Summer Reading List for New SLP Grad Students

I’ve posted statistics, tips, ideas, and resources for applying to Speech-Language Pathology graduate school. For those of you who read them and used the ideas, thank you! For those of you who did not, that’s OK, we can still be friends. I will get us one of those friendship necklaces. BFFs. I digress.

This post is intended for those who were accepted into an SLP graduate program and are anxiously and excitedly awaiting to start. Those were the days. When you wake up without a constant twinge of nervousness, contemplating if you will get in anywhere. TallyHo! Now you can breathe a little easier knowing you have a place to call home for the next 2-3 years. A place that will shape you, mold you, make you into a real-life Speech-Language Pathologist. Yippee!!

Now, you have a few months before you start. Don’t sit like a bump on a log for the next 2-3 months, but at the same time, take time to enjoy graduation, freedom, and summer time. Graduate school isn’t all unicorns, rainbows, and meadow frolicking. In preparation for the  deluge of information that will soon ensnare your mind, consider the following Summer Reading List as you lay on a beach or veg-out on the couch. As you consider and use the list below, keep in mind to review the big areas in SLP:

• Articulation
• Phonology
• Dysphagia
• Voice
• Fluency
• Language Development and Disorders
• AAC

Free Summer Reading List

1. Undergraduate Notes - The jumbled mess that is your undergraduate notes, look them over. Remember what was tough to remember. Recall the topics which you first skimmed, and look more closely this time around.
2. Undergraduate Textbooks – Especially the ever-lovely Anatomy text for a review of the facial, swallowing, and laryngeal musculature necessary for speech and swallowing.
3. SLP Scope of Practice - Now I’m sure at some point a professor pointed you in this documents direction, and you glanced over it with an eye of disillusionment. I said to myself, “How in the world will I ever know all of this?!” Now, break it out, look over the sections, and take note of things you don’t know or have never heard of. Google it. Research it. Don’t let your newness get the best of you.
4. ASHA’s Compendium of EBP Guidelines and Systematic Reviews - Mind. Blown. I was introduced to this resource way too late in my SLP graduate school journey. Bookmark it. Tattoo it to your arm (obvious exaggeration). Look through the topics that interest you. Aphasia, dysphagia, dementia, feeding, and more. The guidelines documents are great for overview when working with the disorder – a starting place – and the evidence for the topics are equally helpful for preparing for future clients.
5. ASHA’s Practice Portal – This is a new venture for ASHA, but promises to be my future go-to spot when a difficult client comes my way (still in Beta trials). Currently, there are only 4 topics available, but there is more coming in 2013…stay tuned!
6. Previous years’ ASHA Convention Handouts - If you have a specific area of interest or can’t find information in a given area, search handouts and see what you can find. People work hard when presenting, so use the resource.

I am planning a Part 2 to this reading list which highlights paid options for those wanting more resources than are available online. For now, this will get you started.

Happy reading fellow SLP graduate students!!

The SLP Post-baccalaureate Plunge

Why Post-Bacc? 

Universities across the U.S. offer a set of courses which prepare students to begin a graduate program in Speech-Language Pathology (SLP). There are a few different reasons a person might choose to complete these prerequisite courses (aka post-baccalaureate courses) in SLP or Communication Sciences and Disorders (CSD):

1. You have your Bachelor’s degree in an unrelated field (psychology, exercise science, biology, underwater basket weaving).
2. If you have a degree in a non  SLP/CSD field, you were rejected from or SLP graduate schools so are deciding to take the classes while you reapply.
3. You are considering making a career change and want the inside scoop before applying to SLP graduate schools.

Desperation or Determination? – SLP Graduate School Admissions

How many times will you continue to apply to Speech-Language Pathology graduate schools before you stop and consider an alternate route or career path?

I’ve posed this question to myself since many friends and blog readers have commented and emailed me regarding grad school rejection. So when would you stop saying “I’m determined to get into SLP graduate school” and start saying “I’m desperate to get into SLP graduate school.” Where is the line between determination and desperation? After the first year of rejection letters? The second year? The third year? At some point, determination turns into desperation, and the anxiety eats away at the passion and excitement.

Categories Learning Center: A Review

Categories Learning Center

by Smarty Ears

Purpose:

An app designed by SLPs to improve language comprehension for all age groups. More specifically, it was developed to target categorization skills to improve word finding, memory, and reading comprehension difficulties.

Price = $9.99

Today

There’s a naiveté about being a new clinician. Stumbling through therapy sessions, wondering if you are talking too much, giving the right prompts, or using the right technique.  As a supervisor sits, watching, I wonder “What does she really think about my skills?” Sweaty hands.

Everyone has been through the process. Courses. Syllabi. Ethics. Evidence. Rationale. Professionalism. A constant flood of lists, charts, and data. Why does it seem that I should be at a higher level than the one I am now? Why must I still ask why?

