Going into the tour, I was not entirely sure what to expect, but I was looking forward to it. Thursday started in a rush, with the opening ceremonies. There the ASHA president talked about her experience as a speech pathologist, as well as touching on her own brother as a source of inspiration—one that had died recently, but had had Down Syndrome. That alone was enough to pique my interest, and her entire story seemed in tune with my own for why speech pathology is important. From the opening session, many people went after the ice cream, but I instead found a quiet place to look through the book of presentations and posters. I have known from other conferences that I have been to that there are usually far too many sessions to go to in one day—because all the good ones seem to happen at the same time—but here there were even more than I had ever expected. Dozens upon dozens all occurring at the same time, and all ones that I wished to attend. Thankfully, the poster session happened all day long, so I could at least stop by the posters that I really wanted to see.
At the poster sessions, it was a little unnerving to have the presenter just staring at me and waiting for me to ask a question. Especially since, I knew so little about the subjects. However, certain ones caught my attention. Because of a paper that is due in another class, I had an interest in finding out more about the public perception of stuttering, as well as how it affects the daily life of a person who stutters. Dr. Fauzia Abdalla was one such person that I plagued with questions after reading the poster that she was presenting about the public perception of people who stutter. Learning about the way that the public perceived these people who stutter, in some ne...
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...s. Speaking with the exhibitors showed me what all is available within the profession. There can be job placements in just about anywhere—it all depends on how far I want to travel. The variety for therapy toys and games is also astounding. If one had enough money, it would almost be possible to try something new every single day. The freebies were also nice, including my favorite which was a thumb ball—something small but practical.
Overall, I think this experience has helped me learn more about the career field, as well as about some of the disorders that are within it. It exposed me to the current research, even if I did not necessarily understand all of it, or have the background in it to truly comprehend it all. This has also made me realize what a large impact speech pathologists and audiologists make within the community. It truly is a service driven career.
Becoming an Occupational Therapy Assistant has been an ambition of mine for several years now. After researching, job shadowing, and talking to professionals, I have decided to make Occupation Therapy my career. My passion is to help patients by participating and assisting them in their recovery from injuries and disabilities. My compassionate and caring attitude will be vital assets in pursuing this career. After training in Occupational Therapy, it is motivating for me to know that I will be a part of assisting patients to gain back their independence. Helping others is something that I am passionate about in my career and in my spare time. I have been on several mission trips to Haiti and other places which I have provided care for others in a medical setting.
Learning this competency made me think about what makes a good human service professional and how I measured up. It caused me to look at my life and my experiences and realize how different things could have been for me if I were to have received certain services growing up. I have also learned from my class that all kinds of people from all walks of life, can find a place they are needed in human services.
Audiology inspired me by fulfilling my need to give back to others in a professional capacity, satisfied my electronic savvy skills, and being able to work with all ages anywhere in the world. Looking ahead to graduate school with complete certainty that I have discerned my divined course of action, nothing can deter me from this burning passion. Once I am accepted into your Doctor of Audiology program at Indiana University in Bloomington, I will work vigorously for the next four years until that diploma is in my hand. Then I’ll be off to work at a hospital where I will focus on pediatric auditory habilitation and rehabilitation. I aspire to work in the neonatal units doing Auditory Brain Response testing on newborns and helping parents understand and better prepare their child with a hearing impairment for a challenging, yet successful future. I possess a certain amount of obsession for children, not unlike the possessive nature parents feel for their young. Years of volunteering at the Church Nursery growing up and now working with preschool to 3rd graders, tutoring after school, helping with ballet classes, or even women’s shelters, I’ve found the age group that I am truly dedicated to and passionately work to help. This gives me great understanding and
Communication is the very first thing one learns as soon as he or she is born, crying when something upsetting happens or laughing to show contentment. However, as one ages, they begin to realize that using words to express thoughts and feelings is a great deal harder than manipulating sounds and actions. Author Toni Bambara of “Raymond’s Run” and Lauren Tarshis of “Stuttering Doesn’t Hold Me Back” have similar views on the difficulty of speaking up. Bambara writes about a boy called Raymond who has Down Syndrome and communicates with others in a special way, as he cannot utilize his words. “Stuttering Doesn’t Hold Me Back” is an inspiring story regarding a young student facing the challenges of her disorder. Both writings consider the idea that we all have our own methods of conversing, and we need to accept and understand that it is normal.
