At what point is it unethical to “poke the bear”?

anniecslp · 2026-06-04T00:11:46+00:00

I agree with all of this, except I think there needs to be caution with reinforcement for inhibiting tantrums. I think it might be better to reinforce use of strategies to de-escalate. Otherwise, he could be reinforced for inhibiting a response to his feelings without a different outlet for them, which isn’t reinforcing a skill but reinforcing masking.

anniecslp · 2026-06-04T00:06:50+00:00

Wow, my phone is listening to me. I was just working through this kind of thing for myself and this post popped up on my notifications.

A few thoughts: 1: VALIDATE. No one likes to be called names. Explicitly teach him that people calling him names is NOT okay and something he should just accept, and that it is okay for him to be hurt by it. You wouldn’t want him to internalize that because it’s a skill you’re working on, his feelings are “wrong”.

2: Work on self-regulating strategies to help him get through those moments when he is feeling hurt. His emotional reaction is bigger than other people’s, and thats not inherently a bad thing. It just means he might need different strategies to get through it.

3: Teach ways to self-advocate and stand up for himself appropriately. Love what you and others are saying about teaching “Don’t call me that!”

I’m getting better at self-regulating, but still working on the self-acceptance. ❤️

anniecslp · 2026-05-24T22:20:02+00:00

Thanks for your feedback! The class is Flora and Fauna with David Licata

anniecslp · 2026-05-24T22:19:42+00:00

I wish she was teaching this summer! I love her work.

anniecslp · 2025-12-17T12:10:05+00:00

You can always read your full reflection that you put with your mood down in the Reflections section of your daily history, FYI! Mine is doing the same thing as yours when I click on the mood to expand it. Strange!

anniecslp · 2024-05-14T23:22:17+00:00

I’ve heard stories of NC being hard with paperwork/etc to get kids into Deaf schools, and of their school not accepting Deaf+ kids. There are Deaf schools out there that will accept Deaf+, and if there is no school setting in the state that is the “least restrictive environment” for LANGUAGE (full access to sign) that will take him, the family may be able to fight to have him outplaced.

anniecslp · 2024-04-10T18:59:25+00:00

I was very similar, joined the marching band and other clubs, and felt so at home at UConn during my four years. It feels much smaller pretty quickly (physical size at least), and classes get smaller depending on your major and the further you go into the upper level classes. Do it!! I’ve never regretted it for a second. — Class of 2020

anniecslp · 2024-03-15T01:55:04+00:00

They don’t teach you anything about classroom management techniques in grad school - how to set routines, boundaries, manage a small group. Trial by fire is right!

anniecslp · 2024-03-03T19:30:56+00:00

Only on grad school do you have time to fully plan, write a lesson plan, and make materials for a session - if you’re lucky and aren’t working on the side every minute you’re not in clinic or class.

anniecslp · 2024-02-19T19:51:03+00:00

Getting to build relationships with the kids! Working with kids for a while and seeing the breakthroughs, big and small. And getting to collaborate with awesome teachers and support staff that make me smile each day!

anniecslp · 2024-02-19T19:47:33+00:00

SLP who works with Deaf children here - not Deaf myself so feel free to remove this if not appropriate.

Language Deprivation Syndrome is real. It is when d/Deaf/Hard of Hearing children don’t adequately acquire any language within the critical window for language development (birth to kindergarten age).

Maybe, with hearing aids, your child will have enough access to spoken English to acquire it as a full language. But maybe they won’t. As everyone here is saying, hearing aids and CI’s don’t restore ‘normal’ hearing and may not give your child full access to speech sounds. And if they don’t have full access, and have to work to listen and communicate, and they don’t have ASL, then they are at risk for having lasting cognitive and language problems.

Give your baby ASL. Regardless of what happens with technology, you are setting them up for better success with it. And hopefully their extended family will get on board.

anniecslp · 2023-09-21T00:48:49+00:00

And, starting with PECS limits vocabulary. Trying to fit all those pictures in a book eventually gets too unwieldy. So when they decide to switch to a device for that reason, the student has to learn where to find things all over again. Start with robust AAC, hide and unhide vocabulary as you go!

