Introducing My Pre-Scientist Pen Pal Sofia
The day was officially retitled to The Big Day when Sofia’s letter arrived. I swooshed aside everything on my desk (those pesky bills, various notifications, the invitation to the prince’s ball) and settled in with Sofia’s letter in my hand.
A thin green envelope from a potential future scientist had all the markings of elementary school. She had clearly paid very close attention as to how to correctly address an envelope, a skill you can’t assume anyone under 25 has these days. Her return address constituted her name, her teacher’s name and her school address. A small patch of white liquid paper concealed some error that had been corrected. Sofia’s letter was written on the highly familiar college-ruled, three-hole punched white sheet of paper. The handwriting was easy to read as she clearly took her time in crafting the letter. No doubt there was a rough draft somewhere in the past. A couple of spots of white indicated she reviewed what she wanted to share and made corrections as needed.
The purpose of her first letter was to introduce herself and ask me a series of questions based on my profile. Before I got to the questions I learned that she loves pizza and tacos, loves to write in her spare time, and loves what they’re currently learning about in science class: food webs and the water cycle.
Below are the 5 Questions Sofia had for me and how I answered them in my return letter to her.
How much do I like science?
I LOVE science. I am a very curious person and science is all about exploring questions and learning more about things.
Why do I like science?
In my area of science, speech-language pathology, there is a great amount of problem-solving to improve someone’s ability to communicate. I’ll tell you more about that in a minute.
How many schools do I teach at?
Right now, not any. I work online by video to answer people’s questions and to provide guidance to others who ask. When I sold my company last year, I had employees in over 30 schools in 6 different states working with students. I like working online now because I don’t have to drive anywhere. Retirement is a pretty nice setup for me. I work a little but not a lot. That leaves time to watch movies and read.
Why do I like spending time outdoors?
I feel at peace in the forest and by rivers. I grew up in Fresno, California, which was always very hot. Especially in the summers. And my family didn’t have a lot of money so I spent some summers helping my grandparents pick and sell watermelons in Delano (a town between Fresno and Bakersfield). Anyway, that taught me to appreciate farming BUT I hated the heat. Now I live in Oregon where it’s cooler and the forest and rivers are peaceful areas to walk/hike outdoors.
How do I work with the human body and human behavior?
This is the big answer as to what I did as a scientist.
A speech-language pathologist (or SLP) works with people that have communication challenges. Some SLPs work in a hospital or clinic working with patients who had a stroke or other brain damage and need to relearn how to talk. A doctor works to identify and repair the damage but then they are done with a patient. Once a patient is safe again they need to learn life skills like talking and eating to be safe living at home again. That’s when a patient begins working with a SLP. This part is called rehab for the patient.
Rehab is a short word for rehabilitation.
In the schools, SLPs work with kids from birth to 21 years old. And kids can have all sorts of communication challenges that we would help with. One example, it’s common that some kids in elementary school might have trouble learning to say a correct /r/ sound and need some help. The SLP figures out what the student is doing in their mouth to be saying it incorrectly and then teaches them to produce it differently (correctly).
Another example, I once worked with a 3 year old who had not started talking at all which is not typical. We want to see babies starting to use words and sounds by 1 year. So with the 3 year old I worked with his mom to teach him how to make sounds with his lips, how to blow air out of his mouth, and other tasks so he could begin putting sounds together to say words. This is called shaping behavior.
The science I have to understand includes how the human body works. For example, the respiration system (how we breath), the anatomy of the mouth and throat, and how the brain works. I also have to know how to shape a behavior. For example, if a little kids doesn’t know how to move air outward to make a sound like SH, teaching them to blow bubbles from a wand is a good way to start shaping the air movement.
I wanted to give you an idea of the anatomy involved so I’ve included some books and materials for you and your class.
I’ve included:
2 human anatomy books; one in English for you and one in Spanish for your class. Mrs. Teacher shared that many students also speak Spanish so I thought this might be helpful.
A chart on respiration to show you the breathing system
A chart of the ear to show you the anatomy of how we hear (sometimes people can’t speak correctly because they can’t hear the sounds)
And because you said you were interested in the water cycle you were studying in class, I’m sending some charts I found on that. Maybe you can share them with your teacher.
I really enjoyed my career as a SLP. Because patients and clients are all so different, I always enjoy the science of learning and then problem-solving “What is working in their body systems? What are they doing incorrectly that needs to change?”
People need to communicate. With words, pictures, or sign language, or something else. I loved being the one to help empower people with the ability to speak clearly.
Now here’s a communication activity you can do with friends or family.
Ask them to figure out the sound as you describe it. Maybe you could help them shape their speech!
Describe the sound to them first: Then have them guess the Letter that goes with the sound
Place your upper teeth on your bottom lip, hold the position, now blow air outwards.
F
2. Close your lips together, keep them closed, now turn on your voice
M
3. Place the tip of your tongue just behind your front teeth, hold it there, now turn on your voice
L
4. Rest your tongue in your mouth, open your mouth in a relaxed way (an easy open) and now breath out
H
Now, was it required that I order books and charts off Amazon and ship them to her with my letter? Of course not. But as a SLP and a mom do I have a love affair with bright colorful books that describe complex material? Oh yes. Yes, I do. I’m lucky to be in a position to send books to a classroom so yes, yes I will. Especially when I know there’s an 11 year old on the other end who deserves to know her interest in academics is worthwhile. It’s a hunger that should be fed. Sofia may only be 11 right now, but in 20 years, she might be my speech pathologist after I’ve had a stroke. Or maybe my surgeon . . . I’ll be glad then someone gave her her first anatomy book at 11.
And lastly, did I have to include a mini-game of “describe the sound and make your friends guess what it is”? No. That’s not about growing up to be a SLP. That’s about my personal freakish need to always be playing board games, card games, word games, and now add, sound shaping games. I hope in her next letter she’ll let me know if other kids guessed correctly.
I concluded the letter asking if she had started thinking about college. The theme of letter #2 (of 4) is our educational journey to get to our science career. I’m wondering what questions Sofia will ask about that. I’m wondering if my next letter will be shorter than the 5 pages I wrote this time. I wish I could be a fly on the wall when letter-opening day happens in the classroom. 27 scientists all writing letters to 27 students sounds like a pretty magical moment to observe. 27 adults all saying to kids, you matter, you are worth my time, you are smart, you can do anything. How could I not be involved?
