April 19, 2025 • 41 mins
The mysterious world of speech therapy extends far beyond correcting pronunciation errors. In this eye-opening conversation with Speech Language Pathologist Eliana Rodriguez, we discover the vast "speech umbrella" covering everything from articulation and grammar to social language and alternative communication methods.
Rodriguez reveals how speech therapists serve as crucial "gatekeepers" in child development, often being the first professionals to identify communication challenges in young children. She dispels common misconceptions, particularly the fear that augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) devices might prevent verbal speech development. Using a brilliant comparison, she explains how children who repeat phrases from videos can similarly learn from communication devices, opening worlds of expression for those who struggle to communicate verbally.
The magic of effective speech therapy lies in meeting children where they are. Rodriguez describes getting down on the floor with nonverbal children, following their interests to build rapport, and creating personalized interventions based on what motivates each child. These child-led approaches transform therapy into engaging play while achieving critical communication goals.
Parents struggling with whether to pursue speech services will find reassurance in Rodriguez's compassionate advice: trust your instincts, seek early intervention, and don't let pride or misconceptions stand in the way of getting help. The collaboration between speech therapists, teachers, and parents creates a powerful support system that can dramatically improve a child's ability to connect with the world.
Have concerns about your child's communication development? May is AAC Awareness Month with devices up to 50% off. Don't wait to explore resources that could transform your child's ability to express themselves and engage with others.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:10):
we are now currently uh, let's see midway through
april.
Down here where we live insoutheast georgia, we are less
than a month of school days awayfrom summer, and for that I'm
incredibly grateful.
It's not that I don't like thekids I do.
I love the kids Most of them,no, all of them.
(00:33):
I really do love the kids.
I love all of them.
But you know, it's really funny.
I remember when I was youngerthinking, wow, teachers are so
lucky, they like work for theschool year and they get off all
summer.
And yeah, now I understand it alittle bit better.
But something else that isreally cool is that in the
(00:55):
misery of the last month ofschool, as we claw and fight and
scrape and scratch our waythrough, we get to do that
alongside some really greatpeople.
Yes, sir, and before we started, or before I started, working
in the school system, I had noidea the amount of supports that
are out there for students withspecial needs and I always
(01:16):
thought, okay, well, there's ateacher here and maybe a speech
therapist there.
But what we're finding out, themore and more we talk about
this stuff and get people tocome talk with us, is that there
is an entire nation of peopleout there that are like linking
arms to help support thesestudents, and it's super cool
(01:39):
Just yet another one of thefantastic people that we get to
do this whole loving kids withand walk in hand in hand and
sometimes dragging each otheracross the finish line, because
you know what it's a hard jobworking with kids.
And so, laura, I'm going to letyou go ahead and introduce this
week's guest, All right.
Speaker 2 (02:01):
So this week we are talking with one of our
co-workers slash friends at work.
She's a speech and languagepathologist that works with many
of our kids.
We call her Miss Ellie ElianaRodriguez and I tell you,
everybody loves to go to MissEllie's class.
(02:22):
We even have kids that cry whenthey have to leave.
Everybody loves to go to MissEllie's class.
Speaker 1 (02:39):
We even have kids that cry when they have to leave
, because Miss Ellie, she'll geton the floor with the kids and
she will just tap into theirneeds and their wants and their
abilities and it's infectious,because even kids that she
doesn't serve want to go see her.
Speaker 2 (02:49):
It's like, well, come on, it's true, so yeah.
So this episode we have MissEllie and we'll probably call
you that all episode.
Speaker 1 (02:54):
That's how it's going to roll.
Speaker 2 (02:55):
Miss Ellie.
So, just like I called Jared MrCurtis a lot too, that's fine,
well good, um, well good.
So you know, you were talkingabout not knowing that before
you started working in theschool system, jared, that you
didn't realize the amount ofsupport, and, um, I think that I
(03:17):
think that's a common thing andI know that me, when I was a
young parent and my child wentto school and they did the
kindergarten screening, thatthey were like, well, I think
that maybe he could benefit fromsome speech services, because
he kind of is a little nasal andI'm like, ok, well, first of
(03:38):
all, it's, if it's, I think it'shereditary, I think it's
hereditary.
And second, I don't think Ineed him pulled out of classroom
because he, you know, has aspeaks through his nose a little
bit and I didn't understandwhat it was.
So, but I think a lot of peoplehave that also, that
(03:59):
misconception that that, missEllie, that all you do is help
kids talk, right, I don't thinkthat they understand.
Speaker 1 (04:08):
Send them to Ellie so they can talk good yeah.
Speaker 2 (04:14):
We're just going to teach them how to talk.
I don't think they understandthe vast array of the
multifaceted thing of speech andlanguage pathology.
So probably throwing acurveball a little bit, but you
go ahead and let us know, tellus what you do with our kids and
(04:38):
not just telling them, you know, teaching them how to use their
words, like speak, correctly.
Speaker 3 (04:48):
Yeah, so speech, we have such a huge scope of
practice, like we call it thespeech umbrella, where we do
like we can target so manydifferent things and that's how
we learned it in grad school.
Like the speech umbrella youhave, yes, helping kids speak
correctly because they have thesound errors, then they're hard
to understand.
Um, that goes under likearticulation and phonology,
because there's some patternsand there's some letter
recognition and phonemicawareness that they don't have
(05:11):
and that's just like in onelittle segment.
And then we have more likegrammar and syntax, where they
don't use the correct verbtenses or leave the S at the end
of plurals and using thecorrect pronouns for certain
things.
Like it's a whole language isjust such a huge.
There's so many things inlanguage and then we can talk
(05:32):
about like social skills andsocial language and the
pragmatic stuff andcomprehension questions, and
speech and language is a huge.
We have a huge scope ofpractice is the short answer to
that.
And and yes, most of the timewhen people think speech like oh
, it's just sound errors, right,or my kid doesn't speak at all,
(05:54):
like it's just like those twothings and that's it.
And that's where we first comein and I like to say, like
speech language pathologists arelike the gatekeepers.
Because that's yeah, seriously,because when you first see a
kid in kindergarten becauseluckily this school district
does mass screeners for pre Kand kindergarten, so we do get
to see these kids like reallyearly on, and the first thing
(06:16):
that we see is like, oh, there'sa need in speech or language or
both at the same time.
And we do look at fluency,which is like stuttering and
stuff like that, and we dolisten to your voice and your
nasality, because there's can besome structural things going on
in there, but not that we cansee, but we can hear it.
And we can then tell parentslike, hey, you might want to go
(06:38):
see an ENT for this or you know,but like that's why I say we're
like the gatekeepers, becausewe get to see these kids first
and then we can help parents andrefer them out and see where
they need to go from there.
Does that answer that question?
Absolutely it does nasality.
Speaker 1 (06:57):
I think that's gonna be the name of my next band,
nasality, right opening formetallica you can't talk like
that.
Speaker 2 (07:06):
if your band's nasality though, You're going to
have to talk like me.
Speaker 1 (07:09):
Okay, well, I'll do my best.
Speaker 2 (07:14):
So, talking about the mass screenings, what do you
typically find that is the mostcommon speech and language
challenge for our elementary agestudents.
Speaker 3 (07:26):
A lot of these kids have never received services
before, so like they've neverreceived early intervention at
all.
And then we catch them in pre-Kor we catch them in
kindergarten, because some kidshere in Georgia there's a pre-K
lottery and not everyone gets in, so then we don't really see
them until kindergarten, sothat's like a whole like we
(07:46):
don't see them until they'refive years old.
You still have from birth tofive, and they're just behind on
their sounds, or they're behindon, you know, following simple
directions or stating opposites,you know, or they don't know
their colors or their letters ortheir letter sounds.
There's like so many thingsthat we catch in kindergarten
(08:08):
from these mass screeners andwhen we tell parents like, hey,
they, you know, they failed thisarea of the language screener,
we're going to recommend someinterventions and we'll see how
those interventions go.
If the data comes back wherethey haven't made progress,
we're going to move up and thenwe might recommend even testing.
And some parents get caught offguard when you, when you tell
(08:32):
them this you know, right, yeah.
Speaker 1 (08:37):
I think one of the things that we see often and I'm
sure you do too is that there'skind of this natural response
by parents.
