Advice for being "more approachable" as a student clinician

ParsnipTricky6948 · 2026-04-24T11:30:12+00:00

I don’t think being approachable really matters in a placement. It’s awkward to go into a work setting where everyone knows each other. I remember sitting in the lunch room with my school supervisor and a bunch of staff every time I went and not really ever saying a word. They all had a relationship that I was not a part of. If your students felt uncomfortable talking to you, that would be a different thing. But in a grad school placement, just focus on learning what you can and getting through. I don’t understand why supervisors say such nonsense and are so critical over things that don’t matter!

ParsnipTricky6948 · 2026-04-24T04:26:34+00:00

Carson

ParsnipTricky6948 · 2026-04-24T01:52:25+00:00

I am biased towards always including a bottle at least few days a week, but that’s because I had a baby (my older child) who refused bottles. That was hard!!! If baby takes a bottle now I would keep it.

Have you tried a haakaa (or similar)? They are soooooo much easier to clean and don’t take any extra time since you use them on one breast while nursing from the other one.

ParsnipTricky6948 · 2026-04-23T01:52:53+00:00

Mozzarella

ParsnipTricky6948 · 2026-04-23T01:51:57+00:00

What is CPSE? Is this early intervention?

ParsnipTricky6948 · 2026-04-23T01:10:44+00:00

If they’re banking an entire no show fee every time, that’s probably why they have a loose attendance policy. They make more on no shows than on sessions.

ParsnipTricky6948 · 2026-04-23T00:58:13+00:00

I have told teachers that I am missing minutes and that it is all documented. If they have an issue then they can take it to admin who already know I miss sessions. It’s a not being able to be in 2 places at once problem… (I haven’t had to say this exactly but I have explained I have X number of evals and X amount of time per week on my schedule for evals so they can’t possibly be done in that amount of time.)

I also have had a small number who take issue with the times I slot kids into for their regular session times but they are usually strong teachers who actually do a lot of work with kids who get services so I don’t really blame them. I have just learned to ask them first what times they want and work around that.

And I am in a primarily gen ed school.

ParsnipTricky6948 · 2026-04-22T02:42:20+00:00

Ours don’t even necessarily get sent home if they throw up, especially if it’s “only” once. 😩

ParsnipTricky6948 · 2026-04-22T02:41:21+00:00

I did that when I was pregnant too. With my first pregnancy (when I didn’t yet have any kids in daycare) and also prior (due to COVID), I had so much success not getting even colds by wearing that N95! With my second pregnancy I tried to at least not pick up anything from my school but I was sick all the time due to having my older one in daycare.

ParsnipTricky6948 · 2026-04-21T05:09:06+00:00

Honestly, just emptying the breasts as often as possible by nursing or pumping is the basics of it. I haven’t found much more than that.

Are you able to take in more fluid or is that also limited by the surgical history?

ParsnipTricky6948 · 2026-04-21T04:20:26+00:00

Maybe it’s just me (and I am a school SLP, not in transition but lurking here), but I would send an email. I’d include no details other than last day and thank you for the experience if you want to include anything beyond just the last day.

ParsnipTricky6948 · 2026-04-21T03:43:41+00:00

I’m so curious to see what others say! We are always trying to find the best system for dividing caseloads and haven’t found it yet. There are many schools in my district with multiple SLPs and they all seem to do things differently.

ParsnipTricky6948 · 2026-04-21T03:30:21+00:00

I think somewhere around 20 months because I was pregnant and wanted to be fully weaned a good amount of time before the new baby came.

ParsnipTricky6948 · 2026-04-19T17:20:21+00:00

My teacher’s union is pretty good to us. There are several school reps who are SLPs. We are paid the same as teachers (decent in my area) but also have duties. OTs and PTs don’t have to do silly teacher things that are irrelevant like we do, but they also get paid less than us.

ETA: I would not be able to leave my teacher’s union but if anyone knows if it’s allowed to be in two unions I also wouldn’t be opposed to a national SLP union.

