By the way........

BrookeSLP · Nov 28, 2006

Just as an FYI if you ever need it kind of thing ----

I am a speech-language pathologist. I stay at home now, but am willing to offer advice/expertise if anyone needs it. Since we all have kids or work with kids, chances are you know one with speech-langauge or feeding issues.

Just thought I'd offer something instead of just sucking car seat knowledge off of everyone all the time.

I read the board everyday, but don't post much. Having a newborn does that to ya!

Brooke

Morganthe · Nov 28, 2006

LOL, I've just learned a lot about some of your job re: feeding issues after reading a book -- "Just two more bites!: helping picky eaters say yes to food." by LInda Piette, MS, RD.

It was a real eye opener realizing that food and speech development go hand in hand.

There's a lot of references to speech pathology and feeding experts like you. I realized that my daughter has been extremely fortunate. Despite having feeding tubes, severe allergies, and GERD during her first year, she's been one to work on communicating from a very young age. With her desire to talk, her eating skills have also developed. She likes to eat now, but can be rather moody about it -- typical 38 month old, especially with solid (not ground) meat. She's in the normal range, but with sudden tendencies to be extremely sensitive of textures and sounds. So the book's actually been a relief comforting myself that she not as fussy as fussy can be

Trust me though, since you've volunteered... anytime I have a question, I'll be bugging you

Victorious4 · Nov 28, 2006

Neat

Hey, Brooke!

Leila just graduated out of her speech therapy

She only had it for a couple months -- one of the benefits of a small town is that I bring Leila with me to work & the speech therapist came to my job, too ... giving me & Leila both a needed break

Last night I exclaimed how enthusiastic she was about bedtime

& was absolutely thrilled to hear her repeat the word back perfectly on her 1st attempt *YAY*

For Leila it was the timing of starting nursery school + Family Court in which her biofather tried to manipulate her, me, the visitation supervisor, the legal advocate, the addiction counselor & the judge -- none of us bought it & he totally lost @@ (his loss for making such crappy decisions to lose out on a great kid like Leila *SIGH*) but she had a hard time with it emotionally ... was regressing in a lot of behaviors: mostly emotional/anxiety which disrupted her comminication, but paired with "high above average intelligence" & it was a nasty spell there for a bit *DEEP BREATH*

Sooooo, without my ex in our lives & during the time we spent as a family with my new SO who she adoringly calls Daddy & who is equally smitten with her, LOL ... she's had a total transformation -- she's the cuddly, calm, creative kid I always knew was in there & today her PreK teacher listed her communication skills + pronuncian as one her greatest strengths *WOOHOO*

(Leila still misses her speech therapist, though) *AW*

Geez, didn't intend to write quite so much, but I love that you started this thread & I hope it leads to others experiencing more of the happiness that I did!

Shaunam · Nov 28, 2006

That's a wonderful offer.

I'm pretty new here so I doubt you've learned anything from me

, but could I still take you up on your services? I'm a bit concerned about my 22 month old.

RubysGirl · Nov 28, 2006

Where do you live? Have you looked into headstart/early intervention. My son is 21 months and his speech therapist comes out to our house one hour a week and works with him. The program he is in is especially for toddlers up to 36months. Eighty percent graduate on their third birthday at age level.

Shaunam · Nov 28, 2006

RubysGirl said:
Where do you live? Have you looked into headstart/early intervention. My son is 21 months and his speech therapist comes out to our house one hour a week and works with him. The program he is in is especially for toddlers up to 36months. Eighty percent graduate on their third birthday at age level.

I'm sure there's some type of program that I could get him tested and in therapy if needed, but we're about to move out of state and it's just not something I want to deal with at the moment. He'll turn 2 shortly before we move and if I don't feel better about his speech by then, I'll look into early intervention when we get settled. It would be nice to get an expert opinion in the time being though! Either to ease my fears or otherwise.

