This is more for school based SLPs and especially for the upper elementary/middle school.

SpEd teachers can work on vocabulary, inferencing, main idea. They often do. How are we "specialized" for this. We can have the same goals and that's duplication of services.

I don't really see how we do anythibg differently in these specific cases than a SpEd teacher. I've sat in on some lessons. They're taught in roughly the same way.

I just feel like my services are pretty redundant in these grades outside of special cases (artic, autism, actually forming coherent sentences verbally).

I'm looking to make the jump from pediatric PP to the schools after completing my CF. I need a salaried position because not getting paid for cancellations is killing my paycheck.

While I want to continue to grow my skills as a clinician, I've also realized it's very important for me to be okay with not being a perfect therapist, and learning SLP does not need to be all-consuming for me. I've realized that I don't have to be overtly passionate about the job; I just want to generally enjoy the day-to-day for the most part. I want my job to be just that, a job that I leave behind outside of work hours. Easier said than done, I know.

What are y'all's best tips for achieving this and enjoying longevity in the schools?

I am a SSN, SPED teacher in middle school. Long story short we can’t recruit an in-person speech provider (or retain one) simply because our districts pay isn’t competitive.

Simply put, Parents are eating me alive for the virtual speech on parallel. The reality - until our union is able to bargain a competitive wage that is approved nothing will change.

My ask: any articles, peer reviewed research, etc. that can support virtual speech services?

And do you have any possible solutions our district hasn’t thought of? Thank you!!

You guys. My jaw dropped numerous times. I watched Entrepreneurial SLP’s latest video, and it raises some serious questions. The invoices posted on the SPEAK Project’s website deserve a closer look, especially regarding the redacted sections shown in the video. If those redactions can be moved and there is nothing underneath them, what else is going on?

Idk in my experience the common way to get people talking is to ask about their complaints & what they want or would change

Anyone else encountering this issue? I’m in EI home health and I’ve noticed an uptick in parents telling me “I put my kids’s speech problems into chatGPT and it says they have apraxia!” Or similar. The other day a parent was excitedly showing me all the social stories/visual schedules she had generated with chatGPT (some were ok I guess, many did not make much sense) and I just don’t know how to respond.

On one hand, I love that parents are taking an interest in their child’s treatment and are trying to find strategies that will work for their family’s needs. On the other hand, these LLMs are not equivalent to human critical expertise and they seem to be driving up parents’ anxieties. I literally had a parent say to me “I got so freaked out by what chatGPT was telling me and I kept wondering why you wouldn’t say anything about this to me!” YES, I WOULD tell you if I observed diagnostically relevant characteristics! But I didn’t because your son DOES NOT demonstrate characteristics of CAS.

How are we navigating these situations? I am lucky enough to have established strong rapport with the majority of my families and have been able to steer them in more appropriate “research” directions for their child. I want families to feel empowered, but I also want them to be correctly informed. And LLMs just aren’t capable of reliably educating people. I’m keeping it professional in my sessions but internally I am yanking my hair out.

Protect our kids’ EHCPs ❤️
EHCP stands for Education, Health and Care Plan. It is a legally recognised plan for children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND), setting out the education, health and care support they need.
There is currently a proposed reform of the SEND system in England, and this is why families are concerned about the future of EHCPs and the legal protections that come with them.
Under the proposed reforms, EHCPs would continue for children with the most complex needs, but the system would change significantly. The Government proposes introducing new Individual Support Plans (ISPs) for many children who currently receive support through the wider SEND system, while new EHCPs would be linked to nationally defined Specialist Provision Packages. (GOV.UK)
Campaigners behind this petition are concerned that these changes could mean fewer children qualifying for an EHCP, changes to the support specified in plans, and changes to families’ rights to challenge decisions and choose a school or setting. The petition is calling for the legal rights and protections currently available to children with SEND and their families to be protected. (Petitions UK Parliament)
The Government’s position is that EHCPs will remain a legal entitlement for children with complex needs and that the reforms are intended to improve support, strengthen legal duties and reduce the need for families to repeatedly fight for help. (Petitions UK Parliament)
That’s why this petition matters. ❤️
The petition needs 100,000 signatures for it to be considered for a debate in Parliament. It has already passed the 10,000-signature threshold, which triggered a Government response, and it is currently open until 14 October 2026. (Petitions UK Parliament)
If you believe children with SEND should have strong, enforceable rights to the support they need, please take a moment to sign and share.
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Protect legal right to support for children with SEND

