School is almost here! Do you know a child who might benefit from speech therapy resources or maybe you are wondering what Speech Therapy means.
Sangeetha Subramanian is a Speech Language Pathologist based out of Plano, Texas. I have seen the impact accessing the right resources can have on a child's life and on their overall development. The earlier you can access the needed resources, the earlier you can see the impact.
We'll be diving into the world of speech therapy and exploring how it can make a profound difference in people's lives. This episode is all about empowering ourselves and our loved ones with effective communication skills. Let's get started with "Speech Therapist-Sangeetha"
Sangeetha Subramanian is an experienced speech therapist who specializes in helping children overcome language and speech difficulties. With a deep understanding of developmental norms, Sangeetha recognizes the importance of early intervention and works closely with students, schools to identify and address any delays in children's language development. With her guidance, children are able to meet their language milestones and communicate effectively. At the school level, Sangeetha focuses on three key aspects of language therapy. Firstly, she helps children improve their speech production, assisting them in developing sounds they may struggle with, such as the 'r' sound. Secondly, she supports children who stutter, helping them build fluency and confidence in their speech. Lastly, Sangeetha works with children who have language issues, aiding them in understanding and expressing language effectively. Moreover, Sangeetha also emphasizes the importance of social skills, particularly for children on the autism spectrum. With her expertise in pragmatics, she assists these children in adjusting socially and thriving in school settings. Having worked in both elementary and middle schools, Sangeetha brings a wealth of experience to her role. Her dedication to helping children overcome speech and language challenges has positively impacted numerous lives, and she continues to make a significant difference in the lives of her students.
Guest:
Sangeetha: You can contact Sangeetha at sangkris72@gmail.com
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I'm a former tech executive, a podcast host and an entrepreneur. I work with Universities on Organizations to transition students to the corporate world and building successful leadership pipelines ensuring a healthy financial future.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Sirisha (01:14):
Hello everyone, it is a gorgeous Thursday.
Hello everyone.
It is a gorgeous Thursday.
It's pretty hot outside.
It's almost back to schoolseason.
Can you imagine July is gettingdone and school's gonna start
soon.
And for many of you who may havekids entering elementary school,
middle school, high school, weactually have a special guest.
(01:36):
Today we are going to talk aboutstudent success and getting
students ready, and one of theresources that's available
through the school is speechtherapy.
And to enable students, likepeople who might be less than
five, they have resourcesthrough cities and stuff and
also through school.
So you are tuned into live beatswith Suresha on Radio Caravan
(01:59):
104.
1 FM, 700 AM.
Thank you for joining us today.
I am a former tech executive andentrepreneur and a podcast host.
I host the podcast, Women,Career and Life.
It's spelled W O M E N C A R E RN L I F E.
(02:19):
You can check it out on any ofyour favorite podcast platforms.
It has career and financialstories and practical advice.
And it's a top 30% Spotifypodcast.
So welcome for thank you forjoining us.
I will open up the phone linesas well.
I have Sangeeta Subramanian withus today.
She's a speech therapist, acertified speech therapist.
(02:40):
She's had her own privatepractice in the past and she
actually works with the schooldistrict.
as well here.
And she's got a lot of extensiveexperience working with
students.
So I do want to have aconversation with her about,
what is her role, what is speechtherapy, and what school
resources are there.
But I do want to give the studionumber in case you are wondering
or looking for someone from anexpert advice.
(03:02):
That's why we are here to helpyou find those resources.
So definitely call in.
The number is 214 817 3333.
The number again is 214 8173333.
Sangeetha, thank you for beinghere.
It's wonderful that you're ableto share, your knowledge and
information with people so thatthey can see what's available
Sangeetha (03:22):
to them.
Thank you, Sirisha, for havingme over.
Whatever I know, I'm willing topass on that information.
If anybody has any questions,please call in and I'll answer
it to the best I can,
Sirisha (03:31):
yeah, absolutely.
And first of all, give us anidea.
When you say speech therapy,what do we mean by that?
And what does it mean indifferent age groups?
Yeah.
Sangeetha (03:40):
So there are certain developmental norms that the
Children have to go through atcertain stages in their life,
like zero to one.
They begin to babble by one.
They reach their first say firstfew words and between one to
two.
They start putting wordstogether to form two phrases and
(04:00):
they start talking to more thantwo phrases.
They start talking sentences.
And then from two on up to four,their language just explodes.
They're asking questions they'rebeing stubborn.
They, they start using more andmore language.
They have words for pretty mucheverything that they want to
express.
And then by five, they'rethey're asking, they're reading
stories, they're comprehendingstories, they're able to give
(04:23):
you summary of the stories.
So when.
Children don't fall into.
There are kids obviously thatdevelop late.
There are certain kids don'tnecessarily meet.
All the kids don't necessarilyfall in the spectrum.
But on a general note, by fivekids are talking like many
adults.
So if your kid does not wherethey need to be.
(04:43):
You may want to bring it up withthe pediatrician and might be a
referral to speech therapist.
It might just, they need thatlittle bit of nudge, which we
can give them a guess and helpthem meet their milestones.
And then when they start schoolin elementary school so when
they come to school level, thereare three different aspects of
language that we work on.
So one is the speech itself,where kids have trouble either
(05:05):
producing certain sounds likethey have trouble like the are
sounds, for instance, come muchlater.
So we work on kids developingthat are sound and then that's
articulation.
And then we have fluency kidswhere they sometimes kids have a
stutter and then we help themovercome.
their stutter and talk as fluentas they would want to be.
(05:27):
And then we also have kids thathave language issues where they
have trouble understanding andexpressing language.
We work on things like that.
And we also have pragmatics.
We work on the social skills, alot of kids on the spectrum.
We help them in a school settingadjust socially.
So that's a lot of stuff that wework on.
So we speech therapists areemployed on either in primary
(05:48):
school, elementary school,middle school or in high school.
And so I work in the middleschool.
I've done elementary school andnow I'm working
Sirisha (05:54):
in the middle school.
From what you are saying, thereare so many intersection points,
right?
We all, obviously we tend towhen we have kids compare them
with other kids we see, but eachkid develops with their thing.
