Transcript
Speaker: following podcast is a Jill Devine Media production.
Speaker: quite the fit that we're looking for, or it doesn't quite answer all of our questions. And to really become the detective, just like you were, you kept having the conversation to find out more. Okay, yes, this answers some things, but not quite more. Evoke Creative is a proud sponsor of two kids and a career. They help small business owners like me brand with purpose and market with intent. The ladies at Evoke Creative will help make your digital presence known. Learn more at evokesco .com.
Speaker: That's Evoque, CCO .com.
Speaker: parenting experts who can share their knowledge and insight, or you'll just hear me rambling to get it all out. There's going to be tears, there's going to be laughter, but most importantly, there will be support. Take a listen and connect with me so we can grow and learn from one another. This is Two Kids and a Career.
Speaker: Well, Lenora Edwards, welcome and let's talk about you first as the woman. Before we get to what you do for a living, I want to know a little bit more about you, your background and all that good stuff.
Speaker: Absolutely. Thank you so much. So yes, my name is Lenora Edwards and I have a background in speech language pathology. I've been a licensed board certified licensed speech language pathologist since 2010. So I've been in the career field for quite a while and I actually work with a company called Better Speech and I am their chief knowledge officer and I get to work with people online all day providing speech therapy services to
Speaker: a variety of people of all ages and children included. And it's a really, really phenomenal company to work with and to work for. And I am so proud to be a part of it. So where are you from and
Speaker: What led to wanting to do this as a path? Well, that's a great question. I'm going to do my best to give you the overview. I actually grew up in New York and New Jersey, and I had always loved communicating. I'm pretty sure I came out of the womb talking.
Speaker: Over the years, I was a babysitter and I really saw a lot of children growing and developing and seeing how their language skills were developing and how they were interacting with other people. And when I went to college, I started at East Strasburg and I did two years of nursing and I love nurses. The field was just not for me, it wasn't quite a match. And I actually went over to a building that was close by and it was known as Communication Sciences and Disorders. And it was like, here's where you belong.
Speaker: And it just has grown and grown and grown from there. And then I went out for my master's degree. Okay. And did you have any issues when you were growing up as a child or even as an adult that plays into it at all?
Speaker: Absolutely. I actually did see a speech language pathologist when I was younger. I was in about sixth grade and I had a weak tongue and it's known as a tongue thrust where my jaw would just kind of hang open all the time and my tongue would come forward out of my mouth. And my parents noticed this and they were like, what is happening? What is going on? So when I actually went to see a speech language pathologist,
Speaker: They worked with me to improve the coordination of my swallow and my tongue strength because when I was little, I used to suck my thumb.
Speaker: And my thumb learned a, or with my thumb in my mouth, I learned a different swallowing pattern than the normal typical developing swallowing pattern. And I would push my tongue against my front teeth and my front teeth started to move forward. But also when I was just sitting there, not sucking my thumb, just watching TV or in class, my mouth was hanging open. And it was because I had learned a different pattern than what I was typically developing with.
Speaker: All right. I have friends who are speech pathologists and I act like I know what they do. And so I don't really, I just know that they are helping and just being amazing individuals with kiddos. Can you tell me, I mean, is this a loaded question? What a speech pathologist does or a little bit more about what it entails?
Speaker: Completely. And it's a great question. A lot of the time people will hear, oh, you're a speech therapist. How's my speech? And they're thinking more about the articulation or the intelligibility of how their speech is. Now, in our field, we have a massively wide field. And I often tell people we work from the neck and up because we see people, including little ones that are in the NICU,
Speaker: for swallowing difficulties or feeding difficulties. We also work all the way to the other end of the spectrum and we work in skilled nursing facilities.
Speaker: And we work with the geriatric population also for swallowing. That being said, as we continue to move our way up from the neck to the top of the head, we also work on the articulation of speech, but also the development of language. And language is two components. Our ability to understand language, which is the receptive component, and our ability to express language, which is the expressive component.
