The Theme for January will be Football

As Wright Pathways Therapy kicks off, the goal of this blog will be to provide families some "tricks of the trade" and tips and techniques for how to carry over therapy into your homes and every day lives.  Each month there will be an overarching theme, and each week new words (from all parts of speech) will be added to the "Word Wall" within the therapy room.  See if you can incorporate these words into your everyday communication interactions.  They will be frequently occurring words both in spoken language and in print.  There will also be a picture associated with monthly theme that you can pull up through the blog to use for discussions of therapy.

Let me introduce myself and provide some of my professional background.  My name is Sandra Wright. I have been a practicing speech language pathologist since 1999.  I earned my master's degree in speech language pathology from the University of Tulsa.  However, I should share that I did not always set out to be a speech pathologist, it is a career that found me.  I began my college career at the University of Connecticut as a Computer Science Engineering student.  Through my studies at UCONN, I had a work study position at the book store in the computer department to help faculty with their computer difficulties.  During my junior year, the department of communication disorders hired a new faculty member who was interested in purchasing a new computer that would have a fast enough processor to be able to do voice recognition and voice analysis. I had no idea what type of work he was talking about so I accompanied him to the speech and language clinic.  I was fascinated by all that was happening in this one building on campus that I had no idea existed.  I helped the professor purchase a computer that would meet all of his needs, and then broke the news to my family that I had to change my major to speech-language pathology.  Many people say that Computer Science Engineering and Speech Pathology aren't that connected, but I tend to disagree.

I have found that my calling in the field of speech-language pathology is to find ways for people to communicate effectively and efficiently.  I love to integrate technology into my intervention practices. I am drawn to augmentative and alternative communication.  I love social interaction intervention and improving overall quality of life of others!  I have had experience with almost all populations and all settings, with the exception of early intervention.  I began my career working in a middle school (yes still my favorite age to work with 9-16). I worked with elementary aged children during summers.  I have worked with high school students, as well as transition programs (18-22) through public schools. I have worked in outpatient hospital rehabilitation in Kansas, inpatient hospital rehabilitaiton at St. John's hospital in Leavenworth, KS.  I have worked in a variety of long-term care facilities in Topeka, KS.  While completing my doctorate in speech-language pathology with an emphasis in augmentative and alternative communication and advocacy, I worked with the entire age span of persons with complex communication needs at the Schiefelbusch Speech-Language-Hearing Clinic at the University of Kansas.

I believe all of these professional experiences will help me to serve a large variety of people to have an improved quality of life and help them on their Journey of Communication.

Check back on Monday January 6th for the first photo and set of words from the Word Wall for January's theme of Football in honor of the playoffs and the upcoming Super Bowl!