Monday, March 26, 2007

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).

12 comments :

Anonymous said...

I know - I know (waves hand wildly in the air - sort of pick me - pick me - style ) - but I think it's mostly cause your mum told me - I doubt I would have picked it up on my own. It's like a piece of your identity is missing.... Sad. You are still very beautiful and photogenic - lucky ducky!

Anonymous said...

Hi guys, we found your blog! Yaaaa for us! So ummmm, ya.

Dating said...

Thanks for taking the time to do write about your education - very interesting!

I can relate to mounds of work that is involved in such a program - ugh! I'm nearly done my Bachelor of Arts and my Education Degree -crazy amounts of work!

I would really love to hear about how your last placement goes with the kiddies! I want to teach Grade One. If you every have any tips for children with minor speech problems pass them along! :)

OK, so what is with the pictures? At first I thought maybe they air brushed a mole out? Then I thought maybe you have one blue eye and one brow? haha Not saying it looks like that, but I'm just throwing some guesses out there! haha...I really can't tell that anything is wrong or missing from one to another :( Please do tell!

Thanks again!

Lowell & Julie said...

OOo Alisha, you are sneaky sneaky!

Tracy, I'm not gonna spill the beans yet. I want someone who DOESN'T ALREADY KNOW (that message was for you Mom, Dad, Marc, Kylie, Shareen, Craig, Carlynne, Dan, Lowell & all friends who I already TOLD).

Also for Tracy & anyone else having difficulties visualizing what's different in the second picture, I scanned in the first grad picture again, so it can be viewed larger. Look close and see what's unusual.
hint: Alisha's right. I'm missing part of my Julie identity!

Randy- yay you found us! Talk to you guys soon :)

Mama Bear said...

ok, these are the differences i see in the pictures:
1) in 2nd pic, you're not wearing a hat
2) in 2nd pic, you're not wearing a necklace
3) in 2nd pic, you have fewer teeth (ok, so i made that up)
um.....did you get a nose job? are you wearing a wig? is the first picture not really you, but a hologram?

crap, i have no idea :(

Dating said...

I think I got it! Your nose stud is missing in the second picture!!!!!!!

Anonymous said...

Random, but I happened to come upon your blog and I was wondering... Don't speech pathologists also work with deaf people?

Anonymous said...

Random, but I happened to come upon your blog and I was wondering... Don't speech pathologists also work with deaf people?

Lowell & Julie said...

My heavens, yes!! i can't believe I missed that. Audiology is our MINOR for crying out loud. Silly me. Thank you, Anonymous, for pointing that out.

I probably missed other things as well. But like I said, we basically deal with anything from the lungs up!

=)

Lowell & Julie said...

AND TRACY IS THE WINNER!! You don't even know me in real life- I'm impressed. (Shelley, you should be ashamed:)

Anyhoo, they photoshopped out my nose ring! I was quite disappointed about that. And more to come on the whole nose ring situation later...

Mama Bear said...

(shelley hangs head in shame) *sigh* I tried so hard.

Karyn Clemens said...

Dang, you told before I could comment!! *shakes a fist in your direction* kidding..meh, you're beautiful anyway!

~K~