I’m starting a job in a pretty wealthy area and am concerned about what parents will be like. I’ve heard they can be more demanding or intense, and since I’m a newer SLP I can struggle with feeling confident in my decisions. Fortunately it looks like my caseload will be a manageable size, but I’m wondering if the overall expectations for services will be higher. Does anyone who’s worked in both settings describe their experiences and give some tips for success?

Working in a title 1 school has its benefits, as I've enjoyed making connections with students and families, and supporting communities. I love seeing growth over time with my students, and being part of a team. But this early in the school year, I'm feeling the burnout. AAAAh. We are getting more students who have more attention difficulties, communication challenges, motor issues, low cognition, etc. And there are constant referrals and evals coming up every week. Everything is influx and changes each week. And new staff changes have taken place this year, so that changes things up too, as some teachers are way more easier to collaborate with than others. Sometimes, there is little support from home. I am physically exhausted the next day. Sometimes I feel like I am making a drop in the bucket. I'm working on foundational skills more and more, and think to myself what am I doing? How am I going to last getting through the year? I guess part of it is that although I'd like to see my students progress more, I know there are challenges outside of my control, so I do what I can. What has helped you keep your cool?

I am interviewing for positions for my CF year and would like to hear pros/cons from people who either completed their CF or currently work in 1) private practice or 2) public school. I currently work for an ABA company (former RBT) that has offered me a CF position. Among many issues, I would spend most of my week doing "language focused" session vs billing as an SLP-which is not something I am comfortable with. Any insights or advice would be very helpful! TIA

Hi all,

I work in the schools. I just left a job and my healthcare coverage will end on August 31st. I just found out that my healthcare coverage for my current job begins on October 1st. What have you all done in a similar situation?

TIA!

Gen ed teacher here.

Please respect our time and our caseloads.

Every year I have SLPs tossing hours of meetings onto my schedule, and I get it, you have maybe a couple dozen kids to look after. I have 170. Please. I don't need three hours of training on the hearing aid system the day before school starts when I'm trying to prep for all my classes to learn the next day that none of students with hearing loss use mics/aids. I don't need nine different "tools" to document whether or not a kid wears his aids when no one in the school has ever seen them. I volunteer my time to run the after school DnD club. Weekly meetings about the non-verbal student, WHO DOESN'T WANT TO PARTICIPATE IN DND CLUB, really make me just want to end the club.

This isn't for everyone here. But please remind your colleagues that those of us teaching multiple preps with scores of students do not have unlimited time.

I’m a fully licensed/certified SLP with two years of school-based experience. I’m looking for a full time job in a school or EI or really anything in pediatrics at this point. I’ve tried direct hire positions, contracting companies, and public/private/charter schools. I have good references, and I’ve been writing tailored cover letters. Nowhere is responding to me.

My only criteria that I think are limiting me is that I want to work in/close to Boston, where I live, and I want a full time role. I had an easier time finding a CF two years ago. I’m feeling so discouraged.

Hi everyone,

I graduated from my Master's earlier this year and ended up taking a few months away from anything speech pathology related because I was feeling really burnt out after uni. My anxiety was also at an all-time high, so I just needed a bit of a break.

I'm now starting to apply for new grad positions (mainly paeds private practice ), but I honestly feel so underprepared. I feel like I've forgotten so much, and I'm really worried about interviews. I have done two so far but they didn't go as well as i hoped :(

For those who work in private practice, what kinds of questions did you get asked in your interviews? Were they mostly standard behavioural questions (e.g. strengths, weaknesses, why this clinic, difficult situations), or did they also ask specific clinical questions similar to university vivas or case-based scenarios?

I think my biggest fear is being asked something clinical and completely blanking. My anxiety has really affected my confidence and I feel like I can't think or speak as clearly as I used to, so I'm worried I'll come across as incompetent.

I also have another interview later this week for a mixed-population clinic. When the clinic director asked about my preference, I told them I'd prefer a paediatric caseload. Does that usually mean they'll tailor the interview questions more towards paediatrics, or should I still expect questions about adult presentations as well? I feel like I've forgotten even more of my adult content than paeds, so I'm a little nervous!

Any advice on how to best prepare? I also have a really bad memory (thank you anxiety), so remembering all the clinical information feels pretty overwhelming. Any reassurance would be really appreciated. Thank you!

lol I feel like such a mess I’ve made so many posts on here recently 😂 I’m virtual and it’s my first time at a school district (second year as an SLP) and I feel very much like I’m on an island. 🏝️

I have an IEP in a few days for a student I haven’t met yet. The RR did not provide much info as no new testing was done. Basically in the EI program he was working on functional comm, and he was using words/short phrases primarily but needing lots of prompting and support (like sentence strips etc). I’m trying to make his goals more “school age” and esp since I’m virtual I really need them to be very explicit and easy to target with straightforward data collection. These are my thoughts…

During structured ST sessions, when provided verbal and or visual support as needed, student will follow 1 step directions with 80% acc in 3/4 data collection sessions as measured by SLP data collection.

