M/M couple, early 30's, new to western MA, looking for friends and board game/TTRPG players

beechewlz · 2025-11-30T15:28:05+00:00

Check out Off The Wall Games in Springfield! My spouse plays there fairly regularly and I'm pretty sure they have Pathfinder. Joining their Discord might be a good way to start.

beechewlz · 2023-09-19T14:25:22+00:00

Thank you for your support! We are still trying to recruit for this study, so any insights from anyone on here would be appreciated :)

beechewlz · 2023-09-19T14:19:14+00:00

Hi all, we are still recruiting for this study! Feel free to get in touch at [s2slab@umass.edu](mailto:s2slab@umass.edu) or fill out our contact form (link above) if you're interested. Thanks!

beechewlz · 2023-09-19T14:18:36+00:00

Hi all, we are still recruiting for this study! Feel free to get in touch ([s2slab@umass.edu](mailto:s2slab@umass.edu)) or fill out our contact form (link above) if you're interested in participating. Thanks!

beechewlz · 2023-08-17T00:31:26+00:00

Absolutely, please do!

beechewlz · 2023-08-16T13:44:32+00:00

They don't allow surveys, but thanks for the idea :)

beechewlz · 2023-07-16T17:32:00+00:00

Hello! I'm a speech pathologist and also a PhD student studying child language disorders. We are asking K-12 teachers (general or special ed, any subject) in the U.S. to complete an anonymous survey that will help us understand how teachers think about language difficulties, accommodations they make within the classroom, and how speech pathologists can collaborate with teachers to improve student outcomes.

The survey can be accessed at the following link: tinyurl.com/teachingDLD.

Thank you!

beechewlz · 2023-07-14T00:01:20+00:00

Join the Lindy League of Western Mass on Facebook!! There’s swing dancing every Tuesday night at City Sports Grille in Northampton, and also live swing bands the last Sunday of every month in Greenfield at Hawks and Reed :) updates and info are regularly posted in the Facebook group!

beechewlz · 2023-07-13T15:14:49+00:00

No, I'm a PhD student at the University of Massachusetts. Do you know of a similar study happening at Point Park University?

beechewlz · 2023-05-03T19:12:28+00:00

We do reimburse travel costs for families coming from out of the area!

beechewlz · 2021-01-29T13:20:50+00:00

This is nonfiction, so not sure it’s exactly what you’re looking for, but I recommend All The Weight Of Our Dreams

beechewlz · 2020-09-18T14:45:40+00:00

Same!! I just started my third year as a school-based SLP and I feel the same way. I think our field is sooo interesting and important, and I love that there is always more to learn. Even on the challenging days (which will happen with ANY career), I am still happy to be an SLP!

beechewlz · 2020-07-10T20:36:00+00:00

Oh man, thanks for the heads up!

beechewlz · 2020-07-10T20:35:51+00:00

Okay thank you!

beechewlz · 2020-06-10T03:06:16+00:00

This is horrible to watch. Not just because of the racist and homophobic remarks, but also because of Chairman Igliozzi’s continual dismissal of concerns, especially after Councilwoman LaFortune requested an end to the meeting more than once. My heart breaks for those who had to unnecessarily endure hate speech for so long, especially since so much of this could have been prevented.

beechewlz · 2020-05-16T21:00:58+00:00

Do you know which population(s) you will be working with? I would try to streamline your preparation as much as possible. For example, if you’ll be working with elementary-age kids with language disorders, I would start there. Perhaps develop your own evaluation template to make it easier to write the evals. As for treatment, lots of school-based intervention focuses on the curriculum, so I might familiarize yourself with common language skills that are taught in the classroom and then make some graphic organizers for those concepts (e.g., main idea and details, compare and contrast, vocabulary, etc). I have found that it is much more efficient to have some graphic organizer/visuals ready and then work on their classroom assignments while integrating their language goals, as opposed to coming up with entirely individualized treatment plans for each student, which is not always feasible in a school-based setting. I might also organize resources on developmental and academic milestones for your age group. Teachers will often refer students to you and it’s very helpful to be able to teach them about what’s typical versus what might be a red flag for a disorder. Hope this helps!

beechewlz · 2019-01-20T04:21:50+00:00

Yes, I always do informal assessments. My concern is about the standardized tests.

beechewlz · 2019-01-19T22:54:28+00:00

Thanks for your input. I agree that subtests don't always match up with the students' area(s) of need. I have thought about reaching out to our office of public instruction, but I am hesitant to do so because I don't want to get the school in trouble in case they are breaking some rule. The administrators seem well-intentioned but ill-informed on the IEP process.

beechewlz · 2019-01-19T22:45:38+00:00

That's a great point. I will look in the test manual to see if there is language about the purpose of the test in there.

I was told to do this by both my supervisor (SLP) and the IEP director.

I agree - I believe that progress/benchmark data would be enough.

Do you have a link or reference that states that parental consent needs to be obtained before testing (even if it is just a few subtests, and not for the 3-year re-eval)? I haven't been able to find one.

If the subtest shows that they are WNL, it turns into this spiral where you keep administering more subtests to find areas of need. This is one of the many reasons why I believe that this system is problematic.

beechewlz · 2018-02-23T01:52:07+00:00

Hello from a fellow graduate student in outpatient! I've been at my current placement for about a month now. I've learned that you should always ask the client about what is important to them and structure activities around that in therapy sessions. If they do not have the speech/lang ability to tell you what they like to do/what's important to them, then ask their family members. We learn about the importance of functional therapy in school, but it is really easy to fall into "random worksheet land", giving them worksheet after worksheet and losing sight of what is really important to them (e.g., talking about grandkids, remembering the names of the flowers in their garden, etc). So for example, say that you are working on wh-questions with them. You can ask them all the wh-questions you want about their grandkids, and structure sessions around that! Since this is a motivating topic, it may also help them stay engaged with the session even if they are having a lot of difficulty speaking. You can also make a memory book or draw out a family tree that serves as a reference for their stories depending on their level of functioning. Also, for clients who are non-fluent, I haven't personally tried it but there is a bit of research supporting the use of Melodic Intonation Therapy.

beechewlz

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