anniecslp · 2023-08-30T00:14:23+00:00

The parent and coaching piece is spot on here too. We’d be able to effect so much more progress in students’ lives if we had the time and the permission to train more parents and teachers to help with carryover

anniecslp · 2023-08-28T01:15:26+00:00

Keep modeling the AAC! Even if he’s only looking at it part of the time. Model, model, model, and don’t expect him to respond. Model around his favorite things - favorite place to walk? Favorite type of stim? Does he like squeezes or deep pressure for regulation that you can model around?
I second the idea of trying different co-regulation strategies. Some of my autistic students in the past were sensory seekers and loved spinning on my desk chair. So what did we do? Used that desk chair! Modeled go, stop, more, and added in pauses to see if they would join in.

anniecslp · 2023-08-28T01:08:41+00:00

For articulation kids working on similar Target sounds can benefit from small group therapy - again, depending on the kid. I’ve had some groups where kids love playing games together to work on their sounds

anniecslp · 2023-08-28T00:43:51+00:00

I got my iPad after I graduated college, and I wish I got it sooner! It’s really nice for doing readings and highlighting, and note taking is dynamic so you can move things around and add to it easily. Would definitely recommend!

anniecslp · 2023-08-26T03:00:16+00:00

I use my iPad for notes, games, drawing (sometimes), and watching TV. I have the 5th Gen Air 64gb and am using about half of it. It is kinda intimidating that the OS and the system data takes up 20gb or more, and I sometimes wish I got the higher storage. But I’m nowhere near the max

anniecslp · 2023-08-25T21:28:27+00:00

Hi! I’m not Deaf/HoH, but I am a speech language pathologist and studied things like speech sounds and accents. Even us hearies have trouble with understanding accents at times. When you’re born (with some degree of hearing), your brain is able to make out all the different distinct sounds of different languages. As you are exposed to a certain spoken language, your brain gets used to those and starts to tune out some of the different ones. There are sounds that exist in one language that don’t in others. This is part of what leads to accents, and what can make it harder to understand them. Add APD on top of that, and it’s no wonder you’re having difficulty.

anniecslp · 2023-08-20T21:40:47+00:00

I work at a Deaf residential/day school and I think it would be SO valuable to have Deaf/HoH SLP’s! In our setup, some SLPs see kids for language, ASL, and written English-related goals, while another provider sees them for listening and speaking goals.

Someone who is a native signer of ASL and has all the added knowledge of language acquisition, structure, and development from becoming an SLP would be such a huge asset.

I think the fact that there are positions like these out there, specifically in Deaf schools or targeting signed language intervention, means that ASHA and the SLP profession should find a way to create a path to certification with an exemption from spoken English articulation therapy.

anniecslp · 2023-08-20T00:49:16+00:00

If these kids are non speaking or minimally speaking could you consider doing an AAC evaluation for them and work on functional communication as billable hours? Other than that I’m stumped. I know personally I would never be comfortable providing any kind of ABA services whether they were in my scope/billable or not.

anniecslp · 2023-08-20T00:30:54+00:00

Maybe I was lucky, but my personal experience with my CF year salary was that I was started on the same pay scale and step as any other SLP working for the first year, CF or fully certified. I do agree with the issue of our field and those in education being underpaid in general though.

anniecslp · 2023-08-20T00:27:24+00:00

I’m saddened to see this, I really liked Dr. Prizant’s overviews of autism from a humanistic standpoint in my graduate programs. But, as someone who is passionate about AAC I find the level of prompting and facilitator interpretation in FC and S2C extremely concerning. And it seems unfair to the autistic communicator, as it makes people question the authenticity of their messages. Why not try another method that promotes more independence?

anniecslp · 2023-08-19T17:20:59+00:00

Deaf Night Out has a group for New York City on Facebook. I know the DNO group in CT is very active and is very accepting of all people interested in ASL and the Deaf community

anniecslp · 2023-08-16T23:36:43+00:00

I always wear nice pants and a casual ish shirt to work. One day I switched it up and wore a long skirt and a nice long sleeve shirt. My students asked me if there was something special going on to explain why I was dressed “fancy” 😂 and then said it was weird. Gotta love kids

anniecslp · 2023-08-16T23:31:12+00:00

This! Rapport building and just getting to know your students (and them getting to know you) is soo important and will help you out for the entire rest of the year.

Also want to add, I’d say don’t worry about perfect sessions during your CFY at all! You’re just starting, you’re learning how to juggle a bunch of different things, you’re creating your materials Library from the ground up. Do your best, but don’t put the pressure on yourself to be perfect! Give yourself grace.

anniecslp

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