Tag Archives: Speech and language pathology

Looking for inspiration

26 Jan

IEP season

God I love memes. This one is pretty spectacular – and also pretty representative of my thoughts toward work right now! I feel like every day there is a new meeting scheduled, which means writing new goals/objectives, current performance, and evaluation reports, i.e. plenty of quality time with snacks in front of my laptop. For those of you who know what I’m talking about, let’s commiserate, and for those who don’t – IEP stands for Individualized Education Plan and is a legal contract that outlines the educational goals, objectives, and accommodations that the school district must provide for any student accessing special education services. Each IEP is reviewed annually to address progress toward objectives and development of future skills.  This is a very simplistic explanation, but if you want more information you can check it out on the National Center for Learning Disabilities’ website. Since all of the students I see for speech therapy have an IEP, that means I go through this process about 17 times per year. Sometimes the meetings are spread out nicely, and other times, like now, they all seem to get scheduled at the same time, which forces me to become hyperfocused on work and basically socially impaired.

So, with all of the work stuff going on right now, I’ve again fallen into a rut of not working out like I want to be. I decided to take a short break from running after the Disney World Marathon and focus on strength training, which I’ve done a grand total of 2 times. I guess it’s alright, but lately I’ve been feeling really lazy about my training. During the fall, I ran 3 marathons with some pretty disappointing times, which was no fault but my own. My “training” regimen consisted of running one long during the weekend and on a good week, maybe another 5 mile run during the week. Such low mileage does not a fast runner make. After my unpleasant experience at the Philly Marathon , I told myself I would train harder for Disney and really give it my all. But I didn’t – I blamed my lack of training on the cold Boston weather (as if that was something new to deal with) and let my laziness take over AGAIN. With just running once or twice a week to prepare, I’m lucky I didn’t seriously injure myself during any of my recent races.

Anyway, enough with being a Nanc’ – I need inspiration. And I need it BAD. I’ve been reading lots of other running blogs lately, which has left me feeling like a lazy a-hole – so I’m thinking maybe this will give me the push I need?:

where did this even come from?!?!

where did this even come from?!?!

Okay, this did not actually inspire me to get my booty out the door, but it did make me ROLL with laughter. Does anyone else watch Dance Moms? This is rich.

Since I’ve been trying to workout at the gym lately, I figured buying some cute new workout clothes would be a good idea. I went to Old Navy & the Gap Outlet and actually nabbed a few good finds:

Old Navy Active/ Gap Body.jpg

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Oh Lawd – sorry for how disgustingly dirty this mirror apparently is (add that to the Saturday to-do list). You can tell I usually get dressed in the dark.

The Striped Bubble Active Tank is from Old Navy - I got it in Lotus Orange Neon & Black for $16 each. I HATE tight shirts and anything sticking to my mid section, so I really appreciate the lose but flattering design of this top. It’s also made with moisture-wicking fabric so if I ever decide to sweat again, I’ll be ready.

The bottoms are GapFit gFast capris which I got on sale for $20.99. I also bought them in a darkish purple color. They’re awesome because they have a wide waistband that sucks in all the junk and prevents any muffin-top business that could happen. There’s also a little pocket in the back for energy gels or a credit card. They’re also moisture-wicking.

Unrelated, but important, is that I need to stop drying my sports bras. After I wash and dry them, putting them on is like binding myself to pretend I’m a dude. I won’t even show you a back shot of this outfit because I know you’ll all be really jealous of how big my back boobs are. Sorry.

Tomorrow I’m getting new running shoes, which always motivates me to workout, especially when they’re cute. After a really unfortunate incident at the Disney race (I’ll explain later), I had to throw out my good pair of shoes and switch to an old pair that I have hated since I bought them. They’re the Brooks Ghost 4, and they’re way too wide for my feet. They also look like orthopedic shoes and are not even slightly exciting to wear. I usually buy Brooks shoes, but I’m thinking tomorrow I might try something totally different and go with some Mizuno’s. We’ll see.

Since I’m already dressed for the gym, I’m going to get my butt moving for a NROLFW workout, then come back and watch Nashville all night while trying to write an evaluation report for one of my students. #winning

What do you do to motivate yourself to workout?

What brand of shoes do you wear?

Do you dry your workout clothes?

Why is Kim Kardashian pregnant?

 

Disney World Marathon Training Update & Speechie Gift Guide!!

19 Dec

So, the past week of training has looked like this:

Wednesday: 4 miles

Tuesday: 4 miles

Total miles: 8

That’s right, folks, 8 miles – does this seem like the weekly mileage of someone running a marathon in 4 weeks?!?! Holy cow I’m in trouble. My 4 miles last night was ROUGH. I know it had been almost a week since my last run, but really, it was bad. Every part of my body felt heavy and I had a lot of trouble breathing the cold air. With all the crap I’ve been eating lately, though, I can’t say I’m surprised. Starting tomorrow, however, I will be on Christmas vacation for a solid 2 weeks and will have absolutely no excuses for not running and stuffing my face with junk. With the Disney World Marathon coming up so soon, I really can’t afford to continue down this extremely lackluster training plan!

Speaking of Christmas….there are only 5 more shopping days until the big day! I love buying presents for people, though I have to admit occasionally I’m at a loss for what to get. For that reason, I’ve created a Speechie Gift Guide for those of you who are wondering what to get your speechie friends or coworkers – we’re a bit of an odd breed and I can see how that might make shopping difficult!