And I remember when I fill theseforms every time, especially
when you have any youngchildren, the, when you have a
young children, the doctor fixit, fill this words, how many
words do they speak?
How many distinguishing soundsdo they have?
(06:15):
So for someone who might bewondering if, it helps early
intervention helps, I've seenwith my own friends where early
intervention really bringsthings.
and resolves any challenges theymight be facing much quicker.
By the way, the phone lines areopen.
As Sangeeta already mentioned,if you're wondering from school
standpoint, or even if ofsomeone or you're looking for
(06:36):
resources, don't forget to callthe studio number 214 817 3333.
So you describe a whole gamut ofit, but how does someone
identify like when, from aschool standpoint, maybe the
parents don't realize, right?
We may not all know what we'relooking for.
What is it that when you have akid entering school, what is the
(06:57):
intersection points thatintervention happens and how
does The resource like whatwould you actually work with
them because it looks like it'snot just speech.
It's socialization because Ithink this is something we may
not realize, right?
And this happens.
The other end of the spectrumwhen people are older and they
lose their hearing, it actuallyimpacts their social behavior a
lot because they can't hear.
So you can't communicate.
And that's such a sometimes thatcan be a thing if you're, if
(07:20):
it's something that can helpover bridge over that challenge
Sangeetha (07:23):
that you're facing.
So true.
So for instance, we have Justlike we're talking about a
physical disability when the kidis not able to see what are
here, what the teacher issaying, he may not necessarily
come out and tell the teacher Ican't hear you, but you can see
it in so many different ways.
He's going to act out.
He's going to fail in classes.
He's just not going to producework.
(07:43):
So kids are not necessarilyexpressive about how they feel
like something we, when kid hasis on the spectrum is we have
child who's probably on thespectrum and his has autism.
He's not going to come and tellyou I have autism.
Something is wrong with me, butyou can tell by their different
behaviors.
You can see when the playgroundand the kids are out playing
during recess.
There's this one child who's, byplaying by himself, not making
(08:06):
eye contact, not having aretalking a lot about something
and not necessarily relating towhat the others are talking
about.
So the teachers have, if they'rea really seasoned teacher, most
teachers are able to pick up onthese cues and they would bring
it to your attention and say,something is not right.
We feel like because they usedto so many kids, they've seen so
many kids and they would bringit to the parents attention
(08:26):
saying, this is something thatyou're concerned about.
This is also something that yousee, we're concerned and would
you like to do something aboutit?
So then.
You contact the counselor.
The counselor will bring it upwith the other teachers.
Asked all the teachers if thisis something that they see in
the procedure.
The parent has taken consent.
We test and then we see ifthere's a problem.
So again, keep in mind this isnot a medical diagnosis.
(08:46):
If they do to identify that thekid is on the spectrum, it's not
a medical diagnosis.
We don't have a doctor comingthere to certify that this kid
is autistic or not.
But it is a educationaldiagnosis, a school based
diagnosis.
So Based on what we see, the kidhas the child has a problem
functioning in the schoolwithout these accommodations or
modifications.
(09:07):
So if you provide these extraaccommodations or modifications,
the child will be better able toperform in a school setting.
So it's definitely aneducational diagnosis, not a
Sirisha (09:15):
medical diagnosis.
And I think from what you said,I, when you have kids in
elementary school, especiallyyou have so many parent teacher
meetings, so many interventionpoint because a lot of these are
probably.
elementary school times when theearly intervention happens,
usually captured them.
So it's very important to go tothose parent teacher meetings,
interact with those teachers.
(09:36):
It's a little bit, actually, Ican tell you sometimes it's a
bit intimidating to go to thoseparent teacher meetings as a
parent.
I used to be scared to go meetsome of the teachers also.
And getting that information isimportant.
And how do you communicate withthem?
Because oftentimes when we allcome, I'm a first generation
immigrant, as are you.
We don't have access toresources.
(09:56):
We don't have settings around usbecause often our friends are in
the same batch or same year, sothey don't have more experience
than us.
So where do you reach out?
So one of the things here isthat's why we're having this
conversation, but.
Lean into your school resources.
See if they have societies orcommunities that will help you
support because even if theschool does give you a
diagnosis, it is only a singulardiagnosis.
(10:18):
As she said, it's not a doctor'sthing, but you will need a
community to lean into so thatyou feel you have parents.
to support you to understandwhere you're going through.
I think that's the hardest partas a parent is it is.
I tell my kids this not the bestthing to tell them that I'm on
the job training when I'mparenting because I have no
experience with it.
We all learn as we go.
So trying to figure out where wecan find that support, like
(10:40):
having conversations with yourfriends and being as open as you
can, as comfortable as you are.
So when these kids are things,maybe you can walk us through
some stories to give us someideas and some examples of how
maybe some Children you've seenwhere you know they were
diagnosed on what kind of helpthem move forward because that
(11:01):
way I think gives us thepositive impact from the other
side, right?
We're talking about how to getdiagnosed so that you can help.
But what does the outlook looklike on the other side?
Sangeetha (11:13):
I think since you brought up an important point,
which I want to reiterate Don'tbe afraid.
Don't be embarrassed.
I think that's in the SouthAsian community, we believe we
should all be perfect.
That's a myth that doesn'texist.
We want our kids to be perfect.
We want to keep them in abubble, but we don't let
anything touch them.
We feel like we protect them asmuch as we can, which is all
agreed and accepted.
But I think it's important torealize there is no such thing
(11:35):
as normal.
If there's a problem, just likeI was saying, if you're not able
to see you wear glasses and ifyou're not able to hear you had
a hearing aid, the same thing.
The kid needs help, reach outand try to find the help that
you can to help the kid get towhere they need to be, reach
their potential.
I guess that's important to keepthem happy to keep them
functioning in the school.
(11:55):
Because if the more we delaygetting them the help that they
need, the harder it is as theyget, I think elementary is still
okay.
The demands of academic demandsare not as high, but it's as
they get to middle school, itgets harder.
And then you can imagine in highschool, it's harder.
And if we So I've had kids thathave for whatever reason fallen
(12:15):
through the gaps, but I havekids in high school who still
cannot read.
