Subscribe
Share
Share
Embed
The Pediatric Speech Sister Show Podcast empowers speech-language pathologists and educators to build the foundation for culturally responsive practice. Join host, Melanie, a certified speech-language pathologist, certified mindset and abundance coach, and certified soul purpose coach, as she explores critical conversations around human rights, social justice, ethics, critical race theory, intercultural communication, and the nuances of linguistic diversity.
This show is your one-stop shop for expanding your cultural responsiveness. Expect a mix of solo deep dives and replays of live interviews with amazing guests. Want to see the full interviews? Head over to The Pediatric Speech Sister Network on Youtube!
Whether you're a seasoned professional or just starting out, this show is for you. Let's work together to create a more inclusive and equitable world for all children.
Welcome back to the pediatric speech sister show podcast. This is the place where we build the foundation for culturally responsive practice, empowering speech language pathologists and educators to serve multicultural populations with confidence. I'm your host, Melanie Evans. I am a certified speech language pathologist and certified sole purpose coach and abundance mindset coach. In each episode, we'll explore critical conversations around human rights, social justice, ethics, and so much more.
Melanie Evans, MS CCC-SLP:We'll impact the nuances of linguistic diversity, delve into critical race theory, and equip you with the tools to navigate intercultural communication with ease. This show is a nice mix of solo episodes where I dive deep into specific topics and replays of our live interviews where we get real with amazing guests. If you want to see the full interviews, head over to the pediatric speech sister show network on YouTube. I'll put the link in the show notes. Whether you're a seasoned speech English pathologist, a passionate educator, or simply someone who wants to make a difference, this show is for you.
Melanie Evans, MS CCC-SLP:Let's empower ourselves and each other to create a more inclusive and equitable world for our children and the people who we work with. Stay tuned. Hello. Hello, everyone, and welcome back to the pediatric speech sister show sponsored by the pediatric speech sister network. I am so excited to have our guest on here today, Hannah Simpson.
Melanie Evans, MS CCC-SLP:She is a clinical fellow, and I'm so thankful because the reason why Hannah and I got acquainted is because I posted something on Instagram. As you all know, if you've been keeping track of what's been going on this network, we've been talking a bit about the intersection of politics and speech language pathologists, which is more or less a taboo topic. So Hannah reached out. She was super fired up, super passionate about it, and said that she even did this as her capstone in graduate school. So, Hannah, I'm gonna go ahead and read your bio, and then I will let you have the floor.
Hannah Simpson, MS CF-SLP (Guest):Okay.
Melanie Evans, MS CCC-SLP:Yes. So Hannah is a clinical fellow finishing up her fellowship in a dysphagia voice specialty clinic and skilled nursing facility. Her experience with participating in field related advocacy was during her undergraduate program. She signed up for advocacy day, which ignited her interest. In graduate school, her capstone project focused on training pre professionals, students, to participate in field advocacy so they could feel more comfortable participating in advocacy as professional.
Melanie Evans, MS CCC-SLP:Her field interests include dysphagia, voice, field related advocacy, and health education in black and brown communities. So thank you so much for that excellent mission statement and for all of the work that you are already doing. Is there anything else that you'd like to add to that bio about yourself?
Hannah Simpson, MS CF-SLP (Guest):That's pretty much it.
Melanie Evans, MS CCC-SLP:Amazing. Okay. First of all, tell us, a little bit about your why. What made you join the field?
Hannah Simpson, MS CF-SLP (Guest):Oh, that, goes back to my own experience with a language barrier as a kid. I am from a multi language household. My mother is Mexican and my dad is black and I grew up primarily in just English speaking classes in school, but my mom still spoke to me in Spanish. But there was a point where I just wasn't getting it. She was really my only input.
Hannah Simpson, MS CF-SLP (Guest):It wasn't, it wasn't really being supported other than my mom and her family for the most part is in Mexico. So when I was about 8, my dad had this idea that I should go spend time with my family down in Mexico. He felt that it was important to get to know my family down there who we didn't really expect that I would pick up on the language again. And after just a month of my first summer at 8 years old, I came back to the states and was able to communicate with my mom and understand what she was asking me and talking about. And it just blossomed from there.
