Announcer (00:01): Highlighting the amazing stories from inside the North Clackamas School District. This is the proud To Be NCSD podcast hosted by longtime principal and current community relations director. Curtis Long

Elementary Students (00:15): My skin skills

Curtis Long (00:22): Spend any amount of time in a first grade classroom. And it won't take long to realize that most of the time young students have lots to say, whether it's during reading in the classroom,

Elementary Students (00:32): Skin is on all of me.

Curtis Long (00:37): Or during lunch in the cafeteria time,

Elementary Students (00:40): Olive them, uh, was uh, trying to get a waffle, but they ran outta waffles and she had to get something else.

Curtis Long (00:45): Or sometimes much to their smiling teacher's dismay. Six and seven year olds are never at a loss for words from the classroom to the playground,

Elementary Students (00:53): Go on the swings! Go on the swings! Go on the swings!

Curtis Long (00:56): But other times for hundreds of students across our school district, the words are there, but they just don't quite come out right.

Ambyr Henderson (01:05): A good, let's go the other way with the el at the beginning of it. Ready?

Curtis Long (01:09): That Spring Mountain Elementary School speech and language pathologist, Ambyr Henderson, who spends parts of her days meeting with small groups of students identified for special education services. Not because they trip up trying to sound out words. It's more that some words and sounds seem to trip up their tongues.

Ambyr Henderson (01:26): We're gonna say it the old way. Remember how we used to say the L sound? It was like a W right? And then we're gonna change the look. This says way now. Do it the right way. Way. Good. Our lips are coming back. Are not coming out. Let's try this one.

Curtis Long (01:40): Nearly every school across North Clackamas has a speech and language pathologist like Henderson on staff professionals, strategically supporting students who just need an extra boost when it comes to organizing thoughts, processing spoken language, managing a stutter, or even articulating specific sounds.

Ambyr Henderson (01:56): All right, so what sound are we working on today? L. L Sound. And what do you do with your tongue to make that sound? Um, good. Where is it going? In your mouth. The top of your mouth. Where at? Right behind your teeth. Your teeth.

Curtis Long (02:09): Today on the Proud To Be NCSD podcast, several district speech and language pathologists articulate what a typical school day looks like for them. Why watch your mouth takes on a whole new meaning in their profession?

Ambyr Henderson (02:20): Doing what? Look at my face

Curtis Long (02:22): And what brings them the most joy in helping students find their voice.

Ambyr Henderson (02:26): Good - Do you hear the difference? Yeah. Mm-hmm

Curtis Long (02:28): <affirmative>. Talk about making a difference. Meet these super staff members who always bring smiles to students as they teach all about speech next.

Ambyr Henderson (02:36): Ooh, those sounded kind of similar. Let's try it again. Lock.

Curtis Long (02:40): And we are very pleased to have five of our speech and language pathologists across the North Clackamas School District here with us today. Ambyr Henderson is here from Spring Mountain. You heard her at the beginning. Stephanie Gaslin from Milwaukeie High. Katie Lee from Linwood Sojourner Mallory Manderfield of Oak Grove Elementary and Heather Tomsky from Beatrice Morrow Canandy. All of you thank you so much for being here and taking time outta your day to join us.

Multiple Guests (03:03): Yeah. Thank you for having us. Thank you. Yeah,

Multiple Guests (03:05): Thanks. It was fun.

Curtis Long (03:05): And what we usually do on a podcast, 'cause there is no video going to this one. I know that probably makes you feel a little bit more at ease. There's no one videotaping <laugh> as we have everyone introduced themselves. So tell us who you are and what school you are from and, uh, maybe a little bit about how you came to your position in North Clackamas.

Katie Lee (03:23): I'll go. So I'm Katie Lee and I work at Linwood Elementary and Soner School. And I've been at those schools, I think this is maybe my sixth year. And I don't know, I, um, went back to school to be a speech pathologist a little bit later in life. So North Clackamas is the only place I've worked. I think I've worked for the district for about nine years and I just absolutely love it. I wanted a chance to work one-on-one with kids or in small groups and just really get to talk to kids. And so this is the absolute perfect job. It's so much fun.

New Speaker (03:49): Hi, I'm Heather Tomsky. I work at Beatrice Morrow Cannady Elementary. This is my third year with the district. I've been a speech pathologist for a number of years, but we moved to the area. I live in the district, so it was just a convenient place to get a job.