They're still trying to putsyllables together and trying to
read, which is sad as a teacherto see, that we failed that kid
in some form that we couldn'tget them to where we would have
liked to have them.
If I'm sending this kid tocollege and I feel like What
have we done?
How have we prepared this kid?
That's the ultimate goal, right?
(12:35):
We want to prepare our child forcollege.
And I feel like I have not donemy part in getting this kid
ready
Sirisha (12:40):
for college.
Yeah, that must be very, I don'tknow what to say, heart rending,
right?
Because the research shows thatby third grade kids have to meet
math and reading requirements,because I think that sort of is
a sort of qualifier for are theyable to keep up that's one
singular metric that everyoneuses.
So it's important to get themthere.
I had a friend.
I remember it was, second childwas not talking as quickly.
(13:04):
Kids talk at different rates.
Even my own kids talked atdifferent rates, but she
realized that she wasstruggling.
So she used even schools.
If you have kids who are not inelementary school, they have
those
Sangeetha (13:14):
programs.
They do have preschool wherethey provide.
Yeah.
And they also have earlyintervention where you can take
them to the center and get extraspeech therapy.
So those are all options.
And a lot of them are subsidizedcosts or even free of cost.
Yeah.
depending on your particularcircumstance.
So I don't want parents to getthrown up.
Gosh, it's going to be expensiveand insurance is not going to
pay.
It's not always that expensive.
(13:34):
So if you look into it, thereare always ways that you can
figure out ways to make ithappen.
Yeah,
Sirisha (13:39):
so yeah, exactly.
And so she used, I think it'sECIL or something like that.
And she used it and I've seenthat kid, almost, she's 10 or 15
now and it's, you can't tell anydifference, but that early
intervention really helps.
And I think.
That's a lot of thing, right?
The sort of a caution, a lack ofcomfort, a lack of knowledge.
Sometimes, as we said, we wantperfection and sort of the
(14:01):
stigma around it.
So taking away all of that, wereally want people to feel
comfortable, confident to askfor these resources.
It is your right to ask for themactually.
That is why you go to theseschool districts, you pay the
taxes for them, you have accessto this.
It is your privilege and yourright to use them and talk to
the schools.
(14:21):
If like she said, insurance orcost becomes, they will be able
to give you options andalternatives.
And even for those people whohave Resources through their
corporations.
I, it's not around speechtherapy, but they have employee
assistance programs that provideyou other kind of resources for
stress, mental health andthings.
So all of this comes, resourcesare available.
So reach out to your schooldistrict, see if there's a
(14:43):
speech therapist in there, orwe, I know we are talking about.
Speech therapy.
We were actually going to haveanother colleague join us who
does works on school resources,which is for kids who are
struggling with developmentalchallenges.
Some of that Zita touched on whocan also get access, right?
There's, these are teachers whowork with these students to see
get them streamlined into themainstream school, but also who
(15:06):
are stepped out for additionalresources they need, additional
help they might need.
So the phone lines are open.
You're listening to live feedswith Sirisha on Radio Caravan.
You can check out and join me onLinkedIn.
Search for Sirisha Kuchimanchi.
It's spelled S I R I S H A K U CH I M A N C H I.
Note this is a show where wewant to bring experts and others
(15:29):
who have experiences on variousthings.
To share the information so thatwe don't have to go and search
on Google.
Google has so much that I can'tcurate through it.
So this is a way for us to bringthese experts to you.
And we want you to, really takeand use that access easily.
So call the phone lines 214 8173333.
And you can ask Sangeethaquestions as well.
(15:51):
So you were talking aboutelementary or middle or high.
What are some of the otherthings that you were talking
about, stuttering and stuff andwhen Biden got elected, that
kind of put a spotlight on it.
And actually there's this lady Iknow who does a podcast Maya
Kaon stuttering.
It's called Proud Stutter.
And there's a lot of visibilityaround that.
And how do you work with this?
(16:13):
Because one of them is, you'retalking about the developmental
things, but I think it's asocial thing, right?
Let's be clear.
If you have kids in school, yourealize how hard the
socialization is.
I think for me, when I came tothe States, socialization in
India, at least when I was inschool, is very different from
the U.
S.
I, I joke with my Americancolleagues saying, in India, at
(16:34):
least when I was there, geekswere the top while in the U.
S.
it's the flip of it.
So it's hard to acclimate andmiddle school is a just
stressful environment.
It is this boiling cauldron ofhormones and societal
hierarchies.
So you need to figure out a wayand I mean you can only
intersect with your child withso much.
You can't protect them but whatcan you do as much as you can
(16:57):
do.
Sangeetha (16:58):
So I think at least at elementary school I think
it's The academic pressures arenot that high, but middle school
level, a lot of the kids, theacademic pressure are so high
for the kids, not necessarilyrecess, but just the electives
that they have, whether it's PEor band or music.
Those are the classes that theylook forward to at even lunch
(17:19):
because It's free and you don'thave to worry about who's
teaching or they don't have tofocus or they don't have to pay
attention.
A lot of middle school is aboutsocializing, meeting friends,
hanging with them.
When a kid is not getting thebenefit of that, if you're like,
kids sitting in the lunchroomand they're away from the crowd,
sitting on their phones, youwant to find out why, you want
(17:40):
to find out why, what is itabout school that's not giving
them the pleasure?
So much more than just theacademic work, especially in
middle school.
I know in high school, when theyget to high school, the
challenges are higher.
They have to be so focused onwhat they do, but middle school
is when they get to enjoy.
Actually being in school.
And then you so when you see akid sitting alone, the teachers
are always walking around in thelunchroom.
(18:01):
I always keep telling myteachers, go find out, why is it
this kid is sitting by himself?
Why is he on the phone?
Why is he not talking?
So even with stuttering, we'vecome such a long way because the
focus used to be before that wehave to fix the starter.
But now we've moved past that.
Our focus is to get them to beas fluent as they want to be
like it's how comfortable areyou with the speech?
In fact, we teach voluntarystuttering.
What does that feel like you?
(18:22):
Are you comfortable with yourstutter?
How do you feel?
What situations just make itworse?
