Present Notes:
What occurs when one bilingual SLP decides she’s bored with feeling alone? She builds an entire motion! On this feel-good episode, Hallie sits down with Sara Gonzalez—an authorized Spanish-English SLP in New York and the powerhouse behind the B.E.A.M. SLP Program aka Bilingual Empowerment by Allied Mentorship 💥
Sara shares her journey from grad college confusion to co-founding a nationwide mentorship group for bilingual SLPs. Should you’ve ever thought, “Am I bilingual sufficient?” or felt like the one one navigating the distinctive challenges of dual-language service… this episode will wrap you within the warmest “you’re not alone” hug. Anticipate actual discuss and galvanizing moments.
Whether or not you’re a seasoned professional, a CF nonetheless discovering your voice, or simply interested in what it’s prefer to be a bilingual SLP—this one’s for you. ❤️
This is what we realized:
- Why bilingual SLPs typically really feel alone—and what to do about it
- Sara’s journey from grad college to founding the B.E.A.M. mentorship program
- What B.E.A.M. is (and the way YOU can become involved!)
- Distinctive challenges bilingual SLPs face: accents, microaggressions, and extra
- The significance of cultural and linguistic consciousness in evaluations
- Why mentorship adjustments all the pieces for brand new bilingual clinicians
- How a small concept throughout COVID was a robust nationwide help system
- The function of group in skilled progress (hi there, Instagram buddies and Clubhouse rooms!)
RESOURCES
Study extra about Sara Gonzalez:
Instagram: @abilingualslp, @thebeamslpprogram
Web site: https://abilingualslp.com/
Study extra about Hallie Sherman and SLP Elevate:
JOKE OF THE WEEK:
Q: Why did the banana put on sunscreen on the seaside?
A: It refused to peel.
The place We Can Join:
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TRANSCRIPT
00:00:00 Hallie: Hey there SLP, I’ve a fast query for you. What if you happen to might have only one guide in your shelf that really will get the challenges of working with center college and highschool college students? Properly, it is right here. Properly, really the pre-order is right here, however hey – I am so excited to let you realize that my model new guide, The Secondary SLP Information, is obtainable for pre-order. And once you pre-order, you get an unique bonus that you simply will not need to miss. It’s full of actual discuss methods, fast ideas and inspiration that you should use along with your center college and highschool college students or all yr lengthy. That is the proper guide for a guide membership, a grad scholar group or simply flipping by once you’re caught and in a IEP writing spiral, so head to speechtimefun.com/preorder or head to my Instagram and ship me a DM with the phrase “preorder” and I’ll ship you the hyperlink so you’ll be able to pre-order now and I can not wait so that you can get your arms on this guide in November however the sooner you seize it, the higher the bonus.
00:01:18 Hallie: Welcome to SLP Espresso Discuss, the podcast designed solely for speech language pathologists who work with older college students grades 4 by 12. I’m your host, Hallie Sherman, your SLP behind Speech Time Enjoyable, the Speech Retreat Convention and the SLP Elevate Membership and I am thrilled to carry you conversations, methods and insights that offers you the jolt of inspiration that you simply want. Whether or not you are tuning in throughout your morning commute, on a break in between classes and even throughout a well-deserved rest time, I’m right here for you each week. Let’s do that, SLPs.
00:01:59 Hallie: Hey, hey, and welcome to a different episode of SLP Espresso Discuss. At this time’s episode is a particular one as a result of we’re diving into one thing that does not get sufficient highlight – the distinctive journey and help wants of bilingual SLPs, and I am so excited to have my visitor right here as we speak, Sara Gonzalez. Welcome to the present.
00:02:19 Sara: Hello, thanks, Hallie. I am excited to be on the present.
00:02:22 Hallie: Inform everybody a bit of bit about your self and your journey to what you’re doing as we speak.
00:02:26 Sara: Positive, so I’m Sara Gonzalez – I am a bilingual SLP in New York. I’ve been an SLP now for about six years. I began again in 2018 once I graduated from Adelphi College, so if there are any…
00:02:41 Hallie: Sure, me.
00:02:43 Sara: There we go.
00:02:44 Hallie: 2007, however sure.
00:02:48 Sara: Properly, I did my grad program there. I bought my bilingual extension at Adelphi College; nonetheless, I redid it to about three years after grad college, like…no, two years throughout 2020 with Columbia College as a result of it’s geared extra for SLPs. No disgrace, nothing in the direction of Adelphi, however this system was simply not geared. Their bilingual extension, to make clear.
00:03:14 Hallie: I’ve heard excellent, I’ve heard superb issues about their bilingual program.
