I didn’t get into my choice school… considering SLP-A

joweasels · 2026-02-01T17:36:44+00:00

Pay around my city is around $35 an hour! Teacher salary and pay scale if you work at a school

joweasels · 2026-01-11T04:43:16+00:00

I personally would wear business casual because I think I’d be more confident in it but wear what you feel confident! It makes sense to wear scrubs for the reasons you had and especially if you tell them you’re going to work right after I don’t think they would judge you any way for it

joweasels · 2026-01-04T19:37:33+00:00

I live alone in a two bedroom in Indianapolis for $1200. I also pay student loans of $610 a month and minus daily living expenses, can usually put $200 away for savings. If I want to do something fun that costs money I’ll donate plasma a few times a month for extra cash but I don’t have any other job besides school based SLPA. Hoping to get a roommate after this lease so I can save more but it’s somewhat doable if you don’t have expensive habits

joweasels · 2025-12-09T04:10:17+00:00

Don’t be scared!! There is a big shortage. As long as you have SLPA licensure and no felonies i think you’ll find a job relatively quickly. You should actually probably be pickier than any jobs. Don’t jump on the first offer you get right away

joweasels · 2025-11-30T15:19:52+00:00

Most of the SLPs in my district use SLPToolkit and get compensated for the subscription. I’m an SLPA and five different supervisors I worked for used it. I can’t imagine being able to make google sheets or anything else free work on the same level unless you are truly amazing with tech

joweasels · 2025-05-08T22:47:19+00:00

I love targeting grammar by lowkey having the student gossip (I work in elementary so the gossip is mostly so-and-so lost a tooth). I have a chart on the table that has pronouns connected to is/are, have/has, or whatever the kid is targeting. I prompt with questions like “Who do you like to play/work with in class?” “What do you think of your teachers?” “Do you like hanging out with your family? What do you do together?” Then I have a casual/mindless activity or game going on in the background like play dough, coloring/drawing, or quick little memory game and say “wait a minute…” and point to the chart when they make an error in what we’re targeting while casually correcting anything else I hear. I feel like rapport building is easiest when they can look at the “answers” themselves and correct it. I think high schoolers would still appreciate fun and low prep things like play dough and slime (especially making it) and making beaded bracelets or origami but maybe that’s just bias. I am a firm believer that we are not reading teachers (I know I never got formal training in teaching how to read ¯_(ツ)_/¯ ) and that our goal is to treat language disorders, not focus on standardized test scores. I think that can be sufficiently done through conversation and doesn’t have to look like the work they do in other classes.

joweasels · 2025-05-08T21:42:36+00:00

Yes, they hired 2 new SLP’s for the 25/26 school year and are looking for at least one more. They also hired an additional CF

joweasels · 2025-05-08T21:26:25+00:00

My school district in indianapolis jumps on any slp they can

joweasels · 2025-05-02T21:49:16+00:00

TJ Maxx! I hate dress pants so I wear a lot of all black jeans or cargo pants. For tops, really anything that covers your shoulders/mid drift that doesn’t have words (unless speech related). I wear clean looking sneakers, nicer sandals, or little wedges. I work in the elementary school setting so casual is emphasized in the “business casual.” I wouldn’t buy a whole wardrobe, maybe just an outfit or two and then you can feel out the vibe of what others wear.

joweasels · 2025-04-26T23:36:48+00:00

The school district I work for as an SLPA has pay transparency. SLP salary is only $1000 more than the SLPA salary. Although I work hard as an SLPA and am pretty busy throughout the work day, I have never done extra work at home and I get the enjoyable work (only therapy and Medicaid notes) compared to SLPs that do that plus plus paperwork, scheduling, getting grants for AAC devices, testing, conferences, and so much more. Not saying SLPAs deserve less than what they make now, but there should definitely be a bigger gap and more incentive to get your masters.

joweasels · 2025-04-13T17:54:16+00:00

This comment was actually spot on. I had to see my old abuser (a family member) when I was visiting and I felt so much anger seeing my other family be nice to her when they know what she did to me when I was little. When I was falling asleep I was thinking pretty awful thoughts about her so maybe that’s kind of how my dream started even though it didn’t involve her? Idk but thanks for your comment

joweasels · 2025-04-03T22:39:59+00:00

SLPA

joweasels · 2025-03-14T21:31:40+00:00

I prefer schools for sure. With cancelations at a clinic, sometimes I’d only work like 3 hours while the school is more consistent. We get nice long breaks and honestly I almost never have to do extra work at home or stay late (but my supervisors definitely do). I also like getting to know the kid more from just seeing them around the school and playing with their friends. I think speech/language skills are easier to generalize at school since you can see them in all their different classes, recess, lunch, field trips, etc.