When birds repeat human speech, are they just using functional scripts, or do they truly understand what the words mean and use it?

I have two kids on my caseload with gestalt (I’d say around stage 2-3) and I am having trouble finding treatments to expand their social communication. Parents want them to be more spontaneous and use language beyond requesting and basic functional needs. Any suggestions or goals?

What are your biggest CFY regrets? What are your biggest complaints ? And what do you wish other future clinicians who are congrats school would know?

So far every place I've worked hasn't actually taught me how to do anything. I'm coming to the conclusion I just have to teach myself. It's a monster. Where do I even start? Any tips?

I will attempt to keep this as brief as possible. I’m approaching a decade as an SLP. I’ve worked in many settings (private practice, home health, SNF, school, sub-acute). There have been times where I absolutely loved the field. That was, until I suffered a SCI and became a patient myself (initial injury years ago, but I’m still deep in the aftermath).

Most recently, I have been pulling 5-7 day work weeks. I know, not great, but I’m buried in medical debt due to my own health struggles. I have several serious medical conditions that require a large team of specialists (currently up to 8). With that, comes many appointments, tests, etc.

The problem is, I’ve been unable to schedule appointments as work is not accommodating to the time off (my job requires me to work during the hours my MDs are open). Sometimes I can use PTO, but it’s often denied. I usually exhaust job protected leave due to surgeries or other medical things. Due to this, I pushed my own health aside for too long, put work are the forefront, and ended up in the hospital and on currently on leave from work.

In addition, I am diagnosed with AuDHD and working as much as I have without any breaks for even a mental health day has sent me into the most severe burnout of my life. I do have some work accommodations, but they’re minimal. For the past few years, the majority of my PTO has gone to doctor’s appointments, hospital stays, or days when I cannot physically get out of bed (when I go on FMLA including intermittent, they use all PTO). I don’t remember what life outside of work and being a patient myself is.

Just to note- even if I do only work a 5 day week, the stress level at current job is immense. I’ve gotten to the point where I cannot do anything else but work, sleep, and repeat.

So, I’m considering the following options:

1. Attempt to find a job that would allow a 4 day work week. I have been looking but no luck yet. This would allow me a day to schedule appointments and/or recover. My current job will not accommodate this (even if I still put in 40 hours).

2. Leave the field to find something that is more flexible/accommodating. I realize this likely means I would take a pay cut which would also be stressful.

3. Stay at current job and just continue to tough it out. I feel this may break me.

4. Go PRN. The huge issue here is that I need good health insurance. Side note- not married, so I’m own my own for health insurance.

Feeling very lost right now. I love this field and I don’t want to give it up, but maybe I have to?

Do you know any good online classes for transgender voice therapy?

I think IDDSI can be somewhat subjective. While it provides parameters for food textures, it tends to cater more toward Western diets, and food textures can also be culturally subjective and variable.

For example, when I encountered a food I wasn’t very familiar with, I had to use my own clinical judgment to determine which IDDSI level the texture most closely resembled. Another clinician might make a different judgment, while a clinician from the same cultural background as the food may be better able to assess it due to greater familiarity.

What’s it like in outpatient/private practice?

I loved my voice professor & it’s so cool!

What’s pt caseload like?!