Speaker: And then we also work on the strength of how we communicate as well as memory, cognitive skills, abstract reasoning, problem solving, story sequencing, budgeting. There's a huge variety of practices in our field and we work with truly from the beginning to the end because it's just that wide and truly this is where
Speaker: people are communicating, but this is also where they're thinking, where their reasoning is coming from, where their sequencing is coming from. So it's truly, truly a phenomenal field and we don't, that's not in our title. Yeah, no kidding. Okay, so it's easy for me to want to talk about the kids because as a mom to a four and a six year old, I want to make sure that they are,
Speaker: Of course, like any parent and developmentally in the right stages, so to speak. And I feel very blessed that I don't think that there is any kind of issue with their speech. I mean, it's never been brought to my attention. And I do see some of or I guess I should say I know of kids in their
Speaker: age range in other classes that have that happening. And what's great now, though, is that we have the help. We have the ability to make sure that our kiddos are able to learn what it is that they need to learn to get to the next level.
Speaker: So I guess what I'd like to know, though, is as a parent, what are you looking out for? I mean, does this start at birth, honestly? That's a phenomenal question. And the answer is absolutely. So when we're born, we're actually born with the ability to understand language. That being said, once once we're born and we're here and this glorious day has arrived, your little one is now in your arms, they start
Speaker: learning. They actually started learning and understanding language and hearing it when they were in the womb. Once they're out here, they are understanding language. And what they're understanding is so intricate, we don't really think about it. We know as adults, oh, when I ask a question, how are you? My voice goes up. First, when I make a statement, I am good. My voice goes down.
Speaker: We know the turn -taking rules, and it's because we learned all of this at the very beginning. So when we're with our little ones, especially in those very early years, face -to -face interaction is so important because we're communicating with our face. We're communicating with our tone. We're communicating with our body. And language is all of those parts. And being able to know the rules of language, such as, very specifically,
Speaker: in English how we form our sentences in the grammatical way that we do. If we translated it into Spanish or Italian, it has its own different set of grammar rules.
Speaker: And this is why it starts at the very beginning and why we're understanding information right from the start. It's because it's so intricate. Our brains are working to hear the environment. It's working to make sense of the environment. We come in as a completely blank slate. We don't know any difference between a doorknob and a wall. That's why it's truly important to talk to your children, especially engage with them,
Speaker: and face to face because what we're doing as parents and guardians is we are educating them about the entire world, our language included. When does one intervene or seek help?
Speaker: That's a great question. When do we seek help? So as our little ones are growing, the developmental milestones are great guidelines. Are they able, just like we have tummy time and we sit up and we're doing certain things to help our bodies strengthen or to help their bodies strengthen. Language is the same way. It's developing over time and where are they? So very specifically, let's say,
Speaker: You have an eight month old. Your eight month old is watching you while you're engaging with something. They're watching you. And then when you start to bring in something else, they're engaging with that item as well as you. They're starting to learn those rules of turn taking and joint attention. They're also really starting to learn when how we're making sounds. And that's truly an important thing. So they're hearing all this information.
Speaker: They're starting to, one -year -olds, they're starting to follow one -step directions, two -year -olds, they should be starting to follow two -step directions. The guidelines are in place for a specific reason and that's a great, great thing. If your little one doesn't meet it by the exact day of their first birthday's here and they haven't said a word, that's okay. This is a guideline for a reason. So I do absolutely encourage people to follow their recommendations from the pediatricians and from medical staff on
Speaker: child development, things that we're looking for, especially they don't come with a book. It would be great if they did, but they don't, and we have to educate ourselves in other ways. Educating yourself on the milestones, on where that language development is, on where that gross motor development is, is a great thing. You might even go to the pediatrician and they'll go, oh, did you start solids yet?
Speaker: And because they're going off of these guidelines, those are very, very helpful. So I often encourage people to look at those guidelines. If you notice, you know, my two year old isn't isn't really identifying pictures or
Speaker: If I say, where's the fish, they don't know where they're looking at our picture book to identify the fish. Or if I say, okay, pass me your cup, and they can't identify where their cup is. Those are really great indicators that something is amiss and that you want to reach out to professionals. We want little ones to be able to follow simple directions. Let's go find your shoes. We want little ones to
Speaker: to make decisions of, okay, here's a choice, which one do you want? And then to be able to reach forward and choose which one they're wanting to play with, or being able to hear their name and turn to look at you when they hear their name. Those are really good indicators that they have intact, receptive language skills, intact understanding skills, and that they're paying attention
Speaker: Sometimes you might hear, you know, oh, my four year old is they're just defined. They don't want to listen to anything. And that is a bit of a red flag because they might not be defined. They quite literally might not understand what you're asking them when we ask simple questions. So.
