Love Hurts

Valentine's Day is quickly approaching and thoughts turn to flowers, chocolates, jewelry and oh yes, sadness, disappointment, expectations. The Frenzied SLPs thought we would explore Valentine's Day from a different perspective; that of the SLP and how there are times "love hurts" quite literally.

If you are anything like me you take your job to heart. In fact, you view it as so much more than a job. It is a passion, a choice, so when a student or client goes for the soft white underbelly, it hurts. I have been clawed, kicked, scratched, bitten, insulted, belittled, and mocked. Ahhhh, memories! It's no wonder I go back to work!


Back in 1986 or 87 I was fresh out of graduate school and a newly ASHA certified SLP. The world was my oyster and I felt pretty good about the direction my life was heading. I was working in an inner city in a primary school, only K-2. There were 12 kindergartens in that school in addition to 7 each of first and second and four self-contained special education classes. I had over 80 students on my caseload, but I was young and idealistic.


I had one feisty little girl who was physically and verbally aggressive. One day she was in a particularly foul mood and was not having any speech therapy. I cajoled and encouraged and did my speechy thing when all of a sudden she hauled off and swung at me. I was 26 years old and fairly quick so I was able to move back. Unbeknownst to me she had wound up with another shot with the other hand and landed a closed fist punch on my jaw. That was followed up with some very colorful language. You can fill in the blanks, "_ucko a_hole!" Remember, however to substitute /th/ for /s/. This one screamed all the way to the principal's office, "Miss Polizzi's a b_____," (again, insert lisp, it makes me laugh).


At the time I was devastated. My jaw hurt, because she packed a wallop, my heart was broken and my confidence shattered. It was the first time I had been so physically and emotionally abused by a child. Sadly it wouldn't be the last time.


I learned from this experience though. I learned that for me it was over quickly. For a parent it is day in and day out and I have to remain compassionate about their lives with children who have behavior difficulties. I learned that when a child acts out it is never about me, but more likely something that happened at home or in another class or a thought or feeling that I have no control over. I learned that neurology is HUGE and sometimes these children are not making a conscious choice to be confrontational! I have learned that more often than not the trauma a child experiences happens from birth to age five, and it will impact them forever. These are the children with addiction and substance abuse issues, diabetes, heart conditions, anxiety and so much more. Their trauma makes them sick, literally. I learned I may be one of only handful of people who is kind to them on any given day.


While I can look back on this experience and chuckle and like the Rain Man, add it to my book of personal injuries, I often wonder what happened to this little girl. She would be 37 years old and may be a parent (or grandparent) herself. She may have continued the cycle or she may have healed. I pray for the latter, as I do for all my students with behavioral challenges, every night. Yes, love hurts. But it is only temporary.

How about you? When has #SLP Love Hurt? How did you deal with it? The Frenzied SLPs would love you to link up and share your experiences.

An InLinkz Link-up

Groundhogs, 100th Day of School, Super Bowl, Chinese New Year, Mardi Gras, Valentines, AND Leap Year!!

It's crazy! February is the shortest month of the year and it is chock full of holidays! Add to the holiday frenzy our winter break and we have three weeks to holiday it up! As I have made very clear I love to milk a theme. It makes lesson planning easy and therapy fun and different.

To "add a little lemon juice to the paper cut," as they say, I currently have ELEVEN evaluations in progress, our NHSLHA Spring Conference to help plan, a Medicaid in-service to coordinate, and a new group I am part of that is working toward building a track at our high school. Then there is the matter of family and remaining mindful of my needs. I am overwhelmed, but still want to keep to my commitment of blogging weekly. What's a stressed SLP to do? Keep it pithy!

Here is a only a small sample of the Groundhog Day activities happening in our speech room this month. I hope they inspire you (for next year)!

I whipped up some cards with vocabulary related to groundhogs and the corresponding definitions and we played go-fish and memory.

It was fun for my students to use these cards as an alternative to Sara Smith's Expanding Expression Tool beads.

I did a Google search for "funny groundhog photos" and hit pay dirt. I used these photos to develop narrative skills and sentence formulation. My students from first grade through eighth grade had great success formulating sentences using wh-question prompts. My eighth grade students further expanded their sentences with adjectives and adverbs. 

This craftivity was perfect for my articulation students. We made this craft over two sessions to be certain practice was the priority, not coloring. Again, Google came to the rescue in finding a groundhog worksheet and speech bubble. Ten words on the speech bubble times ten productions is one hundred productions!

Fortunately for me, Cajun girl, Mia McDaniel of Putting Words in Your Mouth has plenty of Mardi Gras materials. These are two of my favorites. Click the picture to go to Mia's Teachers Pay Teachers Store

It was probably 1986 when I created my original heart-o game using individually colored hearts! I gave this "beloved" game a facelift this year and cannot wait to play with my students. It is an all time favorite. You can find it here or by clicking the photo above.