Image

In order, from left to right top to bottom:

  1. iPad mini ($329): The iPad revolution has completely changed the way speech pathologists do their jobs, no matter what population they’re working with. The iPad mini is a bit cheaper than a regular iPad and even more portable, with access to camera, FaceTime, and most importantly – the thousands of apps that can be used for planning and implementing therapy!
  2. Scotch Thermal Laminator ($29): From diet charts to topic boards, there are literally endless amounts of papers that we speech therapists need to stand the test of time. I often find myself staying late at work just to laminate pages of communication books, therapy materials, and charts. I should probably bite the bullet and get my own for this price!
  3. Rubbermaid Bento Boxes ($6.99 – $33.99): Speech pathologists have a ton of stuff that needs to be organized – therapy materials, research/sources, client files, etc. What better way to do it than with these cute patterned boxes? They’re also really durable, which is good if you need to carry them around with you from session to session.
  4. SLP stickers ($4.25): Put it on your car, water bottle, or laptop and show the world your SLP pride!
  5. I <3 My SLP t-shirt ($22.99): Clearly, it wouldn’t make sense for me to wear this shirt, but I really wish Derek would! A nice gift for parents or spouse of an SLP.
  6. Boardmaker water bottle ($3.49): I love this! SLPs use Boardmaker for a variety of reasons across settings – how cute is it that every day objects are labeled with the symbols, too?!?! The Mayer-Johnson website has a lot more Boardmaker gear items, including note pads, coffee mugs, and lunch bags.
  7. Books: I love reading books about speech and language -related subjects. Here are some of my favorites: My Stroke of Insight; The Diving Bell and the ButterflySchuyler’s MonsterStill AliceI Raise My Eyes to Say Yes; Bloom
  8.  App Store gift card: If you’re buying for someone who already has an iPad, an App gift card to buy apps is great because chances are, she/he has been wanting some apps but hasn’t bought them. New apps come out every day, and there are always more waiting to be explored!
  9. KiwiCrate ($59/3 month subscription): This subscription gives you a new, kid-friendly craft project delivered to your doorstep each month. Especially great for a speechie who works with kids!

I’m sure any speechie would be happy with any of these gifts. If you’re looking for gifts for runners, Meghann at MealsandMiles has put together a really nice Holiday Gift Guide for Runners with plenty of items that would definitely be on my list.

I’m all finished with my shopping, and I’ll be heading to the post office tomorrow to send off some packages! Are you a last minute shopper or do you like to get all of your gifts early?

 

 

Popsicle me and Therapy Tuesday

27 Nov

So remember when I said I was going to get up early and run this morning? And how excited I was to run in daylight? Yeah, it didn’t happen. I woke up this morning and felt like a lazy log – I just couldn’t motivate myself to get out of bed and dive into the cold this morning. So instead, I brought my gear with me and ran right after work. Unfortunately, the weather conditions weren’t great tonight:

what happened to fall?!

I don’t mind running in the cold, and actually, I find it kind of energizing. But the combination of rain and cold is a bit uncomfortable. I pushed through it though and ran a solid 3 miles around campus at a pretty decent clip. I admit, I was happy to be finished 25 minutes later. I sometimes have trouble breathing when it’s really cold outside, and of course I had forgotten my inhaler at home, so I was breathing pretty shallowly the entire time. Not a great feeling! Other than that, it felt good to get out and run again.

feeling like a popsicle version of myself

In other news, it’s THERAPY TUESDAY!!! Why not Therapy Thursday, you ask? Because Thursdays are Thankful, that’s why. You’ll see what I mean this Thursday. Anyway, back to Therapy Tuesday – because I’m a speech-language pathologist and very passionate about what I do, each Tuesday I’ll be posting a new therapy technique, strategy, or activity to share with my readers. Since I work with very medically, physically, and communicatively complex children, I use a lot of augmentative communication and technology supports in my sessions in addition to sign language and speech. Many of my students also have feeding and/or swallowing disorders, so you may see some ideas about this type of treatment as well.

Today’s therapy activity is inspired by a post I saw by Jenna Rayburn on SpeechRoomNews. Have you heard of the Elf on the Shelf? Well, today our speech room welcomed our very own Elf, who came all the way from the North Pole to stay with us until Christmas:

“hanging out” in the speech room

The premise of the Elf on the Shelf is that the elf comes all the way from the North Pole to watch the kids to make sure they’re being good so he can report back to Santa on Christmas Eve. Parents make it a tradition, and every day before Christmas the elf can be found in a different spot in the house as if he came alive during the night. Careful though – kids can’t touch the elf or he will lose his magic. Some people get really creative about it and have the elf doing loads of crazy stuff, like taking a bath in marshmallows or fishing in the bathroom sink:

Pretty cute, right? I thought it would be a perfect activity to help my students expand their expressive language skills. Since most of my kiddos don’t use speech to communicate, here are some boards I created to go along with our elf:

for kiddos working on expanding length of utterance, prepositions, combining words/symbols

I created this topic board using Boardmaker software. Notice how I embedded an image of the elf into the symbols for each preposition – this could be used for kids whose use of prepositions is still emerging and thus could use an added visual cue for context. The use of topic boards is helpful in an activity like this because all of the vocabulary is right on one page for the kids to see and use.

Here’s another topic board:

This topic display was created using Proloquo2Go on the iPad. This is an idea for a more advanced student who is also working on prepositions, expanding length of utterance, and broadening his/her use of vocabulary. All of the language is again on one page, so it can easily be modeled by the therapist and accessed by the student. You could use this same display as a topic board like the one I included above by simply taking a screenshot on the iPad (hold down the home button in the bottom center and the sleep button at the top right), saving it as a photo in your photo album, then emailing it to yourself and printing it. Easy peezy!

I have lots of plans for our elf for the next month. Pinterest is loaded with fun ideas, and I plan to carry out at least a few of them. Let’s just say this idea is more for my enjoyment than the kids’!

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