I'm going to call it naturalbecause I think we do see it
often that there's this kind ofpushback because you're telling
me there's something wrong withmy child and, oddly enough,
(08:58):
while it is, while we arepinpointing certain areas that
they need some assistance in,the help and the extra support
that they're going to get canhelp them to succeed.
And so it's not a you have abroken child, let us fix you.
It's a hey.
Here's some things that we cando to help better position your
(09:21):
child for success to help betterposition your child for success
, and there's probably someguilt there too.
Speaker 2 (09:27):
Like you said, it's not till kindergarten.
Sometimes the parents might say, oh well, why didn't I catch
this?
But that kind of brings me backto what Ms McMillan said.
Well, we've gone to school forthis.
We've been trained how to lookfor these things where parents
have not.
So I shouldn't feel bad aboutthat, and I would think that the
(09:54):
parents would kind of youprobably have a broad spectrum
or not a broad spectrum, liketwo polar opposites.
So you probably either have thepushback or the parents are
like do everything you need todo.
There's probably not a wholelot in the middle.
Speaker 3 (10:08):
No, I completely agree, and I was going to say
that, like some parents are likewhat my child has what, or
they're having issues with what,and then they, you know, I'm
like, hey, you can ask mewhatever you want, like call me,
email me and we can go fromthere.
But I was like this these are.
(10:30):
I try to inform them as much aspossible of the process, like
from screener to like evaluation, to after, if they need an IEP
and stuff like that.
I explain the whole process andand I also tell them, like you
know, depending on what it isright, if it's like articulation
, phonology, like our goal is tohopefully have them graduated
by the time they go to middleschool, like that is our goal,
you know.
Um, there's other kids, ofcourse, that would have to be in
speech a little bit longer, butthere's certain goals that we
(10:52):
tailor to each kid, that we tryto meet them, and some kids get
to be in speeches for a littlebit because they've met, you
know, that gap, and then we getto dismiss them, and then some
kids that just need a little bitmore time, and then parents
that gives parents a little bitmore time also to come to the
idea, you know that.
Or they have speech, but youknow, maybe there's something
else going on too.
And then so luckily, in thiscounty we've had parents where
(11:17):
they've been very supportive ofif anything, like yeah, if they
need to pull out more, like,yeah, let's do it.
Oh, do I need to go to thedoctor?
I'm like, yeah, that's a greatidea.
Always talk to yourpediatrician if you have
concerns.
That's where they catch themfirst.
They're supposed to be doingdevelopmental screeners every so
often and those screenersanswer them, you know,
(11:37):
truthfully.
And that's when they flagcertain things and they tell you
, hey, we should probably referyour child to speech or
occupational therapy or PT.
Um, and I think some parentsdon't always answer those um a
hundred percent truthfully.
Or you know they're like, oh,yeah, they do them, then do it,
but then they might not do it inpublic.
You know there's just a wholelot of different things that go
(12:00):
into it, but yeah, Right, um,and like I said, I didn't.
Speaker 2 (12:07):
I didn't understand it when mine were in elementary
school and you talked about theinterventions and you start with
the interventions and then seewhere that goes.
So talk to us a little bitabout that intervention.
What is it?
How do you tailor thoseinterventions to meet the
(12:27):
students' needs?
Is it something you do?
Do the teachers do it,everybody do it.
Speaker 3 (12:32):
Yeah.
So it's so funny because eachstate has their own process of
RTI or MTSS, now that it'scalled.
Each state is different.
Okay, and I I worked in threedifferent states, so
particularly in this state ofGeorgia and in this county, the
way we do that they miss.
Let's just say it'scomprehension questions or WH
(13:07):
questions.
Then we tell the teacher like,hey, are you seeing this in the
classroom too?
And they're like, yeah, like hehas, they have a really hard
time answering basic questions.
We're like, okay, cool.
So then we write a data sheetwith certain, you know, say
student will answer whatquestions, and you know three
(13:28):
out of five opportunities orsomething like that, and we
provide a whole packet to theteachers to do them in the
classroom.
So the teacher will go aheadand pull that student in small
group and provide thoseinterventions and collect data.
And that usually takes about.
You know, we try to do sixweeks and then check in and then
(13:48):
if they haven't made anyprogress and sometimes we're
like, and sometimes we can tellwith years of experience if kids
need to continue in the tiersor if we just need to go ahead
and do a straight languageevaluation then we're like, okay
, this is enough to support that.
We need to go to have astraight speech and language
eval and get parent consent, andfrom there we go ahead and test
(14:08):
them.
But once we get consent, wehave to have a passing vision
and hearing, because we can'tcontinue testing unless those
two things have passed.
So then that's how the processwill go.
Speaker 2 (14:21):
Okay, I'm just listening.
I'm like, hey, I'm down with it.
Yeah, so you also talked abouta lot of times.
The pediatricians are supposedto be kind of catching the.
You know, maybe we need speech,maybe we need OT, maybe we need
(14:42):
PT.
So if a child is gettingoutside services, can they still
get in-school services?
Absolutely.
Speaker 1 (14:54):
Is it the same thing?
Speaker 3 (14:57):
Yes and no.
You get services by speechlanguage pathologists who's been
trained and licensed versus byspeech language pathologist
who's been trained and licensed.
Um, the only difference is inspeech, like in school, we
tailor it more to school settingand then private speech is more
like a functional you know,life's like functional skills
for life um so, um, so, yeah,sometimes both of those line up.
(15:21):
So sometimes we might have verysimilar goals.
But if you have a student who'slike private speech and you
have a school speech, we look atthe private speech eval.
But we try to have our goals alittle bit different, for
insurance purposes, from theprivate setting.
They don't want them to match.
So we have to change ours alittle bit in the school setting
(15:45):
.
Speaker 2 (15:46):
Is it beneficial for them to have outside and inside
in school therapy?
Speaker 3 (15:51):
I would say the more the merrier, because in school
we only have a certain amount oftime during the day and you
know, depending on it, we mightsee kids two times a week,
sometimes one time a week and ifparents want, you know, to
progress a little bit more, theyneed, or some kids are very
severe, they just need thatextra time and the schools.
Unfortunately we can't giveyour kids speech therapy five
(16:13):
days a week Because we see likeover 100 and something kids,
versus in private practice youhave a clinician who only sees
like 20 kids, you know, orsomething like that.
They can see them two times aweek, three times a week, as
long as your insurance covers it.
So I say the more the merrier.
Speaker 1 (16:34):
Well, I've always like one of the things I think I
said this last time too, thoughand my dad's always said for
years and years and years youcan never over communicate, and
so I guess getting support tolearn to communicate is equally
beneficial as much as you canget it Because you know, like we
were saying earlier, it's realeasy to hear speech and think,
okay, you're teaching somebodyhow to talk, but it really
(16:56):
doesn't encompass all ofcommunication, what comes out of
the child's mouth as well aswhat goes into their ears and
what they process, and so Ithink it's safe to say that.
You know it's okay to ask thequestions and ask the
pediatrician and to talk aboutall different, because I know
(17:18):
we've worked together a lot.
You mentioned the WH questions.
A lot of our population that wework with.
They really struggle with that,you know.
I don't know how many times, youknow I ask I'll ask a student
how this or where this, and getthe answer yes and no, and it
just doesn't quite match up,because there's this processing
(17:39):
delay that's coming, you know,from the person saying you know,
once it hits their ears andtravels to their brain, there's
some things going on there thatare kind of causing speed bumps
(18:00):
and so, and so, yeah, I mean, weas parents, as teachers, talk
to whoever it is that you wantto talk to, that is in that
field, and allow them to assistyou.
Because one thing that I knowI've learned over my 20 years of
having a son with autism isthat you got to ask questions,
(18:22):
like there is no shame in notknowing, and so, yeah, if
there's any question whatsoever,please contact your, your local
authorities.
Where did that come from?
Like that just rolled up in myhead, but it doesn't even make
sense well, I mean authorities,not necessary police officers,
but the local authorities on.
(18:42):
See, I like how you try to helpme because sometimes I hear
myself talk and I just want toflog myself.
Local authorities on.
See, I like how you try to helpme, because sometimes I hear
myself talk and I just want toflog myself.
Anyway, I'm sorry, go ahead.
Speaker 2 (18:55):
Well, and, as Miss Allie said, the importance of
early interventions.
If they can catch this beforethey get to pre-K or
kindergarten, before they'refour or five years old, what's
the benefits of that, miss Ellie?
