Nadia’s Personal Statement for Graduate School Application
My passion for the field of communication sciences and disorders can be attributed to a lifelong connection that began during the beginning stages of my childhood development that continues to grow now as an adult. ….
Prior to kindergarten, my parents stressed the importance of education by limiting my television intake and constantly engaging my preschool mind with books, educational programming, art, puzzles and other learning games. However, as my brain continued to develop, they realized I struggled to produce certain speech sounds, and in turn they sought the professional help of a speech-language pathologist. From the age of three to four, I met with my instructor multiple times a week to receive one-on-one treatment for my articulation problem and developed an intimate relationship with her. One of my most vivid childhood memories is of after one of my many sessions when I was rewarded with a kid’s meal and an hour of playtime at
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In elementary school, I was first introduced to basic algebra while attending one-on-one sessions with a special tutor during school hours. In high school I was enrolled in the Magnet program for mathematics and medical sciences, and had the opportunity to intern at a hospital [Insert Hospital Name] and veterinary clinic [Insert Name of Veternary Clinic] during my senior year. The hospital setting was invigorating, and I fully enjoyed being a part of an institution that focused on caring for those who were sick and incapable of doing for themselves. Although I had not been exposed to speech therapy since my preschool years, I was still very interested in the field and chose to make the Speech-Language Pathology (SLP) career the topic of my final research presentation for a medical foundation class titled [Insert
As most people know speech and language issues would only happen with children just learning to talk and tennagers in middle school to high school. The reasoning behind this is because most people don’t correct their children’s speech when they are first learning due to the fact that the parents or grandparents think it is to cute to correct, which only hurts the children more th...
“It would have been difficult to find a happier child than I was as I lay in my crib at the close of that eventful day and lived over the joys it had brought me, and for the first time longed for a new day to come. I had now the key to all language, and I was eager to learn to use it” (Keller 146). The ability to actually comprehend words and associate those words to thoughts and feelings rejuvenated her. Keller was reborn that day, with a new ‘vision’ and a new direction. What started that day, culminated into Keller becoming the first deaf person to earn a bachelors degree. She learnt to speak and ‘hear’ by following the movements of people’s lips. Keller was extremely hardworking and she personified willpower and diligence by patiently untangling the taboos of society to prove her critics wrong.
Winitz, H. (1984). Treating articulation disorders for clinicians by clinicians. (pp. 263-286). Austin, TX: Proed.
The purpose of Application of a Motor Learning Treatment for Speech Sound Disorders in Small Groups was to evaluate the effectiveness of motor-learning based therapy, also called Concurrent Treatment, within groups of up to four elementary public school students with disordered articulation, normal language, and normal hearing. The authors of this paper recognized that while many studies have been done to determine the efficacy of students in individualized therapy settings, few studies had been done to look at therapy within small groups. Therefore, the researchers tested twenty-eight 6-9 year old children within a small group using Concurrent Treatment. The children were able to acquire their targeted speech sounds within 40 30-minute sessions (20 hours over 20 weeks).
At Clarke I currently teach in a self contained classroom of four year old children that are deaf and hard of hearing who are learning to listen and speak. I assist under the direction of the classroom teacher in planning, preparing and executing lessons in a listening and spoken language approach. I have the opportunity to record, transcribe and analyze language samples on a daily basis. In addition, I facilitate the child's communication in the classroom and ensure carryover of activities between the classroom and individual speech therapy sessions. Every week I contribute and participate in meetings with the educational team to discuss each child's progress using Cottage Acquisition Scales of Speech, Language and Listening (CASSLLS).
There are a lot of reasons why I chose to pursue pharmacy as my career and they all point to the most important reason: pharmacy is a great fit for my life and is something I have become increasingly passionate about. It started when I was researching careers with my parents and my dad suggested pharmacy and, simply put, it sparked my interest because at the time it was one of the few things I thought I would not hate doing. A healthcare career has always been where I put myself in the future, mainly because most of my family members are in the healthcare field. However, I have never been one that could directly help the wounded or deal with anything gory, but am very intrigued by the growing science of pharmacy. As I continue exploring pharmacy, the more I enjoy learning about it and feel like I could excel in this career.
Soaked under sweat, I stood on the running machine, took a deep breath, and counted in my mind, one…two… three, GO! With renewed power and confidence, I started to run again with satisfaction. This moment happened every day in last summer at a gym and I lost 62pounds. Had persisted for five months, I am so proud of myself that I am able to achieve the goal of losing weight and established high self-discipline. In addition, I have gained great appreciation for the challenges. However, I also have grown up from this, on the other hand, frustrated experience. Not because the process of losing weight was painful, but because my by-product of the weight loss journey, my online team.
I sat in my child development class in a “brick and mortar” classroom setting. What was I doing there? I was extremely interested in what the professor was speaking on and what was being discussed. However, I was beginning to doubt whether I wanted to continue in my current field of study, Speech/Language Pathology. I no longer felt I was being fulfilled. There was something lacking. I talked to a few of my friends who mentioned how much money I would make as a Speech/Language Pathologist. I heard what they were saying, but somehow it just did not matter. I had to find the missing link…….
