Spotlighting an SLP
Welcome to January's Bonus Blog! This month, we're shining the spotlight on Speech-Language Pathologists (SLPs). These incredible professionals make a tremendous impact on students' lives, and we’re excited to celebrate their vital role in education and beyond!
Let’s Dive Right In
Speech-Language Pathologists (SLPs) play a critical role in schools, supporting students with speech, language, and communication challenges that may impact their academic success and social interactions. These highly trained professionals assess, diagnose, and treat a wide range of communication disorders, from speech articulation and fluency to language comprehension and social communication. In addition to providing direct therapy, SLPs collaborate with teachers, parents, and school staff to create individualized plans that help students overcome barriers to learning and thrive in the classroom. Their work not only improves academic outcomes but also fosters confidence, social development, and independence in students. Chad had the opportunity to interview Gabby Juarez about her roll and what led to her roll.
Gabby Juarez- SLP
A Day In The Life of an AIM SLP | Gabby Juarez
Written by Chad Juniper
As we step into the new year, it's a perfect time to explore the stories of professionals who make a difference in the lives of others every day. Today, we’re talking with Gabby Juarez, a dedicated Speech-Language Pathologist (SLP) who brings passion and expertise to her role. Gabby was born in Oklahoma and raised in San Antonio, where she graduated from MacArthur High School. She went on to pursue her undergraduate degree at UT Austin and completed her graduate studies at the UT Health Science Center in San Antonio. Married just last year, Gabby now prepares for her next big adventure—motherhood, with her first child due next month. Join us as Gabby shares her journey, insights into the field of speech-language pathology, and a glimpse into her daily life as an AIM SLP.
Chad Juniper: When you were growing up, did you know what an SLP was? And if not, when did you realize that's something that was out there and something that you could consider as a career path?
Gabby Juarez: The career Speech Language Pathologist, I hadn't heard much about growing up, but I knew of speech therapy. It kind of was the same mindset where a lot of people may hear it and they think like ‘helping kids correct a sound or helping kids with their R’s.’ Once I was getting into college and I knew I wanted to go to UT Austin, I was exploring their majors and I came across communication sciences and disorders as a field. And I'm like, oh, well, that sounds interesting. But growing up, I just kind of knew of speech therapy and people helping kids with their sounds and nothing more. And now I know, of course, it's way, way broader than that. It's a big, big field working with babies, to elderly.
Chad Juniper: Is there a specific age range that you tend to work with the most?
Gabby Juarez: Right now I'm in elementary schools. So the school I'm at is pre-K through fifth grade. But before I was in elementary schools, I was working in a nursing facility, so I worked with adults or up to geriatrics. They lived there like a nursing home, and then some were there for rehab to get better from an incident, or a fall, stroke, whatever it may be, to go back home. I kind of dabble still a little bit in the nursing facilities in the summers.
Chad Juniper: Since you work so much with kids now, do you think that's prepared you in a way for being a first time mother? Is there any connection between that, you think?
Gabby Juarez: I think there is. I know that since it's our first child, we're learning all the things and it's going to be a learning curve and experience. But in terms of the language development, because I'm exposed to that so often, or even testing this holiday winter break with a lot of pre-K kids. I have those things ingrained in my head of some general milestones of when children start to develop their language or they develop their speech sounds. And of course, I love books, I love Pete the Cat.
Gabby Juarez- SLP
Chad Juniper: Me too!
Gabby Juarez: I’ll for sure be reading a lot of books to her. But in terms of everything else, it's a lot of gray area where we're excited to just kind of trial and error and learn as we go. I have some background to kind of know more or less some indicators of where they should be or what to do or how to play. I’m a big advocate for connecting with the kid and playing with the kid, again, to build that relationship and help support language through play. We know research based play helps build connections way more than flashcards at that age.
Chad Juniper: It's silly, but, one of my first interactions with you ever was I went to Woodstone to take pictures for AIM.
