Hello all! We at Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School are conducting a study on SLPs’ experiences with patient diet non-adherence. If you’re an SLP with healthcare experience, we would greatly appreciate your participation. This study (Surveying SLPs' Experiences Regarding Diet "Non-Adherence") is IRB approved (protocol Pro2026001177). 

• Survey is anonymous  
• Takes approximately 10 minutes  

Survey: https://rutgers.ca1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_8wXvEdgpC6im5Rc 

Thank you for supporting SLP research! Please share with eligible colleagues. 

What exactly changed their mind?

What were the main differences between speech therapy for people who stutter/stammer 20 years ago vs current therapy methods? Were the previous ones or current ones generally more effective?

I’m a school SLP working through a large contract company at two schools in a large district, and I’m considering switching jobs midyear. Neither school had an SLP for over a year before I arrived, so there’s a lot of disorganization. At one school, the SPED chairs seem unsure of basic processes and they have repeatedly crossed boundaries (see my last post for more details.)
My staffing agency has also repeatedly miscommunicated about my initial placements (e.g., they promised me that I would be placed in a middle or high school but I ended up in two elementary schools) as well as hours and pay (e.g., I unexpectedly lost an entire week’s pay due to company errors after working hours I’d been told were approved, and my paid hours were reduced below my contracted hours, costing me approximately $7,000 annually.)
Another major issue was that I had accrued 40 hours of PTO, and my company agreed to let me use it for planned time off. After I’d already made plans and budgeted around having that PTO, they took back their agreement and told me I couldn’t use it because I had moved to a different district for this school year. Now I have no PTO for my upcoming international trip, which I’d planned around having those hours two years ago.
I was recently contacted about another position with a smaller, therapist-run company in the public school district where I live. It’s actually the district I originally wanted to work in when I moved to my current location. The two schools I would be placed at seem to have good reputations, and my commute would go from 30-45 minutes to just 8-10 minutes. I have a follow-up call this week, but nothing is official yet.

My current job:

-$60/hour, but I’m paid AT MOST for 35 hours/week, which comes out to about $68,000 gross annually when considering the school calendar.
-No pay for holidays, school breaks, PD days, or closures, and no summer pay.
-Health insurance costs about $350/month and costs more to maintain over summer.
-Weekly pay fluctuates a lot, making budgeting difficult.
-Repeated communication and pay issues with my contract company.
-No reliable PTO after my district transfer, despite having previously accrued 40 hours.
-I pay for my own professional expenses and materials.
-Both schools went over a year without an SLP, and there’s a lot of disorganization amongst leadership that impacts my ability to do my job.
-The charter school’s SPED chair has crossed boundaries multiple times and seems confused about her role.
-On the positive side, I love my student and my current caseload size is very manageable.

The potential new job:

-Salary could be $70k–$80k, although nothing is official. I want to negotiate for $80k.
-W-2 position with weekly pay and consistent pay through all school breaks and summer.
-100% employer-paid medical insurance.
-Seven PTO days per school year initially along with all holidays and breaks paid, with PTO days increasing with tenure.
-The recruiter said I could use PTO immediately for my preplanned international trip.
-ASHA dues, licensing fees, a $300 annual CEU subscription, and $300 in annual materials covered.
-SLP-led clinical support, additional therapy resources, and optional SLP meetings and free ASHA-approved CEU opportunities monthly.
-Smaller, therapist-run company with a good reputation and regular public schools rather than charter and magnet schools.
-The schools seem to have a good reputation and are in the district where I originally wanted to work.
-My commute would be only 8-10 minutes each way.
-I still need to clarify caseloads, speech room availability, why the position is open, whether hours or placements can change, etc.

My current contract is at-will, but I would feel guilty leaving midyear. I care about my students, and both schools went so long without an SLP. Leaving halfway through the year feels out of character for me. At the same time, the current job has been stressful due to constant disorganization and miscommunication completely outside of my control, and this new opportunity seems much closer to what I wanted when I moved to my current location.

Would you consider switching? Would leaving midyear burn bridges or be unprofessional? How much of a notice would you give, if any? How much would you weigh better pay stability, benefits, a much shorter commute, and a potentially healthier work environment against the guilt of leaving your students midyear?