In my view, I feel that I would have taken a similar form of instructing method that parents of Kenny Orihuela did. His mother desired to give Kenny choices so that he would be able to decide for himself in the future which led towards bilingualism. If he decided to sign later on she would approve of his choice and that seemed to draw my attention and convey my thought and feelings if I were in the same situation. During the interview, Kenny's father explained how rewarding he felt knowing that Kenny was able to hear a little more than before and that joy was directly shown through the interview. I my opinion, I feel that they are attempting to make the right decision to benefit Kenny, and they acknowledge that he is deaf and need to accommodate his needs instead of attempting to change him to suit their own needs. I firmly opposed the therapist’s thoughts that without practical speech, deafness determined what a person could do in their life. The reason behind why I differ from her opinion is because there have been many hard of hearing individuals who have not utilized functional speech and have still turned out to be exceptionally successful, for example, Leah Katz-Hernandez and Marlee Matlin. Lastly, the final event that caught my attention was the point at which the man was narrating to the children. What I think truly got to me was the interview with Nancy Shook, she stated Thomas is learning
Alison’s story is the perfect example of what many families must go through when faced with the possibility of having a child diagnosed with a learning disability. Alison was not diagnosed with visual and auditory dyslexia until the summer before entering college. However, while still a toddler, her symptoms had been brought to her mother’s attention by her sister’s teacher. Alison’s mother then noticed her habits in repeating words incorrectly and how Alison would need tactile clues to follow directions. At the recommendation of her kindergarten teacher, Alison was tested for learning disabilities and the results from the school psychologists were that she was acting stubborn or disobedient. Her family did not stop with the school’s diagnosis. They had private testing completed that confirmed Alison did not have a specific learning disability. The final word came from a relative that happened to be a psychologist. He insisted Alison would grow out of her difficulties. So Alison continued on with her entire elementary, middle and high school journey as a student and daughter with an undiagnosed learning disability.
I became inspired to become a speech-language pathologist when I first watched the film, Paulie. This film depicted a small girl, named Marie that had a speech impediment, which caused her to stutter. In order to improve Marie’s speech her mother would pronounce certain sounds and practice daily with her. While watching this film I began to realize that there is a number of individuals in our population that have different speech impairments. As I noticed how the character of Marie struggled with her speech impairment I sought to research the different treatments for individuals similar to Marie, and came across speech therapy and speech-language pathologists. I have always been fascinated by language and how it is essential in communication. I view speech-language pathologists as having a major role in helping
An interest in the field of speech-language pathology was ignited in my mind and my heart at the young age of 9. It was career day in Mrs. Garrett’s third grade class and our school speech pathologist was speaking to the class about her profession. I knew at that moment that this was my calling. I was fortunate to have a support system that focused on helping my passion flourish, so my wonderful teacher arranged for me to spend a week with our school speech pathologist, during this time I was able to see how she helped students communicate. During high school, I was given the opportunity to spend two days per week volunteering with the elementary school speech-pathologist in our district. These experiences continued to shape my goals and dreams for the future. Unfortunately, my dreams soon came crashing down around me. As I prepared to apply for college, I realized that my parents had spent my entire college fund during a financial hardship. I was devastated by the setback, but decided to attend a community college instead, planning to transfer after two years. During my time at community college, I faced yet another setback, my parents were getting a divorce and soon I found myself without a place to live. Consequently, my grades and GPA suffered as I bounced
Please discuss the following items in the order given. Briefly respond to all areas listed.
Communication is very crucial in life, especially in education. Whether it be delivering a message or receiving information, without the ability to communicate learning can be extremely difficult. Students with speech and language disorders may have “trouble producing speech sounds, using spoken language to communicate, or understanding what other people say” (Turkington, p10, 2003) Each of these problems can create major setbacks in the classroom. Articulation, expression and reception are all essential components for communication. If a student has an issue with articulation, they most likely then have difficulty speaking clearly and at a normal rate (Turkington, 2003). When they produce words, they may omit, substitute, or even distort sounds, hindering their ability to talk. Students who lack in ways of expression have problems explaining what they are thinking and feeling because they do not understand certain parts of language. As with all types of learning disabilities, the severity can range. Two extreme cases of expression disorders are dysphasia and aphasia, in which there is partial to no communication at all (Greene, 435, 2002). Individuals can also have a receptive disorder, in which they do not fully comprehend and understand information that is being given to them. They can experience problems making sense of things. “Children may hear or see a word but not be able to understand its meaning” (National Institutes of Health, 1993, p1). Whether children have difficulty articulating speech, expressing words, receiving information, or a combination of the three, there is no doubt that the tasks given to them in school cause frustration. These children experience anxiety when...
I grew up in a culture of science. My roots lay in rural Oregon with a biologist and geologist for parents and a curiosity for the natural world at my core. However, through college and my professional career, I have learned the importance of melding this ecological understanding of conservation with another vital aspect of preserving nature: the historical, economic and cultural knowledge of a land and its people.