Speaker: Let's say, is your name Bobby? And they nod their head yes. That's a great one for a three -year -old. They'll know their name by three years old. If we say, what do you want for dinner? That is a WH question. And now they have to go through that sorting component of figuring out what they asked me.
Speaker: Was it about food? What food do I want? And now I have to characterize a dinner food very specifically to that question. That's a very complex question for little ones. And we don't really think of it as complex because it's just very natural to us. But WH questions are a lot harder than choices of one or two. What's a WH question? WH questions are what, where, when, those are a lot harder.
Speaker: who very open -ended questions. First, if I said, do you want apple juice or orange juice? And I showed you apple juice or orange juice. That makes sense. Thank you for clarifying that. Well, what I'm so happy that you mentioned, and we are all
Speaker: Any parent falls trapped to this is the milestones. Now listen, anyone that has listened to this podcast on a regular basis knows this about me. I do all the research. I read all the books. I try to prepare myself. And sometimes it works. And sometimes it just puts me into an anxiety panic. Yes, it's a situation. But the thing is,
Speaker: By reading those books, by asking the questions, I do have an understanding of where my child should be in regard to what the milestones are. But you got to take those like, you know, a little bit on the on either side, give or take a few. That's what you have to remember, because every child is different.
Speaker: But this is a baseline. This is a guideline. And I'm so glad you mentioned that. And then just talking to your doctor. But I would also say, and I don't know that it's the most amazing advice ever, and it's just listen to your gut. Like mama instincts, man, so many times, if I off, I'll go back and think about my
Speaker: by just Jill instincts back in the day with things that I completely just set aside. And I'm like, dang it, Jill. If you would have just listened to yourself, but especially even as a mom, there are times that I will put it to the side, but most of the times when I'm feeling it, I'm like, okay, I'm going to act on this. And so I think that's another big thing that moms should know.
Speaker: You it's okay if you're feeling a certain way, even if it doesn't turn out to be what it is. Make the call. Reach out to someone. It's okay. Completely. I could not agree more with you, Jill. I'm over here like cheering, cheering right for you because I'm I'm right there with you. I completely agree. Trust your instincts.
Speaker: If you feel like something is a mess or you're questioning it and you don't know why, trust your instincts. And what sometimes will happen is the people around you will do their best to calm you and say, no, no, no, no, no, you're overthinking it. You're overthinking it.
Speaker: trust your instincts because if you reach out to a professional and you say, you know, I just want to check. I'm not quite sure. This is what I'm seeing. Can you let me know? What you're doing is you're truly trusting yourself and that's a great thing. And the professional is then able to say, okay, this is what I'm seeing. This is where they should be. Worst case scenario. Yeah, you're doing great. You're right on track, but I'm really glad you reached out and you asked those questions. Those were great questions.
Speaker: It's the worst case scenario verse stifling a feeling that you've had for six months, going, no, no, yeah, no, no. And having that back and forth battle, you then lost six months of time. So it's truly, truly important to really, I completely agree, Jill, trust your instincts. Before we continue with this week's conversation, I want to highlight one of the sponsors of the podcast, Evoque Creative.