Tysm! <3

I am so heartbroken at the news tonight that there was a school shooting where the shooter targeted a SPED classroom. I'm reading he was a former special education student at the elementary school. This situation has always been my worst nightmare as these are our most vulnerable children.

One of the little ones survived, her name is Saylor Graham. The family has a gofundme if you feel called to help them out. Don't think I can link it but looking up her name will lead you to the link. This sweet girl was already medically fragile, and was shot in the face.

Please forgive me if I got any details mixed up. The situation is rapidly developing and I can edit the post if need be.

Hi everyone! My name is Erin McCarthy and I am a graduate research assistant for Dr. Alison King at Longwood University in Farmville, VA. We are looking for SLPs who have participated in the assessment of a multilingual child in the last 12 months to take part in a research survey!

*This study has been approved by the Longwood IRB*

Survey Link: https://businesslongwood.az1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_1NUE3T7fzIK8XKS

Brand new CF here. I’m doing my first few eval reports and they are taking me forever. Any SLPs with ADHD have tips or tricks in this area? I’m nervous I’m going to be spending evenings and weekends on things like this for the rest of my life. 🙃

Hi all. I am an SLP working in a NFP preschool in upstate NY. I work with a TSHH (kind of like an SLPA) who I supervise. Ever since I started working at this job 2 years ago the caseloads have been insane. I do 2 evaluations per week in addition to carrying a caseload and supervising. As the year goes on our caseloads ramp up and my coworker and I routinely end up having to deliver 11-12 sessions in an average day which means we have no lunch break or morning prep time. We also often have multiple team meetings a week. All of this is to say for the last few years we end up working A LOT of overtime which we don’t get paid for.

This year, we proposed a plan to our management team that our caseloads would be capped at 10 sessions per day (I’d be doing less because of my supervision and evaluation responsibilities). Our management basically told us to get fucked. Additionally, when we ask to cut frequencies for kids who don’t need as much as they’re getting, we get a fight about it from management. They started looking for a 3rd therapist last year and we have had no interest in the position.

Short of finding a new job, do you guys have any suggestions? My co worker and I have agreed that if not other accommodations are made we plan to just stick to the caseload limits we proposed and put down therapist absences for all the sessions outside of that. I really don’t want to go this route but I can’t think of any other option.

New school-based SLP here! This is my first year in a school setting and my second year as an SLP, so I’m still pretty new to the field. I’m also virtual for a school district and have about 50 kids on my caseload. I see students individually, in groups of 2, and in groups of 3.

I am finding it literally impossible to target multiple goals in one session, especially with my groups of 3. As we get closer to the first progress notes being due, I’m starting to freak out a little bit because I feel like I’m not targeting everything nearly enough.
Most of my kids have around 3 goals, and some of the goals are so broad. For example, a student might have an articulation goal targeting 5+ different sounds AND two other goals targeting grammar, expressive language, receptive language, etc. Trying to fit all of that into a 30-minute session with 3 kids who all have different goals feels impossible.

I’m worried I’m going to sit down to write progress notes and realize I barely targeted certain sounds or didn’t get enough data on a goal, or maybe didn’t even get to target it at all.

How are you guys managing this?? Are you targeting every goal each session? Rotating goals each week? I just feel like there isn’t nearly enough time to address everything, and I’m starting to stress about it.

I want to keep some details vague but I work in a public school with an ABA program staffed by a BCBA and BTs working under him. The students are in younger elementary -
I’m having a lot of pushback from me encouraging the program to utilize AAC. The BCBA cites behavior as the reason, but behaviors are communication. Obviously I am not encouraging them to stick an iPad in the face of a student having a true meltdown. I’ve tried everything I can think of including reaching out to admin for help.
It breaks my heart, I understand these kids aren’t right now gravitating towards their devices, but if we could teach them it’s theirs and model how to use it the students would have such a better access to their education.
I also completely recognize that not every student does take to AAC, but if the expectation isn’t communication throughout the day why would they? I have seen progress with their students 1:1 in my sessions outside the room with structure, so I imagine that with structure throughout the day this progress could be generalized. How is the staff even determining what they know without communication?
I’m really trying to put my faith in the research on AAC because I have so many students requiring it this year.

