Synthesis

Synthesis

There is no getting around it, I want to be a speech therapist. This means that I need to study hard in the communication field and advance my caring personality. According to the American Speech and Language Association, to have a career in speech means I have to be “professionally competent” and “follow an ethical code” (American Speech and Language Association). These are both extremely important concepts that were further pronounced to me during my blogging process.

Blogging about my perspective field has shown me just how important it is to work hard in my communication and writing courses. To be “professionally competent” means I have to continue learning effectively so that I will be able to “do the best of your ability” and use “training and instruments properly” (American Speech and Language Association). Every source I have read over the time I have spent blogging leans to just how important having a solid education is in speech therapy. This only inspires me to work harder at becoming a ST. Further, my blog has provided me with numerous examples of how a professional in the communication field writes. Professionals write a fairly impressive amount each day between “emails to [her] department, charity organization planning, and human resource paper work [she] writes every day” (Ray). This made me realize that I need to work to improve my writing in all styles. I practice writing somewhat informally for my blog, and practice formality with my college courses. My schooling is helping me prepare to be a professionally competent speech therapist.

Along with the proper education, my blog has emphasized how important being sensitive to other’s needs is for a ST. I plan to work with children who have special needs. This is a task that is especially crucial to be caring. Attempting to help teach ways to communicate will be a different process for each child. Knowing the client’s needs and how to accommodate to their needs is a job cut out for only a person who is caring. Articles I have read for my blog from the American Journal of Speech and Language Pathology all somewhat describe the type of personality needed to work in speech. A main example of this is that an entire study was conducted to see if children who were self-conscious of their speech were the children who saw a SLP. The language of the article on this study sounds almost sympathetic to the children (mainly those actually with a SSD).  Online sources also direct people who are sympathetic to other people’s needs toward speech therapy. The Speech Path quiz I took even took if I was caring or not into consideration to determine if I would make a good ST. Throughout my blog, evidence of my caring personality is clear. I express sympathy and desire to help children with SDD frequently. This is one properly done part of my blog, which is also important because it helped me realize how sympathetic I actually am. Rereading my posts has reassured me that I am sensitive to other’s needs. This fact also somewhat alarms me, because I now worry I may be too compassionate. My blog may be overly sensitive, to the point where I show biases. I overwhelmingly side with anything speech related. This may not be all bad though, because it is further self-prof that I may make an able ST.

Blogging has prepared me for my future career, and I hope this blog will help readers learn similar lessons. I will use improved writing skills, new awareness of caring traits, and new motivation to learn to guide me into a successful career of speech therapy.

Works Cited

"Should You Become a Speech Pathologist?" Speech Pathologist Quiz Results. N.p., n.d. Web. 07 Nov. 2013. 

   Mcleod, Sherryann. "Speech Sound Disorders in a Community Study of Preschool Children." American Journal of Speech-Language Pathology 22 (2013): 503-22. Print.

American Speech-Language-Hearing Association. (2010). Code of ethics [Ethics]. Available from www.asha.org/policy.

Week #10-Free Post

Speech Pathologist Quiz

Today I took an online quiz entitled "Should You Become A Speech Therapist?". Normally, I would have scrolled right on by this search result but for the sake of this blog I figured I might as well give it a go. Many of the questions were completely predictable. As I took the quiz I recorded the questions that stood out to me.  

1. Do you like your work to be structured or do you prefer to make things up as you go through your day? Interesting question, I like structure but not monotony  So I answered a varied structure. 

2. Which statement best expresses your opinion about honesty? Here I responded honesty is the best policy  It seems like that is the right answer however the other response is if I get my work done, why should honesty matter? This questioned concerned me.

3. Would others describe you as sensitive to their needs? Personally, I think I am extremely conscious of other's needs. I myself have always had the overwhelming need to make others happy. This is my favorite question because it means a SP should be sensitive to other's needs.

So, after all the questions I got this result:

"You have many of the characteristics needed to work in this field, but not all of them. Before you go any further, you will need to do some more research."

Immediately, I knew what I was missing. I answered I'd prefer to not take a test to become a licensed professional. I have always know that the big test was looming over me, I just didn't think it would be an online quiz that would knock sense into me. Just because I have what it takes to be a speech therapist, does not mean I can ignore something as important as the test to get my license until the day I take it. I have been thinking about the big test now, and realize it is time to take every single lesson as serious as the next if I ever hope to be a professional speech path. 

