Speech : ' Speech Therapy '

We are in the process of placing paraprofessional educators, impacted by staff reductions in vacant positions for the upcoming school year. Your help is needed to make the best match based on the needs of our schools. There are some paraprofessional assignments that may require special skills. If you have experience and or a background in any of the following areas, please indicate and send your response to Kim.Bagley@pgcps.org by Tuesday, June

The career, Speech Therapist, stood out to me because of the concept of helping someone overcome an issue that they may have had all of their life. By helping a person develop a common skill, you could be changing their life in a positive way. To actually hear the progress you have made through the person’s own mouth is something that would make you feel like you have a purpose and that is to help people make their lives better. The occupation of this career is to basically help people that either have a speech impediment or some type of disorder to communicate better and cope with social malfunctions they may have experienced in their life and will experience in the mere future. So

It was the crack of dawn on a Saturday morning. I remember being excited for this day because I did not have school, and, like most six year olds, I loved to watch cartoons every Saturday morning. As I watched, however, my father came into my room, and instructed me to put on my clothes and prepare to go to the doctor’s office. I immediately became excited as I loved to go and visit my pediatrician. When we arrived there however, it was not the doctor I anticipated. It was a speech therapist. While I did not realize why I was there, my doctor explained that she was going to help me with my stutter. Being a kindergartener at the time, I was not bullied or picked on for my stutter. However, as I got older, my classmates started to point it out

Communication is very crucial in life, especially in education. Whether it be delivering a message or receiving information, without the ability to communicate learning can be extremely difficult. Students with speech and language disorders may have “trouble producing speech sounds, using spoken language to communicate, or understanding what other people say” (Turkington, p10, 2003) Each of these problems can create major setbacks in the classroom. Articulation, expression and reception are all essential components for communication. If a student has an issue with articulation, they most likely then have difficulty speaking clearly and at a normal rate (Turkington, 2003). When they produce words, they

“For reasons that are obscure to me, those qualities we cherish in our artists we condemn in our politicians.” These qualities that Zadie is talking about is the ability to have many colored voices. In her lecture, “Speaking in Tongues”, Zadie talks about her own experiences with speaking in many voices. For her, it was having a less educated voice growing up and changing, letting go, for a more sophisticated voice of lettered people. The quote from Zadie Smith holds a lot of truth. People will often try to argue, but it is true that artists are supported for also having many colored voices while politicians are looked down at for that very same thing. The human mind, subconsciously, will always see politicians as people that should have an unchanging and singular voice. Artists, on the other hand, are respected and loved for their many colored voices. One may wonder why it has to be this way? Politicians are held up to such a high standard, everything they say is written and recorded, so if they have one too many voices they will lose power and respect or even sound contradictory. Politicians have to maintain a singular, strong voice to the public even if they have hidden voices, while artists are encouraged to use many.

Everyone has room for improvement, and you can always improve. As a speech therapy assistant I have used self evaluation, student feedback, colleague feedback, and learner progress to measure my teaching. These assessments have helped me develop my successes and tweak my skills when necessary.

In order to get the help I needed, my mom had to pick me up two hours early from school every day and bring me to Anderson Elementary, where the speech therapist was located. Being forced to leave school early didn't help my social issues. The friends I had turned on me, and I became the weird girl. I no longer had people to eat lunch with, and invitations to birthday parties stopped arriving in the mail. I was mocked on a daily basis by people I had previously considered to be friends. Everyone had their own conspiracy theories about me; it hurt. Along with my new-found social struggles, my grades began to drop and I knew I had to make a

“Why am I always so frightened to talk?” This thought didn’t make sense. I looked at other kids and they didn’t mind talking in front of the class. When I walked up in front of the class I got extremely nervous. I was in third grade and I wasn't very good at reading. People would make fun of me for it. “Dont pick on Alex he can't read right.” I let these comments get to me and I wanted to change this!

Face to face, I sat in front of a person whose words terrified me. His blackened eyes intimidated me. That well rounded man in a white coat spoke so diligently about my “issues”. He soon diagnosed me with an attention deficit disorder. My brain froze with fear and at that moment all my dreams and hopes were shattered into a million pieces. The feeling of being worthless and hollow overwhelmed me. In my head, everything was over. In reality, every door to success had just been opened. Painful events had to occur in my life in order for me to realize how strong of an individual I was. Yet with time, tears, effort, and most of all the support of my AVID teacher, I overcame the anxiety I had due to bullying.

The client was excited to be in therapy. The client participated in every activity. The session consisted of the use of prolonged speech during a story retell and game, education of the speech mechanism, and identification of bumpy speech.

Flashback to 2004: The first day of first grade. New school, new class, new classmates. We picked each other out on that fateful day. She said her name was Mary Joan, or MJ for short, but either was OK. From that day on, we were inseparable. We always looked out for each other, and we were exactly the same in almost every way. Being so young, we would always say we would go to Boston College (the only college we knew by name), be roommates, become teachers at the same school, and live in the same neighborhood until the end of time. This was our future until we began to grow up.

Speech therapy is a long term procedure depending on the disorder. Speech therapy is a popular method of treatment that involves learning new speech techniques (such as speaking syllable-by-syllable) and modifying current ways of speaking (such as reducing the rate of speech). It may also include psychological counseling as a way of boosting self-esteem and reducing the tendency of avoiding fearful situations such as speaking in front of a group.

Someone’s coming to get you. There she is and you have to walk out of the classroom now. You know what you have to do. I’m standing outside the classroom door, walking down the slippery steps, into the close-knit room. Mrs. Isaacson says “Okay how are you doing today Madison?”, taking note of everything that is said. This is what a speech therapy session starts off like. Speech Therapy started when I was three till I was eleven. Through the challenges of my speech impediment, I have learned to discover that I love to help people. I have learned this by being involved in multiple activities and programs with special needs children.

    New things can be nerve wracking, but when I got to Simpson Park Youth Camp all the butterflies flew away. Coming from church and receiving a blessing from the Northland United Pastor, I was very nervous. Now that I was there I was excited and overjoyed. The two hour drive to Romeo was already worth it. I gazed out the window and saw what looked like a tiny village laid before my eyes. When I stepped out of the car I felt the atmosphere change, it was like I stepped into a magical realm. Miranda and I walked to the Office and are greeted by our other friends. Suddenly I see Hannah Haskell. Hannah Haskell is a friend from

For as long as I can remember, I’ve always been a quiet child. I hated the way I speak and I still do. What I say never matches up to what I think and it is never organized. I hate it when I talk and my heart rapidly races or my stomach begins to hurt out of nowhere. I regret growing up to where I am now with that trait because I feel unhappy with myself and my mind is plagued with negative thoughts as a result. I worry about the future to the point where I can’t focus on the present. These thoughts built up and came crashing down during the time I had to present with my group in front of my teacher during 8th grade for the first round of National History Day. I was nervous, frustrated, and worried. It was the third time we had to present in front of her and I had another project due to her the next day which I needed to work on badly. However, the thoughts in which I tried hard to store away broke loose. When it was my turn to explain my part, I made a mistake and laughed it off. I continued again and messed up. I laughed. I laughed until I started to cry in front of the class. My teacher and teammates comforted me even though I didn’t want their sympathy. However, the fact that they cared for me gave me strength. I wanted to be more confident in myself and to achieve that, I had to be more positive which made me become a nicer person.