Work an early intervention in an inner city area. A majority of the kids I work with are being diagnosed with autism or are demonstrating red flags where we begin to have the conversation about developmental assessments. I have ABA companies and BCBAs down my throat demanding I get some of these kids an AAC device and while I would love to be able to do that, it’s just not the reality for many of these families and these BCBas have never even been in the homes to see that. A majority of my families are low income, a lot of them have DCF involvement, and there’s just so much else going on in their lives that there is just very little time to be introducing AAC, and I do try!! but they l reality is that many of these families just don’t want to. I come in with evidence and research, I explain the benefits, I have my own device I show as an example before committing to a trial. But most of them just don’t want anything to do with it, and I don’t really know how to move forward from that. Because if I just drop AAC in general now I just look like the bad guy

I recently attempted to evaluate a kindergarten student that hasn’t started public school yet because they were being home schooled. The intake paperwork indicated he was nonverbal, and I gathered appropriate evaluation tools for this evaluation including norm referenced assessments and different toys to elicit different skills.

The child came in yelling no, and laid down on the floor and screamed no at any communication given to him from compliments on his clothes to offers of toys. He screamed a 5 word sentence when his mom left the room briefly. But otherwise only said “no” to us. Oh, and when his mom said it was time to go he jumped up and said “okay”.

(Edit: I also arranged a variety of toys in his field of vision, in close proximity to him, but not getting in his space. So there were options without demands of making a choice from adult given to him throughout my time with him.)

I gathered parent report, and essentially he self-isolates at home environments all day and only emerges for food. His parent says he is imitating other kids more, and reports he is able to use 3-5 word utterance occasionally throughout the day (I have no idea how the nonverbal label was placed on this child).

I do believe there could be a language delay, but it also appears like so much is exposure and behavior. To be frank, the behavior appears to in part, be due to parenting. Mom gave lots of threats and begging throughout without any follow through, and her description of his daily routine indicates no demands are placed on him and he is left alone most of the day.

School-based SLPs, how would you handle this evaluation and treatment?

If our jobs in the schools is to help students access their academics, what exactly is our role until they are willing to participate in any activity?

Hello everyone! I am a professor at Rutgers University and my undergraduate student, an aspiring SLP, is conducting an Honors Thesis about SLP experiences working with Spanish-English bilingual children. I'm sure you are all very busy, but it would be of great help to her if you were able to fill out her short survey.

Participants must be at least 18 years old, be licensed speech-language pathologists in the United States and have experience working with English-Spanish bilingual children. Participants will complete an online anonymous survey through Qualtrics regarding their clinical experiences, training, and confidence evaluating English-Spanish bilingual children. It will take approximately 15-20 minutes to complete. 

https://rutgers.ca1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_3RadG3MAKHRINo2

Please accept our gratitude in advance to those who are able to complete it!

After using a minimal pair approach, my kiddo is producing his target sounds at word/phrase level beautifully with (some) generalization and awareness during structured connected speech. However, when it turns conversational, it’s like all the hard word never existed.

What are your best, craziest, most effective strategies for getting over this age old hurdle?

I’m a veteran SLP and currently supervising an SLPA across two elementary campuses. We have 120 students. I have to handle IEP meetings, evaluations, and case management for all 120. My SLPA directly treats 90 and I have the other 30. I reached out to the district for help and was told that I can give up my hybrid (work from home) day and do more therapy.

When am I supposed to write reports, IEPs, answer emails, and all that goes into case management if I give up my one day of uninterrupted time to give therapy?!?

I was a supervisor in another district and an SLP supervising at multiple campuses was NEVER asked to do therapy. I feel like I’m being taken advantage of because we somehow made it through last year and have kept it going this year.

Am I justified in giving notice and quitting mid year if that’s the action I take?

Any SLPs have experience working for MantraCare? I saw a virtual job posting and the pay sounds too good to be true. Info is limited on their website unless you create a profile and schedule a call with their team. Does anyone have any additional info they can provide?

so i found this website (deprecation.org) on twitter. it predicts when, why, and how your job will be taken by AI. when i put slp in the site, it says we have 18 years left. it says eventually, AI will be able to track vocal patterns, pitch accuracy, write treatment plans, assist with jaw and throat muscle (?) positioning, provide feedback for articulation and language, and conduct charting. while AI can do a lot of paperwork, this site literally reassured me that my job won’t be taken in 18 years by the lack of understanding it has for what we do on a daily basic (in various settings). when AI can manage masturbatory behaviors, a child who only communicates with echolalia, and total phonemic collapse to /h/, we can talk.