Works Cited

"Should You Become a Speech Pathologist?" Speech Pathologist Quiz Results. N.p., n.d. Web. 07 Nov. 2013.

Week #10-Prompted Post

Remixing Knowledge

http://www.speechtherapysolutions.com/brochure.htm 

RAIDS analysis of the Speech Brochure 

• Revision: Significant thought has been put into this brochure to make sure there is just the right amount of information. I am sure the writer revised sections to leave out any wordy or indirect information.
• Arrangement: This brochure is arranged in a way the makes it an easy read for parents with children who may need the extra help. There is use of flow between the separate topics, which makes the brochure's information seem less dry.
• Invention: The information regarding their facility is all invented. Here, namely the slogan on the left hand side is important to point out. That slogan is entirely invented and is completely effective. 
• Delivery: Using concise paragraph in a short and sweet brochure, the delivery style effectively gets readers attention and provide sufficient and useful information. 
• Style: The style is educational, yet friendly. By using educational language Speech seems reliable, yet by not using too much scholarly language they are not off putting.    

Analysis of Rhetorical Strategies

I noticed this brochure uses Pathos. The writers touch the audience's emotions by using pictures of cute children. Some logos is also used in that the writers speak educationally and give definitions of different therapies and disorders. The brochure made an effective argument to have the reader use them as their child's therapist.  

Works Cited
"Speech Therapy Solutions Brochure." Speech Therapy Solutions Brochure. N.p., n.d. Web. 07 Nov. 2013.

Week #9-Free Post

Setting and Achieving Goals

Goal competence is important in every setting, but can become most useful in a work environment. A large part of my field (communication) is the ability to set goals and strategically achieve them. In this post I want to share what I have learned about goal competence, how it should be used in the work situations, and how to better your goal competence. 

Goal Competence

Goal competence is the ability to set and achieve goals strategically. There are several types of goal competence, the most common being: informational (want to share information), relational (want to work on relationship), affective (want to focus on emotions), and most prominently influence (want to get someone to do/think something). 

Work Goal Competence

Having goal competence in work is extremely vital. In work as either a typical employee or type of boss, you must be able to appropriately use influence goals. Being able to influence your coworkers allows you to take work into your own hands. There are several different types of influence goals that are important to know about. Influence goals include: Directives which are just telling someone to do something, this technique may not always be best suited for a work environment. Persuasion which is trying to have the other change there mind. This goal has a long lasting effect, which may prove useful for an authority figure to use. Lastly, there is compliance gain, this is in the middle of directives and persuasion. Here strategic influence is used and the user considers the instrumental, relational, and identity issues.     

How to Improve Your Goal Competence

There are several techniques to improve goal competence. I will list them and say a little about how I've noticed them work/fail. The techniques include: getting someone to like (dressing nice is key), attempting to show authority (seen working best in people who actually hold authority, hard to be faked), to show scarcity (lack of time is best technique here), and to have to other prove consistency. The more liking, authority, scarcity, and consistency you can prove, the better your goal competence will be. 

Works Cited

   

Week #9-Prompted Post

Importance of Speech Therapy

http://www.down-syndrome.org/practice/171/?page=1

Speech therapy is viewed as a progressively more important career. With more advances in techniques and technology, the field actually is expanding in importance. It was not particularly difficult for me to find a news report on the importance of speech therapy. I chose the article (link above) because it talks about the importance in the exact career I desire, being a ST for children with special needs. This article explains exactly why speech and language significant.

"It can be argued that speech and language therapy is the most important part of intervention services for children with Down syndrome if we wish to promote their cognitive (mental) and social development" (Buckley 2). In just one sentence the importance of my discipline is explained. In short, language is vital to humans. Without some way to communicate, very little other can be accomplished. Because language is so important, helping people without is too important. 

"Speech and language development are absolutely central to the cognitive development of all children" (Buckley 3). This is true in two key ways. One, vocabulary eventually will become knowledge. Two, a language leads to thinking and reasoning.These mean that cognitive development goes hand in hand with speech, making my future profession so important. 

"Language is equally important for children's social development" (Buckley 4). To further prove the significance of my career, by helping children with language it is also helping their social skills. Not only are these social skills used to make friends but to also allow them to have their needs, wants, and feelings heard.

