I have been a school SLP for 5 years and I’m just about over it. We are made to feel we can never take days off. Well I’ve been sick for weeks now pushing through to save my few days for maternity leave. Well I’m now more sick and had to take days off. I can’t even recover in peace because I have coworkers contacting me about paperwork that is not completed. I don’t blame them because they didn’t know but I’m already stressing about all the work that waits for me when I get back. I just hate this feeling. I feel like I’m not doing my job but I’m really just trying to get healthy. Am I crazy for not wanting to do work while I’m out sick?!

I have 2 upcoming meetings for 4th graders who’ve made zero progress with vocalic /r/. One receives outside services in addition to school based (which makes me feel a little better, it’s not just me). The other will try a syllable or word twice before having a big emotional reaction because she’s self-conscious about it and “it’s too hard” (and then the rest of the session is lost).

Both parents have concerns about lack of progress. I honestly have no idea what to say to the first parent. The student seems to have no awareness of what his tongue is doing or where it’s going. He goes through the motions but isn’t applying the feedback. He’s bored and unmotivated.

The second parent I want to talk about the mental health aspect but that will go nowhere because classroom teachers have been bringing it up for years and parent refuses to acknowledge it.

Neither student wants to work on speech. They’re only interested in playing a game (every few sessions I incorporate a game to break up the monotony).

Second student’s speech is pretty bad. Not unintelligible but definitely requires her to repeat herself and the listener has to listen carefully. After a while familiarity does help. So yes there is an educational impact, BUT she’s happy and participates in class (actually never stops talking in class). So is that really a denial of FAPE if she’s not a successful speaker? I feel like the big emotions in speech are actually doing more harm than good. Parents have the time and means for outside services but won’t do it. Until this year they maintained that there was nothing wrong with her speech.

Thoughts?

Why do professionals who work with feeding post this kind of crappy AI animated worm hole of anatomical and physiological abnormalities and inconsistencies?

I don't even know where to begin to point all of it out.

Is nobody being critical anymore, simply because it looks shiny? I honestly can not take any provider serious anymore that posts stuff like, this for 'educational purposes' by the looks of it!

Vent over. Thank you.

Hi, non-native speaking SLP here, working predominantly in English in an urban school district. I had an observation today and right before the observation I was teaching some older kids retelling skills using the Percy Jackson story they v been learning in class. Then the kids I had for the observation are learning about Greek mythology. I asked them which myth they wanted to read, and one kid said something like “Percy and Medusa.” Knowing that there is a Medusa in Percy Jackson, I confidently said, “Nooo haha, that is not a real Greek myth.” The kid looked shocked and started protesting, “NOOO, it is a real one!” He even turned to another kid (in the same grade) at a different table and asked, “Hey Johnny, is Percy and Medusa a real myth??” Johnny said, “Yes, it is. Why are you asking?”

It was at that point that I realized the Greek hero who beheaded Medusa was Perseus, and I had been hearing him wrong the whole time. Now I’m wondering if I made a fool of myself :((

I came across telepathy tapes discussion in this sub on a Google search. I'm curious, about a year and half after season 1, can anyone weigh in on how they feel about TPM, spelling to communicate, and telepathy in general?

I worked with this child briefly last year. I was assigned the case again and see them at daycare. Child is 4 years old. Presents with fronting of velars, difficulty with /f/, FCD, and is highly unintelligible. Child is very friendly and can make wants and needs known and converse in a convo so main concern is speech clarity and phono issues.

I go to the classroom to pick child up for the session and child straight up has a pacifier in their mouth. Classroom para and teacher looked at me and shrugged their arms in the air. Child transitioned with it and told me that “mom said I can have it in my mouth”.

So I was able to prompt child to take it out for some practice trials but they kept putting it in their mouth. At one point child produced a /k/ with it their mouth, which was weird but I guess the pacifier almost made child’s tongue go down and back for a second??? Anyway, lots of fronting and my judgement is saying that the pacifier is a huge contributing factor to a lot of issues I have been seeing.

Now working with early childhood I mostly work with language so artic/phono is not my strongest area but I have been doing a lot of research. Has anyone ever dealt with something like this? How can I bring this up to teacher/mom without damaging rapport?