Stephanie Gaslin (04:02): I'm Stephanie Gaslin. I work at Milwaukie High School and I've been there for 11 years. That was also my first job outside of grad school. I, again, went back to school, previous theater background and turned speech language pathologist because I wanted to help people with real communication challenges, being able to access their voice Though Rob Holloway, you know him, he actually hired me pretty quickly after I met him at a, at a career fair. Okay.

Curtis Long (04:34): Mm-hmm. At career fair. You were one of those walking up and down the aisles. Yeah. Career

Katie Lee (04:39): Fair. That was I was as well. Nice. Career fair

Curtis Long (04:41): Special. One of our special education coordinators Rob Holloway...

Ambyr Henderson (04:44): <laugh>. My name is Ambyr Henderson. I am a speech therapist at Spring Mountain Elementary. And this year I'm also doing some work around the district with MTSS support. I did not grow up around here. I, uh, actually grew up in Wyoming and then went to grad school in Nebraska and have worked in four different states in both clinic and school settings. And my husband and I always wanted to move to Oregon and we had that opportunity and we've been here for about nine years now.

Curtis Long (05:07): Oh very interesting. So from Wyoming originally.

Ambyr Henderson (05:10): <laugh>. Yeah.

Malory Maderfield (05:10): All right. Yeah. My name's Mallory Manderfield. I'm working at Oak Grove Elementary this year and I'm actually new to Portland, Oregon. I just moved here in August, so it's my first year with North Clackamas. But, uh, this is my 13th year as a speech language pathologist.

Curtis Long (05:25): How's it going so far in North Clackamas? It's your first year as an Oak Grove, Dragon...

Malory Maderfield (05:29): <laugh>? Yep. Yeah. Yep. Our mascot is the dragon and yeah, it's going well so far. It's pretty busy. It's a very busy school and a lot of the kids are great. The staff's great.

Curtis Long (05:39): So you heard at the beginning I tagged along with one of Amber's lessons earlier on. And I guess, Ambyr, you would answer this the same way as everyone else. There is no typical day. My first question says, what's a typical day as a speech language pathologist? There is no typical day, but tell us a little bit about how a day goes for each of you, and especially for you Stephanie, at a different level. We have three elementaries and one high school person, so it'll be interesting to hear that.

Stephanie Gaslin (06:00): I can just answer that right away. My typical day is I get an hour before school starts. Um, and I kind of have a variety of things on my calendar. Like I might have a couple of IEP meetings, but I also have a student schedule and all those students that I serve have their own schedules. So that is always a puzzle piece at the beginning of the year. And I typically will see a student for a variety of reasons. Mm-hmm <affirmative>. It could be for speech, it could be for social communication, it could be for language. Sometimes I have groups of, uh, the, of kids that are working on social communication. I also go into classes too and teach lessons once or twice a week. Um, different communication groups. And I actually co-teach a class called Communication skills as well. And then there's no typical day for you? No Typical day. It changes every day. 'cause we have AB schedules too. And so that's another puzzle piece. So, so it's

Curtis Long (06:52): Not like at the elementary level where you may pull kids from the same classroom who are working on a similar skill. It works out well at high school. I can imagine. Probably doesn't work that way. You can't pull all the freshmen at one time

Stephanie Gaslin (07:02): No. To come visit with you. No. They all have different schedules and some kids don't wanna work with other kids too. And I wanna honor that because they're, you know, they wanna advocate for themselves and try to figure out who they are. And sometimes, um, if I pair kids together, it just doesn't work. Yeah. The chemistry doesn't work and we want them to feel safe.

Curtis Long (07:18): And let's make sure we hear from the elementary people as well. And I know that Stephanie mentioned quite a few different things that she sees people for. It's not always, as we kind of alluded to at the beginning, articulation, that could be one thing that, that you work on with students, but there's many other things. So talk to us a little bit about that.

Ambyr Henderson (07:33): Certainly. Yeah, we can talk a little bit about that. There's a lot of things we do as speech therapists. We can work with kids who stutter. Uh, we work with kids with language disorders. We work with kids who maybe are nonverbal and they use, uh, alternative augmentative communication devices. And we also work with kids on social language skills. And so, uh, the variety of what we can do is pretty vast. And our day changes and fluctuates based on the student needs and how they're doing. Of course, we have schedules to meet, uh, IEP minutes. Yeah. But it can all shift and then we have to kind of be flexible on how we we address that and making sure that we're making up some of those minutes if we do have to shift things.

Curtis Long (08:08): So you've mentioned the term IEP an individualized education plan. Explain for our listeners who maybe aren't familiar with that, what that is, because you were involved in writing those particular plans for students who need some extra support.

