Welcome to the 2011-12 school year. I look forward to another great year! This year my time will be split between Oakland Irving Elementary schools. Besides these two wonderful schools, I have also had the opportunity to work at Sarah Raymond Early Childhood Center and Bent Elementary school in my past years with District 87.

I received my B.S. and M.S.in Speech-Language Pathology at Illinois State University. The ability to communicate with others is something most of us take for granted. I became a SLP because I wanted to enable every child to communicate to the best of his or her ability.

Outside of school, I enjoy spending time with my husband, Mike, and dog, Kya. I also enjoy reading anything I can get my hands on, gardening and traveling.

As Oakland's speech-language pathologist, I am responsible for the following tasks:

• Screen students referred with possible speech and/or language difficulties
  
• Provide interventions to students needing services, but not yet needing a formal Individualized Education Plan (IEP) 
  
• Evaluate students in the area of speech and language to determine eligibility
  
• Provide therapy in the areas of articulation/phonology; receptive and expressive language; pragmatics; auditory and language processing; and fluency.
  
• Collaborate with teachers and parents
  
• Dismiss students when determined necessary

We are all have very busy lives, but here are some ideas to promote speech and language that can easily be worked into your daily schedule:

• Read to your child or, if older, encourage your child to read daily. Literacy and language are inextricably connected.
  
• Use chalk to make speech/language hopscotch boxes (i.e., Each box is a different category. Your child needs to name 3 items)
  
• Play "I Spy" while in the car by searching for phoneme-specific items (/r/ words, /s/ words, etc.)
  
•  Cut out pictures from magazines containing speech sounds
  
• Clap out the syllables within a word to promote phonological awareness
  
• Use newspaper comic strips to discuss humor, idioms, etc.
  
• Think about communication within it's four modalities: speaking, listening, reading and writing