I get so frustrated with this job sometimes. I'm a people pleaser and a perfectionist and when kids don't make progress or they make really slow progress, I feel like parents are wondering whether this is even working or if it's worth their time. I wonder that myself, too. I know that I have helped a lot of kids and seen good progress in some, but I feel like most of the time it's so slow and exhausting for me and the kids. I wish I could see them for a few months and discharge. I'm a solo private practice owner so I've been seeing some of these kids for years and sometimes I wish parents would decide they want to try another therapist. But the parents and kids get comfortable with me and this rarely if ever happens.

Sometimes I wish there was an emotional support group for SLPs or an SLP psychotherapist who has been through this stuff and could help me work through this self doubt. At night I come home and think about my patients and it's truly exhausting that my brain does not shut this off. A friend recently told me "It's just a job" and I've been trying to repeat that to myself to let go of the ego attachment I have to helping EVERY KID ALWAYS. I know that's not possible but it's like my brain thinks if I'm not helping every kid always, I'm failing. Anyone relate or been able to overcome this? This is my 11th year as an SLP and 6th year as a private practice owner.

I’m curious how other SLPs deal with constant requests for more frequent updates and complaints of lack of therapy updates with parents. I feel as if more parents keep asking me for more frequent communication, and it is starting to feel very overwhelming and exhausting trying to meet their requests when I have so many other kids on my caseload.

I have worked for a private practice for 4 years now. I am in private practice home health. My boss never does anything to make me want to stay. Between the 50 sessions a week, driving, notes, communicating with parents I realize that I will not do this for the rest of my life. I reduced my hours to 2 days a week and now do 3 days at a school with another company and I love it. I think today was my last straw. I woke up feeling sick and when I texted my PP boss she told me to feel better but to let her know when I would makeup the sessions. I really want to quit this job. I love my clients and would be so sad to leave them but I cannot be in this environment anymore. I feel like I hate this field but I know I love this field I think this job is just sucking the life out of me. This is my second PP I have worked for and I feel like they are all the same...it's always how can we make more money, can you do more sessions, can you drive to this place that is 20 mins away..it's exhausting. Can you give me similar experiences and if you left the job how did it go? I want to leave so bad but just anxious.

Does anyone in MA have insight in regards to SLPAs treating in private practices in MA? assuming they are staying within their scope and not treating outside it

Hello all! Asking for advice from the USA. Does anyone have experience with PT gatekeeping feeding in the Level 2 nursery? We are trying to grow our presence in the NICU however our physical therapists are currently doing lots of the feeding with no training other than experience. Anybody ever have to navigate this before? We appreicate PT’s value in the nursery with positioning, neuromuscular exercises, etc. However feel that speech is best suited for tasks related to feeding and at this point feel the patient is at risk. Thank you for any advice/thoughts!

hi everyone! I have a student I’ve been working with for over 2 years and the k&g sound is just NOT coming along like I’d hope. he’s very much still at word level. he tends to sweep his tongue around and jaw to the right when attempting to create the sound or it’s just a plain t, d sound he substitutes in. does anyone have any tips! I feel like I’ve tried everything! thank you in advance :)

Hi! I am a new grad OT and have recently learned about the reasoning and scientific reasons behind not doing cog treatments for metabolic encephalopathy.

My questions are what do I tell my patients families when they are confused that slp has discharged their family member? Is this the approach for all encephalopathy or just metabolic?

Hi, just wanted to know if anyone has worked for speech improvement center or SLEA as an SLP? both places are in the valley, but I haven't seen too much on here about recent experiences.

Like many I’m definitely feeling burnt out in this career. I currently work middle school and was wondering if high school might be a better alternative?

I don’t feel I can actually leave the schools because I’m trying to get loan forgiveness (unfortunately I have many years left).

Did anyone transition to high school and like it better? I’ve heard people say it’s “easier” but I assume it’s just a different stress and not actually easier. (Easier in terms of how much therapy is done, types of goals, etc).

What are some good, solid sites for CEUs? I don’t mind paying a subscription, but preferably cost effective. I’m considering The Informed SLP, but I want to learn about some different options. Thanks!

(ASHA cert) in order to bill thru the School Based Access Program (medical assistance)?

How do you all target this? The picture cards feel...pointless? When I read a picture story with them, they usually can't recall what happened without me flipping through the book.

Hi! I’ve been discussing a few different schools with my agency, but I’m worried I might come across as unprofessional by exploring different options instead of settling on one right away. I’m not intentionally jumping between schools; I’m trying to find a steady, part-time schedule that will allow me to transition into the field while managing a health condition.