Speaker: If you are in the market for a website or a web site refresh or a logo or a logo refresh, or maybe you have some merchandise that you would love to sell, Evoque Creative can help you out. What I love about Evoque Creative, and this is kind of the whole theme of two kids in a career, is, you know, helping those small businesses out, helping other
Speaker: entrepreneurs, making sure that your voice is heard, making sure that you are seeing that you are, you know, out there, because just maybe because your budget is small, doesn't mean that you don't have something to say or something to show. And the ladies at Evoke Creative, they value that so much and they want to help you all along the way. So you can check them out evokeseco .com to learn more information and to
Speaker: schedule a free consultation. They want to help you out. And if they can't help you out, they're going to put you in the right direction of someone that can. But 9 out of 10 times, I have seen them help anybody that's come to them out. evoccco .com. All right. Back to this week's conversation. I will say too, and you probably have experienced this and I'm just using my girls as an example. There was a time when my youngest
Speaker: that I just, I didn't understand. Like they're two totally different kids. And when she was, I don't, she might've been a year
Speaker: give her give or take a few months but I was like man I feel like there's nothing that I can do that's right or soothing or I don't understand why she's so upset and I had reached out to her teacher at the time who then
Speaker: consulted with, you know, uh, I think like the director of the school and they were very much like, Oh, don't answer any questions that could be a medical thing. And the teacher was very, very open and honest with me. And I appreciate her to this day that she was like, okay, listen, if I felt, of course I'm not a doctor, I am not a trained,
Speaker: speech pathologist, if I thought that there was something developmentally, I don't want to use the word wrong, just different. She's like, I would tell you. She goes, but I think what your situation is, is that you have a completely different child than your first. And her language and her processing of things is different. And
Speaker: That was a really hard time for me because I just felt like I couldn't like Take care of her needs. I couldn't I just couldn't figure it out and what i'm learning about her is she is my sensitive child and I think that's the other thing is we we hear
Speaker: different things like sensitive. I'll use that as an example. Sensitive as being you always cry and you always get your feelings hurt and that can be a component. But when I talked to a psychoanalyst on my podcast not too long ago, she was like, no, sensitive means completely different than what you're thinking. Like being a sensitive person
Speaker: means, I don't know, maybe you can explain it better, but she was able to hit to me like, you process things different. It takes you longer to understand something or you have to make a decision and you're not ready to make a decision and then you get frustrated. That's when it hit me like, that's my kiddo. That's my second child. And I have to figure out a different way of parenting her.
Speaker: Absolutely. I love that they pointed that out to you because especially when I'm a huge supporter of this, if you still have questions to keep having the conversation and to look toward other professionals or even other stories that people have and things that people have experienced because we don't know what we don't know. And sometimes that first answer isn't quite
Speaker: the fit that we're looking for or it doesn't quite answer all of our questions and to really become the detective just like you were, you kept having the conversation to
Speaker: find out more. Okay, yes, this answers some things, but not quite more. And it really, as you do that, you educate yourself more and you allow for more thought flexibility. And you can then take the knowledge that you're gaining and saying, okay, this is helpful, or this is somewhat helpful, or no, this isn't helpful and let it go out the window. And then the knowledge that is helpful, you can apply it to your everyday life. And I think that's so truly
Speaker: important about using the power of the internet to your advantage and using the power of communication to our advantage.
Speaker: It's not just stopping at that one -stop shop anymore of, this is just how it is, boom, done. It's, no, okay, this is how it is and now let me keep looking for more information that can help me. Well, speaking of the internet and speaking of communication and speaking of looking for the help,
Speaker: Let's talk about better speech. You mentioned this at the beginning of the episode and I'd like to dive into what it is that you're able to do because here's one thing I also thought about when we were having this conversation is when I mentioned that I know of individuals who have kiddos in a school that maybe they don't have all the resources that
Speaker: can help. And so then they're going to have to go to a different school that has the resources. Gosh, I wish that wasn't the case. I wish that if you loved where you were, you could be there. But I also understand. I mean, it it takes a village when it comes to things like this. So I'm wondering, is this where better speech can come in and just walk me through that whole process?
Speaker: Absolutely. And you know, I completely agree. I would love for all schools to be able to meet the needs of all the children in the community that are attending it and whatever needs they may be. And ideally, in a wonderful world, that is happening. In the event that that might not be happening, that's okay. And to look for those other resources. If your school is able to meet your needs in certain areas,
Speaker: Phenomenal how else can we meet your needs? So let's say you are receiving speech therapy services at school But they're in a group and they might not be getting that individualized attention that you you're wanting and they're not making progress and unfortunately
Speaker: That's where our system is. Everybody's doing the best that we can. And sometimes children do get into speech therapy groups and they sometimes only get 15 minutes or 10 minutes of really quality one -on -one speech therapy. The nice thing with the where we live in this world is that there's other alternatives. There's additional support. And I also find that
Speaker: You know, if you do have questions as a parent or a guardian, if you have questions, reach out to the speech language pathologist in this case and say, you know, what else might I be able to do? With better speech, we are online. So we are 100 % online and have been so long before the pandemic. And we are over 150 speech language pathologists strong and we are licensed throughout the U .S. and we're also internationally based.