Katie Lee (08:19): Well, that's a specific plan that students have to get the support that they need. And for us it would be communication, but they may also have that plan for academics. Mm-hmm <affirmative>. Or social skills, behavior, organizational skills. And so it's for students that really need specialized instruction and to be given that extra, you know, instruction and a specific goal to make progress so they can access their, um, general education. And so each student has a plan.

New Speaker (08:42): And the IEP also includes things like accommodations that they may need. And this is just a way to make sure that every adult is being consistent with what a student needs, so that the teacher this year knows this student needs alternative seating when they move to their new teacher next year, that new teacher also knows, Hey, this is something that we need to provide for this student to be able to thrive in the classroom.

Curtis Long (09:03): We heard Ambyr working with a couple of students out of class. I imagine a lot of you are in class sometimes as well supporting students.

Ambyr Henderson (09:10): Certainly, yeah. We can do a combination of supports with, sometimes we go into class, especially if it's something like language or social skills, that's a really good opportunity to be inside working with students. But oftentimes with like articulation or even in other areas that we work on, it's important to be in a, in a room that's quiet and we can do like important work around the goals that we're working on.

Heather Tomsky (09:30): I think that there are appropriate times to do it, and it's not as easily implemented as possible because if I'm going into a classroom to work with a student and the teacher's talking about something, like I'm then competing for attention with the teacher. Right. I, I can't just go in and do the thing I need to do when there's other things happening in the room. Mm-hmm <affirmative>. So sometimes it is a good thing to do and can be totally appropriate, but it's also, I think not just like, oh, this is what we wanna work toward, make it happen. It's not really all that practical for every situation.

Curtis Long (10:00): Mm-hmm <affirmative>. And how do you determine the best service delivery model? Whether it's going to be push in or what we call a pull out model where kids are coming to see you, I imagine that's in consultation with the teacher, maybe administrators, I'm not sure. How do you determine that?

Katie Lee (10:13): It really depends on the student and like you said, consultation with, with the whole team, including the parents. But it would depend on exactly what the student is working on their age for sure. That can work really well with, um, younger kids. So maybe like a kindergarten student who's working on social communication skills, pushing into their free play time is such a, a great way to work on that, to coach them through, you know, making contact with other peers appropriately. But then if we're working on maybe trying to achieve a really good r sound for an older student, that'd be so hard to do in their classroom and it might make them uncomfortable to do it around other kids in their classroom. So we need to pull them out to a quiet environment. So it just really depends. I think one thing that's unique about speech and language goals and IEPs are, are focused on communication, is that every student that we work with has very different specific goals. So maybe if you're working on academic skills, maybe you have a group of students all working on about the same thing. But for even with the maybe three third graders with language goals, maybe one's working specifically on grammar, they don't use their past tense appropriately. Right. But one has a hard time making inferences, you know, it's, it's just all very individualized. And so that can be, would be really hard for push too, to try to work those things into a teacher's lesson. Yeah. Yeah.

Curtis Long (11:23): And Stephanie, at the high school level, I would imagine it's a little bit different for you. Are there high school students who still struggle with articulation?

Stephanie Gaslin (11:29): Actually, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So those kids I do see individually uhhuh, but um, it really does depend on the student. And at the beginning of the year, uh, we always regroup and, and talk about what's gonna be the most appropriate for them and their learning. And they have to buy in, you know, they're getting to adulthood at this level and they're wanting that autonomy and they're wanting to work on what they wanna work on. And so, and how they, how that looks for them in their day. It has to be at a time where they're able to access me, but it has to also not interrupt like their classes. And so it just, every kid is completely different. So I, I work with each kid individually at the beginning of the year to make sure that this is the kind of service that they want to see and that they feel like they can actually focus on what it is that we're working on.

Curtis Long (12:16): And then how do you evaluate how kids are improving? Never. I've watched you before and you're taking notes, or you're listening for certain things, you're asking key questions to see how they answer those certain things. But you don't have a grade book and you don't have running grades on a student. How do you determine how much progress a student has made?

Heather Tomsky (12:34): Well, we're taking data every session we're with a student. So I am just, you know, if I'm working with Katie and I know I have this particular target I wanna work on, I'm just gonna know, you know, could she do it? Could she not do it? Could she do it with prompting? And then when the teachers write report cards, we write progress on our IEP goals. And so those times we just look at our entire caseload and say, okay, for this student, they're actually making progress on this, but not on this. Mm-hmm <affirmative>. So then I know, okay, well now starting next week, now that I've kind of evaluated where we're at, I know I need to focus on this more than I need to focus on this other thing.