Any advice for an SLP truly just trying to help my students?

I work in home health. I see many kids at daycares/ABA centers but their goals are things like daily routines, functional vocab for home routines etc. What are some materials or toys I can use for these? I would prefer to use fun, play items vs pictures.

I have plenty of play items for food and mealtimes, but need things to target things like clothing, care routines etc

thanks

Charter school.

Evidently they tell parents to go to their Pediatrician for this instead of providng a School Psych who will make the eligibility determination. Many of these kids are ending up as OHI and SLI on my caseload and I have a new one with obvious sensory and emotional regulation difficulties but only MILD grammar deficits.

They want me to provide my findings and I said sure I'll provide the findings which are only Speech and Langauge-He's an oral communicator with mild grammatical errors and significant emotional regulation and sensory/fine motor deficits. I can support with language for self advocay such as "I need a break" or "I need noise cancelling headphones". What further would I possibly be able to insinuate in a meeting to the parent to get them to personally initiate an outside ASD dx?

How is this on me as the SLP and not the school itself or the School Psych?

I only had elementary experience until this year. Several of my high schoolers with other disabilities (autism, Down syndrome, genetic disorders, cognitive impairment, etc.) are difficult to understand. However, I’m used to treating apraxia, phonological, artic, etc. disorders when my current students are experiencing more false starts, slurred speech, extremely quiet speech,
etc. Some have AAC but no interest in using it since it’s more efficient to speak and say it again until you’re understood.

I’m looking for general advice for where to go from here and also what to say to adults who want to know why their speech hasn’t been “fixed” by now. One of the teachers complained to me that my student has sounded the exact same since the start of middle school and wanted to know what his speech therapy is like, but the IEP I inherited has social skills goals, not speech intelligibility goals, so I honestly haven’t been working on it and now I’m wondering if I need to be given his articulation is a greater barrier than his social skills (which are honestly very good). I had two interactions like that within one day regarding different students.

I’m considering a group where we go over communication breakdown strategies, practice overarticulation, etc. but I guess I am overthinking considering the past SLP wasn’t working on these things. Most of them have social problem solving goals despite being very social and accommodating people.

Apologies in advance for the noob nature of this question. I am still taking my prereqs for grad school (THIS IS NOT A POST ABOUT GRAD SCHOOL), and we are having to write papers on various topics by doing our own research and writing full on papers as if we have any idea what we're talking about. Therefore my knowledge about many topics are now just piecemeal from research paper intros and conclusions that I skimmed because they're all paywalled, and 15 year old Youtube videos. (And I'm still getting straight A's which is terrifying.) I noticed that most SLP educational material available online is much harder to find and of a much lower quality that other medical fields for some reason?

I'm also seeing the grad school curricula and we're only getting one semester on things like dysphagia, AAC, etc, (if schools even offer AAC). And I'm assuming if the classes are like this, they will basically be self-taught by reading random research papers without even knowing what is relevant or who is well-regarded in the field. For 3-4 months. And then move on to the next topic.

I do have my favorite niches in the field, but beyond that I don't feel comfortable treating most things from an ethical standpoint (and definitely nothing medical or dysphagia whatsoever), if this is what grad school will be. Like if I don't happen to get into a grad program that has an AAC course, what if I'm responsible for the programming and education of AAC devices when I barely know more than the parents/staff?!?

