On saying one thing, and doing the opposite.

I’m in grad school for speech pathology right now. I went into the program wondering how on earth such a helpful field could be so problematic, but as I near the end of my first year, it grows increasingly, painfully obvious.

One of the big goals, arguably the BIGGEST GOAL, is to help our clients communicate their wants, needs, feelings, opinions, etc. My professors always talk about teaching kids to advocate for themselves. Which is great. It is extremely important for our clientele to be able to express what they want, need, and think.

But here’s where we, as a field, often fail—we don’t listen. For example. I’m working with a 12 year old student who’s autistic, and learning to read. Reading is the only thing we do right now—this is what my preceptor has decided is most important for him. And at 12 years old, yes, I agree that reading is important! Reading opens doors to so many opportunities and experiences and is, I would say, a fairly vital life skill. And this student, although he struggles with reading, really enjoys it. He tells me each week how much fun he’s having, and is always upset when I have to leave. So I never really questioned it. Until yesterday.

This student has fairly unintelligible speech, but I am still able to understand him if I listen carefully, especially after knowing him for so long. We’ve never addressed his speech, because I’m not a huge fan of articulation therapy, and from what I’ve gathered, he’s able to make himself understood through various compensatory methods. Yesterday, though, he interrupted me, and said, “Talking is hard for me. People don’t understand my talking. I need you to help me to talk better.” So I pushed our reading materials aside and looked at him. “What’s hard about talking for you?” I asked him. “The sounds can’t come out right,” he responded. He explained to me that he didn’t speak until he was 5 years old, and that nobody ever offered to help with his speech. We spent the rest of the session talking about the difficulties he faces at home and at school. This broke my heart.

I asked my preceptor if we could start working on his speech sounds in addition to reading. She told me that reading is more important. When I told her that speaking was also important to him, she said, “That’s not our focus right now.” But it’s his focus, and sounds like it has been for a long time. This student did exactly what we always want our students to do—he advocated for himself. And we’re not listening.