Speaker 3 (19:10):
Well, I mean, we just see, like with any early
intervention, the quicker theyget it, you see progress also at
a better rate.
You know, I know sometimes kidsare very unique and each kid
has its own challenge and theirown rate of you know progress.
So I can't just say a blanketstatement.
But if you catch it early, youget more help earlier.
(19:33):
Right, parents are moreinformed earlier.
They can seek out more help,more support groups If they need
to.
They can do their own researchahead of time too.
Um, they can work with theirown child at home as well.
But usually what we see is, withthe early intervention,
depending on what area of speech, they make progress at a
quicker rate and then they don'thave to be in speech for their
(19:56):
whole life.
For some of the kids, you knowand it's not all of them because
, like I said, there's so manydiagnoses out there A lot of
kids just progress at adifferent rate and their
severity is very different.
So I just think earlyintervention is good so we can
get these kids communicating theway they're going to
(20:19):
communicate, because we havesome communicators that are not
verbal communicators but they'redifferent communicators and
what we like to, you know, Ilike to say use your preferred
communication method, right Signlanguage.
It can be pictures, what wecall PECs, a picture exchange
communication system, where it'slike a certain picture and you
put it on a board, or you canput it on certain things or on
(20:43):
buttons, and they just use that.
Or, you know, if it's a morehigh-tech communication system,
it can be like an AAC device youknow, and I, you know, a tablet
.
You know there's different waysof communicating, just not just
a verbal way as well.
Speaker 2 (20:59):
Are there any strategies that you have found
that or technique that you foundthat will help the students
develop their own preferredmethod of communication?
Speaker 3 (21:11):
So I try everything.
I think honestly I do.
We start with, you know, signsfirst, right, everyone, baby
signs are amazing and great.
You start with those and if thekid takes off, you continue and
then you start introducingpictures.
You, the kid takes off, youcontinue and then you start
introducing pictures.
You know, it's like kind oflike a tier you know, baby signs
, because signs and gestures arethere.
(21:32):
Then you go with pictures andthen you can do like a button
where it's pushing and then yougo ahead and do like a tablet
and then hopefully from thereit's hopefully verbal right,
because all parents want theirkids, if they're nonverbal, to
eventually be verbal.
Everyone's like parents go andI'm like, yes, that's obviously
my goal too.
(21:53):
However, sometimes it takes along time to get to the verbal
part and we need something inthe meantime.
Speaker 2 (22:02):
Right.
Speaker 3 (22:03):
And those other communication systems.
Helps, because it helps reducefrustrations on both ends you
know the kids and the parents.
Then, because the parents arejust doing 21 questions or or,
luckily, some parents are so intuned with their kid that they
just know like hey, he's lookingthis way, this is what he?
Wants you know, or they know, acertain tone and all that.
(22:24):
He wants this you know, parentsare just so in tune with their
kid that they don't even usecommunication systems.
And then you have to educatethem on the benefits of using a
communication system.
So it's a lot of education thatwe do.
Speaker 2 (22:40):
Right, well, and I know we talked, when we talked
to Marley last week about this,and so Xander, didn't?
We, as we were uneducated,thought that it would hinder him
becoming verbal.
What can you tell us about that?
Speaker 3 (23:27):
him becoming verbal.
What can you tell us about that?
Yes, and that's a very commonfeeling that a lot of parents
have.
Like, every time I present thatto them, they're like oh no,
like, no, this is going to makethem stop speaking.
They're not going to want tospeak, and I always have to show
them like an example.
I'm like, well, does your kidlike watch a video on the TV, on
YouTube, and just imitate that.
And they're like, yeah, I'm like, well, that's the same concept,
but in a smaller screen andmore functional, right, because
(23:50):
you they see, and I'm just goingto say, like kids on the
spectrum, right, they see, let'ssay a video or let's just say a
show on TV, and they will mimicthat.
They this is called gestaltlanguage, so they just phrase
and then they just keep sayingit and they use it in everyday
language and they'll say it.
So they're imitating that stuff.
So why not give them a tabletthat has language already in it,
(24:14):
set up for them to besuccessful, for a functional
communication language for themto use?
So it has some buds, like Iwant juice, you know, please,
like, help me, like you know, toget those core language, like
core language words and stufflike that in their vocabulary so
(24:34):
they can use it and they you'llbe amazed at so many kids that
will push it and then later onsome kids like will immediately
push the button and then imitateit.
Some kids will just push it andthey are so happy that you just
know what they want.
So eventually it does help withtheir vocabulary and their
(24:55):
expressive language.
Speaker 1 (24:57):
That was a fantastic way to describe it, because I
would never have thought.
I mean, we see kids withelectronic devices all the time
and they'll say the same thingsthat their favorite YouTuber or
whatever says, and they'll justrepeat it over and over and it's
like oh, wow, yeah, whywouldn't they do that with this
device, Especially as they learn.
(25:18):
Hey, when I say what this issaying or when this says what I
want it to say, oftentimes I canget what I want and then, like
you said, at the very least Iknow I'm being understood and
that's huge.
So one time we were leaving ouroldest son's house.
He lives down in Ocean Way,Jacksonville, whatever it is.
(25:40):
Anyway, we're leaving his houseand I'm driving and Xander's in
the back seat and Laura's inthe passenger seat, and we drive
down the road and we come tothe road where we need to take a
right.
Well, there's about two or threeJeeps that pass by and then I
pull in behind them.
And you know, I am not sayingthat people need to speed.
(26:01):
What I do ask is that you atleast come close to the speed
limit, close to it.
So I'm behind these Jeeps,they're not doing the speed
limit and so I'm like you knowwhat?
It's time for me to pass them.
So I stomp on the gas, we passthem, and from the back seat I
hear, oh, you need to calm down.
I mean like a whole sentence ofXander, Xander, what are you
(26:25):
talking?
Because he's seen that on, Ithink one of his movies, Was it
Shrek I think it might have been.
Shrek, but yeah, and that's whatcame out and he understood the
context of it and he used itproperly.
Yeah, but so now take that ideaand, like you said, this device
is repeating these words everyday.
(26:46):
I'm hearing it every day andI'm starting to repeat them and
just the freedom that that cangive any child that struggles
with communicating, that's areally—I've never thought about
it that way.
Speaker 2 (27:10):
Well, like we talked last week with Marley, and she
shares, she works with us.
Miss Ellie knows Carson as welland the difference is made in
his life and his one.
His frustration level has goneway down.
Two, his communication has goneway up and the kid's
conjugating verbs on his tablet.
It's like oh, my goodness, soit's not.
(27:31):
You know, these devices aren'tjust like you were saying, it's
not just I want juice.
They can have conversationswith people, with them.
Speaker 3 (27:43):
And we've seen academic progress as well, and
so yeah, and you know there'sother disorders out there that
your language, you might becognitively there and then later
on your regress.
You know, like Stephen Hawking,you know and you are so
brilliant and so smart and thenyour language, your ability to
speak, is gone.
(28:04):
But it's all in your brain.
You just need something to helpyou express it.
And he would use acommunication system, absolutely
.
I was like I forget what he had,like ALS or whatever, and all
his limbs and ability were lost.
But he could eye gaze, you know, and there's so many different
devices out there Like you useeye gazing, or you can use like
(28:25):
a um, a little toggle with,toggle with your hands and you
can move things around, orthere's one with your mouth
where you can blow and certainamount of movement moves, and
there's so many things out there.
So it's just, it doesn't hinder, it just opens up a whole world
for people who just can'tverbally express it.
Speaker 1 (28:47):
Well, and I think we can all.
Well, I don't say I think wecan all agree.
I'm not a big fan of thestatement that everybody should
have a voice, because there'speople that I hear talk
sometimes and I think to myselfI don't, I don't want to hear
you anymore.
But I will say this when itcomes to our kids and it comes
to their development, justproviding a voice can make a
(29:08):
night and day difference intheir lives, in your life, and
so I would again highlyrecommend, if there's any
question, talk to your teachers,talk to your doctors, and I
also know this is that it is somuch easier to teach somebody to
do something than it is toun-teach them the wrong way and
(29:30):
then try to re-teach.
And so I think that goes alongwith what you were saying, miss
Ellie, about the earlyintervention as soon as possible
, and don't do not allow prideto get in the way.
It's okay to walk up to somebodythat knows about that stuff and
say I don't have a clue.