The work I will do, is so important because it is helping children improve their lives.         

Works Cited

Buckley, Sue. "Speech and Language Therapy for Children with Down Syndrome." Speech and Language Therapy for Children with Down Syndrome. Down Syndrome Education Internationa, n.d. Web. 07 Nov. 2013.

Week #8-Free Post

Mindlessness Versus Mindfulness

A large part of communication is having interpretative competence. Interpreting the world around you, namely messages, appropriately is no easy task to achieve however. As people we carry around several biases, effecting our interpretive competence for good and bad. One main bias we hold is using mindless thought versus mindful thought. Knowing the difference, when to use, and how to appropriately do so can help with proper communication. 

Differences: 

Mindless 

• typically mindless thought
• not observing all info around you
• on 'auto-pilot' 
• use old categories of thought

Mindful

• focused
• alert
• never be fully mindful

When To Use:

Mindless

• everyday situations
• typical social interactions
• to generalize situations/people

Mindful

• when trying to learn
• when trying to remember specific instructions

Tips

1. Recognize what you're doing: be aware when you are on auto-pilot and that you have biases

2. Be aware of contextual trigger for our behaviors: watch for things that trigger bias

3. Examine thoughts/actions

4. Avoid self-censorship

After learning all this information in my communication lecture, I have been trying to be conscious and keep track of when I am being mindful and when I am being mindless. I've found that in almost every social situation, I am completely mindless. Being mindless allows me to not get overwhelmed. Mindlessness also helps me be lazy, and use preconceived notions to direct my social situations, which is not always a bad thing. I find that everyone's brain needs a little relaxation now and then. I am most mindful in class, specifically when listening to directions for an assignment. I slowly process the information, interpret it, evaluate it, note it as well as the professor emotions. This thought can get tiring however, and I typically revert back to mindless thought soon after being mindful.     

Week #8-Prompted Post

Hands-On Activity

Autism myVoice App

This week i was requested to do any sort of 'hands-on' activity that pertains to my perspective career goal. I have been interested in apps that help children with special needs for some time so I saw this as the perfect opportunity to explore one. Professionals in the SLP field use apps as a way to help their clients. I choose the app Autism myVoice, downloaded it and began to experiment.

Autism myVoice application is cheap at only $2.99. This makes it a good application to suggest to parents/care givers. The app is programmed to help mainly nonverbal children with communication skills. myVoice has a unique design that uses pictures of verbs and nouns as buttons, which the user can press to form simple sentences. 

The main verbs include:

• I want
• I enjoy
• I need
• I feel

Some noun categories include:

• Food
• Feelings
• Toys
• Numbers

The only flaw to this app is that it is not easily customizable. It took a rather long time for the app to upload and process my personally added pictures and words. I did find the application came with many pre-programmed words, probably enough to get said what needed.

After playing with the application I tried to put it to use, like a professional would. I had my roommate, Taylor, try and communicate with me using only the application and only words pre-programmed and already added by me. After just a few minutes, sh got pretty frustrated with her lack of proper communication. I, innately  tried to keep her relaxed and coheres her into working with the app more. Eventually she got accustomed to the application and began to understand more what she would be trying to communicate. 

Applications like myVoice can be extremely useful for people with special needs. It is clear why the use of technology is becoming so prevalent in the SLP field. Being able to work with myVoice gave me some insight on what it will be like to work with similar applications as a professional.     

   Works Cited

"MyVoice | Communication Aid Apps for Speech and Language Disorders." MyVoice. N.p., n.d. Web. 07 Nov. 2013.

   

  

Week #7-Free Post

 I Actually Have an Opinion

In my last post I wrote about therapeutic listening and the controversy about it in my field. I did not mention how I felt about it however, and I am going to take this opportunity to do that. The video below explains therapeutic listening in an understandable way. 

I absolutely believe that therapeutic listening can be helpful to clients. Many studies have shown significant improvement in children who try therapeutic listening. Studies frequently show that this therapy can help with several extremely important skills. First, it can help listening, communication, social skills, writing and focus which is key for any type of schooling and work. Therapeutic listening also helps balance, visual motor planning, self-regulation, sensory sensitivity, and motor planning. Although science can not entirely back up this therapy yet, it is apparent that it can help. 

