has spoken English, if they have any generalizations, etc.

The resources page also has some 'phonetic generalizations' that would be helpful for Speech-Language Pathologists working with clients of native languages other than English.



Definitely give it a look at. Even if you just want to play around! (The linguist in me is giddy with this new find!)

What'd Ya Say? Wednesdays: Temple Grandin

Hello all!

Well here we are at my first edition of "What'd Ya Say? Wednesday". Basically, I am hoping to enlighten everyone each week with something new and interesting that I find. These will typically have some relation to Speech-Language Pathology or Linguistics and related subjects, such as: Genetics, Audiology, Disorders/Diseases, Technology, etc. I'll provide written or video commentary on articles, videos, websites, journals and feature blogs that deal we these subjects! If I feature any blogs, I'll be sure to put them in the "Feature Blogs" page at the top of my blog.

This week's edition is about an amazing lady, Temple Grandin, who has Autism. At the time, her specific type of Autism was called Asperger's Syndrome, but (I believe) that it is no longer considered a "thing", rather just part of the vast spectrum that encompasses Autism.  Speech-Language Pathologist have many cases with people that have Autism Spectrum Disorder, and I believe that her speech brings light into these fascinating minds.

[ted id=773]

Her speech, titled "The World Needs All Kinds of Minds", details just how the autistic mind works; it relies on detail rather than global attention to a subject.  In turn, they are also very specified in what they do. Once they find a passion, they will often fixate on it and become specialists in what they chose. She also states that there are even different minds within the Autistic population: the photo-realistic-visual thinkers, pattern thinkers, and verbal people. Photo-realistic-visual minds, like her, tend to be great spatial thinkers and use pictures/motion "pictures" to identify objects and ideas. Pattern thinkers are great for abstract and mathematical thinking. Verbal minds are good for expression and memorizing facts. She states that many teachers lack the knowledge and resources to assist these students and facilitate their growth.

If teachers and professionals knew that we not only need 'normal' minds that see the big picture, but we also need these detail-oriented thinkers, then we would be able to figure out many problems. We would also be able to help their growth as well, whether it be through hands-on classes, one-on-one sessions or mentoring a student. She actually states that mentoring is one of the greatest facilitators we have to help students grow. I believe her statement that it doesn't matter if it's an old skill to learn, as long as a skill is learned, it can create a spark to then desire more education in the newer aspects of the skill. She also mentions how those with Autism are very sensory-oriented and sensitive to certain senses. We need to keep that in mind, as with the other information, in order to help provide appropriate and attention-creating therapy ideas.

As Speech-Language Pathologists, teachers, researchers and fellow citizens, we need to understand and attempt to relate to minds like hers. We can get great insight and use this knowledge to further our therapy ideas, research and teaching for not only autistic minds, but for others with and without disabilities! She is a great person to learn from, and has an interesting personal history that you can look further into if you are interested!