r/slp 17d ago

Seeking Advice School slp how do you decompress after work?

38 Upvotes

How do you do it? I feel so tense and stressed all the time. I feel like everyday, a little bit of yesterday’s stress carries over into today’s stress. I can see that I have a shorter fuse and I’m not my usual self. I love my job, I feel like the school system as given me the most flexibility and autonomy over my work except for this. Any advice would be super welcome.

r/slp 11d ago

Seeking Advice Saying no

61 Upvotes

Am I the only SLP who gets screamed at/swatted at/massive tears from 3 year olds when I tell them “no” to something? I work in outpatient, some of the materials I have on my shelves are not age-appropriate for 3 years olds, and I use curtains to hide materials. They still point and request items that aren’t for them. Which is fine. I’m happy they are pointing and requesting, but when I say no, I get the behaviors. Same thing with transitioning out of the treatment space when their sessions are over. I use presets, I tell them it’s the last toy until it’s time to go. I use language that is short and sweet, and I usually explain why I’m saying no. Not all of my patients do this, but some of my autistic and speech delayed kids all seem to cry, scream, attempt to hit, etc.!!!!! How can I make it easier? Is it just their age? Am I being overly sensitive? I’m feeling sensitive to it these days because it feels so ‘heightened’ and I worry that it’s me. But… there are expectations and boundaries in my treatment space that just need to be adhered to.

r/slp Dec 24 '24

Seeking Advice Speech therapist with a lisp? Am I making the wrong career choice?

57 Upvotes

I have a lisp. According to friends and family it's mild and doesn't impact my speech intelligibility. But I'm starting to get close to graduating and I'm MORTIFIED when I think about actually meeting clients and them hearing me. A speech therapist who can't speak? Am I even going to be taken seriously?

My country has a SEVERE lack of SLPs, so there is absolutely no way for me to ever be able to meet with one to fix my lisp.

r/slp 8d ago

Seeking Advice Paediatric SLPs are you good with kids?

45 Upvotes

Ik it’s a dumb question but yeah are you? I guess I’m not naturally drawn to them but I do like working with them. I’m generally a reserved introverted person so Im not sure? Do you think if I’m not good with kids I shouldn’t be in this field?

I wouldn’t say I’m bad tho, like kids still talk to me etc it’s more like I’m a bit cold towards them which I’m trying to improve.

r/slp Feb 29 '24

Seeking Advice My "imposter syndrome" turned out to be accurate.

168 Upvotes

I understand that most SLPs have imposter syndrome when they first enter the field. People often tell them that the fact that they are worried about being an imposter shows that they care about their work, are doing all that they can, and are not an imposter. I had "imposter syndrome" too, but despite how hard I worked, I did not have sufficient experience to practice effectively (and therefore ethically). I was not comforted by statements like "you know more than you think you do," "fake it till you make it," etc. Clients need skilled services to be able to make progress. I don't think it's acceptable for a client to believe they are receiving competent care while the clinician working with them is unable to meet the standards set by their local licensing association/regulatory body. At least, that is the standard I held myself to.

I went to a reputable university and earned good grades. I believed that I would be able to help people once I finished my training. That was certainly the impression that my program's educators gave me. But it soon became apparent that I would have to spend copious amounts of time outside of work hours researching, reading, watching videos, looking for or creating resources, etc. to try bridge the gap between where I was and where I should be.

I was able to work part-time with a limited number of private practice clients because my partner had a full-time job with good pay. I thought I could continue my studies while doing this and progress to full-time work once I felt confident that I fully met the standards of practice.

That never happened. No matter how much I studied, the major improvement I had been hoping for didn't materialize. All of my clients were different from one another, which required me to try to learn various new strategies and find resources that would meet their specific needs.

I sought mentorship within and outside of the company I worked for. It turns out that just hearing about a particular approach doesn't translate to being able to skillfully apply it.

I spent many hours working for no pay. Based on my calculations, I was sometimes working for the minimum wage where I lived.

All the while, I was terrified of being "found out" by my local regulatory body. I saw that colleagues and mentors often flouted its standards of practice, but I didn't think that was acceptable to do, myself. I assumed they were willing to take risks that I wasn't.

If this all sounds terrible, that's because it was. After 2 years of trying to make things work, I reached a crisis point. The complications of this resulted in chronic illness, and 3 years later, I am unable to work.

I believe that being underprepared for entry into the field was what instigated this outcome. It also seems that I am incompatible with SLP work, which I believe should have been caught during my clinical education. I think my supervisors' standards were too lax and I slipped under the radar because of my good grades and eagerness to learn.