Well, that's it for now. I suppose that wasn't very pithy, but there is a lot happening in our little speech room! What are you doing to celebrate the February holidays? Comment below; I am always looking for fun new ideas to share with my students.

Leap day clip art from: <a href="http://downloadclipart.org/f/leap-day-1492">Clip art image by http://downloadclipart.org/</a>

Quick and Easy Recipes for the Frenzied SLP

This week we're all about helping frenzied SLPs with meal prep! First, I would like to thank this week's hostesses Kelly of Speech2U, Lisette of Speech Sprouts, and Mary of Old School Speech for their behind the scenes work. Be sure to like our Frenzied SLPs Facebook page.

I have a couple of easy-peasy recipes for you today. But first let me share my strategy for making sure we actually eat dinner! Several years ago I bought a chalkboard sticker that I adhered to the side of our refrigerator. I believe I got it at Staples in the Martha Stewart home office section. Every Most Sundays I look through my recipes (some in my head) and I write them on the sticker. I then hang the actual recipes I will be using for the week on my refrigerator so I don't have to go looking for them.

Sometimes I wonder how this fridge hasn't fallen over from the weight of the things on it, but when I look at it it makes me smile. It is so us!

I then go through the recipes and create a corresponding grocery list. I have found this saves us money, because we only buy what we need for the week rather than winging it or making three grocery store runs in a panic and buying randomly.

Jim thoughtfully did the shopping this week, but I have to be very specific about what I write on it :) My favorite is "retried beans!"

I don't know where I originally found this first recipe, but we love it and it can be prepared the night before, which is wonderful if you are anticipating a busy day.

I love to bake and I make it a point to have fresh bread. I know, I know, who has the time? Several years ago I came upon the best method for bread baking that puts the task on my schedule, not the bread's schedule. I follow the method developed by Jim Lahey, owner of the Sullivan Street Bakery in NYC and author of My Bread. The technique is simple and truly the bread makes itself, all you need is a cast iron pot with a lid. I have three so I can do three loaves at a time if I wanted, but I usually keep it to two per week.

I hope you are able to find a recipe that satisfies you and your family in our linky. Do you have a favorite recipe? Well, please link up and share it. I could always use another recipe to keep things varied. Also, check out Lyndsey Zurawski's Facebook group #SLPeats Recipe Swap for more ideas.

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An InLinkz Link-up

Create Change. Create Tension.

"You may well ask: "Why direct action? Why sit ins, marches and so forth? Isn't negotiation a better path?" You are quite right in calling for negotiation. Indeed, this is the very purpose of direct action. Nonviolent direct action seeks to create such a crisis and foster such a tension that a community which has constantly refused to negotiate is forced to confront the issue. It seeks so to dramatize the issue that it can no longer be ignored. My citing the creation of tension as part of the work of the nonviolent resister may sound rather shocking. But I must confess that I am not afraid of the word "tension." I have earnestly opposed violent tension, but there is a type of constructive, nonviolent tension which is necessary for growth. Just as Socrates felt that it was necessary to create a tension in the mind so that individuals could rise from the bondage of myths and half truths to the unfettered realm of creative analysis and objective appraisal, so must we see the need for nonviolent gadflies to create the kind of tension in society that will help men rise from the dark depths of prejudice and racism to the majestic heights of understanding and brotherhood. The purpose of our direct action program is to create a situation so crisis packed that it will inevitably open the door to negotiation. I therefore concur with you in your call for negotiation."

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Letter written from the Birmingham Jail

Change creates tension. Tension is uncomfortable. Be uncomfortable. Be a change-maker.

Organization Tips for SLPs: A Frenzied SLP Linky Party

The Frenzied SLPs

I'm a little behind this week, perhaps a little disorganized! Better late than never, though. The Frenzied SLPs are bringing in the new year with their three favorite organizational tops. Thank you to Kelly of Speech2U, Lisette of Speech Sprouts, and Mary of Old School Speech for hosting this linky.

Okay, here are my top three tips:
1. My handy dandy binder. This baby has everything I need to stay on top of my to do list, calendar, and lesson plans. Every summer I print a new one and have it spiral bound for the upcoming school year. I love it and I think it's pretty, too!

2. Lists, lists, lists. Several years ago I learned how to print on post-its. It is really very easy. Here is a tutorial. I created these to do post-its and they help keep me on task.

Last but not least if you are anything like me, you get immersed in the most fun part of the job, therapy. When that happens I forget about little things like meetings. In order to not have to walk in late and shame-faced, when I receive meeting notification, I write it on my calendar, I write it on my planning checklist in my binder, and I enter it into my Google calendar. I write directly on the meeting notification "posted 2x," so I know I entered it in my calendars. I set alerts in Google calendar for 30 minutes and 10 minutes before the meeting. Overkill? Maybe, but I haven't forgotten a meeting in a loooong time.

