This blog is essentially a reflection on the life and career lessons I learned during my clinical fellowship (CF) year. My CF year was unique in that, not only did I volunteer for a first year position working with students with complex communication needs, but I also decided to join Sarah Lockhart on a podcasting adventure and openly discuss my experiences during my first year as a speech-language pathologist.

Lately, I’ve realized that the books in my speech room don’t really reflect the diversity of my learners.

What does this mean?
I’m interested in books that have characters that look like my students, which means books featuring characters with a variety of disabilities and races, but also books that reflect different cultures and the culture of my schools as a whole (for example: many of my students are in the foster care system, and need books that feature families that may not look the same or have the same cultural background, to really increase awareness that families look different. This will benefit ALL my learners.

So, what books do I recommend? Here is a list of my top choices!

Being an SLP in the days of social media can be a lifesaver. You can get therapy ideas, follow accounts in a certain area (for example AAC) where you’d like to grow, build relationships with other SLPs and find resources (everything from books to read to classes to take) to build your skills.

There are so many SLP accounts out there, that it can be difficult to find just the right accounts to follow. Here are five accounts I follow and enjoy to get you started. To choose my top 5 accounts I focused on accounts with consistently good feeds where I’m both entertained and learn something new – the best of both worlds.

I’ve been blogging regularly for almost 3 years for my clinic, and one year for the podcast. Blogging hasn’t always been easy. I remember staring at the computer screen, trying to come up with something to write. I remember when it would take me more than two hours to write one simple blog post.

There were also times where I had posts written, but didn’t know where to find them. I had half written posts in a state of disorder in a word document.

Since that time, I write more than two dozen blog posts a year for my own two blogs (plus guest posts), and I’ve banished blogging overwhelm. I’ve come up with a six-step process to get my blogging done without tears or procrastination. This system has worked for me in the past year, and I’m sharing it here in case it could work for you, too.