Learning Curve

Every week since the start of school has been a long one, but this one was especially...interesting. Even though it was only 4 days. Thank goodness for that -- my fellow SLP and I went for some maragritas and mexican food straight after work.

Two meetings scheduled at the same time after school, printer issues, IEPs for kids you just met, 20 minutes per group -- less by the time they get to you, new kids coming in, reports due -- well, maybe you'd want a drink too.

Not to mention the kids you get that you don't know what to do with...anyone know about cochlear implants and hearing impairments? I'd love the info. Oh, we'll figure it out (thanks to a wonderful SLP coordinator!). They (two sisters) may not be at our school long, but while they are with us s/l minutes are my job.

Its a blessing and curse that we have so many options with our jobs as SLPs. We can work with adults and kids in a variety of settings...but with kids in schools there's the usual receptive/expressive language issues, articulation as well as voice, fluency, swallowing (though not so much), auditory processing and the lower level kiddos with autism, etc...and the heard-of-hearing/deaf population. So, there'll be a steep learning curve in that area. I haven't been working all that long -- a bit overwhelming still.

So, today was a bit more challenging than I usually like...but the neatest thing happened. I've started PECS (picture exchange communication system) with a pre-k. She doesn't talk or walk and generally faces a lot of challenges herself. The basic idea is to initate requests/communication using pictures -- she gives a picture of what she wants to one of us. Right now we're teaching to hand over the picture -- its just a basic motor movement we taught hand over hand -- she doesn't have to discriminate pictures (yet). We've been doing it for 60 minutes a week for two weeks. And, we came to today: she handed over the picture independently several times. That is cool. So, she is learning! I don't know how far we'll get in the program or if she can discriminate between pictures, but we'll keep going. That's the highlight of the week for sure.