00:03:18 Sara: Their bilingual extension simply was not geared for speech language pathologists, so I redid my, quote-unquote, “bilingual extension” for New York State as a result of if you wish to be a bilingual SLP – thought of a bilingual SLP in a college or work with school-age college students right here in New York, you do should have your bilingual extension which is that this, an extension to your trainer’s certification right here in New York. So we did it at Columbia College, a trainer’s faculty program, realized rather a lot, however then I additionally felt so lonely. Like when you get out of grad college, you are all by yourself and the bilingual inhabitants could be very tiny, to start with. So once I was out by myself, I felt lonely. I did not have anybody to ask apart from my one grad pal who was out on Lengthy Island, who was additionally busy determining issues as a result of we each did a bilingual extension at Adelphi and she or he was additionally attempting to determine issues out so was simply arduous and lonely till I bumped, not ran into, nicely, I used to be simply scrolling on Instagram someday then made buddies. I had Ing-, however you realize, I made buddies with Ingrid Owens-Gonzalez, who’s all the way in which out of New Mexico and I made buddies together with her and that bunch of different bilingual SLPs, and I used to be simply following them actually simply to study from them however then one way or the other I bought combined in with everyone and we began becoming a member of – nicely, it is COVID so we joined… Ugh, I at all times neglect this app.
00:04:47 Hallie: Clubhouse?
00:04:48 Sara: Clubhouse, sure, the place everybody was simply becoming a member of.
00:04:52 Hallie: There was like a stage or a room and also you had been like, speaking to one another nevertheless it was like Zoom with out video. I do not know.
00:04:59 Sara: Yeah, it was so cool and completely different. You would like faucet, faucet. Like if you happen to would faucet, such as you’re agreeing with everyone. It was so good – there was like completely different rooms that you possibly can simply go in and hear and are available out. However there was a particular one for bilingual SLPs and I simply saved listening to again and again just about what I used to be feeling like. I do not really feel, I really feel alone. I do not really feel like I am accepted. My Spanish or no matter different second language or residence language, I’m not assured in utilizing that language or contemplate myself as a bilingual SLP. And I used to be like, if everybody, if like quite a lot of bilingual SLPs are feeling this fashion, like we should always do one thing to help our inhabitants and plus, we’re serving so many bilingual college students right here in the USA. So I simply took the initiative someday and was like, “I will mentor two college students by my Instagram.” And I bought flooded with DMs and Ingrid messaged me and requested me if she might assist, and that is what began what’s now known as the Beam SLP program.
00:06:03 Hallie: That is so superb. I like it how like simply the group and the necessity to not really feel alone, and now you are giving again to so, so many, like I can think about how your journey would possibly’ve been completely different if you happen to had that useful resource once you first began.
00:06:21 Sara: It might have been fully completely different. I really felt that approach once I did a go away substitute, really at my present job now that I am full SLP there, nevertheless it was a go away substitute again in 2020 and I met, for the primary time a bilingual SLP who wasn’t just like the supervisor – it was a colleague, a co-worker the place I might really discuss to her and ask her questions, and I realized a lot inside like three months of simply being a go away substitute there. And I used to be like, “Wait, if I realized a lot in three months with simply having a colleague who I might discuss to and simply ask questions and get assets from, how would it not really feel for somebody who’s on their very own and have like some kind of mentor?” And if I had that in undergrad or grad college, I really feel like possibly I might have geared some other place with the speech world. In order that was actually the aim – I used to be like, wait, after which plus Clubhouse and everyone listening to all the pieces. I used to be similar to, “I’ve to do one thing.”
00:07:20 Hallie: I like it once you see a necessity, and I like it. And I am certain you’ve got impacted so many. So, what’s the program?
00:07:27 Sarah: This system is named the bilingual. Are we gonna pause?
00:07:32 Hallie: That is all good.
00:07:33 Sarah: Bilingual allied. I simply butchered my very own sorry.
00:07:38 Hallie: B.E.A.M. program. Okay.
00:07:39 Sarah: B.E.A.M. program, however no, we have now a full like title and I simply butchered it as a result of we’ve not been doing something with it for some time as a result of I form of like took a again and all of us took a step again of like what B.E.A.M. is about and all of us want like psychological well being happening. However B.E.A.M. actually is the B.E.A.M., and it is a bilingual like mentorship program for bilingual college students in the USA. Even internationally, we have now college students who need to come to the USA and be bilingual SLPs.
