It's Tuesday night and I am finished for classes for the week. Yep, you read that right... I have one class on Mondays, three classes on Tuesday and then I am finished for the week. Good thing though, is that almost all of my classes have a few outside of class components besides homework and studying for exams.
For my diagnostics class, we are being broken up into pairs and will be matched with a faculty member to perform a diagnostic in our university clinic. We also have to set up an observation with a local SLP to observe (or participate in - if the SLP is comfortable with that) a speech and language evaluation of either a child or an adult. For our aphasia class, we have to set up an observation of a treatment session (either individual or group) or attend a meeting of an aphasia support group. Then for our audiometric disorders class, we are putting together a hearing conservation project, then going out into the community to a class (1st grade classroom or a middle school classroom, etc.) teach them about the anatomy and physiology of the ear, the loudness scale, hair cells damage, and hearing conservation.
There are also a lot more presentations this semester in comparison to last semester... I definitely need practice with public speaking so I am glad we will have many opportunities to do so. My goal is to not use note cards at all since I tend to over-rely on them. This semester I'm also going to set up some volunteer hours with the SLP at the Autism Collaborative Center on campus. It's definitely going to be much busier this semester compared to last!
Overall I am really excited about this semester. I love that we will go out into the community to observe and to teach. Going off of first impressions of first days in classes, my favorite so far is diagnostics and aphasia as a close second!
Oh! Another cool thing about today - I met someone who also did the Utah State University online post bachelor's in communicative disorders and deaf education! We overlapped by three semesters so we probably had a class or two together but didn't know each other then. She's in two of my classes this semester and happened to mention that she attended USU online. I've only "met" my former classmates online and not in person, so it was great to finally meet someone IRL. Definitely made my day!
The diagnostic experience was such a valuable one. I feel compelled to warn you: read the diagnostic manual as soon as possible. Seriously, read it tomorrow. You may not have much notice before getting your scheduled diagnostic, so it helps to know all of what you have to do so you can jump right in and read your client's chart. (I learned this lesson the hard way, if you can't tell...haha). Good luck this semester! I love your blog!
ReplyDeleteI will get on it then, thanks! Going in tomorrow for audiometric testing practice on a couple of classmates and the prof... I'm reviewing my notes from intro to audiology and I feel like I've forgotten everything. :(
ReplyDeleteI'm glad you love the blog, I'm really enjoying writing it!