A Letter to Me...as a New SLP-A Frenzied SLP Linky

What better time to reflect on a career in Speech-Language Pathology than Better Hearing and Speech Month! This year heralds my 34th year in this field and it has been a storied career. It's hard for me to even imagine that it is winding down. I still have at least four years to work, but I can see the light at the end of the tunnel.

I love the way the Frenzied SLPs arrive at topics to write about. Individually, we are struck with a thought or idea and announce, "I have an idea! What do you think about...?"  One day I was reflecting and I thought, "What would I say to a younger me?" Here we are sharing our letters to our younger selves. I started working in the schools at 22 years of age. I had a bachelor's degree, and that's all I needed at the time. I worked for year and decided I should go back to school for a master's degree. I never gave much thought to the fact that some day I would be a veteran able to impart some wisdom to my younger self.

Dear Annie,
You did it! You managed to graduate with a BA with honors. You were accepted into Kappa Delta Pi, an International Honor Society in Education and were the secretary of your school's chapter. You were the VP of the Speech Pathology Club. And yet, girl, you played it safe. You let your reservations, your loss drive the bus (oh yeah, you literally drove the bus that was a mobile classroom).

I want you to know how competent you are. I want you to know the professional you will grow to become. You have awesome and creative ideas, act on them! Take risks my friend. Stretch yourself and grow, grow, grow. Know you are respected and loved. Learn to listen, sooner rather than later, to your colleagues and the parents of the children you are called to share your life with.

There is a memorable quote from It's a Wonderful Life, "Youth is wasted on the young." You are a passionate and funny young woman, but you think you know it all. I'm writing to tell you, you don't. Is it because you're young or is it to cover for insecurity? Perhaps it's both. Be gentle with your opinions and be gentle with yourself.

Take care of your health. Don't stay out too late, don't drink and drive, lose the diet pills and eat some food. This body is the one that is going to carry and nourish your children. This body is the one that is going to run 3 half marathons. This body is the one that is going to comfort sweet school children. This body will dance at weddings, hike mountains, and God willing live a long life. I don't like what you're doing with it.

I have so much to tell you, this letter could be a book. I think I need to find the one greatest piece of advice I can muster. You have suffered so much, but you have also known love and happiness. Remember, you are not a victim! Your choices define your destiny. The greatest advice I can give you, is to know where your value comes from and where it doesn't come from.

• It does not come from your family.
• It does not come from your professors.
• It does not come from your administrators.
• It does not come from your colleagues.
• It does not come from your friends.
• It does not come from ASHA.
• It does not come from your students or their parents.

Your value comes solely and exclusively from you. It comes from your actions and your words. Your value is about you and you were created by the Master artist for good and beautiful work. You are a creation that will touch so many lives with love and humor. Know the gift you have to connect people and bring a group to a place of love. Understand this. It has taken me a lifetime to to say out loud, "I love you!"

With love for who you were, who you are, and who you will become,

Annie

An InLinkz Link-up

The Rockin' Tale of Snow White Meets CCC-SLP

Well it seems I have taken the month of April off from blogging. It wasn’t intentional (it usually isn’t, is it?). Spring in New England isn’t really the stuff of spring. There are glimpses here and there, but overall it is dreary. I expect spring to be chirping birds and daffodils and unfortunately in New England late March and early April often are chilly, sometimes snowy, and generally muddy. I guess I was in a funk.

I did have something fun and new to keep my mind off the lack of spring warmth, a play! I wasn’t performing this time, I was assistant directing our middle school play. A very different activity for me, but one I felt well suited for given my background in speech-language pathology. As I embarked on this challenge I was reminded of how theater and speech-language pathology are interrelated. In fact, I recalled thirty-three years ago when I was a graduate assistant. I had nearly forgotten that my time was split between two departments, communication sciences and disorders and speech and theater. How could I forget that? In working to help our students give a spectacular performance I was so happy to have a background in articulation, anatomy and physiology, voice, and social pragmatics. Here is how this all played out:

• Articulation - I was dumbstruck by the number of girls who dentalized everything. Not only that, they didn’t voice /d/s and /z/s! They seemed to want to sound like all the Disney pop stars. On the other hand, some of the kids over-articulated their lines to the point where they sounded forced. Neither of those practises translates well to the stage and I was able to help them achieve better placement of their articulators for lines and singing.
• Voice – The other piece of sounding like a Disney pop star is nasality. WHEW! We worked on establishing oral resonance when singing, but they always went back to Disney pop. I was also able to help our actors learn how to use their larger muscles as a basis of support for voice volume and projection and with the music director’s expertise how to adequately use breath support for both volume and pitch. We helped them recognize the difference between shouting while singing and supporting. We worked on appropriate rate and helped them understand that during performances when all that adrenaline was surging they had the potential to go even faster. 
• Social-Pragmatics – This was the really fun piece: acting. My background in social was extremely helpful here. We talked about eye contact and body position on stage, remembering to never turn backs to the audience, but rather “cheating” out a tad. We worked heavily on not sending a mixed message. For instance, learning how not to laugh when telling the king that his wife has died or actually smiling when happy. By the same token, I helped the actors understand that it’s crucial to use a tone of voice that reflects the sentiment of the line that is being delivered. So if you are an evil queen you need to use a tone of voice and body language that is wholly evil. Performing in a play, like role playing in therapy, is a great opportunity for students to practice perspective taking in a non threatening and fun situation. It provides students the ability to stretch themselves as well as to consider the perspective of the other characters. I recall watching Robin Hood Prince of Thieves starring Kevin Costner. While overall I enjoyed the film, I was disappointed in Kevin Costner’s British accent. It seemed sometimes it was there and sometimes it wasn’t. Maintaining the integrity of the character played is as much a part of social as it is acting. We all assume different roles in different social scenarios. The work Annie is different from the home Annie who is different from the party Annie. They are all me, but they shift according to the scenario and other “actors.” This was a fun perspective to help our middle school actors understand. They still had to maintain their characters, but their character could shift as the context and other actors shifted in different scenes. 

The role of assistant director was new for me and I thank Monique for showing me what a good director does, as I performed in her plays. It was a wonderful distraction from my spring melancholy and despite being a ton of work was a fabulous experience, one I hope to have again.
Reflecting back, my colleagues and I had, what I consider, the perfect quantities of let’s make this good and let’s make this fun. We remembered when to be firm and when to laugh, when to remember this had to be performed and when to remember these are kids. We brought our own unique talents and strengths and I think we complemented each other perfectly. I am so grateful for my professional background, because without that expertise I think I may have missed the why behind the what in theater!