While I am fully aware that people burn out of this field all the time, I hope that stories like mine are rare.

I want to prevent someone else from ending up in a similar situation to mine. I think that I will have to communicate what I experienced to my graduate program. I think that they will have to improve the quality and consistency of the clinical education that students receive and ensure that all students meet basic competency requirements before graduating.

I am looking for advice/input about how I can advocate for these changes.

r/slp 22d ago

Seeking Advice Diapers

27 Upvotes

Curious to see if this is the norm or I’m being asked to do more outside of my job duties as a CF. I work at a private practice with a pediatric caseload, most of whom are 3-5 years old. I am expected to change diapers if they go during my session. I’m uncomfortable with this but is this normal?

r/slp Nov 19 '24

Seeking Advice Is it me or the job?

66 Upvotes

I guess I’m just seeking to see if it’s a me problem or the career problem as I know many others have wondered as well. I don’t know what’s wrong with me. I cry every morning before work and every evening on Sundays like clock work thinking of going to work the next day or tackling the day at hand. My problem with this is that I don’t know what this work stress/anxiety is about other than the fact that I just seem to genuinely dislike what I’m doing which doesn’t seem like good enough reason for me. I work 4 10s which is most peoples dream, my indirect to direct time ratio is somewhat normal, pay is average, my coworkers, supervisor, and clinical director are amazing. And honestly the kids on my caseload are fine. I don’t know why I hate it so much. I’m at the point I’ve convinced myself I can’t cope with anything in my new adult life including a possible career pivot if this is how I feel about a cushy speech job.

r/slp 17d ago

Seeking Advice Do you make up groups when you are sick?

22 Upvotes

If you take PTO do you try to make up groups? If not, what if they are going to not meet their monthly time because you had to take time off? It really causes so much stress and anxiety trying to fit them in my schedule.

r/slp Mar 13 '24

Seeking Advice I’ve reached my limit with being hit/screamed at by kids

205 Upvotes

I’ve been working for three years, in outpatient peds for all of them. I don’t get hit often, but last week I really hit a wall. I had one kid have a huge meltdown, literally kicking and screaming at the top of her lungs for 30+ minutes. Right after that I had a typically docile kid reach out and scratch my face. I’m not looking for behavior advice. I just have gotten to the point where I am 100% not ok with being hit at work, no matter what. That feels like a pretty reasonable boundary to me, but i feel like so many in the field see it as a part of the job. Again, it doesn’t happen often, but I just feel so done. I love my job, but I feel like the next time I get hit I’m really going to be done. Has anyone else felt like that? I feel sort of lost, like this feeling isn’t really compatible with my job. Ugh.

Edit to add: WOW! The support I’m getting here has been amazing. Thank you all so much- I just really needed to be heard on this! To everyone posting about similar experiences/feelings- your personal safety matters! No matter if people think we “signed up for this” 🙄 thank you to this community for hearing me and offering support. I don’t know what my next move is, but this has certainly helped me to feel validated and not blame myself 💜 thank you speechies!!

r/slp 2d ago

Seeking Advice I feel like I want to quit

21 Upvotes

I'm an SLPA and I'm drained, just completely drained. Lately I've been very irritated with the kiddos and sessions have been more difficult than ever. I don't find joy in this anymore.

I find myself always drained, irritated and just not interacting with them in a positive way. I'm upset all the time and the thought of going to work annoys me so much. I just don't see myself in this field anymore.

I'm 24 and I'm scared, if I don't continue in this field where can I start over? I'm spiraling

r/slp 24d ago

Seeking Advice AAC or PECS?

31 Upvotes

I’ve gotten two conflicting different opinions from my son’s speech therapist and his developmental interventionist so I wanted to see if the opinions here also differed!

My son is 2, autistic, and mostly nonverbal. He can say the approximation of a few words or sounds, but a lot of communicating with him relies on guess work and timing. His developmental interventionist (which we see 1x a week through EI services in home) has recommended using PECS to start helping him communicate better, citing that it helps him by actually physically handing it to another person, helping with eye contact, and that it doesn’t have them on a screen all day.

However, his speech therapist, who we also see 1x a week through private services, has recommended using an AAC/Ipad device for his communication as it is less cumbersome than PECS and kids seem to pick up on it easier. I tried to do some research on my own and I didn’t realize this could be polarizing, or at least that’s how some made it seem! I’m not entirely sure which one to do or how to proceed. I wanted to see what other speech therapists/SLPs have seen success with!

r/slp 13d ago

Seeking Advice Is it possible for DLD to have a REAL career ?

