Miserably sick

Spent five hours at Jefferson High School today doing hearing screenings for 10th graders. I must say high school in the USA is quite something else! Its worlds apart from my high school experience. Talking to the SLP there was quite an eye-opener too. Apparently she has some 110 kids on her caseload! How crazy is that.

I'm still sick with sore throat and a horribly dry cough. :( I have three days of preschool starting tomorrow so I really need my voice! What's a SLP to do if she doesn't have her voice??!

Its almost Monday again

The bad news is, I'm feeling pretty sick. I got soaked in the rain this morning and have been suffering from feverish chills since. Pooh. But I'm glad that I still made it for fellowship at the Moores' house tonight. It was fun, getting to know more people at my church. They are all very very nice, and I think I may officially join the church as a member in the near future. Once I get over my commitmentphobia. ;P

Also, I've gotten hopelessly lost driving twice in the last few days, and today I almost ran over a bunny rabbit and what looked like a deer (?!) when I was lost in the middle of nowhere. Driving at night, by myself, on unfamiliar AND deserted AND pitch-black roads still creeps me out. ;PP I think I really should invest in a GPS system soon. My map-and-compass combo clearly isn't working too well!

Anyhow, I'm doing a whole day of hearing screenings on high-school kids tomorrow. I hope it'll go fine. Its been a while since I did hearing tests so I'm keeping my fingers crossed I still remember how to work the audiometer!

Ok I'm going to pop some cold-and-flu meds and go to sleep early. With any luck, I'd wake up fine and dandy. :)

TGIF!

Its the weekend. Phew! I've had such a long, hard week.. especially the last couple of days I hardly slept at all.

The good news is I got an A on the Adult Lang exam. Don't even know how that happened, but I'm not complaining. We've also spent most of the last two weeks testing the kids at preschool, which is so not fun. I'm thankful that my kids were (for the most part) cooperative, unlike some other kids who just flat-out refused. One kid said: "I don't want to. I hate that!" LOL.

But well, you gotta do what you gotta do. The school district pays for their services so the kids have to "prove" that they really are language delayed/disordered by scoring 1.5 to 2 standard deviations below the mean on standardized tests. But it is very disheartening for me (and the parents, I'm sure!) to see their kids scoring below the 5th percentile compared to other kids.

More good news!

March 28, 2008

U.S. News ranks Purdue graduate programs among nation's best

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. - Purdue University's programs maintained high rankings in the U.S. News & World Report's survey of the nation's top graduate schools released Friday (March 28).

The colleges and schools in which programs were ranked include Liberal Arts, Science, Pharmacy, Engineering and Management.

Liberal Arts: Two programs in the Department of Speech, Language and Hearing Sciences rank in the top 10. The accredited master's degree program in speech-language pathology tied for second nationally, up from third in 2004. The accredited doctoral of audiology degree program is tied for ninth, down one spot from 2004. The department is part of the College of Liberal Arts.

http://news.uns.purdue.edu/x/2008a/080328USNewsRanking.html

You know what, the ranking on US News was the main reason why I applied to Purdue 2 years ago. I'm glad to report that it was probably one of the best decisions I ever made, so the rankings do have some validity! I love Purdue.

Random thoughts

Most people I meet fall into two categories:
1) Those who don't know what a speech pathologist does
2) Those who do know what a speech pathologist does, because they have personal experience working with one (or know someone who does).

Its amazing how many people, after finding out my job, immediately launch into a story about how their kid has cochlear implants, hearing loss, autism, Down Syndrome, articulation errors.. or that they went through therapy themselves as a kid. In fact, when I very first arrived in the USA, the customs officer at the LA airport looked at my student visa and told me his little girl had to go see one of "you people" because she has hearing loss.

But anyway, it makes me happy to hear their stories. :) Positive stories, that is (so far no one has told me that we suck). The world is a better place because of speech pathologists! We prevent the school dropouts, social outcasts and juvenile delinquents of tomorrow. That's what I believe anyway. Hurhur.

Exams.. pah!

I'm finding it hard to focus on studying for my Adult Language exam on Wednesday. Boo. I have very little interest in working with adult clients, but I do have to graduate so.. boh bian.

Also, I probably won't be going back to Singapore this summer. I'm staying for summer school June-August and will most likely stay for Maymester as well, because I need to get some adult clients (adult clients get therapy all year long unlike kids who get summers off). So far all I've had are kid clients. With any luck, I'd be able to really clock up adult hours this summer and be done with that. I might request to be placed at the Indiana Veteran's Home. I'm still deciding if I'm brave enough to do that, because I've heard its really tough!

I will also be spending a week in sunny California, interviewing at hospitals for clinical placements in Summer '09 (apparently some hospitals take one whole year to set up a contract). I have to do an 8-week externship before I graduate, and I'm planning to head out to San Diego, LA or the like. Everyone tells me how fabulously gorgeous San Diego is, so I'm really keeping my fingers crossed about Rady Children's Hospital there! But more than that, I want to get some experience working with bilingual populations, which is the main reason why I'm heading out to the west coast!