That's what we're there for,that's what we want to hear, and
(29:52):
I love the fact that I can goto other people and say that
very same thing.
I have no idea what I'msupposed to do in this situation
?
Any direction would help.
So where are we at?
I mean, I know where we're at,it's just I was looking at our.
Speaker 2 (30:12):
Our cheat sheet.
Our cheat sheet yeah Well, yeah, I mentioned earlier about how
our kids love going to see MissEllie.
They hate leaving her room.
She gets on the floor and shemeets them where they are.
She gets on the floor and shemeets them where they are.
One of the things that MissEllie is fantastic at doing is
we're incorporating our kids'interests into their therapy
(30:32):
sessions and to help keep themengaged and motivated.
Can you talk a little bit aboutthat, miss Ellie?
Speaker 3 (30:40):
Yeah, it's taken me some time right, experience that
one out.
But, um, because when firststarting off from, you know,
grad school I've been in thisnow for eight years but for
starting off, I'm like, oh,we're going to do X, y and Z
because this is what the, youknow, assessment says and this
is what we're going to do, andwe're going to write goals this
(31:01):
way.
And you have a kid come in andthey're like, and like they
don't want to answer WHquestions.
I'm like, oh, what am I gonnado?
Like, how can I get this kidengaged?
And some, you know, some kidsare super easy.
We're like, hey, we're doingthis, and you know, and other
kids are just not interested inthe task at all.
(31:22):
So what I've learned from allthe years is establishing a good
report.
So, like the first couple ofsessions, I just get to know the
kids.
So I, you know, I ask them, hey, like, what do you like?
Like, tell me about this, tellme that you know.
(31:43):
If they're able to, um, andthey can, then I figure out ways
to incorporate those likes intospeech therapy.
So it might be like one kid, um, is obsessed with mario and um,
I'm like okay, how can I putmario into speech therapy, um,
so we've done a system where I'mlike, hey, let's work on this,
(32:06):
let's have Mario.
Sometimes I have a printout ofMario and we move them across
the board and he has to answereach question and as he answers
these questions he moves on tothe next and at the very end he
gets to color the Mario and takeit home.
Um, so that's one way, but someof the kids who can't tell me
what they want or need is that'swhen you find me on the floor
(32:27):
playing with them.
Um, I I like to say I'm childled, a child led therapist, so
it's what they like.
I use that and incorporate itinto therapy where they don't
really know that they're givingyou know therapy.
They just think, oh, oh, we'replaying, we're having fun.
What'd you do today?
(32:47):
We just played, just play.
Guys like your parents aregonna think that's all we do.
But that's kind of how I getthem to engage in therapy, want
to come to therapy, and thosekids are non-verbal.
I'm on the ground and I pullout all these toys, like I pull
out one toy and see if they like, and if they don't take it out,
(33:08):
here's another toy until I findone that they really like and
I'm like, yes, okay, I can buildmy rapport, my connection with
this kid, off of this one thing.
And that's kind of what I'vebeen, you know, using and it's
kind of been really helpfulbecause they're more, like I
said, eager when they see me,they want to come and then they
(33:30):
stay and they willing to do thework.
Um, and then, you know, get tokick them out.
You still got to go.
Don't want to leave, like yousaid, and and for those that
don't, because transitions canbe hard you know I put a timer
on, I'm like, hey, when thistimer's up, that means what and
(33:51):
they all know.
Like what's been really helpfultoo is having like set rules and
you set them at the verybeginning of the year, at the
very beginning of each session.
I have my speech room rulesthat I go over with every single
new kid that I get and theydon't change.
I'm like this is the same atthe beginning of the year,
middle of the year, end of theyear.
I do not change.
(34:12):
Consistency in that, and theyknow.
And a big thing too in speechis like behavior.
You wouldn't think that wewould have to deal with
behaviors, but we have to dealwith a lot of behaviors and not
just kids who have otherdiagnosis.
Sometimes these kids are justspeech only kids and they have
(34:32):
severe behaviors too.
Incorporating like a rewardsystem has also been very
helpful.
I have a treasure box and I uselike a punch card and I'm like,
if you do all your work, youfollow my rules, you get a hole
(34:52):
punch.
And I'm like, eight holepunches is a treasure box.
And they seem to be verymotivated by that and and I tell
them like, hey, you, you didn'tfollow my rules today, you're
not going to get one and theyknow like, oh, I'm so sorry.
I'm so sorry, miss Sally, I'mlike next time let's try to do
it next time.
So I think those key things are.
(35:13):
What I've learned that workedfor me across the years is kind
of how I get them to engage anddo the stuff and meet them where
they're at too.
Speaker 2 (35:23):
And it seems like that those good strategies help
you overcome those obstacles.
Like you said, the behaviors orthe not knowing how to
communicate Are there.
Do you have any other?
Are those your major obstaclesor do you have other obstacles
when working with them?
Speaker 3 (35:44):
No, there I mean, there's a lot of obstacles that
sometimes are new obstacles thatI've never seen in my life.
I'm like, oh, this is a new oneand I have to figure it out.
And what helps is theirteachers too.
I go to them like, hey, I can'tfigure out what they like.
I've tried everything.
(36:04):
And I also talk to theirparents too.
And then that's when I get alist of things like oh, they
like this and this at home.
Or the teacher's like hey, I'vereally noticed that they like
this.
And they give me ideas on what Ican use and pull, and sometimes
I have to go out and get somestuff just for a particular
(36:24):
student, who become a challengein figuring it out.
Um, so I would say I use, I usethe parents input on the child,
I use the teachers.
Like there's a specific kidthat we work with that sometimes
I feel like I got them down andthen and then they changed next
week and they don't likeanything.
Speaker 2 (36:46):
Yeah, and that collaboration is important and
as part of when we share ourstudents, you're part of our
team as a teacher, as a generaleducation teacher, and the
parents and any other serviceproviders, and that
collaboration is is importantbecause I know there's times
(37:07):
you've come to me and said hey,so-and-so, really did great in
this today and I said, do whatthey can do what.
And so you know, knowing,sharing, sharing those ideas are
key to serving those studentsthe way they effectively,
(37:27):
because it takes all of us.
Speaker 3 (37:30):
Yeah, no, I agree, and I like, like after I have a
session, I always like to talkto you guys or their teachers
and tell them how they did orwhat they did that day, Kind of
on the same page, and that seemsto be very, very helpful, you
know, for the student and thenyou know for our relationship to
build to upon.
I think that really, reallyhelps in the collaborative
(37:52):
setting.
Speaker 1 (37:53):
So, Miss Ellie, if you could only say one thing to
all three of our listeners thatwould stand the test of time,
what would it be?
What would be your one majorpiece of advice?
Speaker 3 (38:07):
Become a speech therapist.
Speaker 2 (38:11):
We definitely need them.
All the cool kids are doing it.
Speaker 3 (38:14):
Oh no, I mean, I guess for parents you know, if
you have a gut feeling orsomething like that, just go
seek out help, go to yourpediatrician with your concerns,
ask around, find thoseresources.
Early intervention, like I said, is the best you know.
I guess for parents that wouldbe my first one For teachers,
(38:39):
talk to your speech therapist.
If you just have a concern on acertain child and you're not
really sure if it's speechrelated or something else, you
know we're always available andwe have so much information and
knowledge that we can share andwe're willing to share because
we love to talk.
Speaker 2 (38:57):
While you got into it right.
Speaker 3 (39:00):
So like if a teacher would say, hey, if you have a
concern or question, like come,come see us and we can tell you
which way to go, and if we needto screen them, we'll do this
and we'll go X, y and Z, sothat's.
And if someone's out there like, oh, I don't know what to do
with my life, you know, I say,oh, speech therapy is a great
career path.
Speaker 2 (39:27):
I even, I think that we even had one of our
administrators say man, I thinkI chose the wrong thing.
Speaker 1 (39:29):
Maybe I need to go be a speech teacher.
Well, what's great, though, is,at the end of the day you know
all of these titles we all docome together the parents, the
SLPs, ptot, the teachers we allcome together for the benefit of
that child.
Nobody's driving home in theirFerraris or anything like that.
(39:50):
We are all about seeing theprogress of these kids and see
them become everything that theypossibly can and get the most
out of life.
Miss Ellie, thank you so muchfor hanging out with us.
Speaker 2 (40:03):
We're going to wrap up this conversation and one
more thing Like we said lastweek, don't forget this month
and part of next month they havethe AAC programs.