Victorious4 · Nov 28, 2006

Have you asked your Ped? You might be able to get he assessment done ASAP & at least a few fun "play dates" (according to Leila) in at home before you move

Shaunam · Nov 28, 2006

The last time he was at the peds was at 19 (?) months and I wasn't really concerned then so I didn't ask. I suppose I could call and make an appt. I'm not fond of going to the doctor unecessarily and quite frankly, don't really like this doctor. The only reason we kept going to him is because he's the only doctor we've seen that didn't try to retract DS's foreskin and didn't try to tell me otherwise. Not sure if that was worth the trade-off in poor bedside manner, but oh well.

I guess the only reason I've put off looking into it thus far is nobody else thinks there's a problem. Anytime I bring up my concerns, they're poo-pooed. I love my mom to death and look up to her as someone to go to for advice on everything, but she's got the "it'll all work out" attitude and unfortunately, she's been wrong in the past (about my nephew who is 6 and did/does have a speech problem). I think the reason no one seems to be concerned is because DS is very bright. And that's probably what concerns me the most. He's extremely bright but cannot communicate verbally well at all. At the last doctor's visit, the term "gifted" was tossed around, but he can't speak intelligibly.

Victorious4 · Nov 28, 2006

Sounds like Leila & my parents.... I admit I felt a bit like a failure as her mom when the nursery school teacher suggested the assessment -- but then I decided that whatever the results, Leila would enjoy the process of the assessment & she would enjoy the extra individual attention & there's no way she was going to be harmed from it: it held every opportunity for good & none for bad

The whole while everyone (meaning the professionals) kept saying that it is entirely possible it could just be a developmental thing that she'd grow out of on her own anyway, but if she qualifies for the therapy then it's free & it's fun -- if it turned out to not be a mere developmental thing that she'd outgrow, suddenly showing off perfect pronunciation, then it would be much more difficult & perhaps less fun to do it later on.... It was a total Win/win situation for me! But, I'm not you, I'm not your child's mother. You are & only you know what's right

Shaunam · Nov 29, 2006

I know it can't hurt to get him evaluated and do therapy, even if it turns out he's perfectly normal or average. I don't know. It just seems like *everyone* thinks I'm being overly worried, yet I can't seem to just push it out of my mind, which send up red flags for me, because I'm not a worrywort type parent, ya know? I think I will call the ped in the morning. I'd still like to talk to Brooke though

. Just to kind of have a little info and knowledge going into it.

Morganthe · Nov 29, 2006

I dislike doctors, esp. male older ones since they tend to brush off my questions as an 'overly worried mom', so I do my own research hand in hand with my own mother who's had the same discouraging experiences in her life. My older brother never talked and it took the 'experts' 3 years to believe her when she kept saying something wasn't right with him. He was 3 1/2 years old before they diagnosed him officially as profoundly deaf with absolutely no hearing.
Granted this was in the 1960s and doctors were worshiped as gods, but I also have a friend who is 23 and it took until he was almost 5 years old before a doctor noticed he has absolutely no hearing in his right ear. He spoke very rarely and isolated himself from family activites. Once diagnosed, he had to have intensive speech therapy until he was 10 years old. It's absolutely amazing that he's currently a vocal major in a local university with his hearing loss. Gorgeous voice and control.

Even though these incidents were over 40 & 20 years ago, I've run across other people who had delayed diagnoses of hearing & speech problems with themselves or their children. Many times, doctors are very quick to brush off parents' worries.

So if you as the parent who is with your child 24/7 has concerns about natural development, speech or other issues, imo, you have the right to push for better responses from your doctors. They're rushed, have to see lots of patients, and make up their minds as to what is wrong in a couple of minutes. Whereas the mother or other full time caregivers sees the child in a longer and more encompassing environment.

It's really worth it to become your child's advocate. After all, who else can s/he rely on, if not you?

BrookeSLP · Nov 29, 2006

Sure thing -- you can e-mail me at txspeechpath@earthlink.net
or just post here. As a starting place-- speech development does vary much the same as gross and fine motor skills. A good guideline is that toddlers need to have a minimum of 50 understandable words (not perfect, but intelligible) by their 2nd birthday.

Just post or e-mail with specifics and I'll get you more info.

