I recently completed jury duty, and it was interesting watching people follow directions, or maybe I should say not follow directions. Jury duty begins when you arrive at the court house and are assigned a number. Â At 8:30am a court officer greets the awaiting jurors and shows a video. On my day of service after …
Category Archives: Communication
Lazy is sometimes a strategy
Working with people that have had traumatic brain injury and/or stroke was my first work experience as a speech pathologist. I feel lucky to have acute rehabilitation as my foundation because it helped me understand that there are many reasons why people do not perform, and many times it is not because they do not want …
Communicating Acceptance
âWhat is it like to make mistakes at your old school,â I ask my daughter. she states, âin class when you made a mistake kids would snicker and laugh. I hate that,â she states emphatically. then I asked her, âWhat is it like when you make a mistake at your new school?â She states in …
Speech therapy and motherhood
As a speech therapist, becoming a mom has been the second greatest learning experience of my career. Motherhood helped me understand, the far reaching impact of poor verbal expression and the role of speech therapy. It’s not just about whether you acquire vocabulary, but about learning to use language in a flexible way in order …
Skip the 2nd Language: Language impairments and 2nd languages
I have wondered about the practice of saying that language disabled students cannot learn a foreign language. Middle schools and high schools routinely release language disabled students from the requirements of a second language which is a prerequisite for admission to many colleges. Although I have been a part of  the teams that have dismissed …
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Reading words or learning to read? Part I
My daughterâs reading instruction at school has been frustrating this year. She is a fluent reader, but when you ask her what she has read. Her answer is sometimes, âI don’t know!” Her comprehension is not equal to her fluency level. Is this normal? Yes, she has been working on learning to read the words, …
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What’s language gotta do wit it? Language and Racism:
Being African American, statistics that document the fact that African American children are disciplined more harshly than their white peers is no surprise. The statistic just points out what every parent of color in the US already knows. Our kids are treated more harshly than their white peers. If you are a parent of color with a child in kindergarten, but certainly …
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Education: Is special education really necessary?
I’m very interested in education in general because I am involved in the educational process of my daughter. Secondly, I work with students from elementary school to college. Sometimes I wonder what school and education are really about? What should be taught? There is a lot of socialization that goes on in our school. Some of …
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Tutoring vs speech language therapy
Recently I worked with client on the autism spectrum who received A-and Bâs on his papers at his traditional high school.  In his papers his vocabulary was redundant, he had little sentence variety, and at times the content of his papers mirrored, the model provided so closely that it had little original thought. This student …
Fostering a therapy relationship Part II
When working with middle and high school aged students the more motivation and self awareness that has been fostered in the home and learning environment the better. Without cooperation and interest it is difficult to motivate this age group through just the use of external rewards. Unlike elementary school age children, using external rewards with …