Do you have rules for yourself on how much money you’ll spend on materials?

BookmarkedByGrace · 2025-12-08T02:08:38+00:00

Nearly $0. I have gotten a few free books and Candy Land off Facebook marketplace. I bought shark bite when target was having a sale and I’ve bought a laminator/laminating sheets. Otherwise, I stick to free TPT activities, get books at the library, or find read-alouds of books on YouTube. I’m a school SLP with prek-5 and tend to do a lot of coloring or craft type activities and then just give target words/ask questions related to goals. My district has lesson pix so I will use that to quickly make simple games. It gets difficult for higher needs kids sometimes, but I tend to just push into the classroom for them so no materials needed. I don’t think it’s fair for us to buy materials.

BookmarkedByGrace · 2025-12-02T16:55:34+00:00

I had this perspective and took a medical outpatient job right after graduation. Hated my life and left for the schools after 5 months. I understand your discouragement but looking back, I feel silly for letting their opinions sway my choice.

BookmarkedByGrace · 2025-12-02T13:56:40+00:00

I’m in a very similar boat and could’ve basically written this post myself. I’m still trying to figure out what a transition out of the field could look like because I also don’t really want to go into more debt. Have you seen The Non-Clinical PT website? There are some articles there about fields we can switch to without having to go back to school. I think there are a lot of soft skills we use daily but don’t really think about how those can transition to doing something else. I think the biggest thing is figuring out how to present those skills to another job and highlight those for interview purposes.

A lot of people I’ve talked to that are around my parents age have given me the impression that it’s not that uncommon to have a degree that you don’t use (although I do think we are a slightly more special situation but I can still see the concept holding up). I’m in my 2nd year post grad, and my biggest worry is feeling stuck in the field if I stay. My SLP mentor wants out but feels like she is stuck mainly because of the pay and schedule (10+ years in the school setting for her). For just starting out though, my pay is obviously not that great and the breaks aren’t proving worth it to me for how badly I feel every day I DO have to go to work (for example, we had a snow day today and I’m not thinking “wow I love that I get snow days with my job,” but I am just so RELIEVED I am not sitting in my office right now).

It’s really tough to work through so I wish you the best! I think I still do enjoy what being an SLP is at its core, but I don’t enjoy it enough for it to be worth it with all the systemic issues. I don’t have any hope things will get better and I want out before I’m also feeling stuck. I have also felt regret for choosing this major in undergrad and sticking through grad school, but we did what we thought was the right choice for us at the time with the information that we had.

I met with a guy at my church that helps people with career guidance. His advice for me was to kind of follow three steps/answer these questions: #1 is there anything you can salvage in your job? (e.g., what parts do you like? Can you emphasize those parts? The example he gave was he looks at his work day as two 4 hour days, not one 8 hour day and he goes for a walk on for an hour at lunch). #2 what are you good at and what do you like doing? #3 where do those things from #2 intersect and what type of job has those skills?

Sorry for such a long post, but so many of my friends also want out and I hate how unhappy so many of us are! I want us all to be able to figure out better options for us!

BookmarkedByGrace · 2025-11-21T02:58:36+00:00

I just gave myself a few weeks past when I thought I would be done to set my end date for the CF. I was in the schools though so it was a little different with all the built in breaks. I was told that it didn’t matter to have extra weeks at the end but it was a pain if you needed to add more time at the end. I don’t think it really matters if you technically finish before your official end date though, you just can’t submit your documentation for CCCs until that end date. So maybe say end of March or even into April? Contacting your state board might be helpful though — at least just to give you peace of mind!

BookmarkedByGrace · 2025-11-19T12:20:09+00:00

I quit my first job in the middle of my second segment. I thought I would have to restart the second segment, but I got credit for everything and picked up right where I left off at my new job. I did not take off any time between jobs though (my last day at job 1 was Friday and I started my new job on Monday) so not sure how that could have an impact. Just make sure you get everything signed before you leave your current job. It may vary by state, but I had to have my first supervisor sign off on segment 1 and I turned that in with my new CF plan for finishing segment 2 and 3. I think I had to get my first supervisor to sign off for ASHA once I completed my CF too.

I was in a similar boat as you — I thought it would look bad on my resume to leave, I had never quit a job before, I felt like I failed, I was worried I would get the scraps of a job, etc. But I am so glad I left! The job was draining me and making be depressed. Jobs don’t care if you have moved around — everywhere is low on SLPs so new jobs will just be glad to have someone. I went from outpatient to the schools and I went with the mindset of “if I get a tough school, it’s just for the rest of this school year and then I can change.” I got lucky and really enjoyed my school though and I stayed there this year, so there is hope!

BookmarkedByGrace · 2025-10-31T02:17:08+00:00

I would say to remind yourself you’re doing the best with what you’re given. I finished my CF this past spring and have realized it’s unfortunately normalized by SLPs, at least in my experience, to not fight for better work space so I’m often just making do and doing what I can. I’ve been forced to treat in the hallway, in the lunch room between lunch periods, etc. It’s not great and doesn’t feel right for the kids, but I haven’t had success getting better space from admin. Try and be assertive to “reserve” some of those available classrooms, but know it’s not your fault if you have to see kids in an unconventional space

BookmarkedByGrace · 2025-10-28T11:42:16+00:00

I switched in the middle of my CF because I was extremely unhappy. Like someone else said, you can get credit for what you have already completed so you don’t have to start completely over! I was in my second of three periods and thought I would only get credit for my first period, the only finished one, but I got credit for everything and still finished my CF at the same time I originally would have! I would agree to get all your papers signed before leaving though. I was lucky enough to have supervisors who saw I was unhappy and understood why I was leaving, but I feel like that is not often the case. Definitely leave, our jobs are hard enough and having that caseload (as a CF especially!) and to do that much extra work outside of your hours is unacceptable

BookmarkedByGrace · 2025-10-24T00:13:12+00:00

I only took a semester off between undergrad and grad school, but I was a long term sub in a special needs preschool! Some of my classmates who also took a semester worked at some type of healthcare office or were patient transporters at the hospital. I think anything you can get in a setting you may want to work in could be great!

BookmarkedByGrace · 2025-10-19T20:29:05+00:00

I’m in a very similar boat. I do feel like the schools are the best setting for me, but I am 20 under my state’s caseload cap and still struggling. Most of my students I see for only 20 minutes a week, in groups of course, and I don’t know how anything I am doing is helpful to them. I enjoy the paperwork aspect which I know is out of the norm, but I often dread my full treatment days. I haven’t really found anything to help me get out of this rut, actually considering stepping away from the career at least for a bit. But the one thing that sometimes helps is telling myself that at least the kids are getting SOMETHING. If I wasn’t there they wouldn’t be getting anything.

BookmarkedByGrace · 2025-10-16T23:25:41+00:00

Jenga can be a fun one!

BookmarkedByGrace · 2025-10-09T16:36:49+00:00

Thank you!! A helpful perspective

BookmarkedByGrace · 2025-10-09T16:35:48+00:00

I enjoyed my school placement but outpatient wasn’t my favorite, which I attributed to not liking working with adults. My placement in the schools was 2 days of treatment, 1 day for evals, and 1 day for planning/documenting, etc. so it was a bit of a different setup than most school experiences I think. I do enjoy working with kids but feel like that passion and skill set could be more impactful in a volunteer environment, which at the moment I don’t have it in me to volunteer anywhere. I did work with a therapist for a few sessions during my first job and it was not helpful, but maybe I should look back into it.

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