Hannah Simpson, MS CF-SLP (Guest):And I ended up volunteering for a recreational soccer league when I was in middle school and part of high school. Where I grew up, it was, there was a large Hispanic and Latino population with a lot of Spanish speaking parents who wanted to sign their kids up for soccer. But it goes beyond that. Once your kid is in soccer, you still have soccer practices to go to and meetings to attend and games to play on the weekend. And I ended up being one of the youngest coaches at the time.
Hannah Simpson, MS CF-SLP (Guest):I coached little Kane's like 5 6 year old, but I was also on the youth board that they started. And I had a big role in actually being not necessarily a translator, but interpreter, maybe for those community members who needed extra support on game days or wanted to be more involved in the league or understand what was going on for their kids. And I enjoyed that very much. I enjoyed being able to help when people had language barriers. And then I started learning more about communication.
Hannah Simpson, MS CF-SLP (Guest):And at that time before, before middle school, I just knew that, oh, I have this ability to speak 2 languages, then people could use me. But I hadn't really put any thought into the fact that was communication and how vast communication can look. There look, it looks so many different ways as we've learned in this field, the different types of communication. And that's when I started getting into communication and I'm like, this is awesome. This is neat.
Hannah Simpson, MS CF-SLP (Guest):Like, why are there so many forms of communication where you're talking about body language, you're talking about sign language, you're talking about ANC. You're talking about like literally communication is so big. And so I just started learning out about it.
Melanie Evans, MS CCC-SLP:Yes. Yes.
Hannah Simpson, MS CF-SLP (Guest):And I was looking into the field of linguistics was the only thing that I knew of, but had anything to do with communication. And I spent a lot of time going through any mail I got from colleges that were trying to recruit and looking for if they had linguistics programs. And I came across communication sciences and disorders from, I got a packet from St. Mary's college in Notre Dame, Indiana. That's in where I ended up doing my undergrad degree and completed my undergrad degree.
Hannah Simpson, MS CF-SLP (Guest):And that actually is what changed the trajectory of how I planned for college. I didn't know that communication sciences and disorders existed. I ended up Googling it and realized, wow, there's a field of people who help and their communication is at the center of that, whatever it might look like. And I was like, that's neat. And I ended up applying to all of my diff all the different colleges I applied to.
Hannah Simpson, MS CF-SLP (Guest):I focused on communication sciences and disorders programs, because I knew then in high school, that's what I wanted to do. And I wanted to become a speech language pathologist. And my why I'm, I have my own experience with the barrier of not being able to communicate. And so I am, it will bring tears. It brings tears to my eyes when people have these barriers, for whatever reason, I just cried with some patients a couple weeks ago because literally back to back, I see patients for voice and I see patients for swallowing.
Hannah Simpson, MS CF-SLP (Guest):And both of these patients have different barriers, but they started crying and I started crying because I can understand how frustrating it is to have that barrier. And 2, I am not longer, I'm no longer crying. I feel like I'm gonna be in this field because I am so moved by how beautiful communication is, how beautiful swallowing is, but also just the amazing patients I get to work with. So
Melanie Evans, MS CCC-SLP:that's that is really powerful, and I love the passion that you have behind it. Just getting wet and teary eyed. It's like, this is actually the indicator that I'm in the right space. So congratulations for that, and we're so thankful that you're here. Now, Hannah, I do wanna talk a little bit about your capstone project and your interest in this background of the intersection of speech pathology and politics.
Melanie Evans, MS CCC-SLP:Can you tell us a little bit about that?
Hannah Simpson, MS CF-SLP (Guest):Yeah. And I know in my bio, it says that I started participating in advocacy and day in undergrad, but I will be very honest. What a lot of people don't know is that I actually went into undergrad as a double major in policy political. What is it? Poly sci political science and communication sciences and disorders.
Hannah Simpson, MS CF-SLP (Guest):So I was graduating high school. I graduated in 2016. So that was a really big election year. And I was taking AP government in preparation for college. I was so energized by that class.
Hannah Simpson, MS CF-SLP (Guest):I just loved learning about the government, but I think it also coincided with the climate at the time and just seeing, really learning about what was going on, not only learning about what these different parts of the government mean what they do, but also seeing in real life at the time, how they're working. So I was like super ignited and went into undergrad with this declared bubble major of poly sci and communication sciences and disorders. Now that didn't end up happening, but it seemed every single time I wanted a poly sci class, it would not fit in my schedule with my communication sciences and disorders classes. And so I knew that I wanted to do communication science and disorders. That wasn't a question.
