Experiencing a worldwide pandemic - and huge changes in how we do our jobs during the last year and a half has been a collective traumatic experience. Although each person is experiencing these changes differently, many of us have experienced traumas both related to the pandemic and unrelated to the pandemic in 2020 and 2021. In this episode, we discuss posttraumatic growth after traumatic events, define it, and cover the four areas in which people tend to grow during periods of learning after trauma.
This episode is sponsored by our Verb Coloring Sheets Packet: https://bit.ly/3wEgYIK
Sarie: Hello and welcome to the SLP Happy Hour Podcast. Up today, we are talking about life during pandemic times, and some research indicating maybe encountering stress - and working through it - can eventually lead to more long-term happiness - a concept called post traumatic growth. We’re digging into that topic today - and more - so let’s get to the show.
(Intro)
What’s Up What’s Down
Sarah: Welcome back, first up we wanted to share some updates here, mainly in the realm of what’s bringing us joy and what’s detracting from our joy these days. Up today, we’ve got a show recommendation and a bit on where we’re feeling stress creeping in, so let’s get to it.
Up - Nadiya bakes on Netflix
Down - we are doing a big project at home to turn our home office into a room for our child - we had planned to change the guest room into the kid bedroom but ultimately for a lot of reasons the office is better. That said, I have so much junk in there. Just thinking about getting rid of most of that stuff stresses me out. It’s a huge project, and I’ve stressed about it but have done nothing to make any progress on it at all.
Sarie: I understand having a lot of stuff around, but I also love a good purge. Having a lot of stuff you don’t use or that you’ve been meaning to get rid of stresses me out too. But I love a good purge! Cleaning, organizing and letting things go is a big destressor for me. I hope once you do get started it ends up being a fun process for you.
Down - Every year the spring is hectic and has historically brought in a lot of changes for me in my district and I’m nervous about what changes may be in store. I used to think I was someone who loved changes, but I get really anxious about them especially with my job. I just like to know what to plan for.
Up - getting food pictures sent to me from my younger brother who is currently living in Japan. He and his wife are teaching English there and going to school to learn Japanese. Every week, about 2 to 3 times he texts me pictures of food he’s eating. He had a crepe cake the other day that looked delicious! And some Katsu chicken that inspired my husband and I to make some at home and it turned out really good. It’s a fun happy thought from across the world. I look forward to them.
The majority of my workdays are in evaluations right now so instead of a lazy lesson today I wanted to share a couple easy evaluation tips for getting through standardized tests with 3 to 5 year olds. First - Have token response tasks ready to help motivate the student to keep trying but that won’t be too distracting. Play-doh, potato head toys, snap bots or just wooden coin tokens they can put in a box have all worked well for me this year. It’s nice to have a few on hand, that way if one activity putters out you’ve got a backup. And if the parents allow it you can also use snacks like goldfish that’s an option too but I usually try to go the toy route first.
Second - start with the hardest testing task first so you’re not administering it when the child is fatigued. If I have to test language with the PLS5 for example and the autism specialist needs to test with a play-based assessment - I’m going to go first and she is going to go second because he portion is less taxing on the child. I’ve found that if we reverse the order and use the harder test first the child can really struggle to get through and it definitely impacts their results.
Third- if you need to build rapport don’t bring out your best toy. We have an animal hospital toy the kids love and I have started sessions with it but sometimes it is impossible to transition a child out of playing with that awesome toy into doing a structured test. If I need a pre-test rapport building activity I usually start with something that has a clear end - like a puzzle. It ends when they’ve put all the pieces in and we can start the assessment. Or one of those shape sorting cubes also work well. What about you Sarah?
Sarah: Ooof, I do preschool evaluations at my clinic and at my schools job and kids are so wiggly. I think my most motivating activity is my train set, I can’t bring that out until the end. I like the idea of doing the standardized testing first and the speech sample and play later. It’s a struggle, and I’m sweating when I’m doing an eval for a preschooler because they are so wiggly. You are right, you’ve got to build that rapport and it’s not an easy task.