Would you view this as negative or unprofessional? I’m starting to feel like a burden to this agency. I am very appreciative that they are willing to work with me though, I just don’t want them thinking I’m taking advantage of them.

Hi all! This is about to be super long, but I would really appreciate the support. I have 3 types of GLP clients that I would love some advice on. I have completed the Meaningful Speech training a few years ago, and maybe need to do a refresher for these kinds of clients, but would love to hear what you all have to say (I’m a pediatric private practice SLP). Thank you in advance!!

1. ABA GLPs who have limited MLU in their scripts: I see a lot of GLP kiddos who have ABA services, and are typically only modeled language for analytic language learners (e.g., single words). So when it comes time for them to work towards stage 2, they don’t have anything to mix and match. I’ve tried modeling longer/mitigable scripts, but they seem to only generalize 1-2 word gestalts to request. Advice on giving them more language to work towards stage 2?

2. Identifying early GLPS(EI or older): How do you identify early GLPs (e.g., EI kids who don’t have much language yet)? I typically look for unintelligible jargon with rich intonation, or watching parts of videos repeatedly- but do you still model longer scripts for these 3 year old kids? Modeling longer mitigable stages for these three year olds who aren’t speaking yet feels strange, even though I know sometimes some GLP kiddos don’t speak until they’ve developed the language they need. And then, do you use AAC in the meantime?

3. Literacy in GLPs: Teaching GLP kiddos to read- I know Meaningful Speech just released a lecture on this, but I wanted to pick everyone’s brains in the meantime. The kiddo I have in mind is in stage 3 and almost 7 years old.

Sorry to confuse y'all, and I'm just as confused to even ask this.

My agency told me that I am "encouraged" to attend IEP meetings but won't get paid for that because they only pay workers for the direct contact hours worked for performing sessions. Hence, it's not mandatory to join the meeting. Given that, I also didn't join any meetings before.

However, the current school desperately asked me to join all the IEP meetings and advised me to mark the meetings as sessions. Since the student will be present and participating in the meeting as well (I'm working at HS, and students are also present during their IEP meetings to share their thoughts), they suggest taking that as a session and get paid.

To be honest, I disregarded that and didn't count the meetings as sessions because, so far, all the IEP meetings were scheduled during my free time. But this week I had 3 meetings, and some of them were scheduled during my sessions. I obviously missed those sessions and thus lost money lol.. Honestly, it got me tempted, and now I'm thinking maybe I should consider those as "sessions".

So I wanted to ask if this is actually a thing? If it's doable, how do you reflect this in your session note??

Thank you for sharing your wisdom, and I wish you all well and prosperity...

I have a kiddo who is 3, she is social and friendly. She has no problem playing, answering questions, and spontaneously speaking with others. She does have some scripting. However, her grandparents (who she lives with) want to be able to talk to her. She doesn’t necessarily have language or speech concerns, they just want to be able to speak with her about school, his day, and other things. Any recommendations on therapy techniques and/or goals? She doesn’t receive any other therapy services.

Hi fellow SLPs! I am looking for suggestions for a 2;3 month old. Receptive, expressive, social emotional, and cognitive skills are WNL per DAYC testing and clinical observations. Expressively uses 150-200 words and is combining words into simple 2-word phrases. However, significantly limited phonetic inventory and syllable shapes, which is severely impacting speech intelligibility. They are currently using: b, m, n, d, g, h, y, w, uh, oh, and ee. They recently started being able to imitate p, t, s, v, f. Vowel distortions are present and there are many phonolgical processes, including some initial consonsnt deletion (not on all words). They are limited to CV and CVCV syllables (with non-changing vowels and consonants). I was considering apraxia but all productions are very consistent, I don't see increased difficulty with words when produced individually vs in phrases, no groping, and no difficulty with feeding or non-speech oral motor imitation. Now I am leaning more phonolgoical. Hearing has been tested and is WNL. I do not see a tongue tie. They are a busy 2 year old but do enjoy engaging in fun activities. They will not imitate on command but are motivated to imitate in silly fill-ins and fun repetitive models in play. Looking for some strategies to help with vowel distortions/increasing vowel inventory, as well as expanding syllable shapes. Thanks!

I can’t find a yes or no button in TouchChat MultiChat 15. Am I nuts or does it not exist???