Curtis Long (13:09): And it must be fun. I, I would assume eventually students graduate out of your programs, which is what we want them to do. But for you, maybe that's a little sad. I don't get to visit with this student anymore.

Heather Tomsky (13:19): I mean, it's, it's actually just, it's more something that we're really proud of that Yeah. You, you know, we want them to not, to not need us. And you know, particularly at the elementary level when we do tend to exit students frequently, we still see them around the halls mm-hmm <affirmative>. And stay high and mm-hmm <affirmative>. And it's nice to check in with our previous students.

Curtis Long (13:38): That was gonna be my next question for all of you. How rewarding is it when you see one of your students out in the hall maybe utilizing the skill that you've worked on for so long? How does that make you feel?

Ambyr Henderson (13:46): Yeah, that's like the whole joy of our profession, right? I mean, absolutely. Seeing that spark on their face when they get something and they finally accomplish a goal when they graduate out, when they're communicating with their peers. I mean, that's what kind of drives us to, to keep working in this field. Definitely.

Curtis Long (14:01): And I'm interested to see the difference, especially between you Stephanie at, at high school and the three of you at elementary school. You can really get creative with your techniques of how to get kids to work on these particular things. At the beginning we could hear Ambyr's kids, they were rolling dice and the number they got is the number of times they had to practice that particular sound. And the kid was cheering when he got a six. 'cause I get to do it six times now. <laugh>, uh, what are some techniques that you find really kind of fun to use or the kids find really fun to use where they don't even know they're learning

Stephanie Gaslin (14:30): At the high school level I can say that I have to appeal to what their future goals are. Sure. And what they want to get better at. So I'm constantly, we're, that's how I can appeal to my kids, but to make it fun too. Right. So we focus a lot on their interests and I try to embed as much of their interests into what we do all the time. So we can always go back to that and think about, okay, what kind of goals can we work on?

Curtis Long (14:56): So what you're thinking, I'm thinking a high school student who's maybe really loves drama, you can talk Oh yeah. About her or his favorite drama things and Yeah. Look for what your key words or your key sounds within that.

Stephanie Gaslin (15:07): Yeah. And, and and, and we might not even be working on speech. Yeah. We're maybe working on social communication. Okay. And so it's making the connection between who I am and how do I communicate who I am to other people in order to form like positive relationships with others, peers and teachers. That's a large part of what I do. A lot of self-advocacy. A lot of

Curtis Long (15:28): Self-advocacy. Mm-hmm. Let's come back to that a little bit because I think our listeners maybe think of speech pathology as all articulation, which we heard at the beginning mm-hmm <affirmative>. But there's other skills that some of you have been referencing. Mm-hmm <affirmative>. Sometimes language processing. So kids, it takes them a while to process what the, say the teacher gave certain directions. They may seem like they're not listening at all. They are listening. It just takes them a little bit longer to, to get it through their brain processes.

Katie Lee (15:52): It may, it may be it's the language itself is difficult for them. Okay. So understanding maybe the sentences are too complex. Mm. Maybe there's just the sentences are too long, there's too many conjunctions in them that make 'em hard to understand because the students don't know how to use those words. Maybe the vocabulary they haven't learned yet. Mm-hmm <affirmative>. And sometimes people can be confused about is it attention or is it language? And when teachers say processing, I think sometimes they're thinking, well, they just don't, they don't seem to know what's going on. Maybe it's attention, maybe it's not the language, but if it's the actual language itself that's difficult. That's where we come in. I mean it's, it's more about grammar, asension structure of vocabulary. And they have a harder time if you think about a young child developing language, right? Sure. You, you know, kind of expect them to get their first words at a certain age. Kids with language disorders will be slower to do that. Mm-hmm <affirmative>. And it can carry on into the older, older grades.

Curtis Long (16:37): And do you have kids, I'm sure you do that come into you initially not saying a whole lot, but once they learn the skills that you're teaching them, you can't get 'em to be quiet <laugh>. Which is probably the beauty in the whole thing.

Heather Tomsky (16:51): And that's our goal. The

Curtis Long (16:52): Teacher will probably not be thanking you for that,

Katie Lee (16:54): But that's

Curtis Long (16:54): The whole goal, right? Mm-hmm <affirmative>.

