I finally snapped and walked away from the profession last year. I still love it, I lurk to stay in the loop and feed the deeply ingrained SLP curiosities. But damn, some of the negative posts here trigger such a visceral stress response in me. I say that affirm my own decisions, rather than protest our right to talk shit and complain. I used to be a regular nuclear meltdown contributor myself! I wonder if any other “ex” SLPs also lurk and have the same feelings. I really wish I could have this career AND my sanity.

I graduated in May with my master’s in Speech Language Pathology and started a school-based position for my Cfy. I thought from my externship experiences, I thought I would enjoy working in schools. During the interview process, I communicated my preferred age range, population, and location, but I wasn’t told my actual placement until my first day. I ended up with a caseload of 45+ students, an age range I don’t have experience with and a placement an hour away. I’m only a month in, and I’m already miserable. I’m mentally and physically drained. I come home crying because I feel like I’m drowning in paperwork and responsibilities. Every day, something comes up, and I feel lost trying to figure everything out. I’ve expressed my concerns to my supervisor and tried using other resources, but I still don’t feel supported and truly feel like I am not meant to be a slp. I expected my CF year to be a time to learn and grow with mentorship, but instead, I feel like I’m just trying to survive.

My work life balance is nonexistent. I’m starting to dread going to work. I’ve been searching for another job like a private practice, but I haven’t had much luck. Most jobs that are hiring are school and leaving one school for another wouldn’t be smart. I have even tried reaching out to private practices personally but still nothing.

I feel stuck and don’t know what to do. I just want to quit. Has anyone experienced this during their CF year? Is it possible to find a private practice position as a CF, and does it get better? I could really use some advice because I don’t want to give up on a career I worked so hard for, but I can’t keep feeling this way.

I'm a school CF. I have a student that just transferred in this year. His last IEP says he previously had a SGD, but he did not use it and frequently threw it, so they discontinued to focus on other forms of functional communication. He is completely nonspeaking. I've worked with him for 2 months now and he makes 2 sounds - a laugh (frequently) and a groan I've only heard once. He's a very sweet boy. He smiles at me every time I come into his self contained classroom.

One of his only goals at transfer was to place unwanted objects in a basket ???? I can't remember the others, but that threw me for a loop.

He does not identify picture cards. As soon as I place pictures in front of him he picks them up and hands them to me without even looking at them. I'm guessing someone tried PECS with him before? I only have records from the last 2-3 years. He does not point, gesture, or tap. He will grab preferred items when they're presented, but I have not seen him attempt to grab items that are outside of his reach.

His teacher has found it effective to place a yes and no symbol on his desk to have him identify numbers. She asks him "is this 3?", puts a card in his hand, and he is supposed to place the number on top of the yes or no card. I observed it once and honestly... It was not clear to me at all that the student understood what he was doing. He placed the number cards on the table, but it didn't appear to be purposely on or near a yes/no card. She told me once she handed him his water bottle and she asked "do you need more?" And he placed the water bottle on the yes card.

I trialed LAMP in one session and he became upset just by it being on the table near him. He repeatedly pushed the home button on the iPad. I turned on guided access and he then threw the iPad in the floor and began flipping chairs over.

I introduced a core 4 board and brought in his 1:1 para for 2 sessions to demonstrate aided language stimulation. The student tolerates the core board and it is always on his desk when I walk in. The para says they do point to it while talking to him the way I modeled. The student has still not used the core board.

I asked Mom about his communication at home. She said his only method of communicating with her is to sit on the ground to protest. I asked how he indicates what he wants, and she said she just has to figure it out. I believe this because at school he does not indicate when he's thirsty or hungry, unless a teacher or para offers him something.

This is the most profound case I've encountered. Does anyone have any tips for anything?

Does anyone have a child with whom therapy isn’t happening because you spend the entire time managing behavior? This is private practice. I’m spending the entire hour defending myself, my belongings, and my office. I feel like a failure. I have never experienced this before.

Hi, I am just feeling really upset. I recently had an IEP meeting where I slightly embarrassed myself. The specific student hasn't seemed to warm up to me yet, and speaking primarily in phrases. I guess he's speaking in sentences for everyone else or at least starting too. His teacher defended me and said that he recently started talking in sentences to her. I just feel like a failure that it seems like I'm the only one he's not warming up too. I don't really have this problem with any other students. Is this a stupid thing to bring up to my mentor? I tried to look up situations like this, but nothing else really came up that was similar to this situation.

Update: thank you all for the support! Honestly, I don't have a lot of SLP friends who I feel comfortable talking to about this and just having some actual feedback is so helpful. I appreciate y'all!!!!

