So today was day 1 of the conference (which I just found out a few days ago is for SLP ASSISTANTS... but they pretty much do the same things for the most part ^_^). I arrived a little early and no idea where I was supposed to meet Kari cos the 7th floor of Canada Place is pretty big... but she came out at 8am and brought me to the room where everything was set up. I've never done a video-conference before so it was pretty cool to see! I was the only in the room with a TV on one side, and a camera pointed straight at me (in case I had questions). Unfortunately there were about 36 video-conference sites logging on, plus audio conferences and the actual conference itself, which was held in Medicine Hat and had about 100 or so participants in person, so us video-conferencers weren't able to ask questions. We have to email the questions in.
My materials for the conference
Brad preparing to present
The first topic was on theme-based intervention. It was a little dry, but interesting nonetheless. Basically Cindy just talked about using themes during sessions and how to use themes successfully.
After the 3.5 hour long presentation (yes you read correctly, 3.5 hour presentation... although we did have a 15 minutes break in between) I went for lunch at the cafeteria with Kari. We had curry chicken which was absolutely delish and we talked a little before heading back upstairs. Kari's one busy girl! She had to set up another video-conference at 12:50pm and there were 4 conferences today. Not only that, she's the tech person that everyone calls is something is wrong O_O. Kudos to her!
After lunch Brad made did a presentation on autism interventions. This is one of the most interesting presentations I've ever seen! It really sealed the deal for me and made me that much more interested in becoming an SLP! I think I'd like to work with autistic children as well. I think it'd be challenging but also very motivational and inspiring working with them.
I think it's so neat that you can apply these even to everyday teaching of children! There were so many tips and facts that the presenters gave! The impression I got today was that SLPs are pretty much just teachers. A lot of them work in schools, although I think it could be assistants that mainly work in schools while registered SLPs have more diversity in patients they work with and do a little more as in terms of planning the whole intervention process.
I'm so glad I was given this opportunity! Like Kari said, it'll give me a feel of what SLP's about and I'll be a step ahead when it comes to actually taking the course.
Can't wait for tomorrow!!
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