Semester's End

The semester is winding down.  I have three therapy sessions, one family conference, one take home final, one presentation, a final exam, and two weeks of weekly paperwork left between me and my Christmas break.  I probably shouldn't even be writing. 

Here's what I've learned this semester:

1. Therapy is hard.  Experienced SLPs make it look so easy!  But when you combine collecting an accurate amount of trials and data, maximizing the client response, responding with feedback, and scaffolding up in the session to work at the correct level of difficulty, I forget where I am sometimes!  Multitasking has always been difficult for me, so I've learned to take a deep breath, pause if I need to, and to keep practicing. 

2. Actually taking a few minutes to write out a priority list and plan my day/week saves time in the long run.  I feel more organized this semester than any other, because I had to be. 

3. Humility is endless. Every person I meet can teach me something. My classmates are brilliant resources, and my clinical educator is resiliently patient with me while I learn.  Even if I don't like something, it's still an opportunity to learn that I don't like that thing. 

4. There's no "finish line" in speech-language pathology.  I will never know everything.  But that's what's great about the science of language.

5. Data is important. 

6. The world goes on outside of my clinical practicum, and it's important to poke my head out regularly to maintain a healthy perspective.  This is one of the areas that my classmates with children don't need much help with.  They go home to real life every day.  But I can get glued to my chair in the study room of the clinic all day if I'm not careful. 

This is not nearly representative of everything I've learned this semester, but it's what I'm able to articulate right now.  I'm very grateful for this experience, and can't wait to get into Clinic 2 with everything I know now.