At my Abilities Canter internship, I was able to see a child begin to use therapeutic listening. The expert on therapeutic listening, Jessica, showed all about it. The little boy who was using it seemed to warm up to the idea rather quickly. While listening Jessica preformed different techniques to see if the therapy had been helping at all. She noticed that with the head phones the client seemed to be more comfortable. Jessica also noticed that after using the swing to spin him, he was able to focus on her slightly faster after stopping spinning.

 I believe it is important to try any therapy that has a possibility of working, because the worst that can happen is the technique does not end up helping.

Works Cited

"What Is Therapeutic Listening?" YouTube. YouTube, 04 Nov. 2011. Web. 21 Oct. 2013.

      

Week #7-Prompted Post

Controversy About 

Therapeutic Listening

Child using therapeutic listening

New technology is transforming the speech world. Children with special needs are starting to receive help from technology more and more. One of these new treatments is called therapeutic listening. Therapeutic listening involves the client wearing headphones to listen to certain music. This music is designed to help the client focus. Therapeutic listening is often used for children with special needs by their therapists (often occupational).The music works by cancelling out any other distracting noises and often help to regulate the user. The organized sound patterns impact levels of the nervous system. This helps meets many clients’ needs that are easily thrown off by outside noises. The listening is started with twenty half-hour listens (twice daily) for ten days. There is some controversy on therapeutic listening however. 

The controversy in the field is that some specialists say that there is limited scientific evidence that proves therapeutic listening is effective. This makes them hesitant to use the therapy. 

Others say therapeutic listening noticeably improves the attention and even irritability of users. These professionals try to use the therapy when ever the client seems to be a contender.   

Works Cited

Frick, Sheila M. "A Brief Introduction To Therapeutic Listening." N.p., n.d. Web. 15 Oct. 2013.

Kurtz, Lisa A. Understanding Controversial Therapies for Children With Autism,      Attention Deficit Disorder, and Other Learning Disabilities: A Guide to    Complementary and    Alternative Medicine. London: Jessica Kingsley, 2008.  Print.

  

Week #6-Free Post

More Metacommunication

Relationships should have conflict. Within relationships conflicts: signal that the partners life's are entwined, show that there is a need for change, and allow problem diagnosis. These are all exponentially important aspect to having a healthy relationship. It is how people go about conflicts that make them messy however. I learned different problems when having conflict with a partner in my communication class. I want to describe them by using examples from this clip from the movie The Break-Up. 

• Gunnysacking: If someone gunnysacks during a conflict this means that they let problems build up inside, then explode all at once. Here Jennifer Anistan's character brings up flowers, the ballet, dishes and many other examples of how she believes she is mistreated. 
• Kitchensinking: During a conflict someone is kitchensinking when they start throwing in everything but the kitchen sink, or old arguments that are irrelevant. The argument about how Vince Vaughn's character works and she doesn't, and how he believes he is nagged is an irrelevant argument and starting the kitchensinking. 
• Demand-Withdraw: This one does not have a funny name, but it is fairly prominent. Here one partner demands and demands, while the other backs out of the situation. At the end of the clip Jennifer starts demanding more and more while he withdraws, more or less in shock. 
• Stone-Walling: One partner turning into a stone wall, or shutting out the other entirely, is stone-walling. Anistan's character attempts to stone-wall by leaving the kitchen and start to clean the dinning room.       

The above tactics are obstacles that just lead to poor conflicts. I find learning more about communication so interesting. I am able to apply my lessons to movie clips from The Break-Up and in every day situation. Communication is even making my relationships stronger.  

Works Cited

The Break-up. Dir. Peyton Reed. Prod. Vine Vaughn and Scott Stuber. By Vince Vaughn, Jeremy Garelick, and Jay Lavender. Perf. Vince Vaughn and Jennifer Aniston. Universal Pictures, 2006. Film.

Week #6-Prompted Post

Critical Source Argument

I am warning you right now this is a dense post

http://ajslp.asha.org/cgi/content/abstract/22/3/503

Above is the link to a scientific article from the American Journal of Speech and Language Pathology. It poses the argument how many preschool children are correctly defined as having speech problems and how many of them should actually see a speech-language pathologist.