Yes, Some of them up to halfoff.
We posted the flyer on socialmedia.
Speaker 1 (40:25):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (40:26):
And we'll probably share it again after this one
comes out Little secret.
Speaker 1 (40:31):
Miss Ellie was the one that showed us that.
Speaker 2 (40:34):
She's the one that gave us that.
We don't tell anybody.
I know I told you so muchinformation she does.
She's got a wealth ofinformation.
Speaker 1 (40:43):
All right.
Well, thank you again, missEllie, and we will talk to you
later.
Speaker 2 (40:49):
All right.
Speaker 1 (40:49):
Well, thank you again , miss Ellie, and we will talk
to you later.
we are now currently uh, let's see midway through
april.
Down here where we live insoutheast georgia, we are less
than a month of school days awayfrom summer, and for that I'm
incredibly grateful.
It's not that I don't like thekids I do.
I love the kids Most of them,no, all of them.
(00:33):
I really do love the kids.
I love all of them.
But you know, it's really funny.
I remember when I was youngerthinking, wow, teachers are so
lucky, they like work for theschool year and they get off all
summer.
And yeah, now I understand it alittle bit better.
But something else that isreally cool is that in the
(00:55):
misery of the last month ofschool, as we claw and fight and
scrape and scratch our waythrough, we get to do that
alongside some really greatpeople.
Yes, sir, and before we started, or before I started, working
in the school system, I had noidea the amount of supports that
are out there for students withspecial needs and I always
(01:16):
thought, okay, well, there's ateacher here and maybe a speech
therapist there.
But what we're finding out, themore and more we talk about
this stuff and get people tocome talk with us, is that there
is an entire nation of peopleout there that are like linking
arms to help support thesestudents, and it's super cool
(01:39):
Just yet another one of thefantastic people that we get to
do this whole loving kids withand walk in hand in hand and
sometimes dragging each otheracross the finish line, because
you know what it's a hard jobworking with kids.
And so, laura, I'm going to letyou go ahead and introduce this
week's guest, All right.
Speaker 2 (02:01):
So this week we are talking with one of our
co-workers slash friends at work.
She's a speech and languagepathologist that works with many
of our kids.
We call her Miss Ellie ElianaRodriguez and I tell you,
everybody loves to go to MissEllie's class.
(02:22):
We even have kids that cry whenthey have to leave.
Everybody loves to go to MissEllie's class.
Speaker 1 (02:39):
We even have kids that cry when they have to leave
, because Miss Ellie, she'll geton the floor with the kids and
she will just tap into theirneeds and their wants and their
abilities and it's infectious,because even kids that she
doesn't serve want to go see her.
Speaker 2 (02:49):
It's like, well, come on, it's true, so yeah.
So this episode we have MissEllie and we'll probably call
you that all episode.
Speaker 1 (02:54):
That's how it's going to roll.
Speaker 2 (02:55):
Miss Ellie.
So, just like I called Jared MrCurtis a lot too, that's fine,
well good, um, well good.
So you know, you were talkingabout not knowing that before
you started working in theschool system, jared, that you
didn't realize the amount ofsupport, and, um, I think that I
(03:17):
think that's a common thing andI know that me, when I was a
young parent and my child wentto school and they did the
kindergarten screening, thatthey were like, well, I think
that maybe he could benefit fromsome speech services, because
he kind of is a little nasal andI'm like, ok, well, first of
(03:38):
all, it's, if it's, I think it'shereditary, I think it's
hereditary.
And second, I don't think Ineed him pulled out of classroom
because he, you know, has aspeaks through his nose a little
bit and I didn't understandwhat it was.
So, but I think a lot of peoplehave that also, that
(03:59):
misconception that that, missEllie, that all you do is help
kids talk, right, I don't thinkthat they understand.
Speaker 1 (04:08):
Send them to Ellie so they can talk good yeah.
Speaker 2 (04:14):
We're just going to teach them how to talk.
I don't think they understandthe vast array of the
multifaceted thing of speech andlanguage pathology.
So probably throwing acurveball a little bit, but you
go ahead and let us know, tellus what you do with our kids and
(04:38):
not just telling them, you know, teaching them how to use their
words, like speak, correctly.
Speaker 3 (04:48):
Yeah, so speech, we have such a huge scope of
practice, like we call it thespeech umbrella, where we do
like we can target so manydifferent things and that's how
we learned it in grad school.
Like the speech umbrella youhave, yes, helping kids speak
correctly because they have thesound errors, then they're hard
to understand.
Um, that goes under likearticulation and phonology,
because there's some patternsand there's some letter
recognition and phonemicawareness that they don't have
(05:11):
and that's just like in onelittle segment.
And then we have more likegrammar and syntax, where they
don't use the correct verbtenses or leave the S at the end
of plurals and using thecorrect pronouns for certain
things.
Like it's a whole language isjust such a huge.
There's so many things inlanguage and then we can talk
(05:32):
about like social skills andsocial language and the
pragmatic stuff andcomprehension questions, and
speech and language is a huge.
We have a huge scope ofpractice is the short answer to
that.
And and yes, most of the timewhen people think speech like oh
, it's just sound errors, right,or my kid doesn't speak at all,
(05:54):
like it's just like those twothings and that's it.
And that's where we first comein and I like to say, like
speech language pathologists arelike the gatekeepers.
Because that's yeah, seriously,because when you first see a
kid in kindergarten becauseluckily this school district
does mass screeners for pre Kand kindergarten, so we do get
to see these kids like reallyearly on, and the first thing
(06:16):
that we see is like, oh, there'sa need in speech or language or
both at the same time.
And we do look at fluency,which is like stuttering and
stuff like that, and we dolisten to your voice and your
nasality, because there's can besome structural things going on
in there, but not that we cansee, but we can hear it.
And we can then tell parentslike, hey, you might want to go
(06:38):
see an ENT for this or you know,but like that's why I say we're
like the gatekeepers, becausewe get to see these kids first
and then we can help parents andrefer them out and see where
they need to go from there.
Does that answer that question?
Absolutely it does nasality.
Speaker 1 (06:57):
I think that's gonna be the name of my next band,
nasality, right opening formetallica you can't talk like
that.
Speaker 2 (07:06):
if your band's nasality though, You're going to
have to talk like me.
Speaker 1 (07:09):
Okay, well, I'll do my best.
Speaker 2 (07:14):
So, talking about the mass screenings, what do you
typically find that is the mostcommon speech and language
challenge for our elementary agestudents.
Speaker 3 (07:26):
A lot of these kids have never received services
before, so like they've neverreceived early intervention at
all.
And then we catch them in pre-Kor we catch them in
kindergarten, because some kidshere in Georgia there's a pre-K
lottery and not everyone gets in, so then we don't really see
them until kindergarten, sothat's like a whole like we
(07:46):
don't see them until they'refive years old.
You still have from birth tofive, and they're just behind on
their sounds, or they're behindon, you know, following simple
directions or stating opposites,you know, or they don't know
their colors or their letters ortheir letter sounds.
There's like so many thingsthat we catch in kindergarten
(08:08):
from these mass screeners andwhen we tell parents like, hey,
they, you know, they failed thisarea of the language screener,
we're going to recommend someinterventions and we'll see how
those interventions go.
If the data comes back wherethey haven't made progress,
we're going to move up and thenwe might recommend even testing.
And some parents get caught offguard when you, when you tell
(08:32):
them this you know, right, yeah.
Speaker 1 (08:37):
I think one of the things that we see often and I'm
sure you do too is that there'skind of this natural response
by parents.
I'm going to call it naturalbecause I think we do see it
often that there's this kind ofpushback because you're telling
me there's something wrong withmy child and, oddly enough,
(08:58):
while it is, while we arepinpointing certain areas that
they need some assistance in,the help and the extra support
that they're going to get canhelp them to succeed.
And so it's not a you have abroken child, let us fix you.
It's a hey.
Here's some things that we cando to help better position your
(09:21):
child for success to help betterposition your child for success
, and there's probably someguilt there too.
Speaker 2 (09:27):
Like you said, it's not till kindergarten.
Sometimes the parents might say, oh well, why didn't I catch
this?
But that kind of brings me backto what Ms McMillan said.
Well, we've gone to school forthis.
We've been trained how to lookfor these things where parents
have not.