So, if anyone wants to visit me, May would be a good time. :) I'd love to go hit the beaches or drive to Yosemite National Park. Or maybe we could take a three-day road trip and drive to California and go to several cool places along the way. Woohoo! I'm looking forward to Spring!

Happy Easter!

Happy Easter everyone!! :)

It was a fun week at preschool. This is what we did:
1) Dyed eggs in different colors
2) Easter egg and candy hunt
3) Iced a bunny cake and ate it
4) Had 11 eggs in an incubator that hatched into little chicks! (Actually we had 12 but one of them died ;P)
5) Two birthday celebrations

Preschool is like one long party that never ends. I also taught my kids to make paper airplanes. It was so much fun. ;)

Living and learning

Today at church I talked to the lady next to me. I must say that I'm fairly shy and making first moves does not come naturally to me. But boy, am I glad I did it. Or maybe you could say the holy spirit nudged me into it.

It took me about 10 secs to realize her English was very poor. We spoke a bit in English, but at the end of class we had the chance to talk more in Mandarin and thats when the conversation really started. She's from Beijing, she worked as a dentist for 22 years but became a dental assistant when she came to the US because of qualifications and language issues. And because of that she eventually decided to stop working and also she doesn't really have friends. Even to a not-too-observant person like me, her frustration and loneliness was clear.

I've always considered myself pretty talent-less. I am not gifted in speaking, ministering, teaching, music, art, leadership.. the usual areas of "spiritual gifts". But now, I am starting to see that God has in fact given me two special gifts: 1) bilingualism in English and Chinese and 2) working with kids (especially those with special needs), and also, heaven-sent opportunities to utilize them for His work. :)

"Just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, so in Christ we who are many form one body, and each member belongs to all the others." -Romans 12:4

Back to school (and preschool!)

I'm back at school. And I'm happy. I missed my little kids at preschool sooooooooooo much. Watching them grow and learn and improve bit by bit makes me happy. I am always amazed at the way they squeal with pure joy over the littlest things, like a chick hatching from an egg (we have eggs in an incubator this week to celebrate Easter :)). I wish so much I could be like that.

And that is why Jesus loves the little children!

Increasing awareness

Dad emailed me to tell me he was inspired to look up the meaning of Autism after reading about it in my blog. I'm glad to hear that I'm doing my little part to increase awareness of Autism, one person at a time! (I also wear the wristband above that my professor gave us as a "reward" for doing well on the exam. ;))

Despite the vast increase in publicity about the Autism in recent years, most people I've talked to still have very little (or worse, erroneous) knowledge of the disorder. Sadly, there is even less awareness of speech and language disorders, which is very bad because there are all these kids out there who have problems and need help, and people don't even know it.

So, quick tips for the parents or would-be parents out there:
1. If your kid doesn't respond to his name by 12 months, GET HIM ASSESSED (at risk for Autism Spectrum Disorder).
2. If your kid doesn't say 50 words by 24 months, GET HIM ASSESSED (at risk for receptive/expressive language disorders).

I'm not saying that kids who meet any of the above necessarily have a disorder. But they are at risk and it doesn't hurt to check. And if you're in the US, its also free. Note that I used "he" in all my descriptions above. Thats because boys are 3 times more likely to have developmental disorders than girls.

Do NOT "wait and see"! Every month you wait is a month your child is not getting the help he needs! Early intervention can work wonders.

Finally, don't always believe pediatricians or other people when they assure you your kid is fine. As well-meaning as I'm sure they are, they are not always experts on child development. There are plenty of cases where pediatricians have told parents their kid is perfectly fine even when its clear as day the kid has Autism (or some other developmental delay).

Road trip!

Drove 4.5 hours across the Hoover Dam (its actually wide enough to drive across!) and the Arizona desert to..the Grand Canyon (its breathtaking)! We were on the south rim of the canyons because thats the part thats open in the winter. The desert landscape is soooooo different from the cornfields-ish landscape here in Indiana.One national park down, about 80 more to go. :)

But for now, I'm back in home in the lovely Hoosier state of Indiana! I have a few days to clean up the house, catch up on schoolwork, file taxes before school starts again on Monday. Fun times.

Viva Las Vegas!

What's the best thing about Vegas? Not the casinos, not the five-star hotels, not the daily buffets, not the designer shoppes, not even the free alcohol (thats 2nd best), but the.. GLORIOUS SUNSHINE!!!!

Bye-bye coat, sweater, scarf and boots! Hello shorts, tank top and flip-flops!

The weather is unbelievably gorgeous. Just soaking in the sun makes me feel happy happy happy! :) And I'm all the happier since I saw on CNN that there was 20 inches of snow in Ohio (state next to Indiana) yesterday. Hurhur.

The last two days in Vegas have been spent walking around and checking out all the cool hotels they have here. I'm living at the Palazzo, which is one of the newest hotels in town and the sister hotel of the Venetian. So far we've also been to the Bellagio (Ocean's 11), Caesar's Palace (Friends season 5, I think), New York New York (I'm too chicken to ride the roller coaster), The Mirage (saw white tigers and lions), MGM Grand (more lions), Excalibur (where some software engineer struck a $39 million jackpot in 2003), Wynn (for the rich and famous)...

