Speech Therapy Autobiography

On Friday, March 31st I observed Northside Elementary School in the Brookville school district. I watched in a separate speech therapy classroom for students who also require special education. There was only one student who attended each session and the only professional in the classroom was the speech language pathologist, Miss. Haag.

Until the age of five, I had the inability to speak properly. When attempting to communicate with someone, I would know the message I was trying to convey, but the other person would have no idea of what I was saying. In preschool, this problem continued, so the school gave me a speech specialist. With the help of this specialist, I was able to learn how to make my thoughts clear (as much as a child could).

In earlier years, adults would coo at me as I laughed and sang with my friends, assuming my high pitched and almost indistinguishable speech was simply baby talk. As my classmates and I got older, I noticed everyone was growing out of it, everyone besides me that is. My friends began to speak in a more mature and refined way,

I was born a twin and research studies show that with twins there is a high percentage that one twin may have a speech impairment. I was twin (a), the one who had the severe speech impairment. Growing up and not being able to speak properly had a major impact on my life. My speech was so severe that my mother and father use to tell me that they felt bad because they were my parents and they couldn’t understand what I was trying to say. Thanks to my twin sister she knew everything that I was trying to say and she would translate for me. I begin to take speech classes in kindergarten up until I was in the 5th grade. I never knew that my speech problem was so severe until I began school and all the other children begin to laugh and make fun of me because of the way I spoke, they would tell me “I spoke like a baby”.

Throughout my high school career, I have come to be heavily involved in activities within my high school. I was inducted into National Honor Society in the school year of 2015-2016. I came to be involved in the Drama Club for all four years of my high school career, along with being in Student Council all four years as well. In Student Council, I held the position of treasurer my senior year, and was on the executive board. The music department also has been one of the biggest programs I have come to be involved in within my high school career. I have played alto saxophone in concert band all four years of high school, and played alto saxophone my senior year in jazz band. Along with being in both concert band and jazz band, I was also part

Language is beautiful and wondrous phenomenon. Not only is it a crucial component in everyday communication, but it also accentuates the culture of those that speak it. As a student pursuing a career in speech-language pathology, the aspects of communication, such as language, are the pillars of my future profession and will be deeply embedded into my daily life. There are many reasons I have chosen this path, but my childhood friend, Jasmine, can be accredited with my finishing decision to become a speech-language pathologist. When I was in elementary school, Jasmine was one of my closest friends, but I did not always get to play with her at recess because she frequently had to see an audiologist, or go to speech therapy. Jasmine had a congenital

My recent move from India to America during my junior year was an enormous challenge for me, which led to many other smaller challenges that I had to face. I had to adjust to new environment, school, people and an unknown country, which was difficult. Leaving my friends who I grew up with, and finding new ones was also an obstacle for me. But, a quote that inspired me… “difficult is not impossible moving to the USA was a challenge, but it also gave me an opportunity to improve and to grow. Practicing speaking every day, learning the pronunciation of words to improve my English, believing I could do it, asking for help rather than letting those problems push me down, I started to improve, and this all helped me adjust. I practiced pronunciation

I hope this finds you well:) Time is flying by and finals are looming in my final semester of classes at the Bristol Community College in their Occupational Therapy Assistant program. Next semester will be all fieldwork and my first choice placement is Greenlock Therapeutic Riding Center. http://www.greenlock.org/. So close--finally!!

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

Trey is four years old boy and an only child, his both parent are Jamaicans. His parents are married, but Trey’s father lives in Jamaica, he communicates with his father by Skype and Phone calls. Trey’s mother migrated from Jamaica Ten years ago. Trey and his mother lives with his grandmother. Trey’s mother works full-time as a social-worker, so he spends most of the time with his grandmother. The family economic status is equivalent to a middle class family. The family household is well equipped with technology devices to assist with homework when Trey moves onto the primary grades and beyond.

I got involved in what I could and then high school came along. In high school, I took my very first theater class and put my all into anything the class was assigned. I am doing theater all four years of high school and plan to go deeper into it when I graduate. Theater has impacted me in so many different ways, positive and negative. Acting is extremely stressful, but it does not upset me. Being stressed out by something I love doing is different from being stressed by something merely important to my

I have evolved from singing cobbled-together carols in kindergarten class to singing collegiate repertoire at competitive adjudications with a rigorously auditioned madrigal choir, and from dancing in a weekly ballet activity at the local YMCA to the Nutcracker suite. Throughout high school, I have performed in sixteen plays and musicals. My interests are varied, but when I pursue them, I do not do so halfheartedly. I know Johns Hopkins has as strong a performing arts community as it has strong academics. I hope to be a part of it and bring my own performances and perspectives to any productions that will have me. I found a second family in the performing arts, and I want to extend it in

I hope you had a great summer and are having a great semester. Just wanted to say thank you for being such a great teacher and putting the students first. You are my favorite professor! Before graduation I accepted a job offer with Houston County Schools. I am a Speech Therapist. So far all is well. The people are helpful and kind. Thank you for the training and certifications. The certifications allowed me to stand out in the various interviews. Majority of the time I was the only interviewee with an AMSTI certification. I was offered several speech and special education jobs. I received a job offer after each interview I attend. Furthermore, thank you for building my confidence in my math skills. Thank you very much for the time and effort

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

Although I have my own idiolect, the way I speak constantly changes. This is because I try to adapt my spoken language to suit the situation I am in. There are many reasons for why I try to adapt my spoken language some of the main reasons being that I am fearful of the judgements and perceptions that others may make because of the way I speak also being afraid of exclusion or not being able to fit in and sometimes I feel pressurised into speaking in a certain way.