Speaker: So that being said, for example, I live in one state, but I am licensed in five states, which allows me the opportunity to help people in different areas and in different communities and in different time zones because we're using technology to our very powerful advantage. And I get to see children after their school day and also or even some that are already homeschooled in the place that they are most comfortable.
Speaker: They're at home. If we go to an outpatient clinic or if we go into the school system, they might not be as comfortable and we might not get the same experience as we would in the environment that they're most comfortable. The other phenomenal thing that I love is we get to include parent and guardian in our therapy session.
Speaker: When you're in the school, parent and guardian don't get to be there. Sometimes in the clinic, at least in the state that I live in, they were separating, and I believe they still are separating, parent, guardian, child, and clinician, so that way for virus reasons, but the child is then only having one -on -one attention with the clinician, and the parent or guardian might not know what was going on in that therapy session, and then we have to
Speaker: as a clinician crash course in two minutes and say, here's what we worked on. Bye. Yeah, no, when I am, it's a real thing and it's unfortunate, very real thing. When I work with families with better speech, we are already online. They're already in the therapy session and they're close by and I get to say, this is what I'm doing. This is why I'm doing it. This is how you implement it at home. And they get to be a part of the therapy session.
Speaker: And they have a much better understanding. And because they're a part of it, that child is also understanding at a very deep level. They're seen, they're heard, they're important, and that their family is there with them, that they're not alone. And that carryover and that understanding is so much deeper and it resonates so much more. And the progress these children make is so much greater. And that is a phenomenal thing.
Speaker: One more thing I wanted to add about our company. I don't know if any of you have ever rolled over at 2am and had a question about your child and you're like, are they on target? I don't know. What am I missing? What am I not missing? Like we had mentioned.
Speaker: If you called up a clinic right now, you might have the receptionist say, okay, well, we'll talk to you in six months when you come in for the evaluation. With better speech, we offer you a free consultation and we can get in touch with you and you can get in touch with us as early as the next business day. There isn't the six month waiting period. If you would like to speak with a speech language pathologist, you can do that as early as the next business day. And I'm truly, truly proud of that because
Speaker: When I roll over with questions, I don't want to wait six months for my answers. Right. No, I want... Causes a lot of stress. If you're not going to respond immediately, please respond within 24 hours. Right?
Speaker: Okay, I have a question about the schooling and I don't know if you'll know the answer because obviously this is different in every state, but okay. If the kid is out of school and the extra resources are not available and mom and dad are listening and they're like, oh, we can go to better speech. Do you know if that is
Speaker: an able supplement like, hey, we're doing this on the side because this is what we want to do to keep this kiddo in this school. Is that an option? Absolutely. And with that, so this is what we also experience is
Speaker: when you what can sometimes happen if you're having difficulty with let's say you're having difficulty with R and you're seven years old and this is the only sound and you're kind of decent enough to get through conversation but mom and dad notice that it's it's impactful to you and
Speaker: You may not qualify for services because you may not be quote unquote severe enough. You might only have a mild and a mild articulation and it's not that bad where we would have to pick you up for speech therapy services. We might say
Speaker: They do need services and they may qualify, we're not too sure. That does happen and it's heartbreaking and it's unfortunate and it's an ugly situation that that is sometimes the stories that we hear. That being said, you as the parent and the guardian have the full right to still pursue services through the school and do your best to ideally get them in the school system
Speaker: and also have speech therapy services with better speech or with a with another speech therapist that is completely your right and especially when it comes to better speech
Speaker: We also provide our clients with a, what we like to refer to as a super bill, in which case you then also have the complete right to go to your insurance company and see if those speech therapy services will be covered because we provide you with the ICD -10 codes. We provide you with the treatment notes that you need that they're going to say, okay, well, we want to see the track record that you're receiving speech therapy services.
Speaker: That is a great, great thing to have. That's, I mean, I know some of that language I don't understand, but that is, that's good to know because that's what it always comes down to, you know, insurance and I'm not going to just
Speaker: school, you know, on insurance. Yeah. And it's hard. Completely. It's very hard. It's very hard. And these are the things that they don't tell you about when, like for me, I didn't learn about this stuff when I went to high school. These are the life things that you figure out as you go. And you're like, what do you mean? They might not be certain, they might not be covered, or I might not have services in school. It's heartbreaking and it's frustrating. And there are times where it just, it happens. And
Speaker: And that's it's basically unfortunate. And the parent and family have to figure out a way to get what they need and get what they want. Well, and that's the thing when you have people like you that are saying, by the way, here's another little thing that you need to know to help you out.