I have a student with an open bite malocclusion and a high narrow vaulted palate. She made significant growth this and met all goals excepts for ch and j in which she has a lateral lisp on. She no longer has a lateral lips on s and z which she did at time of eval. Could this be because of open bite malocclusion and vaulted palate? Dental referral? We’ve tried to work on it with minimal success

I have no idea whether there is peer reviewed research or robust evidence supporting it. I am just concerned that this article makes it look like a total cure when it seems like it is only for very specific cases as an off label use? What are your thoughts?

Calling all pediatric SLP! What's your favorite hello and goodbye songs to transition into and out of sessions?

I know this shouldn't bother me, but this sentiment grinds my gears. Basically as the title says, my specific post was just like hey, make sure you get your child's hearing checked. I see families constantly who think the newborn hearing screening is the same as a hearing screening when they are older. A commenter started getting into a discussion with me. They pointed out some things and we had a decent back-and-forth going. But then it got into the weeds in which this person said, "we shouldn't be making parents unnecessarily worry" and "most children who are late talkers grow out of it." I asked if this person was an SLP. They refused to answer and then started to say that anyone can comment on a post on a public forum. And that I should accept feedback (which I did at the start of our discussion). But the irritation lies in the fact that this late talker nonsense has got to stop. Yes, we know that a percentage of children will catch up. That does not mean you shouldn't refer out when the child is clearly behind. We have seen a doubling of pediatric referrals since COVID. An acquaintance of mine never sought help for her son who was a late talker. He did go on to talk. And at 7, he was finally diagnosed with autism (which I suspected from the start based on other things I was seeing). I guess I'm already frustrated with the encroachment on our field/expertise ​and with the brain drain happening in this country. Where opinions are as good as expertise.

And I logically I know that I need to let this be (and I will). I just needed to write it out and vent.

Student is up for reeval and honestly not sure what to do with them. History of CAS but has made amazing progress over the last few years. However, they continue to demonstrate reduced range of motion, occasional difficulty with prosody, and slight hyponasality which impacts their intelligibility significantly in multisyllabic words and connected speech. The thing is, they managed to score mild on the GFTA , average on reading assessments, and no errors on their writing samples. From those formal/informal assessments, it would look like they wouldn’t qualify for school based services on the report but if you spoke to them they’re about 50-60% intelligible. The parents reported the student sometimes get frustrated or will give up if they’re asked to repeat themselves at home, but the student themselves reported they notice errors with their speech but they feel neutral about it. If I were to keep the student it would be to work on increasing intelligibility and their production of sounds in multisyllabic words/connected speech. But then again any of their teachers could prompt the student to over enunciate, slow down, and increase vocal loudness. Student does not always respond to those prompts from teachers/parents but will for their friends or myself. How should I proceed with this case?

For those that dress up for work, what’s your costume and setting?
I’m going to be Pete the Cat and I’m in TK-5 schools.

Hi!

I’m a first year CF in the schools and I’m kinda freaking out over scheduling IEPs. I have one coming up mid November that I am the case manager for. I first contacted the parent to schedule the meeting last Monday but did no receive a response. I sent a follow up email today, and plan on calling them tomorrow during my more free day to try and get it scheduled. I am just so worried that I won’t hear from them by then and I really don’t want to push the IEP until the last minute. Does anyone have any words of wisdom? Trying not to wig out too much, haha.

Hi all, just wondering if it’s possible to use the digital stimulus books on its own without it being connected to another iPad? We only have 1 iPad currently and my manager is wanting to get just the digital version of the stimulus books while we use the physical copy of the assessment manual and record forms. Is this possible or do you need 2 iPads and a fully digital assessment? We’ve never used q global or the digital version of the assessments before.

School-based (preferably virtual) only helping districts reduce make-up minutes.

Sounds like a dream gig, but is it an actually something a full time SLP can do?

So I will try to keep this succinct, but it's a complicated situation so bare with me. I'm just wondering if any of you have experienced this situation and if you have what if any solutions have you found or if you have any advice please share.