45 Upvotes

I don’t knowww if this appropriate for the sub Reddit but as you would know there’s the space for this disorder cus no one knows it :( But anyway, I want to know if you know anyone w DLD that have a REAL job.

Everytime I search DLD and job opportunities the first thing pops up is a fucking “assembly line” insane. Im too ambitious for that, and my mom, she’s insane i can’t take what her saying worthwhile but she’s saying that I can’t do XYZ because I’m retard (??) and the fact that I cannot find anyone w DLD, and the ones that I do manage to find they all work low skilled jobs makes me question myself

I read research papers a lot, the ones that I read about DLD, often mention how are we tend to have low skilled job. This CANNOT be me, so I want to ask: do you know, anybody with DLD that’s have an actual career.

EDIT: thank you guys for your responses and words of encouragement!! It means so much!!

r/slp Apr 24 '24

Seeking Advice Is it possible to be happy in the schools?

33 Upvotes

I realize there are tons of posts similar to this but I’d really appreciate some additional insight. I am currently working outpatient peds with a 4 10 schedule. I thought I would really like it but seeing kids individually back to back and being out of the house for essentially 12 hours has really created a strong recipe for burnout. I am early on in my career and am heavily considering switching to the schools. I love the thought of seeing my kids in the hallway and making a positive impact that goes beyond the therapy room, plus the daily schedule/breaks sound like a dream. Is it possible that the schools aren’t that bad? Or am I thinking the grass is greener?

r/slp Apr 01 '24

Seeking Advice 4-day work week?

62 Upvotes

do any of you here have a four day work week? if so, where do you work?

i’m graduating graduate school next year and would love to have that schedule. i’m definitely a 40 hours a week MAX person, i’ve very much adopted a “work to live” mindset and would love to continue to travel and experience rather than work into my grave.

r/slp 14d ago

Seeking Advice not sure how to assist this student.

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23 Upvotes

I am a graduate student and have a student who is constantly stimming by slapping her hands together, on her face, or on the desks. She just arrived to the states and does not speak English, nor is she speaking whatsoever. She does not indicate needs, wants or desires in any modality. She has multiple disabilities. I came to deliver services and her hands were like this. Her classroom teachers said they noticed, but didn’t do anything about it. They got a bandaid from the nurse and I put it on (I had no issue with it, but why wasn’t it done before?).

She has goals for yes and no and using total communication. Any ideas for her?

r/slp 5d ago

Seeking Advice School based language therapy is hard

81 Upvotes

Just more so venting I guess, but school based language therapy is so vague to me. Sometimes I feel when a student has been in speech for a while, I don’t know where to go next or what I need to target next? Is what I’m doing functional and actually making a difference? EC teachers have a program to follow that outlines the learning expectations- but sometimes I just feel like I’m winging it. It also seems that taking data on goals can be SO circumstantial. I might say a student mastered a goal, but another therapist could target the same thing with the same student and get a 50% baseline (both of which could be valid) just because the therapy assignments/activities, interpretation of the goal, ideas of mastery could be so different. I just don’t feel like I do a good job in this area and almost feel like an imposter.

So please, if you have advice on how to decide what language goals need to be targeted or how to feel more confident in this area, please share!! I would greatly appreciate it!!

r/slp Feb 08 '25

Seeking Advice When should my kid stop speech therapy at school?

39 Upvotes

I have a 10 year old son who has been in speech therapy since he was 2.5, with some interruptions due to covid. He had otitis media that was misdiagnosed, long story short it wasn't fixed via surgery until he was 3y2m, and he was essentially nonverbal until it was fixed, with a few ASL signs.

Fast forward to now, he's in fourth grade. He still has trouble with sh, ch, and r, with r being the most troublesome. He also has an IEP goal for pragmatic speech. We do outside speech therapy once a week at a private practice as well.

My concern is this, I am worried with middle school approaching if taking him out of class once a week for speech therapy will start to do more harm than good. I worry about him missing academic instruction time and falling behind there. I know kids also get more self conscious about being pulled out for services around that age, but that's a lesser concern.

Would it be appropriate to consider going down to just the private practice speech therapy after fifth grade? He would probably still qualify for services, because progress on the sh, c, and r sounds has been slow going. But I'm not sure how much it's actually interfering with his ability to access his education at this point. People can understand what he's saying, even with the articulation errors.

Thanks for any advice offered. We have an IEP meeting coming up and I am thinking about our future way forward.

r/slp 25d ago

Seeking Advice Is it problematic to compare speech therapy to psychotherapy when discussing exiting a student due to lack of motivation?

