As most of you know, I’m currently working on my doctorate. An article I was recently provided really hit home for me…and I think it will for you too. There are some wonderful tidbits in here, and (in my not so humble opinion), a great tool to use for when you’re reading research (which I KNOW you are…right?). Don’t worry, it’s not written as a “boring research article,” but it is extremely interesting and thought-provoking. Continue reading
Category Archives: SLP Issues
Time and Change
I realized, as I was sitting at my computer the other day, that it has been far too long since I’ve written a meaningful blog post. I have any number of excuses… the new job is a bit of a time suck (it is), I’ve quit following most of the SLP pages on Facebook (I have) so I don’t have my fingers in as many issues for inspiration (absolutely true)… But if I’m completely honest, none of those are why I haven’t written a post. Continue reading
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Who is to blame? We are.
I’ve had a post on pseudoscience drifting around in my head for a while now and it just isn’t coming together the way I want. I won’t bore you with the particulars of it, but know that there will be one coming…sometime. In the meantime, while pursuing those elusive thoughts, I’ve been trying to figure out WHY we have such an influx of pseudoscience cropping up. Continue reading
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Adventures with despair,happiness, and change!
No matter where we turn in the last few days, we are surrounded by news on the inauguration, cabinet choices, fashion sense, and people in general expressing great pleasure and equally great despair. On Facebook there are posts proudly proclaiming marching in peaceful protests for women’s rights and/or against the current president (note: they are not necessarily one and the same). There are an equal number of people telling those marching to “get over it.”
There are posts against the president’s pick for cabinet members. There are an equal number of posts saying “give it time, give them a chance.”
There’s one thing ALL of these posts have in common… Continue reading
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SLPs, Agnotology, and Responsibility
In recent months, the United States has experienced a bit of a shock (now, don’t run away, this isn’t that kind of a political post…I promise). Amidst that shock was the discussion about fake news sites and how frequent sharing of those fake news stories, perpetrated the untruths about various political candidates, etc. Special interest was taken by Facebook and other social media about their role in stopping those fake news sites. What no one seemed to mention is that these fake news stories have been around for a long time. I don’t know about anyone else, but I’ve used snopes.com to fact check many of those facebook stories that come around every few months for YEARS.
So…what does this have to do with speech-language pathology? Let me explain.
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Hubris, Humor, and Humility
I know…I know…It has been a while since I’ve posted, and for that I apologize. I’d like to blame it on the new work role, or the move to a (much) larger community, or moving 3 times in 1 month…but in reality, the delay has simply been because I haven’t felt that…nudge. I’ve been trying to force a blog post, which never works for me. Today though, today, I felt the nudge that said “YOU NEED TO WRITE ME NOW!!!” So…guess what? Continue reading
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Something to think about
In our field, billing for insurance and medicaid is a necessary evil (it seems).
Recently, o
n the ASHA community page someone commented about billing for medicaid. I’ve heard the discussion before, and it was definitely one of the things I’ve asked about in interviews…but there’s two very different sides. I’d love your opinion on each side. Continue reading
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Common Core State Standards and SLPs
One thing I have found in my adventures in education is that we all, teachers – administrators – SLPs – parents, have a love-hate relationship with the Common Core State Standards (CCSS).
Frankly, it ranks right up there with caseload sizes, teacher certification, idiotic review processes, and annoyances with ASHA for the number of people that are disgruntled by it.
(For those who don’t know me, I have a great caseload size, I’m not teacher certified, and I’m not unhappy with ASHA…but I know lots of SLPs who are 1 if not all 4 of these).
Most SLPs would agree, CCSS appears to add a lot of nonsense work to our already busy schedules. It seems redundant to what we are already doing. A common thread of dissatisfaction comes from the fact that it pushes kids…and it does. For the exceptional kids who are already pushed, it feels almost insurmountable and as if we are doing a grave disservice to them.
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Blurred Lines
I feel the strong need to preface this post, mainly because I suspect it will anger many people. However, before you get too angry, please read all the way to the end…and then if you want to comment – walk away for a few minutes before you hit send. I’d love a discussion, but don’t really want a debate, and I won’t argue. I’ve been considering this post for a while and I’ve resisted it for a couple of reasons. One, I’m not sure I’ve fully considered all aspects. Two, I’m not sure I have a solution (and I hate to be a part of a problem with out a solution). And three, the alternatives suck. If that hasn’t scared you off… Continue reading
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Milestones? Nah…why bother!
Happy Better Hearing and Speech Month! This post has been sort of percolating for a while and with Better Hearing and Speech Month’s focus on early intervention and the recent influx of new grads it seems relevant.
Recently, while speaking with many of my SLP friends on twitter, some expressed distress that articulation norms are so often misunderstood or misused. I wanted to write a post about it a few weeks ago and prudence dictated I wait until I wasn’t quite so…frustrated.
Then, a couple days ago, I had the distinct pleasure of reading a post on the way language milestones are often misunderstood. That post, from Teach me to Talk, is available here. I have to say, I honestly hadn’t considered how language milestones are interpreted…but it’s absolutely true they are misunderstood or maybe ignored much the way articulation norms are misused.
But it really drove home how we tend to view milestones or normative charts not as how they were meant to be used – but how they best work in our favor. Continue reading
Speech Adventures 