The conclusion stated is most children with a SSD have not seen a SLP, but would benefit from having one. 

I agree with the professionals's argument. I believe most children who should see a SLP have not yet. The professionals make a strong argument by conducting and explaining a logical and thorough study. There is evidence of logos used in their entire article.

A question posed is do parents/teachers correctly diagnose children with a SSD. The study shows that fairly often they do. I agree with this mainly because it is hard to disagree with the numbers. There are a few aspects that deserved to be brought up however. The first being some parents can be hypercritical of their children. Being self conscious of their children's problems often leads to over thinking a typical trait for a child. Also, being rather protective can lead to worrying about a non-problem. The second being the parents who their child is perfect to them. These parents often over look issues like a SSD (I'm not judging these parents though). Only 41/109 children who have parents who showed concern about their speech saw a SLP. Of these children, many of them expressed concern about their speech (the poor things). Many of them have such trouble with speech they would be unintelligible to strangers (this article just makes me want to go work right now). Because of this it is important to have children professionally diagnosed.     

The professionals also compared children who had seen a SLP to those who had not. They questioned which would have more difficulties with speech. I think this comparison was probably not entirely fair. While done correctly and logically, all children (especially at that age) are going to be super different. The results of the study showed that children who had seen a SLP had a lower PCC. in other words were worse at speech then the rest (my heart goes out).  

Most arguments online are for children seeing speech paths. In fact it was actually a challange to find an article i disagreed with. This made me super happy because I can see the positive shift toward speech. 

Works Cited

   Mcleod, Sherryann. "Speech Sound Disorders in a Community Study of Preschool Children." American Journal of Speech-Language Pathology 22 (2013): 503-22. Print.

Week #5-Free Post

Relationship Communication

Recently, I learned about relationship communication. I studied different types, effective ways, and various surveys of communication in relationships. Mainly, there are four definitions of communication in relationship and they are: 1. Constellations of Behaviors (what activities partners do together) 2. Contradictory Forces (dialectal tensions) 3. Mini-cultures (expectations for behaviors) 4. Cognitive Constructs (relationship prototyping). After learning about these relationship communication styles, I have been starting to see them in every relationship around me.

Today I watched the movie Blue Valentine and I saw examples of these four definitions in the main character's (Dean and Cindy) relationship. I will break the examples up by definition to be clear. **if you haven't seen the movie I made sure to leave out really big 'spoilers'**  

1. Constellations of Behaviors: Dean and Cindy have several activities they part take in together. The key to this aspect of behavioral communication is it does not include emotions or feelings. One can compare their old behaviors to their new ones to see how they have transformed. An example of these behaviors include: being silly and dancing around. While they both did this in their youth, Cindy grows out of the behavior. This causes problems in their constellations of behaviors. 

2. Contradictory Forces: This is the desire for two opposing things at once in the relationship. Dean and Cindy totally use contradictory forces to define their relationship. An example of this would be Cindy wants to be with Dean yet also wants alone time.e. Her wanting alone time also strained their relationship communication. 

3. Mini-Cultures: Expectations for behaviors can also lead to disappointments when the expectation is not met. And yet again, Cindy and Dean have a problem with their mini-culture. The two built 'norms' together as young adults that seized to be met as they got older. The main example of this is they created a world for themselves where Cindy is spontaneous  She grows out of this behavior too in time causing mini-culture problems.

4. Cognitive Constructs: Dean often catches himself thinking "a wife should be caring towards me", creating a relationship prototype. While Cindy was somewhat caring she did not meet prototype. At the same time Cindy often though "a husband should be 'manly'", when Dean did not meet this prototype more trouble was caused in their cognitive construct. 

I was able to apply what I have learned in this movie. I enjoyed being able to diagnose their relationship with their proper definitions, however the movie was really depressing. In all, I feel stagnant and accomplished all at the same time.           

Week #5-Prompted Post

         

ETHICS AND BELIEFS 

First, I am just going to put this here http://www.asha.org/policy/ET2010-00309/. It is a link to the American Speech And Hearing Association's code of ethics. Now I am not saying it isn't interesting, just rather long. So I have made a little summary focusing on how they compare to my ethics and beliefs.