Speaker: That's what it's about. It's about supporting one another. It's about coming together and making that work. So I'm appreciative of it. And I can only imagine your clientele is as well. I know that we're going to wrap things up here, but I wanted to briefly touch on when you said from
Speaker: Basically, you can help from the beginning to the end. And I don't think a lot of people realize that if something happens to you, whether you're middle age or older, and you have to get that memory jogged, you have to start speaking again, that you are a big, huge,
Speaker: difference maker. I think sometimes we forget about that we think oh okay maybe somebody got into an accident or whatever it's the physical part it's also the mental part. Completely and there it's so we see people so let's say you had a neurological difficulty whether it's Alzheimer's Parkinson's a traumatic brain injury that you were in a car accident there's
Speaker: a lot going on with your thinking skills, with your cognitive skills. You know, we even have clients that are post COVID brain and experiencing post COVID brain fog and they can't focus or they can't have the attention that they want to. And they can't read the book that they want. They were perfectly able to before. Those are the things that we do work on when your cognition, when you're in your attention and your focus isn't quite there.
Speaker: there may be something else that's going on. I'm in my 30s and my friends are having parents that are aging and are experiencing early onset of Alzheimer's or experiencing onset of Parkinson's and we're able to educate people but also
Speaker: be in that caregiver home and say, okay, so this is what I'm seeing at home. This is what I'm noticing while you're eating your meal. Here are the strategies to do. Here are the things to work on. Here are the tools that you want to apply so that you can enjoy your life and you can have the quality of life that you so desire.
Speaker: Super important. I hope that I've talked about this a couple of times on the podcast. I haven't had a lot of episodes where we talk about that sandwich generation, so to speak, or some people call it the panini generation, but it is important to talk about. It is important to know that there are options. I know that for me, like I said, because I am a mom to littles, it's easy for me to talk about that.
Speaker: And I know one day I'll need to talk about the latter, but just know that if you are listening and you fall on either side or in the middle, there's help. Lenora, let's get the information to the listener, how they can get ahold of you, what they need to do, all the good things. And I will have everything listed in the show notes at JillDivine .com, but I'd like for you to go ahead and talk about it now.
Speaker: Thank you so much for that, Jill. And I love that you said there is help. I completely agree. There is help and even reaching out to you and all the knowledge that you have and those connections that you've now beautifully made because of your incredible work that you do.
Speaker: you now are able to be a phenomenal resource for people and say, here's who might be able to help, here's who might be able to help. And that's an incredible, incredible gift that you're giving this world. Thank you. If you'd like to reach us, we are at betterspeech .com. We are also on all those fantastic social media outlets of YouTube and TikTok and Instagram at Better Speech.
Speaker: if you have questions reach out to us if you want to leave comments and say hey can you make a video on this by all means leave comments and let us know what you're thinking and how we maybe let's better serve you. Lenora thank you for what you're doing I just I could tell it in your voice like this is a passion of yours and you want to help and
Speaker: I hope that someone that's listening right now will definitely take you up on that. And yeah, just thank you. Truly right back at you, I can hear it in your voice, too. So thank you so much for having this conversation and for spending time with me. I really, really appreciate it. All right, one more shout out to Evote Creative before we wrap up this episode. Evote Creative is a sponsor of the podcast and they are true champions of women.
Speaker: They are true champions of small businesses and I just, I love everything about what they do. I love how open and creative they are in helping small businesses because they're a small business and they started out small, just like you, just like me.
Speaker: and they wanna help you all along the way. You can check out what they can do for you at evokescco .com. They can design artwork for your book, or they can design a new logo for you, or they can come up with a different color palette that best suits your biz. So just check them out, evokescco .com.
Speaker: And you can see some of their work right now by visiting JillDivine .com because they did my website, they did my logo, they did the color palette, they did all the things. So if you go to JillDivine .com, you will see that. That's also where you will find every single episode of the podcast along with all my social media handles. I would love to connect with you. And as always, thank you for your support of Two Kids and a Career.