Gabby Juarez: Right.
Chad Juniper: And you were there. And then later on, I realized, ‘oh, You work with my cousin Gabriel’.
Gabby Juarez: Yeah! I thought about that.
Chad Juniper: Whenever I would babysit Gabriel in the mornings, his mom would always tell me, I don’t think she’d say SLP, but she would say his speech lady, or however she described it ‘said he needs to work on blank, so we’re doing blank with him today.’ So then I would play with him and try to help him articulate himself. And it's funny because I didn't realize it, but I was doing what you were telling them.
Gabby Juarez: Yeah, that's awesome. Yeah, that's a huge part of it. Like, we help in schools, the teachers need to support some students in the classroom, and then we help the students directly. But having family members or staff in the school help bring in to carry over is always great. So that's great to hear.
Chad Juniper: Can you talk a bit more about the studying and schooling that it took for the role?
Gabby Juarez: So, to become a Speech Language Pathologist, you need to have a master's degree. A lot of people will do an undergraduate degree in communication sciences and disorders, or they may do education, or they may have an undergrad in something completely different, like psychology or who knows, business, whatever it may be. And they take leveling courses to then be able to apply for the master's program. So there's kind of two different routes. If you do the undergrad route specific for speech language pathology, you can then apply to do the master's program. Or if you start your bachelor's in a different field, you can do leveling courses to then be able to apply for a master's program. So in total it's about the standard four years for undergrad and then about two years for master's programs. But nowadays there's a lot of online programs. There's some self-paced programs for the masters degree. There's some fast track programs. It's a growing field within Texas, there's quite a handful of universities that offer hybrid or full time. So that's kind of the general — about six years post high school graduation.
Chad Juniper: Is that about how long yours was, or did you do some of the hybrid or fast-tracked stuff?
Gabby Juarez: I did the undergrad, the four year plan. I graduated one semester early, so three and a half years and actually worked as a nanny taking care of a baby in Austin. I took care of him until he was like six months to almost a year old. And then I started my master's program in 2018 and finished right in the middle of Covid, May 2020. So we had a virtual graduation, which was, you know, at that time we couldn't control much. But, I pretty much did the all in-person undergrad and then the all in-person grad school, I was able to just go back to back to do both.
Chad Juniper: What do you find the most rewarding about the work?
Gabby Juarez: I think the most rewarding thing is just connecting with those that are motivated and that appreciate us helping them in whatever their goals may be. So whether it's the kids in elementary school that are working on articulation or getting better at their clarity of speech or working on strategies for their stuttering, or whether it's adults who are working on their clarity of speech because maybe they've lost it after a stroke, or if they are working on memory for dementia. That kind of recognition, like, ‘okay, she's coming in’. It's funny, in the nursing facility, they'll call a lot of it, like, ‘oh, you're the teacher. You're the brain teacher.’ Or in the school they'll say ‘speech teacher’. So like, it's not that we're certified teachers per se, but a lot of it is helping them to get back some of those skills that were either lost or get back or gain skills that they haven't developed yet, because maybe there was a delay. So I think it's just really rewarding to work alongside the actual people that are motivated and that get excited when they're reaching those goals, and you can kind of see that and be the reason to know, like we got there. They put in the work and we were able to kind of tailor the plan, change the goal, change the treatment, to be able to have them have success with their communication in whatever way that may be.
Chad Juniper: You talked about tailoring a plan. Can you kind of elaborate on that?