Out Line Of Code of Ethics 

• Doing the best of your ability and treating all clients (including animals) humanely                        -do not show biases                                                                                                                    -do your job
• Be professionally competent                                                                                                                 -always continue learning                                                                                                             -use proper equipment and training
• Promote public awareness                                                                                                                  -use your title appropriately and rightfully 
• Honor responsibilities and the people around you                                                                            -be integral                                                                                                                                      -follow the code of ethics

The easiest way to go about this is to say i truly agree with their entire code of ethics. I mean most of them are just common sense and most people naturally follow them. However, some ethics I am still learning is college. 

Skills learning in college

1. Integrity: I am learning the ethic of being integral in college. Practicing academic integrity will help me prepare for the integral work force.
2. Do your work: In college I am learning how important it is to do all my work to the very best of my ability.
3. Always continue to learn: Learning in college is important and I am of course doing so in class. I am also continuing to learn by volunteering on campus. These skills will directly carry over to work. 

The most important belief of mine that I plan to bring to the work force is not showing biases. The key ethic when working with various different types of people is to treat them all equally. This has to do with race, gender, and religion. However this ethic is so important because it also means to not treat different disabilities differently. Of course there will be various medical treatments however, insuring all people are treated in a caring and understanding way is paramount.    

Works Cited

American Speech-Language-Hearing Association. (2010). Code of ethics [Ethics]. Available from www.asha.org/policy.

Week #4-Free Post-I Seriously Love Speech Therapy

                                                     I Seriously Love Speech Therapy

I had a semester long internship at a place called the Abilities Center. Here is where I first made the decision I want to work with children with special needs. I went to observe there four days a week for three hours each session. This allowed me to see an extremely vast variety of children and cases. I absolutely fell in love with the children. This internship really set apart this career for me because I realized how vital communication is.

Imagine not being able to communicate your thoughts, needs, and feelings. This inability must be the most frustrating feeling. I saw the struggle in these children, but instead of anger they were determined. I learned more then just my love of working with these children, I also learned a bunch about my possible career.

Some really important skills I learned included:

• How to use different communication devices
• Uses of iPads to communicate
• Different tests used to help determine struggle area
• Some hand motion used for communication
• Various speech techniques

                                                   Above all else I was taught by my main sponsor: 

 What you learn in school is important, but not usually applicable. All these children are different and there is no way to teach how to handle all these different personalities. Let the client play,because through play work can be done, and this is entirely a different set of skills.                                                                                   

 This impacted me. It opened my eyes to see that I should do my best in school, but continue to work with children in order to keep up both set of skills. I want nothing more then to be great at my job, to improve these children life's. I now see in order to achieve this goal, I must work to be great in all areas of my field. 

Week # 4-Prompted Post

Communication Activity

I took part in an on campus, communication survey last Friday. I headed over to the Communication Arts and Sciences building early in the morning not entirely sure what to expect. Once I got there I meet with two other girls who were communication majors. The three of us were immediately taken back to the survey room by a man named Mr. Manata. He explained the survey we would participate in with his partner. They used clear  language to relay our directions. The entire event was well orchestrated and ran smoothly. In fact, the survey got out about 10 minutes early. 

The whole experience impressed me quite a bit. Due to the two instructor's promptness, I can assume they value organization.

 The interesting part of this prompt is to draw conclusions about their methods of communication. Going into the communication field, it only makes sense that most professionals are pretty good with communication. Firstly I'd like to note all communication prior to the survey was done over email. All three participants and two instructors were in the correct place, at the right time and date exactly. Clearly, great communication was used there. Further, I can infer we are all schedule oriented people. I can even go so far to stereotype and say that as a whole, people interested in communication are schedule oriented.Secondly, the directions given were extremely clear, although they were rather complex. Communicating these directions may have been difficult, however for the communication professionals it was made simple. I think it is fair to say communication professionals are good at communicating! 

Week #3-Prompted Post-Interview

Interview

This week I was able to interview a woman working in my perspective career field. Lauren works at a hospital called St. Mary's in the Human Resource department. This particular job intrigued me because it is a mix of two careers I could follow with a communication degree: working in a hospital (as a speech therapist) and working in HR. I was able to ask a few questions to which I received some rather interesting answers.

The following are not quotes from either of us, instead general ideas of the interview.

Writing Related Interview:

I started off with some writing questions. I asked what type of writing she does daily. Lauren writes a fairly impressive amount each day. She told me between emails to her department, charity organization planning, and human resource paper work she writes every day. 