00:08:09 Sarah: So it is geared for minority college students, undergrad grad college students, in addition to CFs and first-year clinicians. It was initially only for undergrad and grad college students. Nonetheless, we began getting flooded with purposes of I am a CF, I nonetheless do not know what I need to do, and first-year clinicians. So we opened it as much as CFs and first-year clinicians. And it is simply bilingual SLP mentors, whether or not you are a grad scholar or have been us SLP for a few years, simply mentoring college students or clinicians who want that steering or questions. We’ve got many, quite a lot of our college students are from the East Coast and the West Coast. So we’re branching off and attempting to get extra like the scholars from the center of America.
00:09:01 Sarah: So there are some, like we have now only a few candidates. And we’re similar to, we had no concept there was a college in Wyoming that had college students, proper? We do not know these applications. In order that’s actually what this system is about is mentorship group. And actually, you realize, being there and have being a secure house for these college students and clinicians who by no means had that have and by no means had that. And like, I at all times inform the mentors and the mentees like, simply because the mentorship ends does not imply that you simply guys cannot attain out or we attain out to them. Like, we’re at all times there.
00:09:37 Sarah: And I’ve my previous mentees attain out to me nonetheless, like, hey, similar to updating you, I bought into this college or this program, or now I am working right here. So it is also good to see my mentees or previous mentees additionally come again into this system and, you realize, be somebody secure house for one more bilingual SLP.
00:10:01 Hallie: I like that you simply’re making such an impression. What sort of challenges do you suppose bilingual SLPs face that do not at all times get talked about, that you simply really feel like folks, you realize, in the event that they’re feeling this fashion, it is regular, and possibly they’ll profit from some mentorship or one thing like that.
00:10:17 Sarah: Undoubtedly challenges that we have heard from our previous mentors and mentees. It is simply that they only do not feel like they’re accepted or they’re sufficient or they do not really feel like they’re bilingual sufficient as a result of we have had or microaggressions in applications and even at work. So we have had quite a lot of college students and clinicians specific that, and it is grow to be in our mentorship program one thing a scorching matter the place we typically discuss to our mentors. I am like, nicely, let’s imagine what we will do to assist help accents can also be considered one of them, the place a few of our bilingual SLP has have accents from no matter nation they’re coming from and so they get jeopardized from professors or they’re even supervisors of claiming, you need to repair that accent, should, since you’re United States, you’ll be able to’t have an accent. So there are positively challenges that completely different SLPs, bilingual SLPs face. However I feel considered one of them as nicely, is that we do quite a lot of work, evaluations. We’re not simply greater than SLPs, we’re advocates, we’re serving to.
00:11:25 Sarah: And I do know all different SLPs, all of us assist in all the pieces, however like we perceive our college students and we’re attempting to assist our households and the inhabitants that we’re serving to, you realize, working with. So we face completely different challenges. Each bilingual SLP faces a special challenges, however there are some that we have now, I’ve personally have handled and have handled as nicely with my mentees and the way we might work by with it and this system as nicely.
00:11:55 Hallie: That is so nice to have an area to 1, not really feel alone in these form of issues, and to understanding methods to navigate and what has labored for others. And you realize, that is so, so precious for individuals who could not know what’s one thing monolingual SLPs won’t notice concerning the bilingual expertise in our area.
00:12:15 Sarah: Properly, that is a great one which we have now to do quite a lot of work to get, you realize, to assist our college students. It is extra than simply, oh, I converse Spanish or what different language I might assist these college students. It is understanding their backgrounds. It is understanding the syntax. It is understanding if this can be a language dysfunction or language distinction. Why is it explaining that? Explaining that to even within the college setting or IP conferences. Like one second, it isn’t simply, oh, they arrive from one other nation. So it is much more to it than similar to, oh, let me simply assess, and that is it. It is not a cookie-cutter. There’s rather a lot to turning into a bilingual SLP.
00:12:59 Hallie: And I do know simply from my expertise working as a monolingual SLP with bilingual SLP, like, your evaluations take rather a lot longer.
00:13:08 Sarah: They do. They do take rather a lot longer, and we have now to investigate it. And I imply, all of us do, like, analyze two completely different languages and perceive what is going on on. And whether or not it is, and you realize, we even have to soak up consideration, you realize, the historical past behind the scholars, the place had been they earlier than? What occurred? Numerous college students are coming in from different international locations. So we have now to investigate rather a lot.
00:13:33 Hallie: Proper? Like much more so the case historical past is much more detailed and thorough than monolingual SLPs analysis within the college setting.
00: 13:45 Sarah: It positively is unquestionably in a college setting. I’m the bilingual evaluator at my college and it is like three day blocks of like interviewing dad and mom, writing, doing the eval, assessing and analyzing. It is quite a lot of work to be a bilingual SLP.
00:14:05 Hallie: Proper? It is extra than simply translating the evaluation into a special language.
