SLProfessional intro

Hi! I'm a Communication Sciences and Disorders graduate student looking forward to working as a speech-language pathologist (SLP) as my career in the "near" future. With Early Childhood Education as my undergraduate degree, I have become very accustomed to working with people, especially children, on an everyday basis, which is really what I love to do. Coming back for graduate school has been a huge life change, not just with the work load, but with the change I have made from teaching my own class of third graders in Quito, Ecuador for my student teaching, as well as subsequently working as a substitute back in the US up until graduate school. I have found myself missing the "people aspect" of my life, working and collaborating with other teachers and most of all, the silly kids!

This being said, I am so looking forward to having clients in the fall in my university's clinic, beginning my journey back to working with kids on the reg. I feel I have had a lot of experience so far in my life to prepare me to work appropriately with colleagues as well as children in a teaching atmosphere. Now, I am hoping to take my people skills and grow into a successful clinician in speech-language pathology. My clinical procedures class this semester is designed to prepare me to become a successful and professional SLP and clinician and give me the tools to do so. For my class project, I want to share with you, future SLPs, maybe even current SLPs, what I have learned about being the best helping professional I can be. How can we best help out clients whether these clients are infants, preschool to elementary school age children, sometimes the more difficult preteens and teens, adults, baby-boomers or the elderly?

Because I feel that I still have a lot to learn about being a future SLP clinician, I plan to center this project on discussing how to be a successful, professional clinician and speech-language pathologist in the field. I think one of the most important aspects of reaching this goal of being a professional clinician is putting the patients/clients first in your everyday practice as an SLP. But with just one year of graduate school under my belt, and two year more years to go, I am asking SLPs who are currently working out in the field to share any helpful advice they may have for future SLPs. I will share their advice anonymously in the respect of their work as helping professionals and I will also share advice I have learned in my clinical procedures class. How can we be SLProfessionals and guarantee that our clients are always cared for with the utmost respect in an appropriate manner?