I then asked Lauren how she writes. She related to me a few writing details including: typically she writes out what she needs to say, reads it and edits it for mistakes, then sends it to whomever it may concern. She told me that the number of times she revises her work and how formal she writes depends on who she is writing for.

Career Related Interview:

Next I got to ask a few career related questions. I first asked What she likes most about her job. She named a few different parts, however she said her favorite was probably helping with the charity organizations. She also said this was her least favorite part, in that it takes a lot to organize.

I briefly asked Lauren if she liked working in HR. It seems as if she does enjoy it. She hinted that she dislikes working in the HR offices though because they are n the basement next to the morgue.

I asked if there was anything she wished she knew when she entered the work force. She quickly replied that she enjoys her job and that her best advice for me is to just make SURE I knew what exactly my job was to be before taking it,

Lastly I got to ask what types of upward movement there is in her HR position. She told me she already completed most of it. For her, she now likes her current position and intends to finish her career there. 

I learned valuable information from this interview. The advice that will stick with me is to know what I am getting my self into, before jumping in. I thank her for the opportunity!      

Week # 3-Free Post-Internship

Internship-Swallow Testing

I interviewed a woman who works at St. Mary's hospital for my prompted post. I had her connection because I did a semester internship with her. During this experience I visited various parts of the hospital daily. The department I found most interesting was of cores the speech department. Here I got to observe swallow testing for the first time. Swallow testing is to process of diagnosing problems with a client's swallowing. For example, if the client notices that when they swallow, they have the need to cough after, they can go in to diagnose the problem.

When I was observing, I saw a variety of clients. I am going to describe one of their appointments to explain the swallow test process.  

First the doctor prepared a few different textured mixes with barium.

Starting with the least thick substance (about the consistency of water), the doctor has the client take swigs. While the client drinks, an x-ray camera records it. The doctor then watches the film to watch for any problems. 

They repeat this process several times with different consistency. 

The most memorable client I observed had some type of throat cancer. The client no longer had the cancer, but had to go in for regular check ups. Something about the cancer caused liquid to spill into the clients lungs with every swallow.

The image of the liquid dripping into the lungs from the throat really struck an interest with me. Today I watched a few different videos like this. If you're interested, I linked the video below.  

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hf2kRD85zvc    

Works Cited

 My Parkinsons Diary, prod. My Barium Swallow Test. YouTube.

          YouTube, 5 May 2010. Web. 16 September 2013.

Week #2 9/12-Free Post-More A Blog On A Blog

                    A Blog On A Blog

I read a blog directed toward parents with children who have speech difficulties to determine the purpose 

and audience.  As I "Play On Words", I found some really interesting information about speech therapy. The author of the blog is a woman named Sherry Artemenko. She is a ST, who goes into the homes of children who need extra speech help. Her blog tells all about her experiences. What I found most interesting was all the different games she uses to help the children. Sherry talks about different toys the she adapts to work on speech skills. For example, she uses a tea party set to help children work on colors, matching, and pretend play. This is interesting because it shows that with a little creativity, almost any activity can be transformed into a speech tool. This blog actually inspires me to think about different games that can be changed into speech techniques. You can find her blog at http://playonwords.com/. 

Works Cited

Artemenko, Sherry. "Play On Words." 9 Sept. 2013. Web. 10 Sept. 2013.

   

Week #2-9/12-Prompted Blog-Considering Audience and Purpose

                                                 Audience and Purpose
 The two most important features of writing are the intended audience and purpose. It is also interesting to look for the audience and purpose while reading. I found a formal article written by a speech therapist (http://ajslp.asha.org/cgi/content/abstract/22/3/503) and a blog about speech therapy (http://playonwords.com/blog/), in order to compare their audience and purpose.

   The article I found is from the American Journal of Speech-Language Pathology. Speech Sound Disorders in a Community Study of Preschool Children was written by professionals in the speech therapy field. The purpose of the article was to tell about their study of children who were identified as having trouble with some speech skills. This purpose made the article rather formal in structure and tone. The audience was the readers of the American Journal of Speech-Language Pathology. Because most of their intended audience is speech professionals, the writers did not 'water down' any of the information. 
   