00:14:09 Sarah: By no means. Google translate. Like, it isn’t simply that. It is like actually, no. I want it was, you realize, simply implement it and oh, that is it. All carried out. However no, it is positively much more than that.
00:14:23 Hallie: And even I do know simply from my expertise, all of the completely different dialects from all of the completely different international locations has completely different nuances that you’ve to pay attention to to know the place there is a distinction versus a…
00:14:35 Sarah: Completely. At the same time as a bilingual Spanish speaker, I think about rather a lot. Like Google is my pal for like college students who come from Dominican background, Puerto Rican background, Colombian background, Mexican. All of us converse so in a different way that I’ve to lookup, okay let me see, even in like, for instance, in Columbia, that is the place my households from, like we converse in a different way in several elements of Columbia. Some, you realize, drop the R, some areas, others do not drop the R. So it is like, I even should lookup like, okay, let me simply be sure this area, there’s not one thing that I do not find out about and I am implementing. It is like, oh, once you make consciousness or like phonological course of see there. It is like, really, no, that is not it.
00:15:22 Hallie: That is why it is also so precious to have that group to be like, “Hey, have you ever had a case like this? What did you do on this scenario?” Like higher collectively, proper?
00:15:33 Sarah: Completely. That is the way it was at first. I felt very alone. I used to be in a preschool once I first began and so they had been simply throwing me all these evals and all these… And I wanted steering. I actually… I needed steering. I went to my supervisor, however she was a monolingual SLP, nice SLP, however she actually could not assist me now. And I used to be simply by myself doing analysis by myself. I might typically, I am telling you, would typically textual content that grad scholar that I… in my pal, and she or he would additionally like attempt to assist me. But it surely was the group on Instagram and assembly different SLPs. And that is actually what this system is about too. Like, we’re all in a group now, like we have now a bunch, we’d have a bunch textual content. And typically we’ll have SLPs, proper in our mentors, proper?
00:16:19 Sarah: Like… Hey, my mentee is asking about this, this and this. Do you guys have assets? What can we do and as a group and one bilingual SLP from like California would reply, a New York SLP would reply as a result of we have now simply so many mentors in our group, in our program that we’d simply have everybody chime in. Generally it will be about not even about college primarily based. It might be you realize hospitals and the setting, and you realize who has steering, who has who might assist us in a approach for that mentee to get higher info.
00:16:53 Sarah: One thing about our program that is distinctive is that considered one of our lead mentor, Jackie, she created tips for our mentors to assist throughout their means of being a mentor, there’s tips. So if you happen to get caught on a query or, “Hey, I do not actually know methods to reply that, that is not my space experience” however there is a bunch of tips the place our mentors can have entry to and so they’ll in a position to look by the rules which have hyperlinks to love ASHA or articles the place they may present to our mentees. So it’s a group and it is a great group that I had no concept I used to be on the lookout for and was going to create.
00:17:37 Hallie: I like that. How has created this program modified the way in which that you simply present up as an SLP in your day after day work?
00:17:45 Sarah: I really feel prefer to day-to-day work, I really feel like I’m at all times fascinated about my college students and the way I might relate this with a previous mentee or info that I might present to a mentee. I’ve had quite a lot of experiences the place I’ve met Spanish-speaking college students that spoke a dialect that I had no concept about. And I mentioned, oh, wait, I might add this to Beam. And this could possibly be a useful resource. For instance, there was a scholar who was from Guatemala, however spoke “Mam” and I had no concept about “Mams.” I needed to do my very own analysis and it was an important alternative to hold over and let a mentee afterward who had the same expertise with a scholar who spoke mam. And I am like, wait, I’ve this useful resource, I might aid you. So going into work, I am at all times fascinated about B.E.A.M. and concepts of like, oh wait, this could possibly be for B.E.A.M.. I really feel like my mentors are the identical. They’re at all times sharing, you realize, experiences and concepts of how we might develop B.E.A.M. by their expertise at work. So it is one thing that… B.E.A.M. is at all times on my thoughts.
00:18:57 Hallie: I like that. I like that. I am like, I am certain there’s tons of individuals listening saying, how can I study extra about this and, you realize, enroll? What would you say to them?
00:19:07 Sara: So we have now an Instagram, it is known as the B.E.A.M. SLP Program that you may come observe. We’re beginning again up. So we have now a bit of… we did have like a two yr hiatus the place we had been attempting to get… simply manage a bit of bit higher as a program, however we’re opening up a mentor software. So for previous and future mentors, there may be an software that is going to be opening up subsequent week. So we’re in Might, so in June.
