The prompt to this personal statement was: Describe personal experiences in which sparked your want to be an SLP and what you would do with your degree.
My interest in Speech and Language Pathology is due to two main experiences in my life. Throughout my childhood, much of my life was centered around dialysis units and hospitals. My father was diagnosed with a chronic kidney disease that caused him to lose his kidney. Growing up with this challenge in my family sparked a deep interest in the medical field and a very young age. I grew up knowing that my sole goal in life was to help people.
This interest was further developed when I started my senior year in high school. I was given the opportunity to be a student teacher for a sophomore level world history class. Under supervision of the teacher, I was able to create lessons and activities that enhanced the student's learning. Because of these two life changing experiences, I decided to pursue a career in Speech and Language pathology. I made the realization that speech and language pathology was the outlet that would allow me to combine my two passions of the medical field and teaching children and most importantly aiding the improvement of their life.
Throughout my undergraduate career at _____ University, I was able to refine my abilities that would make me a competent Speech and Language pathologist. During my junior year, I participated in a class that allowed me to visit a local school of low socioeconomics for 8 weeks and teach him phoneme recognition along with the sounds that accompany each phoneme. This class forced me to be flexible and creative. When my child was having difficulties learning, I implemented a fake money and grocery store as reinforcements along with bringing play-dough and using it as a tangible phonemic placement cue system. I also used the environment around me like pictures the children had painted and used them as teaching moments. By the end of the 8 weeks, the child was able to make a substantial improvement in his sound recognition, vocalization, and reading ability. This was the true turning point where I knew that speech and language pathology was the career that I was destined for.
In my senior year, I decided to hone in my field and explore all my possible therapy areas. I began to observe in the _____ University Speech and Hearing Clinic, work closely with a high school student diagnosed on the Autism Spectrum tutoring him in math and science, and work closely with a speech and language pathologist out of New York creating book lessons along with Individualized Education Program goals. During my hours observing in the clinic, I was able to focus on observation of pediatric patients with feeding and articulation disorders. These are two areas in the career that I strive to specialize in. I was able to learn and observe many techniques and strategies used in therapy in real life situations that cannot be found on a page of a textbook. Along with the courses that I have taken at LSU, tutoring a child with autism has given me hands on experience dealing with a child with special needs. I must be flexible in accommodating his learning as well as patient when he does not understand the material the first time. I have researched many techniques and strategies that heighten autistic children's ability to learn such as using music to aid in learning math formulas and procedures. I was successful in improving his grades in his mathematics and science class this past semester due to the care, time, and effort that I put into his learning.
My childhood and my experience have culminated into a strong desire to help children succeed in life. From my family experience in the medical field to the teaching experience I have encountered in my undergraduate career, Speech and Language Pathology has become my dream career molding all of my driven passions into one career. I hope to further in my education at the University of ____. The courses offered along with the opportunity to have a specialized concentration would allow me to focus on feeding or articulation disorders in children and really excel in my career. With my degree, I strive to open up my own private pediatric clinic or a facility that offers group therapy in the morning and individualized therapy in the afternoon. I want to work to create an environment where children with speech and language disorders can come together to inspire each other while living life together.
My interest in Speech and Language Pathology is due to two main experiences in my life. Throughout my childhood, much of my life was centered around dialysis units and hospitals. My father was diagnosed with a chronic kidney disease that caused him to lose his kidney. Growing up with this challenge in my family sparked a deep interest in the medical field and a very young age. I grew up knowing that my sole goal in life was to help people.
This interest was further developed when I started my senior year in high school. I was given the opportunity to be a student teacher for a sophomore level world history class. Under supervision of the teacher, I was able to create lessons and activities that enhanced the student's learning. Because of these two life changing experiences, I decided to pursue a career in Speech and Language pathology. I made the realization that speech and language pathology was the outlet that would allow me to combine my two passions of the medical field and teaching children and most importantly aiding the improvement of their life.
Throughout my undergraduate career at _____ University, I was able to refine my abilities that would make me a competent Speech and Language pathologist. During my junior year, I participated in a class that allowed me to visit a local school of low socioeconomics for 8 weeks and teach him phoneme recognition along with the sounds that accompany each phoneme. This class forced me to be flexible and creative. When my child was having difficulties learning, I implemented a fake money and grocery store as reinforcements along with bringing play-dough and using it as a tangible phonemic placement cue system. I also used the environment around me like pictures the children had painted and used them as teaching moments. By the end of the 8 weeks, the child was able to make a substantial improvement in his sound recognition, vocalization, and reading ability. This was the true turning point where I knew that speech and language pathology was the career that I was destined for.
In my senior year, I decided to hone in my field and explore all my possible therapy areas. I began to observe in the _____ University Speech and Hearing Clinic, work closely with a high school student diagnosed on the Autism Spectrum tutoring him in math and science, and work closely with a speech and language pathologist out of New York creating book lessons along with Individualized Education Program goals. During my hours observing in the clinic, I was able to focus on observation of pediatric patients with feeding and articulation disorders. These are two areas in the career that I strive to specialize in. I was able to learn and observe many techniques and strategies used in therapy in real life situations that cannot be found on a page of a textbook. Along with the courses that I have taken at LSU, tutoring a child with autism has given me hands on experience dealing with a child with special needs. I must be flexible in accommodating his learning as well as patient when he does not understand the material the first time. I have researched many techniques and strategies that heighten autistic children's ability to learn such as using music to aid in learning math formulas and procedures. I was successful in improving his grades in his mathematics and science class this past semester due to the care, time, and effort that I put into his learning.
My childhood and my experience have culminated into a strong desire to help children succeed in life. From my family experience in the medical field to the teaching experience I have encountered in my undergraduate career, Speech and Language Pathology has become my dream career molding all of my driven passions into one career. I hope to further in my education at the University of ____. The courses offered along with the opportunity to have a specialized concentration would allow me to focus on feeding or articulation disorders in children and really excel in my career. With my degree, I strive to open up my own private pediatric clinic or a facility that offers group therapy in the morning and individualized therapy in the afternoon. I want to work to create an environment where children with speech and language disorders can come together to inspire each other while living life together.
