A Glance at the Life & Times of Julie

Soooooo, upon Tracy’s request (Tracy is a faithful Julie-blog-reader and suggested that I write about what exactly it is that I do), I will sum up my academic career for you all.

I’m currently finishing my masters in Speech Language Pathology. Most people think that speech pathologists fix lisps and that’s about it. Such is not the case. It is an incredibly varied field. Sure we work with lisps, but also with:

• other articulation errors
• stuttering
• language delays (i.e. when kids haven’t picked up on plurals/past tense etc etc)
• people who have had strokes/brain injuries/have degenerative disorders and have problems understanding and/or talking (i.e. communicating)
• people with voice problems (including transgendered people: when individuals go from male to female, they need therapy to help raise the pitch of their voice. When females have sex changes, they can take hormones that lower their larynx and therefore make their voice lower. However, men already have a low larynx and it can’t be raised, so therapy helps them raise their pitch in the healthiest possible way for their vocal folds).
  
• swallowing disorders (i.e. dysphaiga)
• respiration (b/c it’s important for speech)
• *edited to add: hearing screenings & working with the deaf/hard of hearing population (duh Julie)
  

Basically we work from the lungs up. So are you catching on? It’s varied.

How did I get to this point? I did a 4 year undergrad degree in Psychology and took several prerequisite courses. The particular degree doesn’t really matter as long as you have the prerequs which are mostly in the areas of linguistics, psychology, anatomy, and stats. I also have tons of other experiences. I have:

• volunteered with Speech Pathologists
• worked with autistic children
• visited an aphasic lady weekly since my first year of University, and now whenever I go home
• done linguistics research (and published it)
• worked at a neuroscience lab
• GRADUATED in 2005
  

Now what's involved in the masters program? A STINKload of work. It's an intense course load to begin with, then throw in clinic, a thesis or "project", a ridiculous amount of reading... the list goes on. This goes on for15 months (straight) then after Christmas the placements begin. People will be done at different times, but I'll tell you about mine.

• My first placement was at an intensive stuttering clinic. LOVED IT.
• My current placement is at an Edmonton hospital (doing tons of dysphagia and adult communication stuff). Also enjoying this.
  
• My final placement is in Lethbridge with kiddies. Really looking forward to this.
  

In December I graduated and in November 2007 I will convocate and be completely finito!


Here's my challenge for you. I know it's a risky question (and if you don't know me well, you likely won't notice), but what's unusual about this picture?! (And please don't say my forehead looks square or something).