So I shouldn't feel bad aboutthat, and I would think that the
(09:54):
parents would kind of youprobably have a broad spectrum
or not a broad spectrum, liketwo polar opposites.
So you probably either have thepushback or the parents are
like do everything you need todo.
There's probably not a wholelot in the middle.
Speaker 3 (10:08):
No, I completely agree, and I was going to say
that, like some parents are likewhat my child has what, or
they're having issues with what,and then they, you know, I'm
like, hey, you can ask mewhatever you want, like call me,
email me and we can go fromthere.
But I was like this these are.
(10:30):
I try to inform them as much aspossible of the process, like
from screener to like evaluation, to after, if they need an IEP
and stuff like that.
I explain the whole process andand I also tell them, like you
know, depending on what it isright, if it's like articulation
, phonology, like our goal is tohopefully have them graduated
by the time they go to middleschool, like that is our goal,
you know.
Um, there's other kids, ofcourse, that would have to be in
speech a little bit longer, butthere's certain goals that we
(10:52):
tailor to each kid, that we tryto meet them, and some kids get
to be in speeches for a littlebit because they've met, you
know, that gap, and then we getto dismiss them, and then some
kids that just need a little bitmore time, and then parents
that gives parents a little bitmore time also to come to the
idea, you know that.
Or they have speech, but youknow, maybe there's something
else going on too.
And then so luckily, in thiscounty we've had parents where
(11:17):
they've been very supportive ofif anything, like yeah, if they
need to pull out more, like,yeah, let's do it.
Oh, do I need to go to thedoctor?
I'm like, yeah, that's a greatidea.
Always talk to yourpediatrician if you have
concerns.
That's where they catch themfirst.
They're supposed to be doingdevelopmental screeners every so
often and those screenersanswer them, you know,
(11:37):
truthfully.
And that's when they flagcertain things and they tell you
, hey, we should probably referyour child to speech or
occupational therapy or PT.
Um, and I think some parentsdon't always answer those um a
hundred percent truthfully.
Or you know they're like, oh,yeah, they do them, then do it,
but then they might not do it inpublic.
You know there's just a wholelot of different things that go
(12:00):
into it, but yeah, Right, um,and like I said, I didn't.
Speaker 2 (12:07):
I didn't understand it when mine were in elementary
school and you talked about theinterventions and you start with
the interventions and then seewhere that goes.
So talk to us a little bitabout that intervention.
What is it?
How do you tailor thoseinterventions to meet the
(12:27):
students' needs?
Is it something you do?
Do the teachers do it,everybody do it.
Speaker 3 (12:32):
Yeah.
So it's so funny because eachstate has their own process of
RTI or MTSS, now that it'scalled.
Each state is different.
Okay, and I I worked in threedifferent states, so
particularly in this state ofGeorgia and in this county, the
way we do that they miss.
Let's just say it'scomprehension questions or WH
(13:07):
questions.
Then we tell the teacher like,hey, are you seeing this in the
classroom too?
And they're like, yeah, like hehas, they have a really hard
time answering basic questions.
We're like, okay, cool.
So then we write a data sheetwith certain, you know, say
student will answer whatquestions, and you know three
(13:28):
out of five opportunities orsomething like that, and we
provide a whole packet to theteachers to do them in the
classroom.
So the teacher will go aheadand pull that student in small
group and provide thoseinterventions and collect data.
And that usually takes about.
You know, we try to do sixweeks and then check in and then
(13:48):
if they haven't made anyprogress and sometimes we're
like, and sometimes we can tellwith years of experience if kids
need to continue in the tiersor if we just need to go ahead
and do a straight languageevaluation then we're like, okay
, this is enough to support that.
We need to go to have astraight speech and language
eval and get parent consent, andfrom there we go ahead and test
(14:08):
them.
But once we get consent, wehave to have a passing vision
and hearing, because we can'tcontinue testing unless those
two things have passed.
So then that's how the processwill go.
Speaker 2 (14:21):
Okay, I'm just listening.
I'm like, hey, I'm down with it.
Yeah, so you also talked abouta lot of times.
The pediatricians are supposedto be kind of catching the.
You know, maybe we need speech,maybe we need OT, maybe we need
(14:42):
PT.
So if a child is gettingoutside services, can they still
get in-school services?
Absolutely.
Speaker 1 (14:54):
Is it the same thing?
Speaker 3 (14:57):
Yes and no.
You get services by speechlanguage pathologists who's been
trained and licensed versus byspeech language pathologist
who's been trained and licensed.
Um, the only difference is inspeech, like in school, we
tailor it more to school settingand then private speech is more
like a functional you know,life's like functional skills
for life um so, um, so, yeah,sometimes both of those line up.
(15:21):
So sometimes we might have verysimilar goals.
But if you have a student who'slike private speech and you
have a school speech, we look atthe private speech eval.
But we try to have our goals alittle bit different, for
insurance purposes, from theprivate setting.
They don't want them to match.
So we have to change ours alittle bit in the school setting
(15:45):
.
Speaker 2 (15:46):
Is it beneficial for them to have outside and inside
in school therapy?
Speaker 3 (15:51):
I would say the more the merrier, because in school
we only have a certain amount oftime during the day and you
know, depending on it, we mightsee kids two times a week,
sometimes one time a week and ifparents want, you know, to
progress a little bit more, theyneed, or some kids are very
severe, they just need thatextra time and the schools.
Unfortunately we can't giveyour kids speech therapy five
(16:13):
days a week Because we see likeover 100 and something kids,
versus in private practice youhave a clinician who only sees
like 20 kids, you know, orsomething like that.
They can see them two times aweek, three times a week, as
long as your insurance covers it.
So I say the more the merrier.
Speaker 1 (16:34):
Well, I've always like one of the things I think I
said this last time too, thoughand my dad's always said for
years and years and years youcan never over communicate, and
so I guess getting support tolearn to communicate is equally
beneficial as much as you canget it Because you know, like we
were saying earlier, it's realeasy to hear speech and think,
okay, you're teaching somebodyhow to talk, but it really
(16:56):
doesn't encompass all ofcommunication, what comes out of
the child's mouth as well aswhat goes into their ears and
what they process, and so Ithink it's safe to say that.
You know it's okay to ask thequestions and ask the
pediatrician and to talk aboutall different, because I know
(17:18):
we've worked together a lot.
You mentioned the WH questions.
A lot of our population that wework with.
They really struggle with that,you know.
I don't know how many times, youknow I ask I'll ask a student
how this or where this, and getthe answer yes and no, and it
just doesn't quite match up,because there's this processing
(17:39):
delay that's coming, you know,from the person saying you know,
once it hits their ears andtravels to their brain, there's
some things going on there thatare kind of causing speed bumps
(18:00):
and so, and so, yeah, I mean, weas parents, as teachers, talk
to whoever it is that you wantto talk to, that is in that
field, and allow them to assistyou.
Because one thing that I knowI've learned over my 20 years of
having a son with autism isthat you got to ask questions,
(18:22):
like there is no shame in notknowing, and so, yeah, if
there's any question whatsoever,please contact your, your local
authorities.
Where did that come from?
Like that just rolled up in myhead, but it doesn't even make
sense well, I mean authorities,not necessary police officers,
but the local authorities on.
(18:42):
See, I like how you try to helpme because sometimes I hear
myself talk and I just want toflog myself.
Local authorities on.
See, I like how you try to helpme, because sometimes I hear
myself talk and I just want toflog myself.
Anyway, I'm sorry, go ahead.
Speaker 2 (18:55):
Well, and, as Miss Allie said, the importance of
early interventions.
If they can catch this beforethey get to pre-K or
kindergarten, before they'refour or five years old, what's
the benefits of that, miss Ellie?
Speaker 3 (19:10):
Well, I mean, we just see, like with any early
intervention, the quicker theyget it, you see progress also at
a better rate.
You know, I know sometimes kidsare very unique and each kid
has its own challenge and theirown rate of you know progress.
So I can't just say a blanketstatement.
But if you catch it early, youget more help earlier.
(19:33):
Right, parents are moreinformed earlier.
They can seek out more help,more support groups If they need
to.
They can do their own researchahead of time too.
Um, they can work with theirown child at home as well.
But usually what we see is, withthe early intervention,
depending on what area of speech, they make progress at a
quicker rate and then they don'thave to be in speech for their
(19:56):
whole life.
