I have written about this a couple of times now, and have posted it in my journal. My fascination is with people who have hearing impairments, especially children. I have always been interested in deafness and people who sign, and as I wrote earlier, that was one of the reasons I decided to stick with SLP. I remember asking the question in 325, how children who are born deaf eventually learn language and learn to write and spell. No one knew much about that, or at least had no definitive answer for me. For two years now, that question has escaped me and I still think about it.
How can deaf children learn to spell when they’ve never heard words before? How can they “sound it out” when they have no sounds? At the same time I think about these questions, I develop a deep appreciation and respect for their teachers, who probably spend countless hours and much patience, teaching these children how to communicate most effectively in a world that transmits most information verbally; not with sign.
So I guess my essential question would be, “How do you teach a child who has never heard before how to spell, read, and write?”

When I first read this prompt, I was like, “I have no idea!” But when I thought about it a little more, I realized that the answer wasn’t too hard to see. I thought about WVSHA had seminars that counted for CEUs and then thought about how many things come in the mail every day for seminars that my dad can attend to do the same things. I know that, as an SLP, one of the things that I am bound by in the Code of Ethics is to continue my professional development throughout my career. Because of that, I will be required to gain CEUs. But more than that, I hope and think that I will strive to know more about why I am do what I do, and how to make that work easier or more effective.

As far as meeting my own learning needs, I would say that I have all of the available resources I could ever need right at the touch of my fingertips. Beyond that, I could subscribe to periodical journals and read about new ways of seeing and doing things. Also, attending conferences or just watching other people do therapy would be interesting. A lot of learning happens when you are just a watcher and don’t have to think about doing each procedure correctly. So, watching and listening to others in my field will undoubtedly be a way for me to meet my learning needs and incorporate learning into the professional setting.

As I sit here, thinking about any "talks" my family ever had about education, I can't think of any. I think it was always just assumed and never really spoken about. I know I shouldn't apologize for my family or any success they have had, but it is second nature to start that way whever I talk about my family and their occupations. I just know how annoying it is to be around people who are dying for others to know how much money they have, etc. Anyway, here goes....my grandfather and his twin brother (on my dad's side) both are doctors; my dad is a doctor; my uncles are all very successful businessmen and my aunts all have college degrees. My mom's dad worked for IBM and retired about 10 years ago and my grandmother worked for Marshall for 25 years before she retired. My mom's brother is a computer programmer who lives in California and my sister and brother in law both graduated from college within the last 2 years. Getting all of that out of the way....needless to say, education was never something that was discussed or debated: it was a way of life.

Growing up, all I *saw* was people pouring hours into work and school, and making the grades. My sister was another one who had a sparkling academic record and I was not about to be outdone by her! :) Because of this environment, being surrounded by a very successful family, I put a huge amount of pressure on myself, even as early as middle school, to be as perfect as possible. That had some negative repercussions in high school and even college, as my self-esteem relied so much on my grades. Because of my work pace, my parents never really had to have "talks" about education or what they expected of me because I already knew by the examples they and so many others in my world had set. Actually, my parents many times had to have talks with me about lowering my expectations of myself, to avoid anxiety and depression about my grades.

I know that I am a very introspective person and have figured a lot out on my own, even with regards to learning and education. Thankfully for my parents, that didn't leave a lot of responsiblility on their shoulders to articulate what was expected of me and why. The bigger job for them (and it was done beautifully, I think), was to show me that, yes, education is important, but the love of a parent is unconditional and far exceeds the significance of a grade any day of the week.