So we want to modify theenvironment or in a way that
they feel comfortable speakingthe way they are not trying to
because it's a myth now that wefeel like getting rid of the
stutter.
That's not something that wework on.
So we work on Try to see howcomfortable he feels with his
speech,
Sirisha (18:41):
his or her speech.
And it sounds very much like howwe have changed as a society and
in the mindset, right?
It was always what sort of justas a personality, all of us
fixing our weaknesses and notfocusing on our strengths.
I think it's not so much to fixyour weaknesses that, or your
challenges.
It's there, you try to cope withthem, but really leading into
your strengths.
So what you're saying is.
If I stutter or I have someother speech challenge, it's
(19:03):
leaning into the fact that howdo I utilize my strength in that
to communicate and we've allworked with people who had
friends, colleagues, who havedifferent challenges and speech
and but they're brilliantpeople.
It has nothing to do withanything else about them.
So it's separating these piecesoff.
the person is and making themfeel comfortable.
(19:26):
I think also we tend to lean insomewhat to accommodate too
much, which makes them again,feel incredibly uncomfortable.
So it's this very fine line thatmost of us are trying to walk
when we meet someone, you know,or when we may be different from
someone else.
I think that's
Sangeetha (19:41):
an important part of the schools have this great
system of hearing, of havingbuddies.
They have pure buddies who, theyteam them up with a kid.
doing well and has someawareness of what disability
feels like.
So they pair them up.
This kid goes with this kid orsits with the kid in the
classroom.
If the kid is not able tounderstand something, helps him
out.
Especially when we have kids whospeak a different language,
(20:01):
bilingual kids.
We have so many of them.
So if they pair them up, the kiddoesn't feel like I'm the only
one who's going through this.
They have this friend.
They can ask, if it's theteacher said like 101 things.
He has this kid telling him,okay, I can break it down for
you.
This is what she said.
First, this is what she said.
Second, which is so helpful.
Just the peer buddy system issuch a great thing for kids to
have.
And kids with severedisabilities, they stay in, in
(20:23):
one classroom all through theday.
So seeing somebody who's likecompletely neutral and whom they
can have fun with is just greatfor those kids.
And they really enjoy the timethat they spend
Sirisha (20:32):
with their peer buddies.
Yeah.
And you actually brought up anexcellent point because a lot of
people who are listening hereare bilingual, trilingual, speak
many languages.
Your kid may be speakingsomething else at home.
Going to school and, English maynot be their first language.
So there's ESL resources.
There's so many other resources.
Obviously, being multilingual isa huge trend.
You can think differently.
You can communicate in so manyways.
(20:53):
So you want to encourage that,but how do we get kids to lean
into it?
Because I'm sure when...
Especially if you came when thekids were in elementary or
middle or high school, right?
There's, these are intersectionpoints that are already hard to
enter into a school system.
There are all these socialsystems set up and stuff, how
kids interact.
So how do you get your kidcomfortable, communicating?
It's the style, the linguistics,the accents, there's so much
(21:17):
that's different.
So how do you get them?
So Though we're talking aboutspeech therapy, don't forget
that there are resources, lotsof resources in schools.
Go and ask the counselors, goand talk to the main officers,
go and talk to your friends.
If you have you can reach out,Sangeeta, why don't you share
your information?
And I also wanted to mentionthat since this show is about
talking about different things,don't forget to send your ideas,
(21:40):
feedback, thoughts that youhave.
You can ping me at women careerand life on Instagram or a
Gmail.
W.
M.
E.
N.
C.
A.
R.
E.
R.
A.
N.
D.
L.
I.
F.
E.
So that we can talk about this.
And if you have more questions,we'll try if you have questions
for Sangeeta that you haven'tgot a chance or any of the shows
you've listened to.
Maybe we'll just do a Q& Asession and answer those
(22:00):
questions, record them, andbring them back for you so that
you can hear them.
Sangeetha, if you want to sharehow people, if you're working
with them or other resources,maybe they can reach out.
Sangeetha (22:11):
I think as Sirisha said, school is your primary
point and the beginning, I knowthe counselors will take over.
You just have to let yourcounselor know and she'll...
To take it from there, but Idon't think it can, if you have
a kid who has been diagnosedwith anything and they're on,
they're receiving therapies,they're receiving
accommodations, it's importantto stay on top of it.
'cause the school is trying.
We are all trying.
(22:31):
I know that we try our hardestto get the kid whatever he needs
and help him be more successful.
But sometimes it gets overlookedand it's always good.
And when you attend the annualmeetings, ask the teachers, is
this enough?
Do we think we need to do more?
Is there, do you think anotheraccommodation will help?
Stay on top of it.
Read your.
Read your T.
A.
Is that the teacher, theeducation portal.
So that has listing ofeverything.
If the kid has a certaindisorder, what are all the
(22:53):
accommodations?
Sirisha (22:54):
And actually, I don't want to interrupt.
What is an accommodation?
Because first of all, I don'tknow what an accommodation is.
For instance,
Sangeetha (22:59):
even something really simple, like a kid who's maybe
distracted or he's, not able tofocus at the back, just having
him sit in the front of theclassroom.
That's an accommodation.
So you make an accommodation inthe classroom.
He sits in front of the teacherand another accommodation could
be the teacher repeatinstructions.
So I'll make sure that teacherchecks for understanding.
So those are all small things,but it makes such a difference
(23:19):
in how the kid processes whatthe child, each student is
really trying to say.
Okay.
And some can be modificationswhere the curriculum itself is
modified to suit this kid mightbe in the form of.
The test itself is simpler, sothat is an, it's an
accommodation.
It's a modification that thereare accommodations that you make
and make
Sirisha (23:34):
in the classroom as well.
And I know accommodations aregiven for various things
physical, mental health, a lotof different things.
So schools have all theseresources.
We have just a little over aminute for anyone who wants to
call in and ask a question ofSangeetha 214 817 3333.
You're listening to Live Beatswith Sirisha.
And we just wanted to see if youhad any questions, next week, we
(23:58):
come back at two o'clock to talkabout something else, but just
to wrap up anything we haven'ttouched on in the last minute
that people might want toremember, that's the head of the
school schools, one of threeweeks away, two weeks away for
most
Sangeetha (24:09):
folks.