Gabby Juarez: So in the schools typically we'll get, if it's a student who's never received therapy in the schools, they'll be evaluated, and if they qualify for services, we'll have to hold an ARD meeting. From there, we'll have to develop a plan, the IEP, the individual Individualized Education program with specific goals year by year that can be updated. So we'll put in how much service time they get. We'll put in the goals they'll work for. We'll put in kind of their strengths and weaknesses at that time. And then one year later it's mandatory to meet back. We can always meet back sooner, but it's mandatory every year to kind of update those plans, update the goals based on their progress, or if the child has some severe needs and they haven't made much progress, we can always just develop new goals in its entirety. A lot of children that we work with have autism so we'll work with a lot of various people to kind of tailor their plans to meet their needs with accommodations. In the schools, it's basically year by year, we'll update the goals and service times and then in other settings, it might be a little bit more frequent. In the medical setting, it's more insurance based. And so they'll want to see progress every month or so many months. And so you reevaluate a lot more frequently. And then again, just update what they're working on in terms of their language goals, their speech goals, their fluency goals, voice goals, etc.
How Does Your Roll At AIM Look?
Chad Juniper: Can you describe a typical day in your role as an SLP at AIM?
Gabby Juarez: Currently I'm at Woodstone Elementary, and I’m placed there full time, so I'm there Monday through Friday, every week. My day consists of pulling kids for therapy sessions or pushing into some of the classrooms, like the alternative learning environment, classrooms that have students with a little bit higher needs, some special needs where we're able to work alongside the special education teacher. I have a schedule, so I try to follow that as best as I can. But of course, either meetings come up or the kid is absent, or there's an assembly, party, or an event where we can't pull them. So it does kind of take a little flexibility and a little preparation the day before or the Friday before a Monday. But, typically every day will involve therapy sessions, consultation with the teachers, conferences, meetings, ARD meetings, collaborating with parents, or creating materials to then use in therapy, documenting the services, reevaluation or pulling the child that is due for updated testing and then writing the report. I know other opportunities within AIM, you can do evaluations and kind of hop around the different partnerships that we have with various districts or pre-K centers or charter schools. So that's one thing is kind of having variation of what your year can look like. And I know typically in the beginning of the school year, we'll decide, are we going to do a part time placement? I know there's opportunities for hybrid, some virtual work, some in-person work, overflow evaluations etc. So, Aim does kind of provide that flexibility that's unique.
Chad Juniper: Do you enjoy that sort of schedule where it's somewhat concrete, but there is still that room for flexibility?
Gabby Juarez: I do, I do enjoy it because it allows us to have some breaks of regrouping to then be able to plan to help with the therapy, because I know sometimes groups can be five, six, seven, eight, some may be even nine groups a day where you're seeing kids back to back to back to back…
Chad Juniper: What advice would you give to someone considering a career as a speech language pathologist?
Gabby Juarez: I would say to just have an open mind and whatever opportunities that are provided to you, whether it be volunteering, whether it be your placements to gain hours in grad school, whether it be in undergrad, like joining clubs, just have an open mind and try it. You don't have to stick with one setting within the field, because there's so many options. Meeting people and forming those connections of, ‘oh, I met an SLP at a school and I now have that contact’ and ‘oh, I met someone at the nursing facility, and now I have that contact for a physical therapist,’ are meaningful. Also, try not stressing so much on all of the things that we can stress about when you're in school like grades and assignments. Of course, you want to pass to be able to have the career in the field, but at the same time, a lot of what I've learned is with experience.mIf you make those connections and you find what you like and what you don't like, and you have support from people in the field that can help you, then you can definitely have a better ease of of going into it and less stress on some of the things that really, once you're in the field, you realize don't matter of the nitty gritty details, but in school are what we primarily focus on.
Gabby Juarez- SLP
As we wrap up our conversation with Gabby Juarez, we’re reminded of the incredible impact Speech-Language Pathologists have on the lives of their students and clients. Gabby’s story offers a heartfelt glimpse into the dedication, expertise, and adaptability required in her role, as well as the personal passion that drives her work. From guiding children in language development to helping adults regain essential communication skills, SLPs play a vital role in fostering growth and connection. We hope this interview inspires greater appreciation for the field of speech-language pathology and the professionals, like Gabby, who devote their careers to making a difference.