About me
My name is Lisa, and I’ve been a speech-language pathologist (SLP) for 10 years. As an SLP, I help people with swallowing, communication, and cognitive-communication disorders. SLPs work with people across the entire lifespan, from birth to death. I personally have worked with people between 9 months of age to 106 years old.
I have always wanted to be a teacher and a writer. I love words and ideas. I love learning new things and passing that information on. I am never happier than when something I’ve said or done has positively impacted someone else’s life.
My goal
My ultimate goal is to promote the use of evidence-based practice and informed client decisions in the prevention, assessment, and treatment of problems with swallowing, communication, and/or cognition.
Other SLPs may be interested in reading about my experiences as I learn to improve my knowledge base and use of EBP resources. This blog will also provide excellent motivation for me to organize and share the resources I’ve accumulated over the years (without violating copyright laws).
The general public may be interested in learning more about what current research is saying about the conditions that affect them or their loved ones and what to expect from their speech-language pathologists.
I’ll also write about my experiences in setting up this website and starting this blog, in case anyone is interested in picking up a few tips or sharing a few of their own.
Past failure
I have wanted to share information online for years, but every time I try to get serious about it, I am stopped by indecision. Who will be my audience? What will people be interested in? How will I get my writing noticed?
What do I write about? Do I write about my personal experience trying to achieve my goals? Do I write professional-level material for speech-language pathologists and other professionals? Do I write for my patients and their families and people like them?
Another paralyzing feeling is the sense that every decision could have unknown repercussions. Did I pick a good domain name and host? Which theme and plug-ins to use? How should I organize my site? Do I have to have a privacy policy and terms of service, and if so, what has to be in them? The list of questions I have seems endless.
I actually started a website a few years ago, but I was too ambitious. I wanted to have a comprehensive website from day one, and it was too overwhelming. I spent more time on planning than on actually updating the website. That was a failure, but it taught me the basics.
A new direction
Instead of trying to leap ahead to my imagined destination, I’m going to start blogging and see where it takes me.
This blog is going to chronicle my adventures and missteps in achieving my goal: to provide high-quality, useful information to speech-language pathologists, patients, and loved ones about prevention, assessment, and treatment of swallowing, communication, and cognitive disorders.
Which topics would you like to read more about? Please leave a comment and share this site.
Lisa earned her M.A. in Speech-Language Pathology from the University of Maryland, College Park and her M.A. in Linguistics from the University of California, San Diego.
She participated in research studies with the National Institute on Deafness and other Communication Disorders (NIDCD) and the University of Maryland in the areas of aphasia, Parkinson’s Disease, epilepsy, and fluency disorders.
Lisa has been working as a medical speech-language pathologist since 2008. She has a strong passion for evidence-based assessment and therapy, having earned five ASHA Awards for Professional Participation in Continuing Education.
She launched EatSpeakThink.com in June 2018 to help other clinicians be more successful working in home health, as well as to provide strategies and resources to people living with problems eating, speaking, or thinking.
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