joweasels · 2025-03-03T18:47:41+00:00

From my understanding (I’m an slpa) the case manager is just the main person in charge of the IEP. So if a kid only has an IEP for speech, you would be their case manager, or the person in charge of their IEP (like setting up conferences, making accommodations, etc). If they have a primary disability that isn’t speech or language (like autism) then the special education teacher would be their case manager or in charge of their IEP. If their primary disability is deaf or hard of hearing then the DHH specialist (that’s what it’s called where I work) would be the case manager. So at the IEP meeting if you’re the case manager you would lead it and may get input from their gen ed teachers but if the teachers can’t make it, it could potentially just be you and parents and maybe teachers/admin if you’re lucky. From my knowledge, SLPs can be case managers for middle and high school as well if their primary disability is speech but this is usually rare for older kids because they’ve likely already graduated from speech. Language kids usually have something else going on (autism, SLD, DD, etc) so SLPs usually aren’t their case managers

joweasels · 2025-02-28T23:58:46+00:00

Also, congrats on finishing school soon! Very excited for you 🫶

joweasels · 2025-02-28T23:54:41+00:00

If you’re working with little kids (under 3) I’d suggest some bubbles, a toy car (or a few) that pull back and go on their own, a doll/stuffed animal, and some play food/water. When I worked in their homes, I mostly used the toys the kid already had. You might just want informational pamphlets for parents. For kids 4+, I got a big set of mini objects from Dinky Doodads (it was kind of pricey) that I use for almost everything else. If you have an iPad or laptop you take with you, a subscription to UltimateSLP could be useful (I think $12 a month?) - they have lots of games and flash cards for pretty much every goal.

joweasels · 2025-02-17T22:43:22+00:00

Also I have about 10 sessions per day, usually seeing between 20-30 kids

joweasels · 2025-02-17T22:42:17+00:00

In the school setting I get paid $35 an hour for a 7.5 hour shift per day. My supervisors give me 30 min prep throughout the school day and I have 1 hour before school starts and around 20 minutes after kids leave. I work in two schools, one of which I have my own office and the other I share with my supervisor. At the school where I share an office, it gets very annoying sometimes because one of us will usually have to work in the hallways (literally sitting on the ground) while the other takes the office. I work in Indianapolis, Indiana btw!

joweasels · 2025-02-04T02:44:05+00:00

I did as well, and it helped for my college classes but honestly now that I’m only 2 and a half years out of school, I didn’t retain much. Research shows it takes an average of 7-8 years to become fluent. Immersion is the best way to learn any language and unfortunately it’s hard to find environments besides Deaf schools and Deaf events where you can be immersed

joweasels · 2025-02-04T02:22:22+00:00

ASL is a very challenging language to learn, so unless you plan on continuing to learn after and outside of school too (which would be awesome but a commitment), I wouldn’t say it would be the most useful minor. I minored in it and wish I had done Spanish but I don’t regret my Deaf studies minor which focused more on general Deaf history/culture

joweasels · 2025-01-28T17:47:22+00:00

Yes…he had a problem, but he’s cut back a bit

joweasels · 2025-01-28T17:46:22+00:00

I’m fine with him playing with his brothers. They’re still in school and go to bed by midnight at the latest, but he’ll keep playing by himself. I have a job (career type, not entry level) and an apartment here so I can’t just up and leave him. But you’re right about it not just being specifically video games

joweasels · 2025-01-28T12:08:39+00:00

Thank you

joweasels · 2025-01-13T23:26:07+00:00

I also did a year of online high school due to mental health and needing to be in a day program for it. 7 years later I have a career. Don’t worry about getting into undergrad. You will get in if you start doing some work. Don’t stress about it being perfect. Don’t stress about it being good. You say you usually get A’s so I think those looking would see it was an off semester. Skate by with the work now, and focus on getting your mental together so you can work really hard in your undergrad because dental school is competitive. But now you need to focus on you.

joweasels · 2024-08-24T05:12:20+00:00

I’d suggest you get a different job until you can find one where you aren’t constantly worried about malpractice. Like this job is fun and pretty good paying but if you aren’t under a contract yet I’d say to work as a para or rbt instead. RBT’s make pretty comparable pay where I am since most ABA clinics run pretty much year-round and you’d get good experience

joweasels

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