The Cheerleader

I am sure you would agree, as speech and language pathologists, we wear many hats. An incredibly simplified version of what we do is help kids. Most days we help kids by teaching them strategies to help them communicate their wants, needs, feelings, and ideas more clearly with their peers, teachers, and families. Our colleagues and students might call us "the speech and language pathologist" (although this is our official title, its the one that is least often used), "the speech therapist", "the speech teacher", or "the speech lady". I know some people have strong opinions about what people "call" us. As a first year "speechie" I don't have a strong opinion on that.
What is important to me is our role. Our role helping kids. Many of you go above an beyond and are members of this committee or that committee. You come in early and stay late to help struggling students and nurture them to help grow into not only successful communicators, but successful students. We get sucked into any staff development offering with the word "behavior" or "literacy" or "Autism" in the title because we can't pass the opportunity to better ourselves as professionals.
Of course as an SLP I think that there is a tremendous value in the skills we are teaching our students in regards to communication, but there is one other very important "role" that I try to cover -"the cheerleader". I think one of the most important parts of my job is pumping up my students self-esteem. I was lucky enough to have the BEST supervisor for my student teaching last spring. One thing I learned from watching her, that they do NOT teach you in school, is how huge of a role you can play pumping up your students self-esteem. We get a unique opportunity to work one-on-one or in small groups with our students, so why not make the most of it and give them as much individual attention as possible?
A routine I have recently started with my students is having them line up at the door and do a very quick review of what we worked on before they are able to leave the speech room. Initially I started this so I could get a little extra "data" on kids. However, it has turned into something much more valuable. The review could be anything from saying 5 words with their sound in to telling me the parts of a bird that we unknowingly repeated 20 times while we were making our bird crafts. Whatever the review is, I always end it with a high-five and tell the student why i am proud of them. Even if they had a "rough day" at some point in the 20-30 minutes they were in my room they did something that made me proud. Many students who receive speech and language therapy may have a difficult time inferencing. I don't want there to be any confusion so I make sure to use the words, "Name, I am proud of you because...." The first few times I said it, it felt weird because it wasn't something I was used to. When talking to adults I'm much more likely to say, "Way to go!" or "That's so great!", but now it has become a habit and I have found myself saying it to some of the "big people" in my life as well. Growing up playing sports (volleyball, basketball, and soccer) I never thought of myself as a "cheerleader", but now my role as a "cheerleader" is one of the things that I am most proud of.
I am sure some of you do this already, but I know that the days get hectic and students are always coming and going but I DARE YOU to try my "leaving the speech room routine" tomorrow and see how many smiles you get out of your students!!!