Heather Tomsky (16:56): I'm thinking another part of language that personally I really like working on is concepts. Like, so things like spatial concepts like under, or even like descriptors, like the biggest, you know, things like that. That's something, I don't know if you guys do that, but I love working on teaching concepts and it's something that, you know, you can really, you can get up and do things physically or you can, you know, use manipulatives and it's, it's actually really functional, right? Because in the real world you need to know, I have to put this under here, but if you don't know what under means, right? Yeah. You know, that's something that, it's one of those things where you see results quickly. Mm-hmm <affirmative>. Like, oh I understand it. And now that actually changes the way I can participate in the classroom.

Katie Lee (17:36): Yeah. That's, um, forgot about that. But I love working on that too. Just yesterday I had a student, a first grader who really didn't understand the word between mm-hmm <affirmative>. And so we worked on it a little bit and then I had a little stuffed doggy and we took it all, all around the school and he put that dog between things and I took pictures, <laugh> between, and we're gonna make a book and just tell the story of this. It's a little dog named Jacob and <laugh>. All the places he went between, this

Curtis Long (17:56): Is what between means. I love that. Can you think of other concepts, uh, you guys have mentioned extent of things between over under Amber or Stephanie. Can you think of other things that you really have a joy in teaching?

Stephanie Gaslin (18:08): I personally have a, a joy in teaching kids to get to the point where they can feel more comfortable talking to peers. What I love so much is for them to really get to know who they are and be able to communicate that. But then seeing them make connections like at lunch and stuff with kids independently, it's the most amazing thing to watch them build that closeness with other kids. And whereas previously in working with them, they may not have had a chance to feel confident enough. Right. And really it is building their confidence Yeah. In in their abilities. And then I get to see them graduate high school.

Curtis Long (18:50): Yeah, you do. You get to see them walk across that stage. And I guess you would too a little bit later on.

Curtis Long (18:54): But for students struggling with speech and language at an early age, any thoughts of walking across a graduation stage are often the future, but what isn't often the distance? How about the noticeably quick results our amazing specialists bring out in students after just a few sessions.

Ambyr Henderson (19:10): I've also recently kind of been enjoying A A C, which is new for me, which is alternative on augmentative communication. And I've been seeing so much growth with one of my students who was for the most part nonverbal when they came. And they are pretty independently using their device now. So that's been really exciting to see that growth. It's nice to see kids finding their voice

Curtis Long (19:27): Still to come learn more favorable teaching techniques from these pronunciation pros. And what brings them the most joy from their job each day?

Katie Lee (19:35): Oh gosh. I just love talking to the kids. They're so much fun. Yeah. I laugh every single day. All day long. Yeah. <laugh>,

Stephanie Gaslin (19:42): I love really their discovery of their voice and who they are. And I get to see that from freshman year to senior year. It's pretty amazing how much kids can develop and I really do love the relationships that I build. Just to see them be able to use their voice and ask for what they need is kind of cool.

Curtis Long (20:02): What else is kind of cool? How about the second half of our Proud To Be NCSD podcast with these incredible staff members who teach about speech right after this?

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Ambyr Henderson (20:42): I really enjoy working with students who stutter. Um, it's such a unique thing to work on because you have to really infuse a lot of counseling aspects into the therapy. And so it goes beyond just thinking about the motor movements of our mouth, but it goes into like the emotional components of what we do and how we speak and just, it's just a big passion. I've also recently kind of been enjoying A A C, which is new for me, which is alternative augmentative communication. Not new to me in the sense that's new to the profession, but I haven't had the opportunity to work with a lot of students with a a C. And this year I have a lot of opportunities for that. And I've been seeing so much growth with one of my students who was for the most part, nonverbal when they came. And they are pretty independently using their device now.

Curtis Long (21:22): So those are students that have a special device that allows them to communicate?

Ambyr Henderson (21:25): Yes. Okay. Yes. Mm-hmm <affirmative>. So that's been really exciting to see that growth. It's nice to see kids finding their voice.

Curtis Long (21:31): And I imagine you had to learn that technology as well. How does this thing work?

Ambyr Henderson (21:34): Yeah, obviously as a speech therapist we have training in it. Okay. And we're aware of it. But if you work in certain areas that you don't get a lot of exposure, you might not have a lot of hands-on experience. And so anytime you have a student come in with a device or even a new program or app they're working on, you do have to spend some time researching and learning it. And so you can help that child grow in that area.

Curtis Long (21:52): And Mallory, how about for you? Is there a certain concept or technique that you enjoy doing more than others? Yeah. I

Malory Maderfield (21:57): Would have to say I like working with like the pre-K students. Mm-hmm <affirmative>. That are just like, are like the delayed talkers that are just getting their like first words to like expand it to two to three word sentences. I like a lot of like doing play therapy with the littler kids.

