WELCOME or WELCOME BACK! Thank you for interacting and learning with me. We are headed in a new direction for TRU2U blog post! Kicking off blogs for 2018, I have decided to break them down into three sections.
THE STORY: This section will include all the background information that sets up the topic of the post. This may be a personal story, research, or other factual information that will be responded to in the post. ACTION: This is where we will take action. All "viewers" will also be "doers" we will interact and grow together. Here I will include challenges, journaling exercise, or something spicy to add to therapy! T.R.U.E w/ GOD: TRUE stands for True. Relevant. Unique. Experiences. with God. Here I will connect the topic of the blog post with my faith. It may include scriptures, revelations, or a song!
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The Story:
As a college student, the two questions I was always asked was "What school do you attend?" and following this question, "What are you majoring in?” Attending a small all women's college and being a Speech-Language Pathology major, my answers did not always render a response that indicated my listener is impressed by either fact. Now don't get me wrong, when someone does know about this field of study (or my small college), I received wonderful responses and affirmations about my career choice, many even proceed to describe how successful one of their acquaintances were in the field. While these moments create an overwhelming amount of excitement, conversations with individuals who didn't know what an SLP was at all somehow chipped away at the confidence I had in majoring in SLP. It's funny how things change because I use to be "that person" until I had a conversation with a close friend my senior year in high school. She was telling me about how much I would enjoy being an education major in college because her sister enjoyed this education class she took although she was an SLP undergraduate student. That evening when I went home, I researched the field and immediately grew interest! ACTION It just so happens that this one conversation changed my entire journey! I realized that instead of feeling smaller when someone doesn't know or understand what my career goal, I could use these moments as the educational experience that it truly is! As a challenge for YOU, and myself: Come up with a short spill about the field that you can share when someone hits you with questions like: “ So what do you plan on doing with a degree in that?” or “SOOOO you’ll be like a speech teacher or something?”. Be excited to have the opportunity to share it could be life-changing for them as it was for me. T.R.U.E w/ God I recognize my selfishness! As a Christian, I would ask God to “show me my purpose”. BUT as God continued and still continues to reveal my purpose I had to make the choice to be willing with no reservations. Even knowing and experiencing how great this field and the number of people I have the opportunity to impact, I would compare myself to friends who were going to medical school, dental school, or law school and it made me feel like what I was doing wasn't good enough. Don't allow societal standards on what is considered to be a career of high regards in society (ex. doctor, lawyer, or engineer) cause you to feel like what God has called YOU to do is not good enough. We cannot be selfish in our pursuit to live out God’s calling for our lives. I am truly thankful that God has allowed me to be apart of such a remarkable field and honored to serve in Him through it! The great Albert Einstein once said, “The true sign of intelligence is not knowledge but imagination”. As a student I am constantly reminded to acquire knowledge but not always reminded to tap into my imagination. Intelligence is defined as the ability to acquire and apply skills. Keeping this definition in mind Einstein suggests that one does not acquire and apply skills with knowledge alone, but with imagination. Imagination is defined as an action of forming new ideas, or concepts not present to the senses. The importance of this information as it pertains to the American Speech-Language Hearing Association Convention is to declare that my experience at ASHA was not one of growing in knowledge but in imagination.
As I step into Pennsylvania Convention Center there was an immediate rush of nervous energy that filled my core. The amount of people that were in one location for one purpose was unreal. Moving past the innumerable attendants, I attended my very first session titled: The New Norms for Language Sample Analysis of Children. This session was about using the S.U.G.A.R method for obtaining and analyzing language samples in a more efficient and effective way. The session was very informative and interactive. While I learned so much from this session and many other oral sessions it wasn't the information or knowledge that was most impactful for me. In my eyes it was the imagination and the action the drove the individuals to acquire information in a particular area that lead to such unique topics and findings. The outcome of one following their imagination wasn't limited to the topics presented during oral sessions but was found in the poster board presentations, exhibits, and products. The amount of information seemed endless. One could not fathom even gathering a small percentage of the information that was offered. The topics that were covered ranged from global issues and practices to swallowing disorders and everything in between. My imagination quickly began to wonder about all of the possibilities that are in store in the field of Speech-Language Pathology. If someone were to ask me what was the main thing that I took from ASHA I would say that it wasn’t the information learned in sessions, but the all of the examples of professionals putting action behind their imagination to produce something great. I learned that you have the ability to take your own interest and passions to conduct research, create products, or even advocate. Attending ASHA has encouraged me to allow my imagination to wonder, my hands to work, and my heart to lead and to never stop being interested in learning. The beauty of Speech-Language Pathology is having the ability to crossover into other professions such as education, occupational therapist, physical therapist and many more to gain knowledge endless amounts of knowledge that we can then apply to our field. My first education class in College stressed the importance of learning styles. Why is this help to the world of SLP? Because, we must gain this basic...and I mean very basic idea of versatility of students before diving into the world of exceptionalities. Not to mention it help me understand my own learning style better! I created a simple chart to educate caregivers on how their child learns best! With this chart they can also see what types of activities their child may enjoy in class.
Enjoy! Cues play an important role in therapy. There are many different cueing techniques that involve visual and tactile elements. With an understanding that there is a variation of learning styles a combination of cueing techniques are recommended to help clients articulate a certain sound.
Types of cueing: -Modeling -Visual Cue -Verbal Cue -Tactile Cue -Phonemic Cue |
Chelsea V.-Student Archives
January 2018
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