Yeah, not, don't get paranoid.
Don't get anxious.
Like I said, there's no, noconcept of being perfect.
All we need to do is help ourchild be as successful and as
happy as it can.
We're not looking to createEinstein's out of them.
wherever they are, whateverenvironment they are, be happy
and just thrive in theirenvironment.
They are.
That's really what we want forour kids.
And if there's a problem, reachout to the school and try to
(24:31):
help them as much as we canafter the I know they'll reach a
certain point where they don'tneed our help anymore.
So till he reached that point,stay on top of it and make sure
you get the child whatever helpthey need to be as successful
and thrive in their
Sirisha (24:43):
environment.
And I think that's a great wayto end the show.
We are 8 billion unique people,so we have to remember that's
what makes us who we are.
Don't forget to reach out Women,Career and Life, or you can
check me out on LinkedIn,Sirisha Kuchimanchi.
Thank you.
Hello everyone, it is a gorgeous Thursday.
Hello everyone.
It is a gorgeous Thursday.
It's pretty hot outside.
It's almost back to schoolseason.
Can you imagine July is gettingdone and school's gonna start
soon.
And for many of you who may havekids entering elementary school,
middle school, high school, weactually have a special guest.
(01:36):
Today we are going to talk aboutstudent success and getting
students ready, and one of theresources that's available
through the school is speechtherapy.
And to enable students, likepeople who might be less than
five, they have resourcesthrough cities and stuff and
also through school.
So you are tuned into live beatswith Suresha on Radio Caravan
(01:59):
104.
1 FM, 700 AM.
Thank you for joining us today.
I am a former tech executive andentrepreneur and a podcast host.
I host the podcast, Women,Career and Life.
It's spelled W O M E N C A R E RN L I F E.
(02:19):
You can check it out on any ofyour favorite podcast platforms.
It has career and financialstories and practical advice.
And it's a top 30% Spotifypodcast.
So welcome for thank you forjoining us.
I will open up the phone linesas well.
I have Sangeeta Subramanian withus today.
She's a speech therapist, acertified speech therapist.
(02:40):
She's had her own privatepractice in the past and she
actually works with the schooldistrict.
as well here.
And she's got a lot of extensiveexperience working with
students.
So I do want to have aconversation with her about,
what is her role, what is speechtherapy, and what school
resources are there.
But I do want to give the studionumber in case you are wondering
or looking for someone from anexpert advice.
(03:02):
That's why we are here to helpyou find those resources.
So definitely call in.
The number is 214 817 3333.
The number again is 214 8173333.
Sangeetha, thank you for beinghere.
It's wonderful that you're ableto share, your knowledge and
information with people so thatthey can see what's available
Sangeetha (03:22):
to them.
Thank you, Sirisha, for havingme over.
Whatever I know, I'm willing topass on that information.
If anybody has any questions,please call in and I'll answer
it to the best I can,
Sirisha (03:31):
yeah, absolutely.
And first of all, give us anidea.
When you say speech therapy,what do we mean by that?
And what does it mean indifferent age groups?
Yeah.
Sangeetha (03:40):
So there are certain developmental norms that the
Children have to go through atcertain stages in their life,
like zero to one.
They begin to babble by one.
They reach their first say firstfew words and between one to
two.
They start putting wordstogether to form two phrases and
(04:00):
they start talking to more thantwo phrases.
They start talking sentences.
And then from two on up to four,their language just explodes.
They're asking questions they'rebeing stubborn.
They, they start using more andmore language.
They have words for pretty mucheverything that they want to
express.
And then by five, they'rethey're asking, they're reading
stories, they're comprehendingstories, they're able to give
(04:23):
you summary of the stories.
So when.
Children don't fall into.
There are kids obviously thatdevelop late.
There are certain kids don'tnecessarily meet.
All the kids don't necessarilyfall in the spectrum.
But on a general note, by fivekids are talking like many
adults.
So if your kid does not wherethey need to be.
(04:43):
You may want to bring it up withthe pediatrician and might be a
referral to speech therapist.
It might just, they need thatlittle bit of nudge, which we
can give them a guess and helpthem meet their milestones.
And then when they start schoolin elementary school so when
they come to school level, thereare three different aspects of
language that we work on.
So one is the speech itself,where kids have trouble either
(05:05):
producing certain sounds likethey have trouble like the are
sounds, for instance, come muchlater.
So we work on kids developingthat are sound and then that's
articulation.
And then we have fluency kidswhere they sometimes kids have a
stutter and then we help themovercome.
their stutter and talk as fluentas they would want to be.
(05:27):
And then we also have kids thathave language issues where they
have trouble understanding andexpressing language.
We work on things like that.
And we also have pragmatics.
We work on the social skills, alot of kids on the spectrum.
We help them in a school settingadjust socially.
So that's a lot of stuff that wework on.
So we speech therapists areemployed on either in primary
(05:48):
school, elementary school,middle school or in high school.
And so I work in the middleschool.
I've done elementary school andnow I'm working
Sirisha (05:54):
in the middle school.
From what you are saying, thereare so many intersection points,
right?
We all, obviously we tend towhen we have kids compare them
with other kids we see, but eachkid develops with their thing.
And I remember when I fill theseforms every time, especially
when you have any youngchildren, the, when you have a
young children, the doctor fixit, fill this words, how many
words do they speak?
How many distinguishing soundsdo they have?
(06:15):
So for someone who might bewondering if, it helps early
intervention helps, I've seenwith my own friends where early
intervention really bringsthings.
and resolves any challenges theymight be facing much quicker.
By the way, the phone lines areopen.
As Sangeeta already mentioned,if you're wondering from school
standpoint, or even if ofsomeone or you're looking for
(06:36):
resources, don't forget to callthe studio number 214 817 3333.
So you describe a whole gamut ofit, but how does someone
identify like when, from aschool standpoint, maybe the
parents don't realize, right?
We may not all know what we'relooking for.
What is it that when you have akid entering school, what is the
(06:57):
intersection points thatintervention happens and how
does The resource like whatwould you actually work with
them because it looks like it'snot just speech.
It's socialization because Ithink this is something we may
not realize, right?