Curtis Long (22:12): Now we've, we featured Oak Grove has a preschool within their building. Do you work with any of those preschoolers?

Malory Maderfield (22:18): No, I sadly don't. <laugh>,

Curtis Long (22:20): They're fun to see those, but

Malory Maderfield (22:22): I see them

Curtis Long (22:23): Walking down the hall. Yeah. It is fun to see them walking down the hall. Mallory, you mentioned you're in your first year here?

Ambyr Henderson (22:29): Yeah. Here. Yeah.

Curtis Long (22:29): Not your first year in the profession. What about speech and language pathologists who are studying currently in college? What advice would you have for them as they, uh, graduate this year or getting ready to go into this field?

Katie Lee (22:39): I, I don't know if I have advice, but I would say if you wanna work in the schools, then give it a try. Yeah. I really love it. I really love the fact that I can be with the students that I see every school day and see that growth throughout the year. I just really love being a part of a school community. I think it's really fun. There's so much to experience being a part of that community other than just doing our speech and language job. I think it's a really wonderful place to work. And it's, it's challenging. We're very busy. I mean, speech pathologists, our caseloads are huge and we're juggling so many plates at all times. But it's extremely rewarding and I wouldn't do anything else, honestly.

Heather Tomsky (23:13): Maybe some advice I would think, and I know you don't as a student have a lot of control, but try to get practicum experience in as many different places with as many different supervisors as possible. Do not like go work in the district where you had your practicum experience. Like go different places so you can see how things can be done differently. Mm-hmm <affirmative>. And there's not one right way to do things. Right.

Stephanie Gaslin (23:34): Ask for what you need. Don't be afraid to ask for what you need. Um, even if you are just getting out of college and then doing your first CFY, which is what clinical fellowship year, still assert yourself. You know what you need. And also be flexible. Be flexible because I think that if you are not a flexible person, you need to work on that <laugh> because you, in order to work in the schools, you have to be flexible and you have to collaborate too. Mm-hmm

Curtis Long (24:02): <affirmative>. I'm sure you have teachers coming, Hey, we have a special project today. Can we move the time or can you visit?

Stephanie Gaslin (24:07): They

Heather Tomsky (24:07): Don't come tell us though.

Curtis Long (24:09): Oh, you have to find that out when we get the kids. Oh, can he not visit today? Is it okay? Mm-hmm <affirmative>.

Malory Maderfield (24:14): I would say to them to talk to a speech language pathologist at the school. 'cause they're gonna give you an honest opinion about the school and to also live where you feel inspired to.

Stephanie Gaslin (24:24): Yeah.

Katie Lee (24:25): Yeah. Mm-hmm

Ambyr Henderson (24:26): <affirmative>. Yeah. I think one of the biggest things I always tell students, especially when I'm supervising them, is just to have grace for yourself. Like, this is a tough job and it also is very rewarding. And I think just knowing that you're not gonna be able to do the perfect laid out session that you had the opportunity to do when you were in grad school. <laugh> in grad school, things are pretty controlled and you have more, you know, it's laid out in school is the more chaos. Right. It's a little busy, it's a little more on the fly. And I think just taking that knowledge with you that it's okay that you don't have to be perfect going into it. And to be extremely flexible, that is a huge one. I mean, I remember a, a professor telling me once that you should be able to do therapy with a trash can and a piece of paper. And I was like, that's a valid point because you can have a very perfect lesson plan made and completely have to throw it out the window because that's not what the kids ready to do participate in that day. And so, you know, just keeping those elements in mind as you're going into it.

Curtis Long (25:20): And have you had lessons completely go south on you?

Ambyr Henderson (25:23): Oh yeah. All the time.

Curtis Long (25:24): I mean, that was gonna be one of my questions. Mm-hmm <affirmative>. We have painted it so far as that this is a glorious job. <laugh>, the kids do

Katie Lee (25:29): Exactly

Curtis Long (25:29): What they're supposed to do and you have them all ready to move on away from their goals within six weeks or so. It doesn't work that way. And sometimes you have kids that maybe aren't willing to work on their skills yet or don't wanna be there. Yeah. How do you deal with those kind of situations

Heather Tomsky (25:43): As far as not wanting to be there, I think it's important to establish like a trusting relationship with a student, right? Like, okay, I'm gonna acknowledge that I know you don't wanna do this, it's not very interesting, but can we at least come to a point where we respect each other and can you trust that I'm trying to do something to benefit you in the long run? And so even if it's like I, I'll even say to again, yeah, I know this is boring. Let's just, let's just get it over with. Right. <laugh>. But just being honest and I don't know. Yeah. Developing the relationship I think is what's really important. Mm-hmm <affirmative>. Because we'll get to a point with students where they, they care about us enough that they're going to do it just because we ask them to, not because they want to actually talk about birds like I did today. Right.

