I was recently contacted by a young lady seeking advice about becoming a speech therapist. She was hoping to apply to university soon and was asking about volunteering and applications. One of her questions, which I particularly liked, was “do you like the job?”. This not only made me smile but also brought with it a flood of responses!
It is very easy some days to become stuck in the policy and paperwork of the job. The annoyances of bureaucracy, being stuck in traffic and running late, spending a whole evening writing a report or forgetting that you can’t give that child the bubble wand because they will eat it!
But after a very brief grumble I started thinking about all the things I love about this job and why I can’t see myself doing anything else. I personally love working with younger children and working on their phonology (speech sounds). Just last week I did an initial appointment with an absolutely delightful young man of three and a half. His parents were worried that he wasn’t talking as much as other children his age and that he could be hard to understand.
We had a lovely afternoon posting every picture I had brought with me and stacking my robots, whilst practising our colours. He thoroughly enjoyed the bubbles – I still love the look of sheer excitement and joy bubbles bring (to most children!) and then the best bit…. Wrapped up in the excitement of the bubbles he managed to say a /s/ sound and even managed to copy the word /sea/ for me. This was the first time he had made this sound; not only did he look very proud of himself, but his mother was also amazed at what he had done. This never gets old for me – that wonderful moment of discovery for this child, for this family. It doesn’t matter how many /s/’s I have heard, how many other children have done it for me before – this moment with this child is magical.
This is just one of those moments that springs to mind. So, in answer to the young lady’s question – yes, I do love my job!
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