And this happens.
The other end of the spectrumwhen people are older and they
lose their hearing, it actuallyimpacts their social behavior a
lot because they can't hear.
So you can't communicate.
And that's such a sometimes thatcan be a thing if you're, if
(07:20):
it's something that can helpover bridge over that challenge
Sangeetha (07:23):
that you're facing.
So true.
So for instance, we have Justlike we're talking about a
physical disability when the kidis not able to see what are
here, what the teacher issaying, he may not necessarily
come out and tell the teacher Ican't hear you, but you can see
it in so many different ways.
He's going to act out.
He's going to fail in classes.
He's just not going to producework.
(07:43):
So kids are not necessarilyexpressive about how they feel
like something we, when kid hasis on the spectrum is we have
child who's probably on thespectrum and his has autism.
He's not going to come and tellyou I have autism.
Something is wrong with me, butyou can tell by their different
behaviors.
You can see when the playgroundand the kids are out playing
during recess.
There's this one child who's, byplaying by himself, not making
(08:06):
eye contact, not having aretalking a lot about something
and not necessarily relating towhat the others are talking
about.
So the teachers have, if they'rea really seasoned teacher, most
teachers are able to pick up onthese cues and they would bring
it to your attention and say,something is not right.
We feel like because they usedto so many kids, they've seen so
many kids and they would bringit to the parents attention
(08:26):
saying, this is something thatyou're concerned about.
This is also something that yousee, we're concerned and would
you like to do something aboutit?
So then.
You contact the counselor.
The counselor will bring it upwith the other teachers.
Asked all the teachers if thisis something that they see in
the procedure.
The parent has taken consent.
We test and then we see ifthere's a problem.
So again, keep in mind this isnot a medical diagnosis.
(08:46):
If they do to identify that thekid is on the spectrum, it's not
a medical diagnosis.
We don't have a doctor comingthere to certify that this kid
is autistic or not.
But it is a educationaldiagnosis, a school based
diagnosis.
So Based on what we see, the kidhas the child has a problem
functioning in the schoolwithout these accommodations or
modifications.
(09:07):
So if you provide these extraaccommodations or modifications,
the child will be better able toperform in a school setting.
So it's definitely aneducational diagnosis, not a
Sirisha (09:15):
medical diagnosis.
And I think from what you said,I, when you have kids in
elementary school, especiallyyou have so many parent teacher
meetings, so many interventionpoint because a lot of these are
probably.
elementary school times when theearly intervention happens,
usually captured them.
So it's very important to go tothose parent teacher meetings,
interact with those teachers.
(09:36):
It's a little bit, actually, Ican tell you sometimes it's a
bit intimidating to go to thoseparent teacher meetings as a
parent.
I used to be scared to go meetsome of the teachers also.
And getting that information isimportant.
And how do you communicate withthem?
Because oftentimes when we allcome, I'm a first generation
immigrant, as are you.
We don't have access toresources.
(09:56):
We don't have settings around usbecause often our friends are in
the same batch or same year, sothey don't have more experience
than us.
So where do you reach out?
So one of the things here isthat's why we're having this
conversation, but.
Lean into your school resources.
See if they have societies orcommunities that will help you
support because even if theschool does give you a
diagnosis, it is only a singulardiagnosis.
(10:18):
As she said, it's not a doctor'sthing, but you will need a
community to lean into so thatyou feel you have parents.
to support you to understandwhere you're going through.
I think that's the hardest partas a parent is it is.
I tell my kids this not the bestthing to tell them that I'm on
the job training when I'mparenting because I have no
experience with it.
We all learn as we go.
So trying to figure out where wecan find that support, like
(10:40):
having conversations with yourfriends and being as open as you
can, as comfortable as you are.
So when these kids are things,maybe you can walk us through
some stories to give us someideas and some examples of how
maybe some Children you've seenwhere you know they were
diagnosed on what kind of helpthem move forward because that
(11:01):
way I think gives us thepositive impact from the other
side, right?
We're talking about how to getdiagnosed so that you can help.
But what does the outlook looklike on the other side?
Sangeetha (11:13):
I think since you brought up an important point,
which I want to reiterate Don'tbe afraid.
Don't be embarrassed.
I think that's in the SouthAsian community, we believe we
should all be perfect.
That's a myth that doesn'texist.
We want our kids to be perfect.
We want to keep them in abubble, but we don't let
anything touch them.
We feel like we protect them asmuch as we can, which is all
agreed and accepted.
But I think it's important torealize there is no such thing
(11:35):
as normal.
If there's a problem, just likeI was saying, if you're not able
to see you wear glasses and ifyou're not able to hear you had
a hearing aid, the same thing.
The kid needs help, reach outand try to find the help that
you can to help the kid get towhere they need to be, reach
their potential.
I guess that's important to keepthem happy to keep them
functioning in the school.
(11:55):
Because if the more we delaygetting them the help that they
need, the harder it is as theyget, I think elementary is still
okay.
The demands of academic demandsare not as high, but it's as
they get to middle school, itgets harder.
And then you can imagine in highschool, it's harder.
And if we So I've had kids thathave for whatever reason fallen
(12:15):
through the gaps, but I havekids in high school who still
cannot read.
They're still trying to putsyllables together and trying to
read, which is sad as a teacherto see, that we failed that kid
in some form that we couldn'tget them to where we would have
liked to have them.
If I'm sending this kid tocollege and I feel like What
have we done?
How have we prepared this kid?
That's the ultimate goal, right?
(12:35):
We want to prepare our child forcollege.
And I feel like I have not donemy part in getting this kid
ready
Sirisha (12:40):
for college.
Yeah, that must be very, I don'tknow what to say, heart rending,
right?
Because the research shows thatby third grade kids have to meet
math and reading requirements,because I think that sort of is
a sort of qualifier for are theyable to keep up that's one
singular metric that everyoneuses.
So it's important to get themthere.
I had a friend.
I remember it was, second childwas not talking as quickly.
(13:04):
Kids talk at different rates.
Even my own kids talked atdifferent rates, but she
realized that she wasstruggling.
So she used even schools.