Curtis Long (26:27): <laugh>,

Katie Lee (26:28): So mm-hmm <affirmative>. I think that's absolutely right. I have a student that had a really hard time this year coming to speech and they had come from another school and just had, had some rough experiences up there, you know, where they came from before and was having a hard time participating. And I, and I, first I was like, what? Everybody loves speech <laugh>. Don't, don't you like this activity? But, um, I just really took some, I really took some, yeah. <laugh>, what do you mean? What do you mean? Um, I took some time to just like, okay, we're just gonna work on participating and just building the relationship and so I didn't even try to make him do work at first. Mm-hmm <affirmative>. You know, and now he'll do work because now like he, we've got that trusting relationship and he realizes, oh, like she does want the best for me. Yeah. She does want me to enjoy myself here and it's going so much better. So sometimes it just really is about just starting with that strong relationship before anything else.

Ambyr Henderson (27:11): Yeah. And getting really creative with your sessions. Like they might not wanna sit in your room and do a therapy session. Maybe you're walking down the hallway and doing a vocabulary walk and talking about things.

Curtis Long (27:21): Sneaky! Yeah, you can

Ambyr Henderson (27:21): Even when you're evaluating, I mean collecting a language sample on the go <laugh> mm-hmm <affirmative>. You can get a lot of really rich information out that way too. And building that relationship, but just being creative

Curtis Long (27:30): And Mallory building relationships. Mm-hmm <affirmative>. This is your first year at Oak Grove. Yeah. And has that been a challenge for you? How do you go about doing that?

Malory Maderfield (27:35): I think, you know, every kid is really different in how you build a relationship. I think if you can find like the one thing, there's usually just like one, at least one thing you can connect with a kid over and you can just build on that. Like, I use a lot of like Yes. And in therapy too. Like if they come in with, they're talking about something you, you know, you just kind of, yes. And it, you know, a lot of improv principles there, <laugh>, but I mean, you know, you, you do have to and eventually stop. Yes. Andy <laugh> get some work done, but, um, yes. And

Katie Lee (28:08): <laugh>,

Malory Maderfield (28:09): Yes. And uh, but yeah, I think every kid is so different, you know, just learning about their family too. Learning about, you know, nicknames are, are good to build on. Yeah. You can get really creative with therapy.

Curtis Long (28:20): You see lots of different students. How many different students are on your caseload?

Katie Lee (28:24): I have 75

Curtis Long (28:26): 75 different students

Katie Lee (28:27): Currently. Um, not the ones even that I'm testing that might be joining, but the ones that I see every week, 75 students.

Curtis Long (28:33): You see 75 different students per week?

Katie Lee (28:34): I do. Okay. Yeah. <laugh>,

Heather Tomsky (28:36): I see I think 54 and I only work three days a week.

Curtis Long (28:39): 54 different kids in three days per week.

Stephanie Gaslin (28:42): I have 72 kids and, but I do not see them every week. Mm-hmm <affirmative>. They have a variety of different services. Some I see every week, some I see every other week and some I actually have consultation on, but for the most part I do see like, at least 60 of them every week. <laugh>

Curtis Long (29:02): Ambyr how about for you?

Ambyr Henderson (29:03): Well, spring Mountain has about 52 right now. Mm-hmm. Total kit. So it's on the lower end of things. Um, and I see about half of those because I'm only there part-time. Okay. And there's another SLP that's there every time. Oh, okay. But yes, I see all of them every week multiple times.

Curtis Long (29:14): Mallory?

Malory Maderfield (29:14): Yeah, and I've got about 58.

Curtis Long (29:17): 58. So you've heard anything from the fifties up until the seventies.

Malory Maderfield (29:20): And that's, um, I also, oh, I, I forgot to mention this, but I'm also 0.2 at, uh, New Urban Online. Oh, okay. So I see, um, online high school students.

Curtis Long (29:28): So you can do speech therapy online. Yes.

Katie Lee (29:31): Yeah.

Malory Maderfield (29:31): Yeah.

Curtis Long (29:32): So are you really staring at the screen? I'm imagining articulation I think would be hard to do online. Mean just covid

Malory Maderfield (29:38): Here. As long as we have their camera on.

