Keeping Your Finger on the Pulse of Normal….Advice for Therapists
I am always amazed when I hear a therapist (Speech, OT, or PT) tell me that they don’t have regular contact with typically developing children. What? Then how do you gauge “normal,” and what do you call typical? Surely you’re not still relying on your grad school experience? Observation hours with typically developing kids is your only reference? Noticing kids as you whiz past them in the grocery store is the most contact you have with kids that you’re not seeing professionally? Then you’re in trouble!
For those of you who may be new to the field of pediatric therapy, let me break it to you, and not so gently. You can’t judge normal by the highest functioning kid on your caseload that you just discharged because he no longer met the eligibility requirements for your agency or program. While you can call a kid “within normal limits” when he barely meets all the skills on the criterion-referenced checklists you’re using, you can’t really reassure his mother that he’s “fine” since those are designed so that kids who barely make it to the shallow end of the bell curve still pass.
You surely can’t judge normal by comparing clients to your own children, if you even have any, unless you have a whole houseful of kids and wonderful genes so that each one of your children is without quirks! To top that off, sometimes a “mother’s love” blinds us to issues with our own children! We can diagnose difficulties in other people’s kids all day long, but some of the worst cases of old fashioned denial that I have encountered professionally have been in families whose parents have the credentials of someone who should?know better!
The only way to make sure you are keeping your finger on the pulse of normal is to see lots of kids and often.
How exactly do you do this? One way is to constantly acquaint yourself with mothers who have children the same ages as kids you treat, or involve yourself in a group with kids the same age. If you’re an elementary school SLP, this might mean that you find yourself a Brownie or Boy Scout troop to befriend. If you’re a preschool therapist, coach a sport at the Y or in your community leagues. Since I specialize in birth to 3, I volunteer in the nursery at my church once a month on Sunday mornings and teach a class of 2- year-old every Wednesday night during the school year.
Churches and community organizations rarely turn down a capable and willing adult volunteer. Just wait until they find out you’re a “professional!” You’ll likely get to?name the time or commitment you’d like to fulfill.
Another “must” that they don’t tell you about in grad school is to commit your milestones to memory. Know them so well that you can quote them verbatim when someone asks, “How many words should my child have by X months of age?” If you’re constantly saying or thinking that you need to “wait until I score the test to see if this child qualifies,” then you don’t know normal well enough. Learn your stuff! The parents of the children you see are counting on you to know!
Get My Free eBook
A Parent's Guide to Understanding Speech Language Development
Browse Products
Featured Product
Recent Posts
Teach Me To Talk Testimonials
Happy Therapists, Teachers, Parents & Children
"I just want to thank you for the invaluable information you’ve given me in helping my grandson to talk (which I have passed on to his parents). We’ve ve learned patience, appropriate expectations, and fun and effective strategies that we had found no where else. He is exploding with conversation! Sometimes I struggle to interpret his articulation, but all I have to do is say, “Show me”, and he’s excited to do so. He and I both want so badly to communicate with each other, and your strategies have made it so much easier and non-threatening. Once again, I thank you from the bottom of my heart."
Stacey
"My little guy is taking off like a rocket!! We’ve been working through your Autism Workbook for a few months and he has had an explosion of skills develop. YOU are AMAZING! THANK YOU!" Laura Q, Mom
"Dear Laura Mize and Team,
Thank you so much for all your hard work and publishing books! Our 17-month-old toddler suddenly exploded into speaking and imitating everybody's gestures and sounds, just a week or two after we 'completed' all activities that are listed under 11 pre-linguistic skills! Your method really works!"
Grateful customer.
"Hi Laura!
I absolutely LOVE all of your workbooks, especially your Autism Workbook. Starting with Social Games has been a game changer for many of my littles with ASD and their families. It's been the best way for them to finally connect and sustain shared attention and engagement, leading to longer social interactions, through play!"
Jodie, Dev, Therapist
"Hi Ms. Laura,
Thank you so much for the videos you have posted on your youtube channel. They are so direct, informative, and helpful. Thank you for being a resource for me to become a better therapist."
Dianne
"Gosh, I love all of your emails/podcast/website, just everything!! I work in early intervention as a behavior analyst and am learning so much from you!"
Thank you!
Hailey
"Laura,
I love your work! I am a professor of early childhood special education and a speech language pathologist! I have worked to help children learn to communicate and I know how valuable the information you share is for both early interventionists and pediatric speech language pathologists!
Thank you for systematically organizing and explaining essential steps for young children to learn and develop. You are having a great impact on our profession, the ECE profession and families!"
Sincerely,
David
"Thank you.
If this is Laura herself reading this email let me take this opportunity to thank you from the bottom of my heart for all that you have put forth for us professionals. I own every manual (except the autism manual) and have watched every course on DVD. I have listened to countless podcasts. All of what I’ve come to be as an Early Intervention speech therapist was absolutely to your credit. With your resources at my side I have never needed to scramble for answers and strategies and above all the clear language I use when communicating with parents. My fun, animated affect and key phrases I use have been learned through watching your example. So….thank you! May you be blessed."
Chaya
"I just wanted to thank you so much for your incredible help! You are so kind and lovely and every time I implement something you've taught in your manuals or videos it is always a success, I cannot thank you enough. I really appreciate how specific you are in giving us examples of wording to use and how to use a toy in therapy with your videos, it is exactly what I need to properly help my little students. I also really appreciate your list of books of list of toys. I have seen my little students make significant progress thanks to you. I'm looking forward to watching more of your videos, taking more of your CEU's, and reading more of your materials. From the bottom of my heart: thank you so much again!!"
Lauren
Laura thank you so much. Btw, you have transformed my therapy- I have become such a competent and strong therapist after watching probably like 350 of your videos and podcasts over the past few years. And I am a seasoned therapist with almost 25 years experience. (Yes prob 350 episodes ha!) But there was still a lot I learned from you. I have such a thorough understanding of birth to 3 development and how to properly incorporate appropriate therapeutic goals, techniques and strategies now, thanks to you. Kelly