Sarie: Yes, and I’ve had to reschedule into a second evaluation session sometimes. But it’s nice to get it done in one go. Right and I have certainly had some evaluation sessions that just didn’t go as planned during the scheduled time and we’ve had to schedule a follow-up one. But it’s nice to have some tricks up your sleeve to try and get them done during that first scheduled evaluation session. And speaking of things not going as planned, you have a lesson gone wrong to share with us today right Sarah?
Sarah: So this was uh - not so much a lesson as an external event beyond my control that I’d categorize as a huge lesson fail. I have a student at my clinic who loves to squish things. This learner was walking into the clinic from outside and saw something just outside the front door - off to the side - and ran towards it to squish it. To me at first glance it looked like a pinecone, so I was like - uh, sure go for it. Meanwhile, this little one - who is faster than me and the parent put together - gets to the object, stops and looks at us. Then, we adults see it - it’s a dead bird. Deader than a doornail, with eyes open and all. This little learner looks at us with huge eyes and says “squish?” and you’d better bet that no two adults in the history of speech language pathology have acted faster - we walked this little one inside, and the parent (and yes I was so grateful for this) offered to dispose of the dead body while I went in to wash hands with this little one.
You’d better bet that as soon as the session was over, this little learner ran to the same spot to check, and thankfully the bird was gone. I’m so thankful for that parent who did that gross task of taking care of the bird body and that we were able to work as a team to make sure no squishing occurred at that time. So thankfully this story - which is a bit sad and a bit disgusting - has a happy enough ending, and it absolutely could have been worse.
Sarie: That was such a quick response from you and that parent! What an unexpected thing to happen! I remember coming upon dead birds as a kid and they were fascinating to look at - you never get such a close look at their beautiful colors but it was always a little sad. And thinking about the beautiful things that come out of the sad - we wanted to talk today about a concept called post-traumatic growth during COVID-19. Post-traumatic growth refers to the positive effects that follow traumatic events -such as a global pandemic, which right now we have more than a half million deaths resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic. It has been over a year that people have been living in quarantine away from their family and friends and this experience is traumatic.
The conversation we’re going to have today around post-traumatic growth is about a recent study, conducted by a research team from the University of Bath, the survey results of 385 caregivers for children between the ages of 6 and 16 were analyzed regarding their experiences during this COVID-19 pandemic. This study was originally published in The British Journal of Psychiatry and reviewed in an article in Science Daily which we will link up to in the show notes. And if you need a break from hearing about all the hardships that have been brought on by this pandemic - this study has some good news for you. The survey results indicated that the majority of caregivers (88%) experienced positive post traumatic growth that directly resulted from being forced to slow down and simplify their life. These positive effects were felt in 4 main categories:
Family relationships (48%) feeling closer to our family and having a deeper understanding of each other
Feeling a greater appreciation for life (22%) - having that sense that time is precious and reevaluating personal beliefs and values
Spiritual growth (16%) - an increase in exploring existential ideals and establishing a greater sense of community. Also recognizing inequities and building a closer community.
Discovering and embracing new opportunities (11%) - whether through new work experiences from needing to work from home to finding a completely new interest or hobby to explore.
You know there’s no getting around it, this pandemic has been hard. It has brought with it loss and struggle, controversy and changes that have been very challenging across-the-board. But here is a little spark of light. This research study points out that those struggles are not necessarily the whole picture and there is some light in the dark. Personally I can relate to experiencing post traumatic growth in all four of the areas. What about you Sarah?
Sarah: That family piece is so true, I don’t know how much I’ve grown family wise. Sarie, your family lives nearby and my family lives hours away. I’ve seen them only once or twice - some people not at all and always distanced and with masks. It’s been hard. I haven’t seen my grandmother in more than a year. I’ve seen my mom only twice in the past year - socially distanced, outside with masks. I don’t know that my family relationships are growing, and I am sad because I’ll never get back this time, especially with my older relatives.