Curtis Long (29:40): Okay. As long as they have their camera.

Katie Lee (29:41): It's kind of cool because Yeah, your face is right there. Their face is right. Yeah. I find it really nice actually.

Ambyr Henderson (29:45): It works and it is evidence based. I mean we, our national organization has shown that Teletherapy is an effective practice for, for speech therapy services. So it's, it's effective and it can be a right fit for a lot of students actually. Mm-hmm <affirmative>.

Curtis Long (29:57): <affirmative>. So we have some parents listening that maybe have some future kindergartners coming in, or maybe they're moving from another district and at home they may think that their child could use some extra help with speech therapy or speech and language pathologist. What do you recommend for those parents who really think that maybe my student should be evaluated? Mm-hmm <affirmative>.

Katie Lee (30:16): If you have a student who is of school age and is in kindergarten or above, then definitely reach out to your child's teacher and let them know of your concerns. And, um, the teacher can work with a speech pathologist. The speech pathologist could possibly, you know, observe in the classroom and see if they think, oh, this is typical. You know, they're just developing language, still are speech sounds or maybe this is something we need, wanted to look further in. Um, but also if you have a child who's younger than kindergarten and infancy all the way up to preschool age, these um, free school based services are also available through early intervention and early childhood special education. And so a lot of people don't know that. So maybe if you brought up concerns with a pediatrician and the pediatrician says, oh no, I think it's fine, but you're still really concerned. You're like, I cannot understand my 4-year-old at all. Or I really feel like they should have more words at this age. You can look up North Clackamas is aligned with the Clackamas Educational Service District. ESD. Yeah. The Clackamas ESD. And so they offer those services too and, and parents can refer there and see about getting services from a speech pathologist that way as well.

Curtis Long (31:15): So all of you have mentioned fifties up into the seventies. That's 50 to 70 different personalities. Oh yes. Who you're dealing with every week. Mm-hmm <affirmative>. Mm-hmm <affirmative>. And you're trying to keep track of what works best for each one of 'em. It really is amazing what all of you do as part of a school and, and really make magic happen. Which kind of leads to my last question as we start to wind down. What is your favorite thing about being a speech language pathologist in a school?

Katie Lee (31:37): Oh gosh. I just love talking to the kids. They're so much fun. Yeah. I laugh every single day. All day long. <laugh>. Yeah. <laugh>

Heather Tomsky (31:43): Definitely the relationship with the kids and, and seeing them grow. Not just in the things they're doing in speech, but just like globally as a human being. Like the things that they're improving on. And it's, it's just so exciting to see them improve and meet their own personal goals.

Stephanie Gaslin (31:59): I love really their discovery of their voice and who they are. And I get to see that from freshman year to senior year. It's pretty amazing how much kids can develop. And I really do love the relationships that I build. There's a lot of counseling in high school 'cause I have a lot of kids who have a lot of educational trauma, a lot of challenges. And just to see them be able to use their voice and ask for what they need is kind of cool.

Ambyr Henderson (32:28): Yeah. I mean, in alignment with my colleagues, I, I really like to see the kids just find the joy in what they're doing. The joy in speaking. I love it when they can meet their goals and, and feel accomplished by what they're doing. And the other part I really like is the education aspect of our profession where we get to educate teachers and parents mm-hmm <affirmative>. About what we're doing and help them out, um, with supporting the kids outside of the therapy room.

Malory Maderfield (32:49): Yeah. I would also just like, like everybody else said, I love working with kids. Um, I always wanted to work with kids. So, um, and just love making them laugh and also talking to parents and seeing what they're seeing at home too is just really fun.

Curtis Long (33:03): Well, as many people know that I spent 17 years as an elementary school principal before taking on this job and getting to host this podcast. And one of my favorite places to be in elementary school was in speech pathology groups. And watching them light up those students light up as they start to make that sound that they struggled with before or seeing them use it around the school. I think what this group of professionals as our guests today do is magical in our school. And I hope you guys know how much you're appreciated. It's been really an honor to have you all here today. Thanks so much for taking time outta your days at the end of a long day, by the way, to join us today.

Ambyr Henderson (33:36): Yes. Thanks for having us. You so much. Thank

Malory Maderfield (33:38): You so much. It's been so fun.

Curtis Long (33:40): Thanks for listening to The Proud To Be NCSD podcast. In North Clackamas, we know that education is a community effort and we're so thankful that you and your family are a part of our community. Until next time, remember, there are always great things to see wherever you go in NCSD.