If you have kids who are not inelementary school, they have
those
Sangeetha (13:14):
programs.
They do have preschool wherethey provide.
Yeah.
And they also have earlyintervention where you can take
them to the center and get extraspeech therapy.
So those are all options.
And a lot of them are subsidizedcosts or even free of cost.
Yeah.
depending on your particularcircumstance.
So I don't want parents to getthrown up.
Gosh, it's going to be expensiveand insurance is not going to
pay.
It's not always that expensive.
(13:34):
So if you look into it, thereare always ways that you can
figure out ways to make ithappen.
Yeah,
Sirisha (13:39):
so yeah, exactly.
And so she used, I think it'sECIL or something like that.
And she used it and I've seenthat kid, almost, she's 10 or 15
now and it's, you can't tell anydifference, but that early
intervention really helps.
And I think.
That's a lot of thing, right?
The sort of a caution, a lack ofcomfort, a lack of knowledge.
Sometimes, as we said, we wantperfection and sort of the
(14:01):
stigma around it.
So taking away all of that, wereally want people to feel
comfortable, confident to askfor these resources.
It is your right to ask for themactually.
That is why you go to theseschool districts, you pay the
taxes for them, you have accessto this.
It is your privilege and yourright to use them and talk to
the schools.
(14:21):
If like she said, insurance orcost becomes, they will be able
to give you options andalternatives.
And even for those people whohave Resources through their
corporations.
I, it's not around speechtherapy, but they have employee
assistance programs that provideyou other kind of resources for
stress, mental health andthings.
So all of this comes, resourcesare available.
So reach out to your schooldistrict, see if there's a
(14:43):
speech therapist in there, orwe, I know we are talking about.
Speech therapy.
We were actually going to haveanother colleague join us who
does works on school resources,which is for kids who are
struggling with developmentalchallenges.
Some of that Zita touched on whocan also get access, right?
There's, these are teachers whowork with these students to see
get them streamlined into themainstream school, but also who
(15:06):
are stepped out for additionalresources they need, additional
help they might need.
So the phone lines are open.
You're listening to live feedswith Sirisha on Radio Caravan.
You can check out and join me onLinkedIn.
Search for Sirisha Kuchimanchi.
It's spelled S I R I S H A K U CH I M A N C H I.
Note this is a show where wewant to bring experts and others
(15:29):
who have experiences on variousthings.
To share the information so thatwe don't have to go and search
on Google.
Google has so much that I can'tcurate through it.
So this is a way for us to bringthese experts to you.
And we want you to, really takeand use that access easily.
So call the phone lines 214 8173333.
And you can ask Sangeethaquestions as well.
(15:51):
So you were talking aboutelementary or middle or high.
What are some of the otherthings that you were talking
about, stuttering and stuff andwhen Biden got elected, that
kind of put a spotlight on it.
And actually there's this lady Iknow who does a podcast Maya
Kaon stuttering.
It's called Proud Stutter.
And there's a lot of visibilityaround that.
And how do you work with this?
(16:13):
Because one of them is, you'retalking about the developmental
things, but I think it's asocial thing, right?
Let's be clear.
If you have kids in school, yourealize how hard the
socialization is.
I think for me, when I came tothe States, socialization in
India, at least when I was inschool, is very different from
the U.
S.
I, I joke with my Americancolleagues saying, in India, at
(16:34):
least when I was there, geekswere the top while in the U.
S.
it's the flip of it.
So it's hard to acclimate andmiddle school is a just
stressful environment.
It is this boiling cauldron ofhormones and societal
hierarchies.
So you need to figure out a wayand I mean you can only
intersect with your child withso much.
You can't protect them but whatcan you do as much as you can
(16:57):
do.
Sangeetha (16:58):
So I think at least at elementary school I think
it's The academic pressures arenot that high, but middle school
level, a lot of the kids, theacademic pressure are so high
for the kids, not necessarilyrecess, but just the electives
that they have, whether it's PEor band or music.
Those are the classes that theylook forward to at even lunch
(17:19):
because It's free and you don'thave to worry about who's
teaching or they don't have tofocus or they don't have to pay
attention.
A lot of middle school is aboutsocializing, meeting friends,
hanging with them.
When a kid is not getting thebenefit of that, if you're like,
kids sitting in the lunchroomand they're away from the crowd,
sitting on their phones, youwant to find out why, you want
(17:40):
to find out why, what is itabout school that's not giving
them the pleasure?
So much more than just theacademic work, especially in
middle school.
I know in high school, when theyget to high school, the
challenges are higher.
They have to be so focused onwhat they do, but middle school
is when they get to enjoy.
Actually being in school.
And then you so when you see akid sitting alone, the teachers
are always walking around in thelunchroom.
(18:01):
I always keep telling myteachers, go find out, why is it
this kid is sitting by himself?
Why is he on the phone?
Why is he not talking?
So even with stuttering, we'vecome such a long way because the
focus used to be before that wehave to fix the starter.
But now we've moved past that.
Our focus is to get them to beas fluent as they want to be
like it's how comfortable areyou with the speech?
In fact, we teach voluntarystuttering.
What does that feel like you?
(18:22):
Are you comfortable with yourstutter?
How do you feel?
What situations just make itworse?
So we want to modify theenvironment or in a way that
they feel comfortable speakingthe way they are not trying to
because it's a myth now that wefeel like getting rid of the
stutter.
That's not something that wework on.
So we work on Try to see howcomfortable he feels with his
speech,
Sirisha (18:41):
his or her speech.
And it sounds very much like howwe have changed as a society and
in the mindset, right?
It was always what sort of justas a personality, all of us
fixing our weaknesses and notfocusing on our strengths.
I think it's not so much to fixyour weaknesses that, or your
challenges.
It's there, you try to cope withthem, but really leading into
your strengths.
So what you're saying is.
If I stutter or I have someother speech challenge, it's
(19:03):
leaning into the fact that howdo I utilize my strength in that
to communicate and we've allworked with people who had
friends, colleagues, who havedifferent challenges and speech
and but they're brilliantpeople.
It has nothing to do withanything else about them.
So it's separating these piecesoff.
the person is and making themfeel comfortable.