I’m still new at this. Designing therapy like a pathologist’s pauper, hoping if I do it his or her way, perhaps I will find my own. Asking what seems like an obvious question, followed by a much more obvious answer. Hand to face. Why didn’t I think of that?

A child talks out of turn. I must look incompetent. This one picks his nose and touches my iPad. I need a hand wipe, but don’t want to seem overly clean. Why can’t kids just leave their nose alone?

So. Many. Goals. I started with one client, now I have forty times that. Constantly thinking what’s next. Tally marks. Was that right? Wait, did they say “cab” or “cap”? Crap. Did that one just say shit?

Lunch seems like a break from my thoughts. Email. Twitter. Take a picture. Enjoy this moment because soon I will be eating alone, instead of taking time to chat. Conversation turns to the how. The why. Why Alaska? Why not.

Halls filled with faces, unknown. That child is confused, should I step in? I’m new. Wearing a visitor’s badge. I already look creepy, just leave him be. Gather the kiddos. Make sure I don’t lose them on the way back to speech. Now, which one is which? Are you this one or that one?

End of the day. Let’s hear it. How did I do? Oh. I forgot to do that. Wait, you think I did well?

Driving home. Wondering if this illusion wears off. I’m having fun, not working all day. How can a job be more than  a passion? How can a degree be more than 9 to 5? With all the newness of being a grad, I’m just so humbled by all the support. If there is no limit, why wait to find more?

Don’t freak out, it’s just the SH sound

There was a moment Monday, before I started my first day of my full-time school internship, where I panicked. Heart fluttering, mind-numbing, terrifying panic. I couldn’t verbalize how to teach the “SH” sound. I couldn’t think of its place or manner of articulation. It was like the knowledge was lost in an ambiguous depth of space and time. *POOF* 4 years of undergrad and a 1.5 years of a Master’s in Speech-Language Pathology, gone. Just. Like. That.

Now that my melodrama is over, it was truly only a momentary freak-out. Followed by a frenzy of technology, clicking, typing, and a slight hand-cramp from the manic episode. It happens to the best of us (that’s what I’m telling myself). So, what did I find you might ask? Allow me to share:

Part 2: Online SLP Graduate Programs

This is the second post in my series regarding Online Speech-Language Pathology graduate schools. Read Part 1 and general information about online SLP graduate programs.

The below interview is with a spunky mother of two, 43 year old lovely lady, and current online graduate student who transitioned from bank manager to Speech-Language Pathologist. I admire anyone who decides to switch careers and become passionate about such an amazing field. If you are considering applying to online SLP programs or know someone who is, please read and share.

A New Song

At the 2012 ASHA Convention in Atlanta I wondered at the unique set of peoples I encountered. Everyone was eager to join sessions, share ideas, and offer words of encouragement to the newbies like me. There wasn’t a hint of selfishness of information; what helps one professional has the possibility to help thousands more when shared. The amount of evidence displayed and excellence of clinical translation encouraged everyone who attended. Since this was my first convention, I was astounded at the amount of work others from around the country are doing to advance the science and techniques of the profession…and I thought I was busy?!

In Dr. Maya Angelou’s key note address, she said “A bird doesn’t sing because it has an answer, it sings because it has a song.” We all have a song to sing in the form of our profession. We perform our job based on evidence and training; yet it is more than that. There is a calling to help each patient, caregiver, and family, not out of a sense of duty; rather, from a sense of purpose and resolve to impact and further another person’s recovery and development.

Places to try while at #ASHA12

Obviously food is not the MOST important reason to be excited for #asha12 , but I will go ahead and say Atlanta has some AMAZING restaurants. I have been Tweeting some of my favorites for a while now, but for those of you still not Tweeting or following the #asha12 hype, I thought I would post some places for you to consider while you are here. Shall we…

The #SLPeeps at ASHA 2012 – Atlanta or Bust

So what’s been happenin’ in yalls neck o’ the woods? (as we say in the South) I’ve been busy with my new part-time medical internship at the hospital where I live. Loving the hospital setting, doing modified barium swallow studies (MBSSs), and seeing clients for both in-patient and out-patient rehabilitation and assessment. But, I digress…

Before the internet or even in the early 2000s, you had to read the ASHA leader, attend conventions, or call/write/telegram an SLP or AUD friend to find out the latest news. When Twitter launched in 2006, I distinctly remember saying, ” I will never use Twitter; that is for hipsters.”

Well here I am in 2012, using Twitter, and using it daily. Don’t judge me; if anything, you should join the ranks. I mentioned in a previous post  the common practice is to Google therapy ideas to supplement Evidence Based Practice. Well in order for Google to answer these requests, there must be someone to post the answer first. Other, more experienced SLPs have begun answering questions and posting ideas for others to find, such as: @SLPTanya , @Azspeechguy , @speechtechie , @apujo5 , @Speechreka , @ActivityTailor , @mtmarySLP , and many, many more.