For some of the kids, you knowand it's not all of them because
, like I said, there's so manydiagnoses out there A lot of
kids just progress at adifferent rate and their
severity is very different.
So I just think earlyintervention is good so we can
get these kids communicating theway they're going to
(20:19):
communicate, because we havesome communicators that are not
verbal communicators but they'redifferent communicators and
what we like to, you know, Ilike to say use your preferred
communication method, right Signlanguage.
It can be pictures, what wecall PECs, a picture exchange
communication system, where it'slike a certain picture and you
put it on a board, or you canput it on certain things or on
(20:43):
buttons, and they just use that.
Or, you know, if it's a morehigh-tech communication system,
it can be like an AAC device youknow, and I, you know, a tablet
.
You know there's different waysof communicating, just not just
a verbal way as well.
Speaker 2 (20:59):
Are there any strategies that you have found
that or technique that you foundthat will help the students
develop their own preferredmethod of communication?
Speaker 3 (21:11):
So I try everything.
I think honestly I do.
We start with, you know, signsfirst, right, everyone, baby
signs are amazing and great.
You start with those and if thekid takes off, you continue and
then you start introducingpictures.
You, the kid takes off, youcontinue and then you start
introducing pictures.
You know, it's like kind oflike a tier you know, baby signs
, because signs and gestures arethere.
(21:32):
Then you go with pictures andthen you can do like a button
where it's pushing and then yougo ahead and do like a tablet
and then hopefully from thereit's hopefully verbal right,
because all parents want theirkids, if they're nonverbal, to
eventually be verbal.
Everyone's like parents go andI'm like, yes, that's obviously
my goal too.
(21:53):
However, sometimes it takes along time to get to the verbal
part and we need something inthe meantime.
Speaker 2 (22:02):
Right.
Speaker 3 (22:03):
And those other communication systems.
Helps, because it helps reducefrustrations on both ends you
know the kids and the parents.
Then, because the parents arejust doing 21 questions or or,
luckily, some parents are so intuned with their kid that they
just know like hey, he's lookingthis way, this is what he?
Wants you know, or they know, acertain tone and all that.
(22:24):
He wants this you know, parentsare just so in tune with their
kid that they don't even usecommunication systems.
And then you have to educatethem on the benefits of using a
communication system.
So it's a lot of education thatwe do.
Speaker 2 (22:40):
Right, well, and I know we talked, when we talked
to Marley last week about this,and so Xander, didn't?
We, as we were uneducated,thought that it would hinder him
becoming verbal.
What can you tell us about that?
Speaker 3 (23:27):
him becoming verbal.
What can you tell us about that?
Yes, and that's a very commonfeeling that a lot of parents
have.
Like, every time I present thatto them, they're like oh no,
like, no, this is going to makethem stop speaking.
They're not going to want tospeak, and I always have to show
them like an example.
I'm like, well, does your kidlike watch a video on the TV, on
YouTube, and just imitate that.
And they're like, yeah, I'm like, well, that's the same concept,
but in a smaller screen andmore functional, right, because
(23:50):
you they see, and I'm just goingto say, like kids on the
spectrum, right, they see, let'ssay a video or let's just say a
show on TV, and they will mimicthat.
They this is called gestaltlanguage, so they just phrase
and then they just keep sayingit and they use it in everyday
language and they'll say it.
So they're imitating that stuff.
So why not give them a tabletthat has language already in it,
(24:14):
set up for them to besuccessful, for a functional
communication language for themto use?
So it has some buds, like Iwant juice, you know, please,
like, help me, like you know, toget those core language, like
core language words and stufflike that in their vocabulary so
(24:34):
they can use it and they you'llbe amazed at so many kids that
will push it and then later onsome kids like will immediately
push the button and then imitateit.
Some kids will just push it andthey are so happy that you just
know what they want.
So eventually it does help withtheir vocabulary and their
(24:55):
expressive language.
Speaker 1 (24:57):
That was a fantastic way to describe it, because I
would never have thought.
I mean, we see kids withelectronic devices all the time
and they'll say the same thingsthat their favorite YouTuber or
whatever says, and they'll justrepeat it over and over and it's
like oh, wow, yeah, whywouldn't they do that with this
device, Especially as they learn.
(25:18):
Hey, when I say what this issaying or when this says what I
want it to say, oftentimes I canget what I want and then, like
you said, at the very least Iknow I'm being understood and
that's huge.
So one time we were leaving ouroldest son's house.
He lives down in Ocean Way,Jacksonville, whatever it is.
(25:40):
Anyway, we're leaving his houseand I'm driving and Xander's in
the back seat and Laura's inthe passenger seat, and we drive
down the road and we come tothe road where we need to take a
right.
Well, there's about two or threeJeeps that pass by and then I
pull in behind them.
And you know, I am not sayingthat people need to speed.
(26:01):
What I do ask is that you atleast come close to the speed
limit, close to it.
So I'm behind these Jeeps,they're not doing the speed
limit and so I'm like you knowwhat?
It's time for me to pass them.
So I stomp on the gas, we passthem, and from the back seat I
hear, oh, you need to calm down.
I mean like a whole sentence ofXander, Xander, what are you
(26:25):
talking?
Because he's seen that on, Ithink one of his movies, Was it
Shrek I think it might have been.
Shrek, but yeah, and that's whatcame out and he understood the
context of it and he used itproperly.
Yeah, but so now take that ideaand, like you said, this device
is repeating these words everyday.
(26:46):
I'm hearing it every day andI'm starting to repeat them and
just the freedom that that cangive any child that struggles
with communicating, that's areally—I've never thought about
it that way.
Speaker 2 (27:10):
Well, like we talked last week with Marley, and she
shares, she works with us.
Miss Ellie knows Carson as welland the difference is made in
his life and his one.
His frustration level has goneway down.
Two, his communication has goneway up and the kid's
conjugating verbs on his tablet.
It's like oh, my goodness, soit's not.
(27:31):
You know, these devices aren'tjust like you were saying, it's
not just I want juice.
They can have conversationswith people, with them.
Speaker 3 (27:43):
And we've seen academic progress as well, and
so yeah, and you know there'sother disorders out there that
your language, you might becognitively there and then later
on your regress.
You know, like Stephen Hawking,you know and you are so
brilliant and so smart and thenyour language, your ability to
speak, is gone.
(28:04):
But it's all in your brain.
You just need something to helpyou express it.
And he would use acommunication system, absolutely
.
I was like I forget what he had,like ALS or whatever, and all
his limbs and ability were lost.
But he could eye gaze, you know, and there's so many different
devices out there Like you useeye gazing, or you can use like
(28:25):
a um, a little toggle with,toggle with your hands and you
can move things around, orthere's one with your mouth
where you can blow and certainamount of movement moves, and
there's so many things out there.
So it's just, it doesn't hinder, it just opens up a whole world
for people who just can'tverbally express it.
Speaker 1 (28:47):
Well, and I think we can all.
Well, I don't say I think wecan all agree.
I'm not a big fan of thestatement that everybody should
have a voice, because there'speople that I hear talk
sometimes and I think to myselfI don't, I don't want to hear
you anymore.
But I will say this when itcomes to our kids and it comes
to their development, justproviding a voice can make a
(29:08):
night and day difference intheir lives, in your life, and
so I would again highlyrecommend, if there's any
question, talk to your teachers,talk to your doctors, and I
also know this is that it is somuch easier to teach somebody to
do something than it is toun-teach them the wrong way and
(29:30):
then try to re-teach.
And so I think that goes alongwith what you were saying, miss
Ellie, about the earlyintervention as soon as possible
, and don't do not allow prideto get in the way.
It's okay to walk up to somebodythat knows about that stuff and
say I don't have a clue.
That's what we're there for,that's what we want to hear, and
(29:52):
I love the fact that I can goto other people and say that
very same thing.
I have no idea what I'msupposed to do in this situation
?
Any direction would help.
So where are we at?
I mean, I know where we're at,it's just I was looking at our.
Speaker 2 (30:12):
Our cheat sheet.
Our cheat sheet yeah Well, yeah, I mentioned earlier about how
our kids love going to see MissEllie.
They hate leaving her room.
She gets on the floor and shemeets them where they are.
She gets on the floor and shemeets them where they are.
One of the things that MissEllie is fantastic at doing is
we're incorporating our kids'interests into their therapy
(30:32):
sessions and to help keep themengaged and motivated.
Can you talk a little bit aboutthat, miss Ellie?