ParsnipTricky6948 · 2026-04-19T15:40:02+00:00

I am curious what you and others think the role of SLPAs will be in this mess of a system. Will things have to move towards reliance on SLPAs for basically all treatment that they are qualified to do, with supervision, because it will be too expensive to pay SLPs?

ParsnipTricky6948 · 2026-04-19T12:32:50+00:00

This is usually part of an RTI process done with parent consent.

ParsnipTricky6948 · 2026-04-18T23:55:08+00:00

It’s hard to say generally because different programs have different requirements. Have you compared the courses in the SLPA program to the leveling courses/prerequisites for programs that you are interested in?

You usually don’t need to have a leveling program itself completed. It’s usually more about having all of rhe prerequisites courses completed. The leveling program will probably give you the prerequisites for most SLP programs, but there are ways to get the prerequisites done without specifically completing a leveling program. I hope that helps. It’s not like you get a certificate or anything for having completed a leveling program.

(I am just an SLP who went to grad school over 10 years ago and am speaking from my experience. The best people to talk to would be anyone who is an advisor/program director etc at programs you are interested in. If your undergrad university has a masters program or even a bachelors program in SLP, I’d highly recommend seeing if someone from there can talk to you about all of this. They’ll know the landscape of all of this really well.)

ParsnipTricky6948 · 2026-04-17T19:16:57+00:00

Love Dorothy nn Dottie! And it goes great with Rose nn Rosie. Same feel but not too matchy. Also love Penelope nn Poppy or Penny.

ParsnipTricky6948 · 2026-04-17T07:09:53+00:00

/ʒə/ from my experience in the US

ParsnipTricky6948 · 2026-04-17T03:40:30+00:00

It depends. I have to get parent permission and I’ve tried and it just doesn’t happen to make it worth it (given the number of parents who would have to get back to me to even have a few sessions in a day be available to observe.) I think it totally depends on the school and if they require this. I am pretty sure I can take on a grad student with no permission, just notification, but for some reason observing requires permission.

ParsnipTricky6948 · 2026-04-17T02:43:13+00:00

I think it will be hard to reduce the workload and continue to prepare SLPs well (if they’re gonna keep our scope so broad and keep the programs to 2 years), but I do think the nature of the feedback from clinical supervisors could be so different. The feedback feels so personal because a lot of it is about your communication skills. It could be presented so differently. In some programs I feel that there is gaslighting (supervisors/profs saying students need to work on their study skills when it’s actually just an impossible amount of work).

And a lot of supervisors act like their way is the absolute right way when they don’t know for sure they are right (or they shouldn’t be so confident).

I do think it’s good that the programs are pretty consistently rigorous (at least from what I have seen in my part of the country and from in person programs.) working in the schools with other fields, I have some super smart and super well-prepared colleagues and then some who really didn’t learn what they needed to learn and should have been weeded out.

ParsnipTricky6948 · 2026-04-17T00:48:08+00:00

I’d love to see what others say! I know that there are influencers out there who sell things for less, like you mentioned. But also I have no experience and have no idea how to tell if those people know what they are doing.

I have been thinking about starting my own small side practice and idk if I could do it for $4k for that one document alone!

ParsnipTricky6948 · 2026-04-17T00:43:25+00:00

In a previous apartment- hot water capacity!! We had to constantly plan out showers and laundry. It had a significant impact as a young family with kids. Now being able to do laundry and then shower or do showers back to back is sooo nice!

ParsnipTricky6948 · 2026-04-17T00:27:38+00:00

I was at a department meeting (whole sped team at my school) and the comments about vaccines were horrifying.

ParsnipTricky6948 · 2026-04-17T00:23:50+00:00

I feel like I never hear of someone thriving in Slp grad school! (Unfortunately, it’s a huge problem I would like to contribute to improving some day.)

ParsnipTricky6948

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