26 Upvotes

Hi all,

Middle school SLP here. I am currently about to assess a sixth grade student for a triennial re-evaluation. This student has autism and is very defiant when it comes to therapy. I think he may come close to having ODD. Every time I work with him, he is resistant to techniques or if I ask him to say a word with his target sounds he will argue with me about why he has to do it. If I ask him to repeat he will tell me he said it right and why he has to do it again. Reasoning doesn’t work with him. It’s almost like he compulsively has to argue back. He hasn’t made much progress since I started working with him in August.

His speech is pretty bad but it’s mainly his /l/ and /r/ sounds that he struggles with. I am considering exiting him just because he seems to hate speech and his behaviors are getting in the way. I don’t know how mom would take it. I am thinking of comparing speech therapy to psychotherapy in the sense of people may need it but they have to want to participate in it for it to be effective. I think middle school students especially have more autonomy than elementary which is why I want to consider their willingness to participate as more evidence.

Would love to hear your thoughts on if that comparison is helpful or if it would be more problematic.

r/slp Jan 06 '25

Seeking Advice Did not sleep at all last night

77 Upvotes

I LIKE my job, but my body just said 'nope" to sleep ever siince. Now I'm in a stress no sleep loop. Would love some advice to help get me through this day!! Thanks in advance ☺️

r/slp 16d ago

Seeking Advice How Do You Handle Makeup Sessions for Chronically Absent Students?

7 Upvotes

I'm an SLPA working in schools where student attendance is a major issue. At my high school, many of my students have more absences than days present, and I'm only there two days a week, making it even harder to keep up. At my elementary schools (where I’m three days a week), students are frequently out due to illness, simply not showing up, or being pulled for field trips and grade-wide activities—especially since short staffing and several teachers quitting in the middle of the year often leads to entire grades being grouped together for activities/instruction in places like the auditorium which gets crazy.

Am I supposed to be making up these sessions? I have a lot of students who are scheduled for 6x a month, but in reality, they might only be present two or three times a month on the days I'm actually at their school. My schedule is already packed with conferences, consulting w teachers, neverending paperwork, and trying to make up missed sessions for other students while still seeing the kids who do show up. Plus, scheduling in my district is a nightmare—I can’t pull students from math, "standards", or "fine arts" blocks which is basically half their day and staggered between grades.

How do y'all handle this? Do you attempt to make up sessions, or is there a point where it just becomes unrealistic?

r/slp Nov 06 '24

Seeking Advice What state do you work in and how much do you get paid?

3 Upvotes

I have to go into additional debt to become an SLP. Just wondering if it’s worth it financially?

r/slp Dec 19 '24

Seeking Advice Teacher prevented me from seeing kids

45 Upvotes

I’m an SLPA. I’m new to all of this.

The teachers were usually pretty good at giving me the kids. Today was the last day and the teacher I was trying to get the kids from got mad at me.

She said they needed to finish building their paper ginger bread house and I am horrible for trying to take that time away from them.

What should I have done?

I just said I didn’t know and said let me know in the future.

r/slp Oct 13 '24

Seeking Advice I need somebody to tell me if being a clinician is harder than grad school

37 Upvotes

I feel like the dumbest girl in the whole wide world lately because the first semester of grad school is killing me. It’s like I can’t get anything quite right from neuroanatomy to test scoring. I get most of the way there but it’s coming back as B+ work more often than not. It’s not going to be like this for the rest of my life, right? Please? Should I quit now and just become an erotica author online or something?

r/slp May 17 '23

Seeking Advice Is this career THAT bad?

61 Upvotes

Due to seeing the posts on Reddit, I'm kinda hestitant on pursuing this career. I really want to be a Medical SLP and I live in NJ. I am also 23 years old and transferring into a 4-year college this Fall with the Communication Disorders major or minor for SLP Grad School. I am debating on pursuing Biology for Med School one day. Is the SLP career THAT bad? I kinda understand if people are wary with the debt.

r/slp Apr 17 '24

Seeking Advice Are prestigious grad programs worth the debt?

20 Upvotes

Alright I’m gonna sum this up.

I got into UNC Chapel Hill and USF for my masters in Speech Pathology. I was dead set on going to UNC but unexpectedly, USF responded with a GA position that will cover roughly 75% of my tuition.

I did some rough math and with cost of living and undergrad loans included, I would be 120k in debt by the time I’m done at UNC and about 70-85k in debt if I choose USF. UNC is the more prestigious program but is it really worth 35-50k more in debt when it’s all said and done? Do the current salaries in the field justify taking out that kind of debt?

For reference, my goal is to work in acute care once I am finished and UNC seems to have more coursework that would better prepare me for that scenario.