A day in the life of a Speech Language Pathologist

This picture is from 2 years ago. A student wrote "I love Miss. D." My students steal my heart every day. I am so blessed to see them learn and to see them grow. The classroom teacher sees them every day for a year. I see them 1-2 times a week, but I have been working with some of the same students for 3 years.

Today a student was asking me if I'd rather be in school or have a job. I told him I have the best of both worlds with my job. I get a paycheck but follow a school schedule. But that's not why I love my job.

I have a lot of fun interacting with my students and listening to them. Kids love to talk; I think it's very important that they have an audience, even if it's an audience of one. Being heard is important. I enjoy listening to my students, even if I cannot understand them.

So what do I do all day? I really do play all day in between the paperwork, testing, report writing, and scheduling of meetings (and rescheduling; of 7 scheduled meetings this week, only 4 occurred).

I watched a group of first graders play with toys and describe elaborate scenarios. I listened to them tell me all about transformers and Optimus Prime. I helped a group of second grade students write each step of their soccer trick. I played Uno with a group of third grade boys working on producing their speech sounds spontaneously. I played Guess Who with a 7th grade student. I showed a few yoga poses to a group of 4th and 5th grade boys but found it more effective when one of the students taught the poses.

A student gave me a Tweety silly band.

I worked with a 6th grade student who seemed to be having an off day.

I took orders from a first grade student as he asked me to put the envelope I needed him to give to his mom in his cubby. I laughed as I let him delegate. Perhaps one day he will be a manager or CEO.

I was asked a question to which I didn't know the answer. I wish I could remember the question; this student always has a question.

I watch these students grow, and I pray to God that He uses me to help them.