Myself and the other SLPs who I work with has experienced the situation multiple times in the past few years. The situation is kids who typically have high functioning autism sometimes with or without the medical diagnosis, come up for a team evaluation to determine initial eligibility or 3 year eligibility. For some reason it keeps happening that when we do our evaluation the standardized social language assessment comes out average which I know isn't a surprise to anyone, our observation data doesn't show any impacts or red flags, and either the teacher questionnaire is low or average. So when time comes to have the eligibility meeting we have no or very little data to show nonverbal or verbal impacts to track the box for the autism eligibility. It always seems to work out that everyone else is on the autism train and we are left modifying our reports to justify console goals or sometimes even direct social language goals and minutes even though we do not have the data to back it up. I have multiple students on my caseload now that have unnecessary pragmatic language goals that are consult that I just emailed the teacher to check in and the students carry these goals for years so they can maintain the autism eligibility in some cases I have never met the student face to face because I am getting them from one of the other slps who did the assessment and this situation happened to them and we all just continue the console goals so they can maintain an IEP. Sometimes these students also just have consult social work not even direct, but most of the time they have academic goals that they need to maintain and for some reason we can't always go OHI as another eligibility and I'm not entirely sure why because it would still support their needs. We would like to have a conversation with our director and school psychologist to discuss this issue because it often feels gross that we have to basically lie on our reports to justify why the student has an IEP and it also feels like our data isn't necessary. Not to mention the time it takes to have these kids on our caseload. So my question is what can we take to this meeting to show the impact this is having also what are suggestions for things we could do to solve this problem or at least bring in a plan how it can be handled going forward. Also is this a valid concern that we are having because it is becoming very frustrating for many of us. Thanks for reading this far.

I have a few students this year who are leaving off the /s/ in words with contractions, possession, etc. Words like it’s, that’s, mom’s, the cat’s. But all other final consonants and grammatical morphemes are there. I’m a little stumped. In drill, they get it great, but during conversation, they are leaving it off. Anyone else experienced this? Other than just correcting it every time, how are you targeting that?

I'm not from the US.

I regularly collaborate with parents, teachers, and external professionals involved in a child's care. Today, I had a meeting with an external professional who gave me quite a few recommendations regarding how to treat a child. Some of the advice was things I already worked on or planned on working on. She never asked what the current goals were, however, and just kept on giving advice. The recommendations were presented confidently, and I found it difficult to find the right moment to explain my current approach, especially with parents present.

I often struggle with these kinds of situations. I want to do my job well, I'm open to feedback, and I want to come across as competent and professional. At the same time, I find it difficult to speak up without worrying that I'll sound defensive or that the other person will think I'm not doing a good job.

The meeting is over, but I'm still thinking about it hours later. I'm replaying parts of the conversation, wondering whether I should have said something differently and what the other person might think of me. Rationally, I know it probably wasn't a big deal, but I can't seem to let it go.

I've been working in this position for two years now, and I honestly expected these situations to become easier with experience. How do you handle these situations? How do you learn to speak up when needed, trust your own professional judgment, and stop overthinking what others might think of you afterward?

I need some advice on a job offer I received. Specialty school (school for the blind) in Philly but through a contracting company. Guaranteed 6.5 hours/day paid. It was initially a 1099 position but I asked to make it W2 as this is my preference. Before I knew they could accommodate W2, I asked for $75/hr and they said they could probably get close to that. I was offered $58/hr since it's W2 now. The health insurance is great and you can accrue about 15 days of PTO across the school year. This is my first time working in a school that isn't salaried, so I'm not sure if I should ask for more? I'll be transitioning from a year round EI position and a little nervous to not get paid over the summer after ESY ends. Thanks in advance!

The cost of healthcare has skyrocketed in the past few years. I compared paystubs from my CF and I am making hundreds of dollars LESS per month than I was then due to the cost of premiums. They increased, no joke, 611% in two years. Not to mention the price of food...gas...everything...

I did everything "right". I went to a cheap school, applied to grants, and left with no debt. I live in a MCOL city. My car is old. I worked so hard to escape a life of paycheck to paycheck just to end up back in a place of barely getting by. I am not bad with money.

It feels like the benefits of working in a school are fading away. But I genuinely wouldn't know what else to do. Is anyone else in this boat?

(And no, I'm not from a upper middle class family and accustomed to a better lifestyle. I am a first gen who worked for years to have more stability.)

I started with a 10yo student who's been in both private and school speech for the last 3 years for /r/

He's not stimulable for /r/ with anything I've tried.

Tips and tricks welcome, but if I can get the district to pay for something to assist... What would be a good investment?

Open to any PD that's very good for a kid who is still struggling to get ANY /r/ at all. Any tools to order? I've tried the staRt app, but any other biofeedback? Speech buddies R tool? Literally open to anything that's helped your crack /r/ for a student that's just not managing to get their tongue to do what it needs to!

If you’re burnt out this looks like a nice non clinical part time gig and it’s fully remote!

https://workforcenow.adp.com/mascsr/default/mdf/recruitment/recruitment.html?cid=a36350e0-9639-4300-bfca-fa030fdd2e9c&jobId=565954&utm_source=GoNonClinical&ck_subscriber_id=1345896769

Does anyone here have experience assessing deaf and hard of hearing students, preferably older (middle school) ones? What are your go to assessments? Do you use standardized assessments and just report for informal data?
Thanks!

Can CFs PRN on the weekends if they already have a main CF position? Or is it more state dependent? Idk I’m just wondering