(19:26):
I think also we tend to lean insomewhat to accommodate too
much, which makes them again,feel incredibly uncomfortable.
So it's this very fine line thatmost of us are trying to walk
when we meet someone, you know,or when we may be different from
someone else.
I think that's
Sangeetha (19:41):
an important part of the schools have this great
system of hearing, of havingbuddies.
They have pure buddies who, theyteam them up with a kid.
doing well and has someawareness of what disability
feels like.
So they pair them up.
This kid goes with this kid orsits with the kid in the
classroom.
If the kid is not able tounderstand something, helps him
out.
Especially when we have kids whospeak a different language,
(20:01):
bilingual kids.
We have so many of them.
So if they pair them up, the kiddoesn't feel like I'm the only
one who's going through this.
They have this friend.
They can ask, if it's theteacher said like 101 things.
He has this kid telling him,okay, I can break it down for
you.
This is what she said.
First, this is what she said.
Second, which is so helpful.
Just the peer buddy system issuch a great thing for kids to
have.
And kids with severedisabilities, they stay in, in
(20:23):
one classroom all through theday.
So seeing somebody who's likecompletely neutral and whom they
can have fun with is just greatfor those kids.
And they really enjoy the timethat they spend
Sirisha (20:32):
with their peer buddies.
Yeah.
And you actually brought up anexcellent point because a lot of
people who are listening hereare bilingual, trilingual, speak
many languages.
Your kid may be speakingsomething else at home.
Going to school and, English maynot be their first language.
So there's ESL resources.
There's so many other resources.
Obviously, being multilingual isa huge trend.
You can think differently.
You can communicate in so manyways.
(20:53):
So you want to encourage that,but how do we get kids to lean
into it?
Because I'm sure when...
Especially if you came when thekids were in elementary or
middle or high school, right?
There's, these are intersectionpoints that are already hard to
enter into a school system.
There are all these socialsystems set up and stuff, how
kids interact.
So how do you get your kidcomfortable, communicating?
It's the style, the linguistics,the accents, there's so much
(21:17):
that's different.
So how do you get them?
So Though we're talking aboutspeech therapy, don't forget
that there are resources, lotsof resources in schools.
Go and ask the counselors, goand talk to the main officers,
go and talk to your friends.
If you have you can reach out,Sangeeta, why don't you share
your information?
And I also wanted to mentionthat since this show is about
talking about different things,don't forget to send your ideas,
(21:40):
feedback, thoughts that youhave.
You can ping me at women careerand life on Instagram or a
Gmail.
W.
M.
E.
N.
C.
A.
R.
E.
R.
A.
N.
D.
L.
I.
F.
E.
So that we can talk about this.
And if you have more questions,we'll try if you have questions
for Sangeeta that you haven'tgot a chance or any of the shows
you've listened to.
Maybe we'll just do a Q& Asession and answer those
(22:00):
questions, record them, andbring them back for you so that
you can hear them.
Sangeetha, if you want to sharehow people, if you're working
with them or other resources,maybe they can reach out.
Sangeetha (22:11):
I think as Sirisha said, school is your primary
point and the beginning, I knowthe counselors will take over.
You just have to let yourcounselor know and she'll...
To take it from there, but Idon't think it can, if you have
a kid who has been diagnosedwith anything and they're on,
they're receiving therapies,they're receiving
accommodations, it's importantto stay on top of it.
'cause the school is trying.
We are all trying.
(22:31):
I know that we try our hardestto get the kid whatever he needs
and help him be more successful.
But sometimes it gets overlookedand it's always good.
And when you attend the annualmeetings, ask the teachers, is
this enough?
Do we think we need to do more?
Is there, do you think anotheraccommodation will help?
Stay on top of it.
Read your.
Read your T.
A.
Is that the teacher, theeducation portal.
So that has listing ofeverything.
If the kid has a certaindisorder, what are all the
(22:53):
accommodations?
Sirisha (22:54):
And actually, I don't want to interrupt.
What is an accommodation?
Because first of all, I don'tknow what an accommodation is.
For instance,
Sangeetha (22:59):
even something really simple, like a kid who's maybe
distracted or he's, not able tofocus at the back, just having
him sit in the front of theclassroom.
That's an accommodation.
So you make an accommodation inthe classroom.
He sits in front of the teacherand another accommodation could
be the teacher repeatinstructions.
So I'll make sure that teacherchecks for understanding.
So those are all small things,but it makes such a difference
(23:19):
in how the kid processes whatthe child, each student is
really trying to say.
Okay.
And some can be modificationswhere the curriculum itself is
modified to suit this kid mightbe in the form of.
The test itself is simpler, sothat is an, it's an
accommodation.
It's a modification that thereare accommodations that you make
and make
Sirisha (23:34):
in the classroom as well.
And I know accommodations aregiven for various things
physical, mental health, a lotof different things.
So schools have all theseresources.
We have just a little over aminute for anyone who wants to
call in and ask a question ofSangeetha 214 817 3333.
You're listening to Live Beatswith Sirisha.
And we just wanted to see if youhad any questions, next week, we
(23:58):
come back at two o'clock to talkabout something else, but just
to wrap up anything we haven'ttouched on in the last minute
that people might want toremember, that's the head of the
school schools, one of threeweeks away, two weeks away for
most
Sangeetha (24:09):
folks.
Yeah, not, don't get paranoid.
Don't get anxious.
Like I said, there's no, noconcept of being perfect.
All we need to do is help ourchild be as successful and as
happy as it can.
We're not looking to createEinstein's out of them.
wherever they are, whateverenvironment they are, be happy
and just thrive in theirenvironment.
They are.
That's really what we want forour kids.
And if there's a problem, reachout to the school and try to
(24:31):
help them as much as we canafter the I know they'll reach a
certain point where they don'tneed our help anymore.
So till he reached that point,stay on top of it and make sure
you get the child whatever helpthey need to be as successful
and thrive in their
Sirisha (24:43):
environment.
And I think that's a great wayto end the show.
We are 8 billion unique people,so we have to remember that's
what makes us who we are.
Don't forget to reach out Women,Career and Life, or you can
check me out on LinkedIn,Sirisha Kuchimanchi.
Thank you.
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