Anyway, how do you, as a professional, fill in the gaps? I'm just assuming everyone is watching SLP Instagram reels and reading the conclusions of paywalled research papers? And getting expensive certifications and courses? Are we reading textbooks? Very confused and concerned :(

I posted here before about my telehealth boss who only pays $60. I’m desperate for the work, she pays consistently and the clients are easy to schedule and deal with.
My boss is a big micromanager, she’s an older lady, gods gifts to all, very rude to deal with, never says how are you it’s always demands and her emails (she never texts) are just her talking in demands or capital letters. I never talk to her since I do my work consistently and submit my stuff on time for the most part. I’ve never worked for a company where we have to submit notes every week, it’s kind of crazy I think.
She wants our notes by Fridays because it “ruins her weekends”…. Frankly, I’m not paid enough to deal with her so I just do my work and pretty much ignore her rude emails (she ccs all the SLPs in one email and Its always in capital letters).
I’m away for a few weeks and I’ve been sending my schedule and notes by Saturday mornings instead of Friday nights. She sends me an email now with the subject line “I still don’t have your calendar” and the email says “Please send now.  We discussed this. I need them by Friday or it ruins my weekend”
This is her first time saying please, and we never “discussed” this- she sent a mass email in capital letters to all the SLPs.
Im too desperate to quit, and I only work for like 4 hours a week but she’s just too much. I emailed her back that I’m away and I’m only able to send my Saturday morning.
Is it reasonable for a boss to be so controlling?
When I first interviewed with her and we did the job training I always got a bad vibe from her bc she made me feel so stupid for not knowing how to work her note system

Hi guys! Does anyone know how I can go about blowing up and printing AAC buttons (it would be about the size of a regular sheet of printer paper)? My coworkers and I are thinking about wearing them around our necks for Halloween. Thanks in advance!

Hi everyone, I’m looking for some information on face blindness, and how it might present itself when it comes to social communication (or anything related to speech and language).

I have a middle-school client who doesn’t have a diagnosis, but has shown some evidence for this in our sessions. I’m a bit nervous to bring it up with the family, as it’s outside our scope, and I don’t want to “pile on” the idea of another disorder (ASD/ADD), or risk insulting him, if I am wrong. I’ve read about how it can cause social anxiety and avoidance, but I’m wondering if there were any other less-well-known consequences of face-blindness.

I work with a lot of autistic children in peds PP, and more and more I am getting kids that are considered profound. I am struggling with how to work with this population and make progress, because most of them have high levels of activity, do not engage at all, or are just very cognitively delayed that they are still presenting as infant-like even at 5, 6, 7 years old.

If you would have asked me 6 years ago if I love being an SLP, I would have absolutely said yes. As the years have passed, my passion for the profession has changed. I currently work in an inpatient rehabilitation hospital as a per diem staff member. Lately, my patient caseload has me questioning my purpose as a SLP. Within the past month, I have been receiving patients on my schedule that either do not want our services at all, belittle what we do to help, or rarely participate in the session. I feel like the patients I see do not give me a chance the moment I walk into the room. Sometimes I wonder if I am purposely given this caseload by the team since I am per diem.

Normally I do not let comments bother me. However, the comments have snowballed within the past month. It is getting harder each day to stay motivated. I find myself questioning the field - “Is speech pathology actually helpful?” I then question myself - “Am I a good therapist?” “Why am I even here?”

I understand the sentiment “it’s just a job,” but my goodness some days is just HARD.

I’m a CF who inherited a student who speaks Arabic at home but is also fluent in English since starting school. CASL English test scores came back Average and previous goals were on S blends, SH, and V. I attached a photo of the GFTA errors. I’m worried that this student just has an accent but I’m having trouble finding resources to understand differences between Arabic and English phonology. Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Has anyone with a spouse and kids taken a travel contract?

How did you make that work? Did they come with you? Did they stay at home and you went back home on the weekends?

Hello! Just curious if anyone has had good/bad experience or insights into using the entire world of /r/. It looks extremely comprehensive. We have it but I haven’t really used it much.

Hey guys. I am not a SLP or anything similar, I just work at a before-school latchkey program. I did not see anything in the rules saying I cannot post here, so I apologize if I cannot.

One of our kids has a speech impediment that makes them quite difficult to understand. They either completely omit some letter sounds, or pronounce letter sounds incorrectly. When the child is speaking, my coworker will often interrupt them to tell them "slow down" or "take a deep breath". In my opinion, the student is not an abnormally fast talker, they just cannot currently pronounce certain letters.

This has always confused me because I thought you were not really supposed to cut off a kid with a speech impediment/stutter/other types of difficulties with speaking? Is this common practice/okay to do? If not then how can I explain this to my coworker?