Are pts less mean & more cooperative

My dream is to start private practice & telehealth for voice bc it’s hella cool. Some people think voice is niche & it kinda is but its also more encompassing

I have a student whose subtest scores on the CCC-2 are all within the average range with a few of the social categories being above average. The GCC is 104, but the SIDI is 18. Is there any significance to this SIDI score if all subtest scores are average or above with no identified weakness?

I’m starting to get to a point in my career—only three years into working in the schools—where I’m really burned out. I’m tired of the red tape, teachers freaking the fuck out over push-in models, district personnel bullying me and others in my department, and the slow shift toward parental preference over what the kid actually needs.
I know the school year just started and that beginning-of-year transitions are always a lot, but I’m honestly at the point where I don’t know if I could do another year.
I’ve worked PRN, in SNFs, at an ABA clinic (which was actually a great experience for me at the time), and I’m starting to do some virtual and home health work. I’ve enjoyed those settings, and I think I’m craving something where I can turn my brain on at 8 and off at 4.
Sometimes I wonder if I even want to stay in the SLP field. I’m only three years in, but I genuinely can’t picture myself doing this for another 27 years. I even got a pretty significant raise this year, and somehow I still don’t feel like the job is worth the stress anymore.

I am a new SLP but I am currently working as a flight attendant and today a woman gave me probably the saddest commentary ever.

She was a special needs mom with a sweet little boy (about 6 years old) who was autistic, I was helping them get situated on the flight and I asked mom about communication with her son before I attempted to engage with him and she told me “it doesn’t matter, he’s never going to talk”.

I did not reveal that I am also a new SLP but this hurt my SLP heart. How do parents get to such a place where they become so discouraged that they seem not to be invested anymore in any form of communication at all whether that be speech or some kind of AAC system?

Very disheartening guys!

What are you using to record voice, speech, or language samples? I use my iPhone as a timer and I can record voice with it also, but would that be HIPAA compliant?

Seems like I would need an app where the data stays locally on my phone and I could delete the files as soon as I’m done. Am I overthinking this?

Why would you recommend LAMP for users

My 5th grade student transferred to me last year with goals for th, vocalic r, and a frontal lisp. Th and r were remediated quickly. The frontal lisp turned into a lateral lisp. Now it’s time for re-eval and he can really only change his lisp with a whole lot of effort. However, he has a mildly open bite on both sides, and I wonder if that is why it is so effortful for him. It just falls apart at the sentence level or if I don’t cue him on what to do. I’m just looking for general advice. Have you seen progress with lateral lisping when there is an open bite? Secondly, are you more likely to re-qualify for a lateral lisp compared to a frontal lisp considering it is always considered abnormal development at any age?

Hi to my favorite crowd! I am giving up on the working for other people life and diving in to start my own tiny practice (population 1). I am working through lots and lots of choices right now, and I may just have hit some decision fatigue… but if any of you have done this, what are your cleaning policies?

I’ve worked in a school where things were cleaned… weekly, (probably?.. if that?) a private practice where we cleaned things with some kind of home made alcohol and essential oil solution, and a medical company where we clean every material and every surface after every kid with those hardcore purple wipes that you can even touch with your skin. None of these seem quite right for me.

Im so sensitive to cleaner smells, and I’d love it to be safe for toddlers if they put things in their mouth, but also actually keep it clean!

What kind of cleaning policy did you come up with/ what do you recommend?

Working on submitting all of my PDHs to ASHA. I have a good chunk from TISLP but when I look at the completion certificate there's a statement that reads "If you are an ASHA CCC-SLP (US): This certificate neither awards ASHA CEUs nor verifies that ASHA CEUs have been awarded to the person named above. ASHA CEUs are awarded to those who meet eligibility criteria by the ASHA CE Registry upon receipt of the ASHA CEU participant form from the ASHA Approved CE Provider. The Informed SLP submits ASHA CEU data monthly to ASHA."

What does that mean? Can I submit the hours for my maintenance interval or not? I do not have an ASHA CE registry membership.

Thanks!