I’d like to say I have done regular phone calls and zoom chats with everyone but I haven’t. I’ve been struggling this year and sometimes it feels really hard to reach out. I stay in touch when I can but there’s so much going on it’s been a struggle.
So, I think there’s a very real piece there that especially with relatives who are over 65 - we’ve missed out on our already limited time with the older generation and we will never, ever get that time back. So what are we going to do about it? Here in Oregon, healthcare workers and the elderly are immunized and we look forward to hopefully in May when everyone can get the Coronavirus vaccine.
So, what have I learned? What’s my post traumatic growth?
For me I miss family but also I value community and connection more. But overall, this year has sucked. I can’t sugar coat it. It’s been hard, and I have struggled and people around me have struggled.
But as I reflect on other really hard periods I’ve gone through - a lot of my life experiences that have been the most difficult for me have also made me more thoughtful and better understand others and more empathetic - so that is the post traumatic growth piece.
So going through those four areas:
ONE - Family relationships - I’d say I’m not closer to family but I value that time even more and that’s become a huge priority and focus and something I don’t take for granted as much.
TWO - Feeling a greater appreciation for life - I do feel a greater appreciation for my health. Also I did cry tears for joy, gratitude when I got the Coronavirus vaccine. I’m grateful even more for my own health. I have so much more appreciation for healthcare workers - not that I didn’t have it already but so much more.
THREE - spiritual, I think this year I’ve had to let go of what I can’t control more. This is something that is a challenge for me, but this year especially there were SO MANY things I couldn’t control.
FOUR - discovering new opportunities - this is a big one for me. As my school job started to feel more and more impossible for me this year - I did what I could to take care of myself (counseling, exercise, eating healthy food) and it just wasn’t enough. Finally I made the decision to go full time in my own clinic starting in June. It wasn’t in my plan, but I think this is going to help me feel a lot better about life, sleep better at night, and reduce my stress by a significant amount. I’m not sure I would have made that decision this year without Coronavirus, so yes - it has resulted in me being creative and seeing new opportunities and seizing them.
Sarie: yes and I feel I have experienced posttraumatic growth in all four areas as well. For me, family is the biggest area where I’ve grown, and like you said most of my family lives close by.
ONE: In the first area, like I already talked about I truthfully have experienced a new level of closeness and appreciation for my family. We have had to get a little creative with ways to stay connected with family members. I had a baby during this pandemic, and the way my parents and siblings have supported me during this time has made us stronger and more connected.
TWO: A new appreciation for life. I have experienced this as well and also become a little more cautious and careful about protecting the life that I have, which I suppose can be a good and a bad thing. I feel I am taking less risks right now, and setting more boundaries which is an area of growth for me, as historically it’s something I struggle with but due to the growth I’ve experienced I’ve experienced, I have felt more empowered to set these boundaries.
THREE: Spiritual growth - I do feel that I have grown through this experience but not just due to the pandemic. There were a lot of big events over the past year for me personally, which have brought me closer to my faith. It isn’t something we talk about a whole lot on the podcast but I will say that I am praying even more than I used to and I do have a heightened sense of the burden I feel I carry due to the blessings my family has experienced. The pandemic has also heightened my awareness of the disparity of needs and resources within our community, our country and our world.
FOUR: discovering new opportunities - so while there has been nothing as big as changing a job for me, I have adjusted to the changes the pandemic brought and kind of enjoyed taking on the new challenges for things like figuring out how to do virtual speech therapy, how to stay connected with family and friends, and how to maintain my mental health by finding new things to do that will keep me happy and healthy through this time.
Three Good Things
Sarah: And, as things feel tumultuous and difficult, we did want to take a moment to see the good. This is a time when everything feels - and is - difficult and heavy. We hope this segment brings a smile to your face.
Sarie: Daffodils are coming up - bulbs were a gift from my sister in law when we first moved into our house and they are the sweetest flowers that pop up every spring. They haven’t opened yet but they're coming up and I can’t wait. Brings a smile every time I see them.
