Getting to Know My Mentor Interview (16)
- Theresa White
- Jan 13, 2018
- 5 min read
Essential Question: How can I adapt different Speech Language Pathology methods to impact various degrees of autism?
1. What challenges were in your way of becoming a Speech Pathologist? How did you overcome them?
· My mentor’s answer: “Graduate school- trying to get all the clinical hours in the different settings. Clinical Fellowship year was also very challenging with again keeping up with clinical hours and sign offs.”
· My reflection: Keeping organized and making sure I am on top of my clinical hours will be a challenge. Clinical hours will be a new experience for me because I have never done anything like it in either high school or college. I am looking forward to finding a way to overcome this possible challenge.
2. How do you remain organized during months of heavy paper work as well as days of endless notes taken during a speech class?
· My mentor’s answer: “By making priority checklists with what’s due when. I also check due dates all the time.”
· My reflection: Being organized will be a big challenge in my career to come. I have noticed that the Speech Pathology career entails a lot of different due dates and paper work. I am already an organized student, but I need to learn how to be a better one. College will be very eye opening for me and my abilities to remain calm and get things done.
3. What was the most important piece of advice that you learned throughout your experiences in this program during college and graduate school?
· My mentor’s answer: “To collaborate with your team, be open to new ideas, be flexible and research options/ opinions.”
· My reflection: My mentor has taught me that you need to always know that something will happen that you cannot control. With each new year of experience, it gets a lot easier to know that something will happen out of the blue. Working with a team will be a new experience for me as well. Team work has never been something I pride myself in. I like completely tasks by myself, but I am always up for a little change in my learning.
4. What made you decide to become a Speech Pathologist?
· My mentor’s answer: “A combination of a love of language, science, and of course children!”
· My reflection: My love of Speech Pathology began when I realize the impact these teachers had on their students’ lives. I wanted to make an impact and I was fascinated with the details involved with Speech Pathology. Being able to talk is something we take for granted and do not realize how important it is in our life until it is taken away from us. I thought that was interesting.
5. How did you initially find out about the Speech Pathology pathway?
· My mentor’s answer: “Friends’ recommendations, course catalog, and my mom was a special education teacher. I also LOVE special education kids.”
· My reflection: I first found about Speech Pathology from a family friend. They were studying to become one and loved the classes they were taking. I began to research the profession and that was when I fell in love with it! My mentor inspires me to become the teacher she is. Her students love and never seen to complain when they have speech class! They seem to like speech class more than any other class during the day, which absolutely inspires me to become a Speech Therapist.
6. Why did you decide to work in the school system? Was it because of working with a team?
· My mentor’s answer: “It was the easiest path for the Clinical Fellowship Year (which occurs in graduate school) and I stayed working in the school systems because of the awesome team I work with every day!”
· My reflection: I am inspired every day by how well the Speech Therapist team at Sharon Elementary work together. They get along and accept each other’s opinions when they believe a change needs to be made. Each one of the Speech Therapists love their students and always seem so thankful for the team they have been provided. I was told that it is very hard to find a good team of Speech Therapists and my mentor thanks her stars for being blessed with a team that is just like family.
7. What did you learn when you worked in the urgent care in the emergency room as a Speech Therapist?
· My mentor’s answer: “I worked in the Rehab setting and learned the fast pace nature of rehab-patients move out pretty quickly to long term facilities.”
· My reflection: Speech Pathology provides many different settings in which you can work in. I love working in the school system setting right now, but I am not sure about any of the other settings because I have not experienced them. I want to be able to widen my horizons and see different age groups of people that need help, instead of just elementary school students. I also want to be able to hear these patients story and I want to be able to impact their lives as well.
8. How has working with autistic children changed your methods of teaching?
· My mentor’s answer: “More flexibility-go with the flow and not letting my feelings get hurt with minimal progress. I had to accept that I cannot fix everything.”
· My reflection: I have shadowed the autism classes at Sharon Elementary and fallen in love with each of the children’s smiles. They are so hard working and never seem to give up when trying to communicate with us about how they are feeling or if they want something. It does affect me greatly when I do not see any progress in these kids. Some days it appears we will never be able to help them. My mentor has showed me to brush myself off and realize that everything will be ok in the future.
9. What activity do you find most effective with an autistic child?
· My mentor’s answer: “Cause and effect games for highly desired subjects like food or a toy is the one activity I find most effective for low functioning autism.”
· My reflection: I have shadowed my mentor for about 12 weeks now and this is the most popular activity she does for each autistic child. It teaches these children about the rewards system. If they push a button that says, “I want” they will receive a toy or a food reward. It begins to be the child’s way of communicating and it is interesting to see their reaction when they receive their reward telling us that they want the treat we are holding. It is very similar to the idea of classical conditioning.
10. What motivates you to continue to work with the autism classes? How has it changed you as a person?
· My mentor’s answer: “I love to see the glimmer of personality they show me. It teaches me patience and acceptance every day.”
· My reflection: Being able to see the impact these children have on my mentor’s life makes me want to become a speech pathologist. Every child is different, and every child has their own story to share or own personality to light up the room with. I love being around these children every day and I cannot wait to see what I do with this profession in the future!
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