Brooke

Yoshi · Nov 29, 2006

Questions about your profession

Hi Brooke,

I'm a former elementary school teacher thinking about a career change when I do go back into the career world, and speech language pathologist is one of my areas of interest. The college I graduated from is nearby and offers a Master's program which would be ideal for me once dd goes to Kindergarten in 2 yrs. I can commute and take classes in the evening if neccessary.

I'm just curious if you'd like to share any info with me about your job-such as:
Do you work with children, adults, both? Which do you prefer?
What is a typical day like- schedule-wise?
Do you find your work enjoyable/rewarding?
What personal qualities make a good SLP?

And of course, anything else you'd like to add/share.

My major (besides elementary ed) was psychology, but I don't think I want to pursue that.

Thank you so much and if you prefer, you can answer me in a PM!

Tina

Michi · Nov 29, 2006

Okay - I'll bite!!!!
My 3 ( soon to be 4) year old has been catagorized with 'severe speech delays.'
She is currently attending a preschool speech class called phonology - It meets M-Th from 8-11:30 and it goes in 6 week increments...(6weeks on, 6 weeks off.)
My DD seems to do SO well during the 6 weeks she has class, but then the class goes into 'intermission' and she backslides so much. Doesn't that 'break' just seem odd to you. Her SLP here says it is vital, so that she can 'practice' what she has learned....but I'm not so sure?????
Any comments/advice?

BrookeSLP · Nov 29, 2006

Hi -- I will be out all morning but will reply this afternoon!

Brooke

BrookeSLP · Nov 29, 2006

My 3 ( soon to be 4) year old has been catagorized with 'severe speech delays.'
She is currently attending a preschool speech class called phonology - It meets M-Th from 8-11:30 and it goes in 6 week increments...(6weeks on, 6 weeks off.)
My DD seems to do SO well during the 6 weeks she has class, but then the class goes into 'intermission' and she backslides so much. Doesn't that 'break' just seem odd to you. Her SLP here says it is vital, so that she can 'practice' what she has learned....but I'm not so sure?????
Any comments/advice?

Yes, I do think this is really strange. Their is a method for addressing phonological process disorders called Hodson-Paden Cycle. It does things in 6 week cycles, but you don't do a break. I would really question this. I would prefer her to do less in a week (2 or 3 days) and go continually. Have you asked the speech pathologist if you can keep her going all the time?

Brooke

BrookeSLP · Nov 29, 2006

Tina--

I really do love my field! It is very in demand, so the pay is good, and it is very flexible. I get calls and mail at least 4 times a week with job offers. I could easily see one patient a week or work 7 days a week right now.
I have worked with all age ranges from NICU babies to geriatric. I worked with adults exclusively for awhile and then switched to pediatrics. For adult/geriatric populations you deal with brain injury, stroke, dememtia, dysphagia (feeding/swallowing) and a variety of neurological disorders. The settings can be clinics, hospitals, nursing homes, home health.
For pediatrics, the disorders speech-language development disorders, neurological and brain injury disorders and feeding/swallowing issues. You also have some structural issues like cleft palate and other craio-facial anomilies that you can treat. It is a wide open field.

As far as school goes, you will likely need to take at least a year of leveling courses before beginning your Master's program. In both the leveling and Master's program, you will have lots of anatomy and neurology courses. Both of which are study intensive. The other courses will address the whole range of human communication and it's disorders. You'll enjoy it!

Qualities that make a good SLP are someone who is bright and able to change and grow as the field demands. This is a 'young' field and new areas are constantly being added. You will have to keep up with it which can be challenging.

Hope that helps you out! Good luck!

Brooke

skaterbabs · Nov 29, 2006

Gregory had three years of ST and I credit that with his learning to read at 4. Shocked the daylights out of us when he read the word mutant off a book cover the Christmas before his 5th bday (he actually soounded out the word!)

Joyjoy doesn't have any articulation delays at all, but she has some unusual speech patterns that need evaluating. (i.e., when told "you may not _______", her response is "I are _________" instead of "I will ____".)

BrookeSLP · Nov 29, 2006

How old is JoyJoy now?

Brooke

skaterbabs · Nov 29, 2006

3 yrs 1 mo and a few days.

not sure where she picked up the strange verb usage - I'm pretty picky about it with the kids.

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