I hope these suggestions are helpful to you. I would love to hear how you stay organized. Comment below!

One Craftivity; Many Goals

I mentioned in a previous post my student "Joy," who keeps me on my therapeutic toes. You can read about my experiences with her here. After vacation, Joy returned to school not really felling the speech thing, so I had to come up with an activity that whetted her whistle and targeted language goals. I headed to Pinterest like any desperate SLP and found a craft that I thought would be well suited to our needs. It was originally designed by Kindergarten 3R's: Respect, Resources, and Rants and posted to Pinterest.

It looks like in her version she might have used foam mittens and shapes. I opted for cardstock and construction paper and then had the students decorate their wreaths with shapes made with scrapbooking punches. We used both small and large paper plates with the centers cut out as the base for the wreaths. I loved the way these came out so much I made generic mitten shapes so I could target multiple goals and multiple students. We have been in a mitten wreath frenzy working on articulation, associations, grammar, vocabulary, idioms, and more.

I can happily report Joy loved the craft (the vocabulary, not so much), but we did manage to get some productive therapy accomplished. If you would like to try this craftivity with your students you can find it on Teachers Pay Teachers at my store, Doyle Speech Works. I would love to see pictures of your wreaths. Tag me on Instagram (anniedoyle226) and have fun! 

Meeting 2016 in a Word From the Frenzied SLPs

My last blog post was December 5, 2015! I am a fairly committed one blog a week sort of gal, however I unintentionally unplugged for a month. There was no blogging, no TpT'ing, little social media, and no blog reading. It was a little slice of heaven and allowed me to truly enjoy Christmas. I suspect it is time to reenter, albeit slowly.

What I learned, is that I spend an awful lot of time consumed by my profession. Someone recently posed the question on Facebook, "What is your biggest time sucker?" I responded "typing evaluations." I spend at a minimum 2 hours and at a maximum 5+ hours typing evaluations. I also spend hours in therapy planning, reading articles and blogs, preparing materials, and more. I am exhausted by being the consummate SLP. I pride myself on my professionalism and my ability to seek answers when I have none. I identify with what I do as who I am. I was not aware of this until this week and I understood better why 3 days before vacation I was in tears because I had spent 5 hours (not including the assessment itself) interpreting and typing an evaluation and I was utterly drained. I had administered 5 tests in order to truly mete out the nature of the problem. It was an excellent evaluation diagnostically, but it had a cost for this school-based SLP.

Herein lies the rub; I don't know how to do it any other way. It is in my nature to be thorough, to go the extra mile.  I want to have materials ready that engage, motivate, and remediate effectively for my students. I have gotten into a pattern that is sucking the life out of me. I wondered; "Is this because of all the amazing ideas I see on social media?" "Is it all the wonderful materials that are available on TpT that are superior to my chintzy ones?" "Is it because I have tied my value as a professional to the time I invest?" No. It has been MY choice and that choice has become a habit and habits can be broken!

I imagine many of you have heard of the "One Little Word" project. Using this model one chooses a word for the year as opposed to a plethora of resolutions that are abandoned in one week's time. This word is savored, meditated on, carried in the heart. I typically don't make resolutions, I make goals and I am pleased to report I often reach them. The idea of selecting a word(s) that drive how I think and behave was intriguing. I have decided to select 2 words, a professional and personal word that I hope become my touchstones. Words I will journal and blog about, relate to my experiences and use as a vehicle for growth.

Without further ado, I offer my words: release and love.
Professionally I seek to release my compulsion for perfection. My therapy activity can be simple positive reinforcement, my evaluation based on 3 tests not 5. I do understand there will be times more deep testing will be necessary, but that can be the exception, not the rule. There will be times I want to do an involved therapy activity, but that can be the exception, not the rule. I will start my day with the word release etched in my mind's eye and explore what releasing myself to myself might look like.

Personally, there were so many words I could have adopted, but as I mulled over all the words I realized there is one very special word that is the foundation of all the others; love. Let love reign. Do all things in love. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength. Love your neighbor as yourself. Out of curiosity I did a quick search for "love quotes" and came up with roughly 393,000,000! Phew! As I go about my day, I have been repeating the word love, before I respond with impatience or anger, or intolerance. When I look at the eyes of another I see the word love and behave with love. When I approach a problem I reach into my heart where love is seated and all my solutions, kindness, acceptance, peace, joy are released. Love must be at my center and love must be my foundation for it is only then that love can be at the forefront.

You can learn more about the One Little Word project here. Have you adopted a word or resolution? The Frenzied SLPs are excited to read about how you will meet 2016, so link up and share your aspirations.

An InLinkz Link-up