Voice Output

Win a chance for Southwest plane tickets!

2009-05-11T09:18:00.001-07:00

Giveaway to enter!

2008-12-20T16:26:00.000-08:00

Wanna win a Flip video recorder? I do!!

Go here to partake in this great giveaway!!

Scribble It Giveaway

2008-12-02T10:40:00.000-08:00

look at this Scribble It GIVEAWAY!!!!

I would so love to win one of these!!

at tip

2008-08-15T12:43:00.001-07:00

Did you know…

Your building has an assistive technology cart loaded with technology for helping struggling students?

You can check out items from this AT cart and try them out in your classroom.

Contact your building special educator and/or Speech Pathologist for more information.

Assistive Technology Tip of the Week #2

Do you have readers who struggling with focusing on the written word?
Using different colored acetates overlays may help some students see text more clearly.

My battle gear

2007-12-14T20:34:00.000-08:00

One of my biggest job hazards is getting spit in the face unintentionally (or occasionally intentionally). Kind of ironic that I always told people I never wanted to be a dentist because I didn't want to work in people's mouths!

I mentioned this to a nurse at my annual blood-borne pathogens training last year. I was concerned because she said that every time an employee gets spit in their eye(s) they should flush out their eyes for 5 minutes. To me, that meant my entire day would be spent flushing out my eyes. Now thanks to me, everyone with a similar job description to myself has snazzy dazzy goggles to wear. If you think the picture to the left looks great, you should see them on!

I was not wearing my glasses on last spring when working with two of my students who are more likely to spit. I was right in their faces trying to get their to talk. Fast forward 10 minutes later when I am about to begin circle time and one of the girls starts projectile vomiting towards me. 5 minutes later another student in the class starts projectile vomiting. The teachers determined that 4/5 of that special ed bus had come down with a very sudden stomach bug. As far as I was concerned I was next in line.

I had a break an hour later and so I rushed home to take a shower and change my clothes. I really got some flack for that ;) I felt sickish all evening, but it was probably psycho-somatic. Today vomiter #2 came back to school only to have diarrhea in his pants not one, not two, but THREE times! Yahoo! The joys of the profession!

Awesome AAC video

2007-12-14T20:32:00.000-08:00

Check out this incredible video of AAC users in the UK!

No Christmas gifts for the specialists

2007-12-14T10:23:00.001-08:00

I always get jealous of the teachers today. It is the last day before vacation (hurray!) and kids are passing out gifts. Because this is a low income school, there are not a lot of gifts to be had....but there are always a few. Even though I serve some of my students for 6 years, and some of them every single day of the week, I am always forgotten in the gift giving. Even from teachers. I gave gifts to 17 teachers and staff and only got a few back. Because I have such direct contact with so many people, I need to stay on everyone's good side!

When a child mumbles

2007-12-13T19:42:00.000-08:00

Here is a current dilemma. I have a teacher who swears that 2 of her students can't talk. They sounds like they have "marbles" in their mouths (or so she claims). I went through the entire procedure of getting permission to test, testing, and re-testing. But neither of these students actually have trouble with any of their sounds. In conversation one of the students does not close his lips and speaks very rapidly. I can understand why that would be difficult to understand. The other student does not have very good English skills. Although her mother and the interpreter said she is somewhat hard to understand, no one can say specifically why.

So are these children who qualify for speech therapy? A child should be 100% understood by age 5. If they are not understood well at age 7 does that make them eligible?

Student teaching

2007-12-13T19:40:00.000-08:00

I had my first student teacher experience this fall. It was interesting. Not what I expected. She was quite good with the students. I'm hoping she learned some good things this term, but because she was very sick on the last week, its hard to know. I think I'll try it again next year, we'll see if the university will let me!

About me

2007-12-10T21:24:00.000-08:00

I do not claim to know everything about anything. I instead hope to share some thoughts, humor, and chaos that is my life on the job. I am a full-time Speech Pathologist in an elementary school. Today that means that I work with children between grades K and 5, a few years ago "elementary" school had a different population.

My students range in abilities drastically. Some are working on the "r" sound. Others are unable to speak. One of my students has severe Cerebral Palsy and is non-verbal, non-ambulatory, non-oral eating (aka he's Tube fed). I work with (as of last Friday) 57 students in one building. 2 of my classes are self-contained "Life Skills" classes. The remainder of my students are in the regular education class and come to me on a "pull-out" basis.

At home, I have been happily married for the last 10 years to W. We have 2 children, aged 4 and 2. W stays home full-time and watches the kids, attends grad school part time, and works on web-design.

Welcome!

2007-12-10T21:05:00.001-08:00

Welcome to my new blog. This is intended to be all about speech, language, childhood development, special education, and the schools. I'll explore current topics in Speech Pathology, language development, American Sign Language, Augmentative and Alternative Communication, and anecdotes from my work time adventures!