The train that goes by where we live. At first I thought that it would be annoying to live so close to the train track but I’ve grown so fond of the train. It's almost a soothing sound to hear the whistle and the click clack as it goes over the tracks. Not to mention trains are now my son’s favorite things and he crawl-sprints to the window to watch it go by.
Virtual hobby classes- just before we had to go into quarantine, when I was still pregnant the last public outing my husband and I attended was a chocolate festival in Ashland. They had lots of fun tastings and classes and this year they’ve come up with ways to still hold a chocolate festival virtually. They’re offering like grab and go chocolate themed take and bake brunches and demo kits that you can have delivered or pick up along with virtual chocolate baking classes which sound like a lot of fun and I’ve been impressed nachos with a chocolate festival with but with the ways that the community has made things work to keep these fun events going within our means.
Sarah: Homemade pizza - we have perfected our process and make our own with garden veggies on top and it’s one of my favorite dinners, we bake in on a cast iron pan and we’ve just gotten better and better at it over the years so now our pizzas are pretty awesome.
Crafting kits - not feeling like a “good crafter” and not having supplies, getting a kit where everything is in the box and just there is helping me craft more, I’ve done some stencil projects so far that turned out OK, and a wet paper painting situation that I accidentally tore while trying to hang it - so I’m at 50% with my crafting now.
Weekly non-negotiable call with a friend (and a friend who keeps me doing the call) - it adds to my happiness and it’s one of those things that’s so easy to just say I don’t have time for and cancel. But we know that spending time on social relationships adds to happiness so I’m thankful for a friend who makes sure these weekly calls happen.
So that was it for today’s episode. Just to recap - we talked about post traumatic growth during the pandemic, and the four areas in which we are experiencing post traumatic growth - family relationships, feeling a greater appreciation for life, spiritual growth, discovering and embracing new opportunities. Sarie also shared a lazy lesson - or rather a lesson aide for therapy evaluations which is those token type systems including coins or magnets (I’m definitely going to get those Snap Bots) - and I shared a lesson gone wrong that involves a dead animal. Yikes.
As always if you want links to anything we discussed today find the show notes on our website at www.slphappyhour.com and click on the show notes tab.
Sponsor If you work with preschool or early elementary students, today’s sponsored product might be something that’s perfect for you. Today’s sponsor is the present tense verbs coloring pages unit in the SLP Happy Hour store on teacherspayteachers.com.
In this 50-page packet, your students will learn 45 present tense verbs (you can practice at the word level or in phrases with pronouns - both are included) while coloring - which I know is one of my students' absolutely favorite activities. It also gives busy hands something to do as we take turns in groups, another plus. Whether you are in person and coloring the pages, using the annotate feature of your telepractice platform, or screenshotting and sending pages home for homework (the perfect easy practice for parents at home) - your students will learn to use a variety of present tense verbs with this coloring packet. If your caseload is like mine, you’ve got quite a few students working on present tense verbs in words and phrases, and this packet has been such and easy and fun no-prep lesson, that I wanted to make sure you knew about it. If you think this may be a good fit for your learners, go to Teachers Pay Teachers.com and search for the SLP Happy Hour store to find the present tense verbs coloring sheets activities and as always I’ll link it in the show notes.
We are coming at you from Southern Oregon, the weather report is cool and sunny, and we are recording on the land of the Takelma and Cow Creek Umpqua Tribes.
Sarie: If you’d like lesson ideas and access to freebies that go with some of our episodes, visit www.slphappyhour.com/newsletter - and we won’t flood your inbox, but will send you helpful lazy lesson ideas and freebies. You can also find us on Instagram as SLP Happy Hour or check out the show notes or our blog on the website. Please consider rating and reviewing the podcast wherever you are listening - it helps us out a lot. So that’s today’s show, we hope you enjoyed listening in just as much as we enjoyed recording it. We hope this episode has been a little slice of an SLP Happy Hour for you, thank you for listening. Until next time.