What to Include in Your Curriculum Vitae (CV)

By Christina Antoine

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Thinking of approaching a hospital, school or  nursing home for CFY inquiries, child or adult placement, part-time employment or volunteer opportunities? Then, as a graduate SLP student you will need a curriculum vitae as opposed to a resume.

The difference is that a CV is more detailed than  a resume. Where the latter only list your past and current experiences, the CV gives you the opportunity to truly sell yourself.  

Here’s what to include in your CV:
    -    Your past and current experience
            → Don’t forget to include any research and volunteer experience!
     -    Your completed practicum hours
             → Break them down by type (student teaching, child placement, etc.) 
             → Indicate where they were done as well as your responsibilities
    -    The classes that you have completed within your graduate program, including a  
         course description for each
    -    Have you written a paper that you think is exceptional? Include it! 
            → Be sure to carry a sample to your meeting.    
    -    And of course include your name, contact information and education information.
 
Good luck hunting!

Thanks to Jen from St. John’s for the insight!

Cranial Nerves: Everything You Need to Know.

By Christina Antoine
Whether in a graduate or undergraduate anatomy class, dysphagia or motor speech class, you will need to become very familiar with the cranial nerves. That is, knowing their names, roman numeral, sensory and motor functions, as well as the muscles and organs they innervate. All that information can get very confusing.

We have however found just the thing that will guarantee mastery of the cranial nerves. Created by Dr. McCaffrey of California State University, Chico, this pamphlet on the cranial nerves has all the information that you will need to know. It includes a mnemonic to better remember which roman numeral corresponds to what name, as well as how the cranial nerves come into play in each of the swallowing stages.

To open a pdf of this document, click here.
To go to the original document on Dr. McCaffrey’s website, click here.

 Thanks to Liv from St. John’s for sharing this resource!

Know the Market: 2011 Annual Salary Survey

February 26, 2012 | From ADVANCE
Wonder what speech-language pathologists actually earn? Check out this very informative article from ADVANCE, breaking down the numbers by state and by setting.

What Happens During Clinical Observations?
By Christina Antoine

25 hours of clinical observations are required for getting into grad school and by ASHA to be granted your Cs (CCC-SLP: Certificate of Clinical Competence in Speech-Language Pathology). Typically, these observation hours are gained during undergrad and are built into your coursework. Observation hours can also be completed outside of school with a Speech-Language Pathologist who is accredited from ASHA. However, make sure that the SLP’s membership with ASHA is current, because if it is not, those observations will be voided and will not count.

It is completely normal to feel nervous the first time you’re going in for observations. What will it be like? Will I get quizzed by the professor/ clinician during the therapy session? What if I get emotional? Here is an inside view at what goes on during clinical observations so you can walk into the therapy room knowing what to expect.
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Observation Room showing the student side of the one way mirror. It is designed by Bargmann Hendrie + Archetype Inc. for a childcare facility
Your School’s Clinic
Some schools have observation rooms and others don’t. An observation room is a room where you can look in to the therapy room through a glass mirror. You can see and hear everything that’s going in the therapy room, but the patient and therapist cannot see you (yes, just like in the tv show CSI). A graduate student in SLP might even be in the therapy room doing her/his practicum (where the grad student learns to dispense therapy).

A Hospital, Clinic or Elder Care Center
In those settings you’re truly shadowing the clinician, in the sense that you’re in the therapy room, observing from a bit of a distance. Depending on the set up, it is possible that patients be in individual rooms, as in a doctor’s office and that you’ll be following the speech- language pathologist from room to room. The facility may also have a specific room dedicated to speech language pathology, which means you will stay put.
Kindergarten, Preschool or Grade School
Most SLP students  acquire their observation hours at their academic institution, a hospital, clinic or elder center. However, it is also possible to gain those hours at an actual school. Two scenarios apply: Either therapy is conducted in the classroom in the presence of the other students and the teacher, or outside of the classroom. If in the classroom, the speech-language pathologist will be with the concerned child or children with you close by. If outside of the classroom,

therapy concerned child or children with you close by. If outside of the classroom, therapy sessions resemble more a clinic setting.

Keep in mind:
  • If working with young children, dress comfortably, you might have to get on the floor.
  • Take notes during the sessions. Many professors require that you do a summary of each observation.
  • Before doing observations outside of your university, inquire with your speech department to see if outside observations are allowed. Not all professors accept them.
  • Observations are categorized into ‘speech’ and ‘language’ hours. ASHA does not mind that all 25 be in one category or the other, or that you have a combination of both. However, your school may have specific requirements regarding how many of each should be gained.
  • Want to complete your observations ahead of time? Observations are often tied with a course. For example, you might be expected to acquire speech observation hours while registered for a disorders of speech class. Find out if that is the case at your school and from the professor of that class if he/she will accept prior observations.
Always make sure to go to observations with a log where you include the name of the facility, the date, time, length of observation, the patient’s age and disorder category (speech or language). Then make sure that that form gets signed by the speech-language pathologist conducting the session, including her/his ASHA number.

- Last updated August, 28, 2018.
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Same observation room showing the classroom side. Teachers and students only see a mirror and cannot see trough. Designed by Bargmann Hendrie + Archetype Inc.