Speaker 3 (30:40):
Yeah, it's taken me some time right, experience that
one out.
But, um, because when firststarting off from, you know,
grad school I've been in thisnow for eight years but for
starting off, I'm like, oh,we're going to do X, y and Z
because this is what the, youknow, assessment says and this
is what we're going to do, andwe're going to write goals this
(31:01):
way.
And you have a kid come in andthey're like, and like they
don't want to answer WHquestions.
I'm like, oh, what am I gonnado?
Like, how can I get this kidengaged?
And some, you know, some kidsare super easy.
We're like, hey, we're doingthis, and you know, and other
kids are just not interested inthe task at all.
(31:22):
So what I've learned from allthe years is establishing a good
report.
So, like the first couple ofsessions, I just get to know the
kids.
So I, you know, I ask them, hey, like, what do you like?
Like, tell me about this, tellme that you know.
(31:43):
If they're able to, um, andthey can, then I figure out ways
to incorporate those likes intospeech therapy.
So it might be like one kid, um, is obsessed with mario and um,
I'm like okay, how can I putmario into speech therapy, um,
so we've done a system where I'mlike, hey, let's work on this,
(32:06):
let's have Mario.
Sometimes I have a printout ofMario and we move them across
the board and he has to answereach question and as he answers
these questions he moves on tothe next and at the very end he
gets to color the Mario and takeit home.
Um, so that's one way, but someof the kids who can't tell me
what they want or need is that'swhen you find me on the floor
(32:27):
playing with them.
Um, I I like to say I'm childled, a child led therapist, so
it's what they like.
I use that and incorporate itinto therapy where they don't
really know that they're givingyou know therapy.
They just think, oh, oh, we'replaying, we're having fun.
What'd you do today?
(32:47):
We just played, just play.
Guys like your parents aregonna think that's all we do.
But that's kind of how I getthem to engage in therapy, want
to come to therapy, and thosekids are non-verbal.
I'm on the ground and I pullout all these toys, like I pull
out one toy and see if they like, and if they don't take it out,
(33:08):
here's another toy until I findone that they really like and
I'm like, yes, okay, I can buildmy rapport, my connection with
this kid, off of this one thing.
And that's kind of what I'vebeen, you know, using and it's
kind of been really helpfulbecause they're more, like I
said, eager when they see me,they want to come and then they
(33:30):
stay and they willing to do thework.
Um, and then, you know, get tokick them out.
You still got to go.
Don't want to leave, like yousaid, and and for those that
don't, because transitions canbe hard you know I put a timer
on, I'm like, hey, when thistimer's up, that means what and
(33:51):
they all know.
Like what's been really helpfultoo is having like set rules and
you set them at the verybeginning of the year, at the
very beginning of each session.
I have my speech room rulesthat I go over with every single
new kid that I get and theydon't change.
I'm like this is the same atthe beginning of the year,
middle of the year, end of theyear.
I do not change.
(34:12):
Consistency in that, and theyknow.
And a big thing too in speechis like behavior.
You wouldn't think that wewould have to deal with
behaviors, but we have to dealwith a lot of behaviors and not
just kids who have otherdiagnosis.
Sometimes these kids are justspeech only kids and they have
(34:32):
severe behaviors too.
Incorporating like a rewardsystem has also been very
helpful.
I have a treasure box and I uselike a punch card and I'm like,
if you do all your work, youfollow my rules, you get a hole
(34:52):
punch.
And I'm like, eight holepunches is a treasure box.
And they seem to be verymotivated by that and and I tell
them like, hey, you, you didn'tfollow my rules today, you're
not going to get one and theyknow like, oh, I'm so sorry.
I'm so sorry, miss Sally, I'mlike next time let's try to do
it next time.
So I think those key things are.
(35:13):
What I've learned that workedfor me across the years is kind
of how I get them to engage anddo the stuff and meet them where
they're at too.
Speaker 2 (35:23):
And it seems like that those good strategies help
you overcome those obstacles.
Like you said, the behaviors orthe not knowing how to
communicate Are there.
Do you have any other?
Are those your major obstaclesor do you have other obstacles
when working with them?
Speaker 3 (35:44):
No, there I mean, there's a lot of obstacles that
sometimes are new obstacles thatI've never seen in my life.
I'm like, oh, this is a new oneand I have to figure it out.
And what helps is theirteachers too.
I go to them like, hey, I can'tfigure out what they like.
I've tried everything.
(36:04):
And I also talk to theirparents too.
And then that's when I get alist of things like oh, they
like this and this at home.
Or the teacher's like hey, I'vereally noticed that they like
this.
And they give me ideas on what Ican use and pull, and sometimes
I have to go out and get somestuff just for a particular
(36:24):
student, who become a challengein figuring it out.
Um, so I would say I use, I usethe parents input on the child,
I use the teachers.
Like there's a specific kidthat we work with that sometimes
I feel like I got them down andthen and then they changed next
week and they don't likeanything.
Speaker 2 (36:46):
Yeah, and that collaboration is important and
as part of when we share ourstudents, you're part of our
team as a teacher, as a generaleducation teacher, and the
parents and any other serviceproviders, and that
collaboration is is importantbecause I know there's times
(37:07):
you've come to me and said hey,so-and-so, really did great in
this today and I said, do whatthey can do what.
And so you know, knowing,sharing, sharing those ideas are
key to serving those studentsthe way they effectively,
(37:27):
because it takes all of us.
Speaker 3 (37:30):
Yeah, no, I agree, and I like, like after I have a
session, I always like to talkto you guys or their teachers
and tell them how they did orwhat they did that day, Kind of
on the same page, and that seemsto be very, very helpful, you
know, for the student and thenyou know for our relationship to
build to upon.
I think that really, reallyhelps in the collaborative
(37:52):
setting.
Speaker 1 (37:53):
So, Miss Ellie, if you could only say one thing to
all three of our listeners thatwould stand the test of time,
what would it be?
What would be your one majorpiece of advice?
Speaker 3 (38:07):
Become a speech therapist.
Speaker 2 (38:11):
We definitely need them.
All the cool kids are doing it.
Speaker 3 (38:14):
Oh no, I mean, I guess for parents you know, if
you have a gut feeling orsomething like that, just go
seek out help, go to yourpediatrician with your concerns,
ask around, find thoseresources.
Early intervention, like I said, is the best you know.
I guess for parents that wouldbe my first one For teachers,
(38:39):
talk to your speech therapist.
If you just have a concern on acertain child and you're not
really sure if it's speechrelated or something else, you
know we're always available andwe have so much information and
knowledge that we can share andwe're willing to share because
we love to talk.
Speaker 2 (38:57):
While you got into it right.
Speaker 3 (39:00):
So like if a teacher would say, hey, if you have a
concern or question, like come,come see us and we can tell you
which way to go, and if we needto screen them, we'll do this
and we'll go X, y and Z, sothat's.
And if someone's out there like, oh, I don't know what to do
with my life, you know, I say,oh, speech therapy is a great
career path.
Speaker 2 (39:27):
I even, I think that we even had one of our
administrators say man, I thinkI chose the wrong thing.
Speaker 1 (39:29):
Maybe I need to go be a speech teacher.
Well, what's great, though, is,at the end of the day you know
all of these titles we all docome together the parents, the
SLPs, ptot, the teachers we allcome together for the benefit of
that child.
Nobody's driving home in theirFerraris or anything like that.
(39:50):
We are all about seeing theprogress of these kids and see
them become everything that theypossibly can and get the most
out of life.
Miss Ellie, thank you so muchfor hanging out with us.
Speaker 2 (40:03):
We're going to wrap up this conversation and one
more thing Like we said lastweek, don't forget this month
and part of next month they havethe AAC programs.
Yes, Some of them up to halfoff.
We posted the flyer on socialmedia.
Speaker 1 (40:25):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (40:26):
And we'll probably share it again after this one
comes out Little secret.
Speaker 1 (40:31):
Miss Ellie was the one that showed us that.
Speaker 2 (40:34):
She's the one that gave us that.
We don't tell anybody.
I know I told you so muchinformation she does.
She's got a wealth ofinformation.
Speaker 1 (40:43):
All right.
Well, thank you again, missEllie, and we will talk to you
later.
Speaker 2 (40:49):
All right.
Speaker 1 (40:49):
Well, thank you again , miss Ellie, and we will talk
to you later.
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