Have you ever been in the crumby situation where you’re smack in the middle of a speech therapy session and you reach into your bag to grab something you need . . . and then all of a sudden . . . you realize that it’s not there? Then you temporarily pause the session to dump everything out of the bag onto the floor to see if maybe, just maybe, you might have missed it? It happens to me often. I’m usually all like, “Ouch!” when I come to the painful realization that, “Yup, I did it again. I forgot (insert important speech therapy thing here).”
How frustrating!
Last academic school year was the first time in my career that I had to travel between two buildings. That took some getting used to because it was the first time that I had to split my speech and language therapy stuff between two different places. To add to my confusion, that was also around when I first started to see private clients during the evenings in their homes, too. So on an almost every other daily basis I would catch myself thinking, “Did I leave that one important speech therapy thing at someone’s house? Or is it in the trunk of my car? Or maybe I left it at the elementary school? Or maybe the middle school? Wait, maybe it’s in my apartment?”
Ahhhhhh!
Research has shown us that a majority of adults in the United States have smartphones and actively engage in text messaging. So with that in mind, I can’t help but imagine how cool it would be if all our speech therapy materials and assessments had their very own smartphones? That way, I could text message them if I every forgot them! That might sound nuts, but try to picture the following scenario:
A text message conversation with my Goldman-Fristoe Test of Articulation (GFTA)
- Me: Hi Goldy. I’m at the elementary school right now. Where U at?
- GFTA: Sup Erik. Nah, I’m not at the elementary school. U left me here yesterday @ the middle school. I’m just chillin’ – watching Netflix on ur iPad. How’s it going @ the elementary school?
- Me: Oh man! I wasn’t supposed to leave U at the middle school! I meant to put U in my bag to bring U here 2day cuz I have to do an assessment w/ a 2nd grader after lunch.
- GFTA: That sucks.
- Me: Yeah.
- GFTA: Ok. I’m gonna get back to my Netflix now. TTYL!
- Me: No wait!
- GFTA: …?
- Me: Can you come over 2 the elementary school in a bit so I can do the assessment I was talking about?
- GTFA: Nah, I’m getting my Netflix on.
- Me: Seriously?! We are BFF and you’re gonna do me like that?!
- GFTA: JK! Yea I’ll pause Netflix and come right over so and me and the 2nd grader can all have an assessment party!
- Me: Woo hoo! Thnx!
- GFTA: See ya in about 20 min. I just requested an Uber so he should be here soon. I’ll text you when I’m in the school’s parking lot so you can buzz me in.
- Me: Sounds good.
In closing . . .
Wouldn’t that be spectacular? I’d never have to worry about forgetting or misplacing my speech therapy materials and assessments ever again. If only our speech stuff had access to smartphones, right? That would seriously rock! My fingers are crossed that technology somehow makes all of this possible sooner than later because my forgetful brain would be so so SO happy. Haha!
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