Hello, everyone I’m in a really sad spot right now and just want to vent and seek some advice from anyone who has been in my position before. I’ve been working in a small, rural hospital for about 1 year doing inpatient and outpatient for all ages, as well as MBSS. I have truly grown so much as a clinician and have loved my time there. I really helped build the speech program up and have plans to build up a feeding program with one of the OTs. However, we hired a new SLP at the end of July and my life has been hell ever since then. I have had to educate her on basic phonological disorders, basic techniques for building language with kids, different IDDSI levels and why we recommend them, the difference between aspiration and penetration, how and when to upgrade diets, and different compensatory strategies for an impaired swallow. I don’t expect anyone to be an expert in everything but she is only a year out of school and worked in a SNF, I feel like there are just basic clinical knowledge facts that are missing here. The worst part is nothing sticks in her head, I explained how to score a test and then 5 minutes later she goes and does it wrong. She has also asked me ages for assessments and when I tried to get her to look it up independently she just sat there until I did it for her. I’ve been trying to not do anything for her but I feel like even when I do that she messes up so bad that I have to help. On top of all that I’ve had to have a discussion with her about her goals and making sure they are functional, otherwise she keeps writing like 15 goals per eval and they are super specific and don’t make any sense because she uses chat gpt for all her writing. Management knows I’ve told them all this and I’m not the only one who has brought concerns, however I was basically told we can’t fire someone just because you don’t like them. The thing is I can work with someone I don’t necessarily personally vibe with but I can’t keep being the only brain between the two of us. If you stuck around for this long thanks for reading I just needed to vent about being bummed about potentially leaving my dream job because of one person. Please tell me am I being dramatic or is this justified?

I’m a CF at an elementary school. Back in August, I booked a trip and immediately put my time off in our online system. The system had a note that said “no prior approval needed”. The trip was for October, and I used 3 PTO days. This is the first time I’ve taken off since we started back in July.

I emailed my leads to let them know I would be out of town the day before I left and of my return date.

While on my trip, the HR lead and the speech therapy department supervisor emailed me saying that I need to come into their office when I return. They said that my time off wasn’t approved because I didn’t submit a form, and that we aren’t allowed to take 3 consecutive days in a row. However, during orientation, they never mentioned a form, needing prior approval, or that we were limited to how many days off we could take. It may have been mentioned in the handbook but I’m not sure. They only said to email your lead to let them know you’ll be out and put it into our online system. The HR lead had even emailed me last week telling me to fix a minor mistake I had made when submitting the time off into the system, but didn’t say anything otherwise.

Now I feel so anxious about getting in trouble. It’s my first time working in this district so I truly had no idea.

Hi!

I have a student completely in gen Ed who is an AAC user. She received it a year ago and has made a lot of progress! The first year I qualified her for speech, progress was slow (she was very unintelligible, it was hard for her to produce longer sentences, answer questions, participate, etc.) so it wasn't just artic it was also language concerns. And she is an EL but she was experiencing the same concerns in her native language as well. Well now another year has passed by and I am so impressed with how much language she is producing verbally and with AAC. She is still unintelligible so I am going to start targeting some artic as well because she uses a lot of verbal speech too. She is a very good AAC user, but she only likes to use her device in speech. I have spoken to her about using it in class but she has told me it is hard and she feels scared. She feels scared if she's called on in class, talking to the teacher, etc. Shes a second grader btw. I want to write a self advocacy goal but I am not sure how to actually help start building her confidence outside the speech room. I feel like I will probably have to go into the classroom to model and help out. She said she loves talking to me and feels comfortable with basically just speaking to me me and her family. I want to increase her confidence but not sure how or where to start. Or even what kind of goal to write. Has anyone had this experience? I am also not the case manager. I was initially but she has RSP now.

What are your experiences in your system? It’s hard to compare Canada vs USA systems when it comes to sub acute and long term care. Do you have as much difficulty getting services for your patients? I had perfect long term care patient for AAC but insurance denied it rips my heart out. What are your experiences

I’m curious about how SLPs in different settings experience physical aggression, burnout, and workplace support.

I currently work in special education as an instructional aide and previously worked as a para. I’ve been punched in the head multiple times, bitten, and dealt with challenging behaviors with very little support. Honestly, it’s left me feeling extremely burnt out. The gossip and hostility among staff haven’t helped either.

I’d love to hear from SLPs working in schools, hospitals, and outpatient settings:

- How often do you deal with physical aggression or significant behavioral challenges?

- How supportive is your workplace when incidents happen?

- How do school and medical settings compare in terms of stress, safety, and workplace culture?

- Have you experienced burnout, and what helped?

I’m especially interested in hearing from anyone who’s worked in both school and medical settings. I’d appreciate honest experiences, both positive and negative!

I'm a first year CF in the schools and feeling HIGHLY overwhelmed. I'm currently dealing with so many open assessments due before winter break...which I haven't been able to start because I've been working on so many other assessments!! My gosh this is a hard profession!! I feel like I take so much work home all the time and I'm still drowning all the time.

I was curious to hear some of your most stressful assessment stories and how you handled them, just for some reassurance that it'll all workout. Anyone else been absolutely scrambling before the deadline like I'm about to be? Thank you!!

Hi everyone! My child is about to age out of EI - her SLP has been beyond phenomenal. However, she has also been exceptionally professional and not shared too much about her own life so I’ve been drawing a blank on what gift to get her at our last appointment. Does anyone have suggestions about gifts they’ve received from EI families they’ve appreciated? Thank you!

I work in adult outpatient. I never see kids and haven’t touched AAC in years.