The 1992 comedy crime film, My Cousin Vinny, written by Dale Launer and directed by Jonathon Lynn portrays the communication disorder known as stuttering. Stuttering is a fluency disorder in which the rhythm and flow of speech is disrupted and differs significantly from what is socially accepted as ‘normal’. Stuttering has proven to be one of the most common communication disorders portrayed in media and literature; however, the reason behind including a stutter (ranging from barely there to extremely excessive) in a character’s script tends to vary.
Therefore, I plan on closely examining audiology not only in a clinical setting but also in a research setting after my first year in USF’s program. I plan on closely examining innovative audiological strategies, as a graduate student, inside and outside of the classroom, while immersing myself in the intellectual community within the department. While my future classmates at USF may claim that they were born audiologists, I am proud to proclaim, as I have reflected on my journey thus far, that I have gained an intellect and love for audiology that drives my unrelenting passion for the field.
Stuttering affects the fluency of speech. Stuttering is characterized by disruptions in speech sound productions, also known as a disfluency. Mostly, stuttering has a significant effect on some daily activities. Though some people have disfluency deficits only in certain situations. Some people limit their participations in different everyday activities because they are often embarrassed or sad about their situation and are concerned about how other's will react to stuttering. In stuttered speech repetitions of words or also of parts of words are included. Prolongations of speech sounds may also occur. It is a characteristic of some people who
Davis, S., Shisca, D., & Howell, P. (2007). Anxiety in speakers who persist and recover from stuttering. Journal of Communication Disorders, 40, 398-417.
The course also prepared me to become a Certified Nursing Assistant. While attending clinicals, I practiced procedures and proper care for the elderly. My experiences in the nursing home helped me realize that there was more to nursing than just giving proper care to those in need. During my clinicals, I was able to sit down with the residents assigned to me and hear their childhood stories. They shared many old pictures and possessions with me that made it worth the visit. It really touched my heart to know that my residents looked forward to seeing me and providing them with my care and compassion made a difference in their stay at the nursing home. When I reflect on my experiences, I begin to look forward to my career in nursing. I know the appreciation I feel when I have others caring for me, so that is a feeling that I would like to give in return to reassure every single one of my patients that they are cared for and their health and well-being is my primary
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…….
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
Lucas devotes a section of chapter one to talking about the history of public speaking stating that every culture has some word equivalent of the word speaker. Lucas then goes on to tell the similarities and differences between public speaking and conversation. Stephan Lucas then goes on to explains in this chapter that nervousness and stage fright are among the leading causes for the fear of public speaking. But he then assures us that nervousness is normal, and a welcomed part of speech giving. Lucas proves his point by saying, “If you feel nervous about giving a speech, you are in very good company. Some of the greatest public speakers in history have suffered from stage fright, including Abraham Lincoln, Margaret Sanger, and Winston Churchill” (Lucas, 2012 pg. 9). Lucas says that you should not run from your nervousness, but instead try to turn it into a positive nervousness. Lucas then goes on to give six ways to turn the negative nervousness into positive nervousness. They are acquiring speaking experience, preparation, positive thinking, visualization, realizing you’re nervousness isn’t visible and not expecting perfection. Now that Lucas has touched on the history, fears, and possible rewards of public
For example one question was, “does it prevent me from doing ordinary things?” It’s a yes and no answer because I still walk, and run it does not prevent me from doing things physical things, but when it comes to talking it’s a little bit more difficult and I struggle more. Stuttering makes things more challenging which is alright but you have to work more on how you talk. “Why can’t you speak correctly?” That is another question that anyone can ask and the truth is that it is a disorder in our speech sound of word, we repeat some of the words. “How does it feel to stutter?” To me as a stutter person it affects emotionally because sometimes I rather be quite and prevent talking and embarrassing myself. It affects us because of the way we communicate, it is not easy but we try to make it fluently as possible. (Question
...nger needed. I was excited, but very nervous. Northern Voices only had about 5 students in each classroom and Rice Lake had about 27. It was so noisy! I saw kids chattering, but was so shy to meet them. The kids were welcoming and I quickly made friends through talking. This moment I felt that talking is now part of me as it is ingrained into my soul. Signing has left my soul. Growing up with hearing students for the past 12 years, I no longer feel that I am part of the deaf community, but part of the hearing community. My true self blossomed. The difference between body and self
According to a 2001 Gallup poll, “more than 40% of Americans fear public speaking than death”, I was shocked to learn this statistics that I was not the only one. As I was pondering about what to write on my essay for my favorite school, I thought about my own childhood experience.