Chicken Soup for the SLP Soul Blog Hop

It’s time for another blog hop – apparently February is the month to hop! This one is a heart-warming for sure. Remember those Chicken Soup books? I ate them up when I was younger! This is right up your alley if you loved those books – it’s all about the SLP Soul! We’re all sharing stories from our SLP lives.

Each blog will have a number. You need to add up the numbers and enter at the last stop – you could win a TPT gift card!

I’ve worked with a lot of different ages since graduating. My youngest has been 2 years old, but I’ve seen adult clients as well through my internships and private practice. One of the ages that I admittedly was a tad unsure about was middle school age kids. Why? Because it’s a difficult age by itself. Kids are trying to find themselves, and your help may not (gasp) be wanted…

So my story features a middle school aged male who I was seeing for auditory processing difficulties (this was not in the school setting). He was definitely not sure about the whole therapy thing, which translated to…not so cooperative behaviors at first. We did the first session and I assessed his auditory processing skills to determine where we needed to go as far as therapy. His answers were short, and it was clear that he was just not that excited about the prospect of meeting with me every week. He did tell me that he liked the Divergent series of books after I mentioned liking Hunger Games. I filed that away and actually starting reading the first Divergent book that week.

The next week when we met, I began the session by telling him that I had taken his recommendation and started reading Divergent. I saw a light in his eyes, and we talked about that for a little while before moving into some activities. He worked very hard that session, and I truly believe that coming to his level and finding common ground was the key to success for us. When we parted (he made quick progress), he gave me a card that I still have. It was a heartfelt thank you from him and it spoke volumes to me.

What did I learn? With this age, you might have to work a little bit harder. You might have to dig a little bit deeper. But I promise you, if you LISTEN to what they’re really saying, they might accidentally give you a little key to their hearts…which will translate to success later on.

Now keep hoppin’ and enter the giveaway at the end!

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