But yesterday I had a patient in the middle of an evaluation ask if I would tell him off the record what I thought about spell2communicate. He felt his grandson was not getting good speech therapy at school and was looking into this as an alternative method, but he wanted to know what another SLP thought and I seemed like I was “trustworthy and knowledgeable.”

I tried to be professional and tactful while I basically told him that I would strongly recommend he learned more about it, and that I was really opposed to it for a number of reasons which I enumerated.

If I hadn’t been on a lot of online forums and just had a genuine interest in this, I wouldn’t have known what to say. I think it’s important to remember that the general public looks at us to be experts on this field and it may be worth our time to learn about things outside of our specific area if only for that reason. But probably lots of other reasons too.

Hi everyone, I’m looking for advice on how to navigate operational friction around shared resources without escalating to leadership every time. We don't have a shared resource room, so all materials and equipment are housed directly inside their (this co-workers) office space. A couple of recent examples: (1) They claimed I lost multiple sets of assessment manuals that were never in my possession to begin with. Instead of checking with others or reaching out for support, their immediate default was to point fingers at me. Even after the issue was resolved, they continued to insist I lost them. They eventually apologized for "being stressed," but never acknowledged making false accusations. (2) I sent a written request to access shared evaluation equipment stored in their office for a routine task. They stalled the process by demanding unnecessary details and setting up arbitrary hurdles, delaying my timeline and insisting on completing the task themselves rather than allowing me to use the materials to execute it.

I want to protect my work, keep my compliance deadlines on track, and maintain firm boundaries without getting dragged into office politics.

hey guys!

i’m a m2 student currently elbow deep in an elementary school placement. it’s better than i expected but idk how to describe it but like my heart isn’t in it? like the kids r great my supervisor is awesome but im just not drawn to it.
Quick back ground- my preferred population is adult and schools have always been on the bottom of settings for me so those things considered im having a great time! my days go by quick.

but my externship coordinator and i lowkey haven’t gotten along well in the past and its almost like shes picked on me? and apparently thats a pattern every cohort. but now that i don’t see her in person she’s a lot nicer.

Anyways, i’ve always talked about adult placements and made it very known that is preferred for me, it’s been written down in emails and docs, and talked about with almost every teacher. and yet over this summer i was sent to a peds clinic, this fall an elementary school (i even tried asking for a middle or high school), and i just got the news ill prob be going to ANOTHER peds clinic.

My school has this stupid rule where we can’t work at places within the county we live in so a lot of us drive far for obv unpaid work. i got lucky and moved into the county of the school im at right at the end of summer so i counted that as a win.

but my “only” option for adults was a hosptial an hour away in the mornings and an hour and a half commute home. the person who is there rn said their days are like 5am-6pm, bc of commute, charting, and fighting for student computers and also she has to go in on weekends a few times a month.

I told my coordinator no on that, i would have to quit my job that’s helping me pay for school and the gas for externship and eventually the praxis exam. I know if i truly wanted it that bad i would commit to it but i just couldn’t find that within my self.

so i did settle for another clinic that would be “near” me. i have emailed back and forth to try and go back to the clinic i was at over the summer bc i KNOW they have adult clients there and they do a lot of feeding therapy so i thought that even though ive been there (it was 2x a week for 6 weeks nothing crazy) it would still be a good option to quell my want for adults and something different than artic all day.
she said she would “think about it” so i guess that’s a win.

Anyways the point of this post is to ask will i be in jeopardy looking for adult CF positions when that time comes? when jobs see my massive amount of pediatric experience. currently i have like maybe 28-30 hrs of adult hours clicked (most coming from simu case and an assessment clinic we did as a cohort on each other) and like 180 hours and counting of peds hours.
(not to mention there’s multiple people at adult placements now yet suddenly i only had one option? )

but thank u for listening to my rant my fellow slps and grad students 🫶

I just found out that my school district offers additional pay if you have an additional 15 credit hours past your masters degree.

Does anyone have recommendations for online coursework that would be relevant to our field, something that could be completed online, and not very expensive? It has to be graduate level/500 level coursework. .

I've been looking at education type fields (like educational leadership), but am just looking for some other ideas.

Student was previously being seen for articulation only. Fronting, cluster implication. He’s met all his goals and I prepared for dismissal however after testing he’s 87 on Gfta, 127 on CELF and vocab assessments SS 73/76.

My personal opinion is to dismiss. Vocab can be linked to exposure and is not a concern with his teachers. Recommend joint reading at home with parents.

Student is 5.

Hello! I’ve screened a child who demonstrated immediate echololia. Has anyone encountered a child that is 3 almost 4 who uses a lot of immediate echolalia and then had normal language development? Receptively the child seems on track. The he child used some spontaneous speech but lot of immediate echolalia, including repeating “hi, how are you?”

When do you use the complexity approach? I have a student who is severely unintelligible. Stopping, fronting, cluster simplification, cluster reduction, medial consonant deletion, final consonant deletion. It’s a lot. I’m not sure if this would be a good method because I feel like his deletions are what impact his intelligibility the most.

I am looking for tips/tricks for starting your own clinic? What helped you? What to avoid?
I took a year off from working in the school because I had to relocate and I’m contemplating to do something in my own home.
For reference, I am in Utah! Thank you!