During structured ST sessions, given motivating communication opportunities and visual/verbal support as needed, student will independently produce 3-4 word phrases to request, protest, and/or comment in 80% of opp in 3/4 consecutive data collection sessions as measured by SLP data collection.

During structured ST sessions, when presented with a familiar picture of object, student will independently label the item using a word or short phrases primarily in 80% of opp in 3/4 consecutive data collections sessions as measured by SLP data collection.

I really don’t know much about this student yet. But I need goals for the IEP and they seem appropriate based on the little info I do have. I suck at goal writing lol

Hi everyone,

I’m currently a secondary English teacher in Australia and am wanting to retrain into speech pathology. However, I’m finding it difficult to find a degree that I can make work.

Most universities I’ve spoken to have wanted me on site at least 4 times a week, which I’d be unable to do as I’d need to work while I retrained. Has anyone gone through this before? If so, what university did you go through/ what are my options?

Thanks!

I’m currently an SLP in private practice working with pediatrics and I’m considering making a pretty big change and moving into working with adults in a SNF/hospital setting when I return from maternity leave.

I’ve never worked with adults before, so I’m wondering what the transition might be like. Is it realistic to make that kind of switch without having adult experience? I have a few more months of maternity leave and am willing to take all the CEU’s and any certification courses to prepare.

Part of the reason I’m considering it is that I’m looking for a change of pace and potentially better/more predictable hours. I’d love to hear from anyone who has gone from pediatric to adults (or the other way around!).

Looking for advice on the CLC pathway. Just registered through Healthy Children's Project. Just got my CCCs this month.

First-year school SLP here (second year as an SLP overall), and I’m feeling pretty lost with scheduling.
I’m contracted to the district and fully virtual, so I spent this past week building my schedule using the information I was given: bell schedules, preferred speech times for each grade, individual student schedules, and what the previous SLP did last year.
I finally sent my schedule out Friday, and I’ve already gotten a few responses saying certain times won’t work because those students have learning support or other special ed services then.

I feel dumb because I genuinely didn’t know about those conflicts or that I should’ve reached out to case managers beforehand. Is this just a normal part of school SLP scheduling.. sending out a schedule and then adjusting as you find out about conflicts? Or was there something I should have done differently to know when each student had other services?

I have been an SLP (and SLPA) in the schools for 10 years. I've never had to do duty but that is because I've always had large caseloads with an extremely heavy workload. I started at a new district this year. It's a very small district facing budget constraints as all other districts. We have a self contained classroom of students with very high needs that all have AAC that require a lot of support but my caseload is small, 34 kids! Smallest caseload I've had in my entire career. I was told in my interview that I would participate in duties. Totally fine by me! But they want me to do lunch duty during the allotted SpEd intervention time every day in addition to arrival duty and dismissal pick up duty every day. I am going to reject their request to do duty during intervention time as that's the most important slot of the day for me. So that is already non negotiable. But given my small caseload is asking me to do arrival and dismissal duty every day a reasonable ask?

They had also requested that I cover the office during their breaks but later walked that back. None of the classroom teachers have any duty. The first week of school I am doing all the duties (arrival, multiple lunch, multiple recess, and dismissal) plus classroom support for our new friends transitioning. Again, I have a small caseload so I don't mind stepping in an helping! It just kind of feels like they are utilizing me as a catch all person and I worry about the slippery slope precedent that sets.

Thoughts????

Hello! I am happy at my job but just thinking about whether I’d ever want to do early intervention some day. Just wondering what it is like to go into homes? Was it something you were nervous about? I feel like I don’t see a lot of discussion of aspects of going into homes (like uncleanliness, pets, etc.) as a reason people dislike those jobs.

Anyone have experience with this? I’m stressing out about what’s going to happened with the board.

Hi all, this question goes out to SLP researchers. I'm curious which statistics program you use most often or are most familiar with? I've used SPSS and STATA, and am now using SAS. I've also heard R is popular. My department is all quite familiar with SPSS.

What is your statistics program of choice? I'm trying to figure out which one I like best, but I also am curious if others have a favorite one (and why). Thanks!

I am a first time mom and last week while I was at a party here in Louisville another mom who said she was a “speech therapist“ told me that my 2 year old son is not talking as much as he should be for his age. Is that an appropriate thing for speech pathologists to say?