    The blog, Play On Words, is different then the article in several key ways. First, the purpose of the blog is to give advice and update care givers for children with speech difficulties. Further, the blog is directed toward parents of children who need more speech attention. Although the intended audience is parents, the actual audience is much larger because any one on the internet can read the blog.

   The audience and purpose is incredibly important to understand while reading. The audience can make the difference between a very casual and an extremely formal writing style. Similarly, the purpose determines how organized a writing can be.           
                                                                Works Cited
McLeoda, Sharynne. "Speech Sound Disorders in a Community Study of Preschool Children- McLeod Et Al. 22 (3): 503 -- American Journal of Speech-Language Pathology" Speech Sound Disorders in a Community Study of Preschool Children -- McLeod Et Al. 22 (3): 503 -- American Journal of Speech-Language Pathology. N.p., Aug. 2013. Web. 10 Sept. 2013.

Artemenko, Sherry. "Play On Words." 9 Sept. 2013. Web. 10 Sept. 2013.

Week #1-9/5-Free Post-10 Questions Follow Up

After leaning that a text book could not answer all my questions about communication, I decided to try and look else where to answer them. First, I looked to the internet. There I found answers to many of my career-related questions (correlates to previous post). 

Career-Related Answers: (internet)
7. Speech therapy/pathology careers can be enormously different. A job can be anything from helping an infant learn to eat and working with special-needs children on speech to swallow-testing adults and assisting stroke patient.
8. A communication degree can be extremely broad and in this case that is a good thing. It will be important to choose the correct minor to compliment communication. However, a communication degree from Michigan State will prove useful for a career in speech therapy.
10. Communication careers can be so different, that listing all of them would be impractical. Some examples are human resources, public relations, and of cores speech pathology.

I then had to ask an academic counselor to answer my last question.
Career-Related Answers: (counselor)
9. There are many routs I could take to become a speech therapist. The most likely for me would be a standard four year undergrad majoring in communications and then a two year graduate program in speech and language pathology.

Learning all this new information has made me even more interested communication. The answer that is most interesting to me is just how vast a career in speech can be. Now that I know all my possibilities, I am starting to decide which job would be the right fit for me. I am now leaning toward working with children with special needs. To me, that would be the career that is most rewarding. I am excited to continue learning about all these possibilities.      
 

Week #1- 9/5 -Prompted Post: 10 Questions: How Effective Are Text Books?

Before even touching a textbook, I came up with this list of ten questions I had about communication. I have sorted them into two categories as to better analyse them.
Informational Questions:
1. What is interpersonal communication?
2. What are all the types of communication?
3. How does communication vary based on age?
4. In what ways does technology effect communication?
5. What makes a person competent at communication?
6. How can I better my communication skills?
Career-Related Questions:
7. How varied are speech therapy careers?
8. How does a communication degree directly correlate to speech therapy?
9. How long should I attend school, to be considered competent in the speech therapy work force?
10. What types of careers are there in the communication field?

Wondering if a text book is effect in answering all questions for a beginner, I attempted to find my answers only using Interpersonal Communication, by Sarah Trenholm and Arthur Jensen. I found that while all my informational questions were answered,  none of my career-related questions were. This means that a text book is only good at delivering unchanging facts.
Informational Answers:
1. Interpersonal communication is communication between two or more people, usually face-to-face.This is also called dyadic communication.
2. There are many types of communication and the lists changes with time. However the main types are intrapersonal, small group, organizational, face-to-face public, and mediated public (or mass).
3. Communication varies due to age. Typically, younger humans are better at simpler communication, like message competence.
4. Technology effects communication in every way. Negatively, easy access to non-face-to-face communication can enable people to have poor communication skills. Positively, easy access to technological communication can help communicationally incompetent people to work on their skills.
5. To be competent at communicating, you must have interpretative competence, role competence, self competence, goal competence, and message competence.
6. To better communication skills, the text book mainly says to simply practice.

To find the answers to my career-related questions I will have to use other resources. I know see that although text books can be a useful resource, to better start learning a subject it is important to look at resources like internet articles, news papers, already employed professionals, and counselors.

Works Cited
Trenholm, Sarah, and Arthur Jensen. Interpersonal Communication. 7th ed. New York: Oxford UP,      2004.
Picture:
"Google." Google. N.p., n.d. Web. 06 Sept. 2013.