I'm really not too much of a gambler, so the only thing I've played so far is the slot machines, where I won a grand total of $3.70. ;) We only put in a dollar, so we made a $2.70 profit. We also played Roulette for a little bit, and I tried to learn how to play Craps, but erm.. I'm not sure I really understand. (I'm usually pretty good at math, but probability is simply beyond me.)

Anyway, we have 3 HDTVs in our suite (including one in the bathroom). I don't have cable tv at home, so I'm trying to make full use of it here. I've been catching up on the news about the upcoming US and Taiwanese presidential elections. I didn't realize how uninformed I was about current affairs. But I'm not sure I really want to know anyway because its all way too depressing!

Spring Break!!!

Today's a happy day! Got an A on my Autism exam last week and a 100% on my midterm evaluation for clinic (my supervisor said I'm doing great), so I'm a happy girl. :)

And best of all, I'm off to LAS VEGAS BABY! Spring break starts tomorrow, and I'd be off to Vegas (and hopefully the Grand Canyon and Hoover Dam?) till Thursday, where it'd presumably be warm. I will see you guys when I get back!

More flurries!

Preschool was canceled this morning because of the bad weather. I also skidded on the roads no less than 3 times before they cleared the "wintry mix" off, despite traveling at less than 30mph. I had to go to my orthodontist to replace one of my brackets that fell off. But I now have green rubber bands on my teeth.. in honor of the upcoming St. Patrick's Day!

Anyway, tonight I went to the first session of the "Introduction to Faith" class, which is less an intro to the Christian faith, but rather to Faith Baptist Church. I've started going to Faith since the start of this year, and I really like it, even though its a pretty far drive. Its all the way down IN-26E, almost to the edge of the city of Lafayette I believe. I used to attend Purdue Christian Campus House, which is a church on campus, where my darling friend Charlotte now works as an intern (she used to be a undergrad in my department, thats how we met). But I felt that I wanted to explore a little bit out of the college ministry to a more... well-rounded, diverse church, which was how I came to Faith.

I'm pretty darn amazed at what a great job they do of making people feel welcome and connected, despite being a really big church with probably thousands of members. I think it is at least twice the size of Wesley Methodist back home, and the church grounds itself is at least 10x the size. BUT, most of all, I'm impressed by how organized they are, and having their own "HR" department to match people to the areas where they can serve, so everyone can do what they love and are best at. I think thats what makes the church (and the USA in general) so successful.

Dark, gloomy and hailing!

Indiana weather is both ruthless and relentless. Its already early March, but the snow just will not let up! I don't remember it snowing quite this much last winter. Or perhaps I didn't notice it as much since I didn't have to drive, scrape snow/ice off my car at 7:30 in the morning, or pay the heating bill! (I think our heat cost an astronomical $120 last month, but then I don't like to be cold in my own house so the thermostat is almost always at 75F).

But anyway, despite it being gray and gloomy, I'm finally getting down to setting up my public blog! Yes, I've been meaning to do it for quite some time now, but never got down to it. Now is a good time I guess, since my 8-week Infant Communications class has ended and I now have considerably more free time on my hands. I'm not sure I really like having that much leisure time though. Strangely enough, I think I always feel better when I'm busy and productive.

BUT.. I'm also glad that now I can actually be home earlier than 5:30pm every day. And also I think I can start volunteering again, since I've missed out the last couple of weeks. But now I have free afternoons on Mondays and Wednesdays, which is good. :) I tentatively started volunteering at the Lafayette Urban Ministry's (LUM) afterschool program for underprivileged kids. I've only been about three times so far, but I think maybe I should invest more time and effort into it. I'm not too sure really, because while I do truly and bluely in my heart believe it to be a worthy cause, many times I'm left overwhelmed by what I can't do and doubts about what I can do is actually helping at all.

More about my life. Now that Infant class is over (I actually do miss it somewhat. It was fun), I am only left with two classes: Autism and Adult Language. My clinical placement this semester at the Purdue Preschool Language Program (PLP), which is a preschool for language-impaired kids 3 mornings a week. So far I'm really LOVING IT. I really like working with preschoolers (old enough to actually have some functional language, but not rebellious and smart-mouthed like the older kids), and mostly because its just a lot of singing, stories, crafts, toys and fun fun fun! We have 15 kids and 11 adults (1 trained SLP, 1 Early Childhood Specialist, 7 graduate students including myself, and 2 undergrad aides), so we have quite a few hands around to help.

Today I read the book "The Three Billy Goats Gruff" to them. I distinctly remember having the same book when I was a kid! Its a classic. ;) Although I don't really remember who read it to me... maybe I read it to myself? Or maybe I just thumbed through the book to look at the pictures. HAHA. But anyhow I didn't get much practice reading books aloud to kids when I was in Singapore, so thats one skill that I've had to learn since coming to the USA!

Anyhow. I think thats long enough for a first post. I will update more stuff soon, hopefully. :)