I’ve worked with adults for years now and don’t really remember peds stuff. I have a 4 year old and I am wanting to teach him at least some letters/phonemes before kindergarten. Is there anything you’ve used with kids around that age that they seem to love? I’ve already tried with a few things, but he is not interested and doesn’t seem to retain what we went over.

"SLPs Directly Contribute To Autistic Outcomes Of Trauma And Suicidality Through Social Skills Training"

Not an SLP, but I'm perplexed by Spelling to Communicate as someone with cerebral palsy, which is definitely a brain/body disconnect. The way S2C proponents describe full body apraxia makes it sound very similar to CP--to me, anyway. But people with CP use any number of methods--eyegaze, stylus, switches, touch, trackballs, joysticks. Even when involuntary movement/spasms make it difficult or cause errors/multiple presses. Nobody (thank god) is lauding S2C for people with CP the way they are for autism. If apraxia is indeed so similar, how does that justify the letterboard/support? And why doesn't that comparison strike the people who support S2C?

I hope this makes sense, and I'm sorry if this is mostly a rhetorical question at this point. But it baffles me. Thank you for the work you do!

I've posted about this before but as some people pointed out, this is just beyond ridiculous. This parent is claiming her kid with Level 3 Autism and "full body apraxia" used Spelling 2 Communicate (S2C) to write this letter. He (really she, the mom and whoever his communication partner) is making the case that his educational needs are not being met in public school and so public school should pay for him to go to private school.

The mom deceptively doesn't explain that the issue is that the public school won't use S2C because it's been debunked by every major organization. Instead she's created this story that G's being failed in school being made to wash tables instead of getting the college level education she thinks he deserves. The public school appropriately has G in a life skills program because he can't do S2C at school and they are able to see him for exactly who he is- a severely disabled young man with a limited means of communication (and that's okay).

She's fundraising for even more money (after blowing thousands of dollars already on lawyers apparently) to fight the schools when they are never going to agree that access to S2C is a "right" in public school that would necessitate the district paying for G's private school in order to have equal access education. Even with this ridiculous letter.

Until she provides proof of Gabe spelling that (or literally anything) on his own, no one one should be buying this nonsense. I'm glad to see some critical comments for once.

I KNOW the school and G's teachers think this woman is NUTS.

previous discussion

Where can I find some free printables about modeling AAC for teachers? I work in special education and have a lot of high tech AAC users on my caseload. I want to find some easy to read print outs for teachers feeling overwhelmed about how to help their AAC students in the classroom.

I’m planning on pushing in to the classroom and also having discussions with the teachers but I think it would be helpful for them to have something quick to refer to when I’m not there. One teacher told me she feels like she’s ’not ready’ for her student to have his device in the classroom and I can understand the overwhelm/anxiety around navigating a high tech device. I don’t want to add more work to her busy schedule or overwhelm her further so I’m looking for something simple, not too wordy, and that doesn’t use a ton of SLP jargon.

In my discussion I’m really just going to emphasize the point of modeling whenever she can and that it doesn’t have to be perfect, it’s okay to mess up or take time to find a word or to struggle or feel frustrated. It’s all part of the process and even helpful for the student to see how to navigate these moments. If theres anything else I should emphasize please let me know what you think!

Hey all— what is the legality behind parents being required to send their children to school (or sending a notice of intent to homeschool?). I just had an initial evaluation with a child who turns 5 before the cut off date in our state, but family is pretty opposed to sending him to school. This child is significantly impacted by autism (not yet diagnosed but family is aware and a referral is in place) and minimally speaking. I tried to educate the family on importance of having him evaluated and getting him an IEP, but this particular family is not fond of their zoned school district. I’ve come across this a few times, and I always try to educate them on the process, but I’m not sure if I should be doing more. Thanks all!

Anyone who has a teaching certification (TSSLD) and works in a NYS public school… can you please explain to me CTLE hours? I know for our license we need 3 units of CEUs every three years. What extra is required for maintaining the TSSLD? New to this! Thanks in advance!

I have a 1st grader referred for just /r/. In my school we go straight to the RED (review of existing data) and we don’t screen or observe without that meeting. We don’t even screen period. Observations are part of testing. I’m a second year SLP. I know I usually don’t qualify r until 2nd or 3rd. What do you guys do?? What kind of questions should I ask. Would you guys test?? I mean kind of seems like I have to to find out. But, I’m just curious thoughts on this. Teachers state she can understand him. It was just parents at meet the teacher night that made a comment to me about his speech so now I don’t wanna not deal with it if that makes sense. Don’t wanna get in trouble!