00:19:36 Hallie: So when that is airing, you have already got it open. So—
00:19:39 Sara: So we’re opening up the appliance. We even have a web site that’s, you realize, tagged onto our Instagram account the place you possibly can simply go onto the hyperlink tree after which click on on the web site. And there is quite a lot of info of methods to contact us, our tales, assets that we could in all probability have on the web site that we’re including, and simply details about who we’re and what B.E.A.M. is about. And that is very a lot how you possibly can become involved with B.E.A.M.. So if you happen to wanna know extra about B.E.A.M., which B.E.A.M. stands for Bilingual Empowerment by Allied Mentorship Program, I bought it there. It’s a mouthful, however all the knowledge is there on our program… our web site. And if you happen to additionally need extra info, you possibly can at all times DM us by our Instagram account. Considered one of our… both myself or one other lead mentor will contact you for any questions.
00:20:33 Hallie: I like it. Thanks so, a lot. I do know there’s gonna be so many listening that… and also you’re gonna discover out that many individuals from States, center of America are also gonna be extra listening to about this and-
00:20:46 Sara: That’s what we would like! That’s truthfully. we would like that. We would like for B.E.A.M. to go to areas that we’ve not, you realize, been in a position to attain. You already know, we attempt to we’re attempting our greatest and we’re rising. And it is a huge program. It grew in a short time throughout the first two years, however we wanna attain college students who… and clinicians who haven’t been in a position to hear or have a mentor. And that is what B.E.A.M. is right here for. A secure group, a secure house for bilingual minority clinicians and college students.
00:21:16 Hallie: I like that, and that is simply the ability of social media and what has carried out superb issues for the SLP group is simply everybody feeling not alone and having a spot to search out path, steering, help, concepts. So thanks so, a lot. I do know so many listeners are gonna inform their buddies, inform colleagues, inform your grad college buddies, electronic mail your professors if you realize anybody that would profit from this. Sara, thanks so, a lot for sharing about this program with all of our listeners right here. If you’re a bilingual SLP, on the lookout for a group help or simply somebody who will get it, take a look at the B.E.A.M. program, okay? Sara is… bought a wealth of information and be happy to DM her. I do know you will get a lot worth and we’ll have all of the hyperlinks within the present notes, so to not fear. I thanks so, a lot for hanging out with us right here as we speak. I at all times finish my episodes with a joke as a result of jokes are enjoyable, construct rapport. Why did the banana put on a sunscreen on the seaside?
00:22:22 Sara: I actually do not know.
00:22:25 Hallie: It refused to peel.
00:22:28: Sara: That is humorous. That’s humorous, Hallie, that is humorous.
00:22:32 Hallie: Proper? Corny dad jokes, guys. You already know, I’m right here with my Google or my ChatGPT jokes, guys, no matter. It provides me one thing that I discover you’ll snort, a bit of giggle within the automobile or no matter you’re doing. And if you happen to discovered this episode precious, snap it, screenshot of it, share it on Instagram, tag me and Sara, and share it with a pal, share with not an enemy, however, you realize, somebody who’s… somebody who I like and I’ll see you guys subsequent week on one other episode of SLP Espresso Discuss. Keep out of hassle.
00:23:10 Hallie: Thanks a lot for tuning in to a different episode of SLP Espresso Discuss. It means the world to me that you simply’re tuning in each week and getting the jolt of inspiration you want. You could find all the hyperlinks and knowledge talked about on this episode at my web site, speechtimefun.com. Remember to observe the present so you do not miss any future episodes. And when you’re there, it will imply the world to me if you happen to would take a number of seconds and go away me an trustworthy evaluation. See you subsequent week with one other episode filled with enjoyable and inspiration from one SLP to a different. Have enjoyable guys.
00:23:51 Hallie: Hey there SLP, I’ve a fast query for you. What if you happen to might have only one guide in your shelf that really will get the challenges of working with center college and highschool college students? Properly, it is right here. Properly, really the pre-order is right here, however hey, I am so excited to let you realize that my model new guide, The Secondary SLP Information is obtainable for pre-order. And once you pre-order, you get an unique bonus that you simply will not wanna miss. It’s full of actual discuss methods, fast ideas and inspiration that you should use along with your center college and highschool college students or all yr lengthy. That is the proper guide for a guide membership, a grad scholar, group, or simply flipping by once you’re caught and in a IEP writing spiral. So head to speechtimefun.com/preorder or head to my Instagram and ship me a DM with the phrase “preorder” and I’ll ship you the hyperlink so you’ll be able to pre-order now. and I can not wait so that you can get your arms on this guide in November however the sooner you seize it, the higher the bonus.
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