When teaching pre-school children, I became aware that communication problems in children are much more common than I had suspected, that there are insufficient trained people to deal with the situation especially in a bi-cultural setting, and that the failure to offer effective and early intervention has potentially fatal effects on a child’s prospects. I decided to become part of the solution to this problem, specifically in early intervention to minimize the effects of such problems. My goals now are to join and excel within the program to enable me to offer services as a speech and language pathologist. Specifically, I hope to develop effective programs to help young bi-lingual children to attain and maintain dual language proficiency; such programs would have applications beyond the Spanish/English bilingual environment and be of potential benefit to all bi-lingual and bi-cultural communities.
I began work as a bilingual Early Intervention Therapist in 2004 and since then have been certified as an Infant Toddler Family Specialist. From day one, I loved the work. I was privileged to work with children with many types of problem, but I developed a special love of working with Down’s syndrome sufferers and this fired a decision to pursue a master's degree in Speech Language Pathology so that I could help them more effectively. Having obtained the degree, I created my own Early Intervention Agency in 2006. The Agency serves children from ages 0-3 who have been diagnosed with developmental delays and we have had the joy and privilege of assisting over four hundred children from the Hispanic community, suffering a variety of conditions including Cerebral Palsy, Down’s syndrome, and autism. Running the Agency has also required me to develop management and motivational skills and the ability to lead an effective team.
I am aware that the program will attract many professionally qualified applicants. However, I am an excellent candidate. I have demonstrated the academic ability to profit from the program; I have degrees that are highly relevant to the topics to be studied; I have substantial experience of working with children with many types of communication problems in a bilingual setting; I have experience of assisting in successful research. But my main recommendation is a passionate desire to help my clients and their families and the determination to acquire the skills and knowledge to maximize my effectiveness in their service.
Passionate Bilingual Speech Language Pathologist Journey
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