Hannah Simpson, MS CF-SLP (Guest):And, I ended up finding other things to fill my time. So I ended up doing a minor in, neuroscience and then double majored in Spanish just because I'm there and, still really enjoyed what I learned and learned quite a bit. However, I still got the opportunity to participate in, policy and learning about policy. And I didn't need to have a poli sci minor or a poli sci double major because it is, I won't say it's very simple. You can still be involved.
Hannah Simpson, MS CF-SLP (Guest):You can still get involved and learn a lot that came through advocacy days. And I'll be very honest. I know I'm very firecracker firecracker now, but the reality is my first advocacy day. When I was like hiding behind classmates, I was so nervous because I am like, we're at the state capital in Indiana and we're meeting with government legislators, officials. These are representatives and senators.
Hannah Simpson, MS CF-SLP (Guest):And I was so like, I'm not ready, even though they prepared us all morning. On we, it was this really neat opportunity because we showed up at the Capitol and we had breakfast. We learned about how ideas become a law. We watched the little, I am a bill video and which is so cute. It's so old, but it's so cute.
Hannah Simpson, MS CF-SLP (Guest):We learned about what the process of legislation is and how it, how ideas become laws. And then we talked about what was on the table for the day. What was important for us? What did we need to know? And then we talked about the legislators who we needed to approach.
Hannah Simpson, MS CF-SLP (Guest):We needed to find these legislators, whether they were on the border of supporting something that was impactful for us in our field, or whether they had supported something that was field related. We wanted to thank them and let them know that we appreciated what they, their decisions. That's that advocacy day and how I got involved with, with advocacy day. And when I got to grad school, I had a supervisor who had also had some experience. And when we were deciding capstone projects, this was one of the projects that she had in mind.
Hannah Simpson, MS CF-SLP (Guest):And I'm like, I already know what my project's gonna be. And so I took the opportunity because this was awesome. And we were hoping to make it to the capital in Oregon. Cause that's where I did my grad school to do something very similar to what I had experienced in undergrad. And there were some barriers that imposted us.
Hannah Simpson, MS CF-SLP (Guest):They were working on the capital and there was limited about who was in and out of the building. And so just, we were just impacted in that way. But in terms of what came of it, I really enjoyed being able to talk with my classmates and also the students in the year below me about something that was so near and dear to my heart. And I had some students who were in the year below me come up to me and they were like, what do you need us to do? We wanna do it because we love you.
Hannah Simpson, MS CF-SLP (Guest):And I'm like, oh my gosh. Okay. This is when she got a huge fan. Yeah. Yeah.
Melanie Evans, MS CCC-SLP:This episode is brought to you by TrueLearn. If you are preparing for the speech pathology practice exam, you are going to wanna check out TruLearn Smart Bank. It has over 1200 questions crafted by experts and fully mapped to the SLP praxis blueprint. TruLearn's platform is super flexible with options to take practice tests in timed, untimed, or tutor mode. And here's what makes TruLearn even more amazing.
Melanie Evans, MS CCC-SLP:You can use it throughout your grad program, not just for test prep. With spaced repetition, personalized quizzes, and in-depth explanations with references, you can truly build your knowledge over time. And for those busy days, TrueLearn's mobile app makes studying on the go easier than ever. So if you are ready to feel more prepared and confident, head to TrueLearn and take your studying to the next level. Thank me later.
Melanie Evans, MS CCC-SLP:Alright, y'all. Let's get back into today's episode. You are truly an inspiration. I'm really thinking about especially, first of all, for people who've been practicing in this field forever and want to get into policy but might not know, might think it's, like, too late. But I'm thinking about the clinical fellows and the speech language pathologist to be who might be listening to this.
Melanie Evans, MS CCC-SLP:And you know what? I have always had an interest in politics. I just wasn't exactly sure how to get there. So I think that advocacy day is an amazing route to take that leap. Do you have any advice or recommendations for aspiring speech pathologists, clinical fellows, people who are early in the career, to get into politics?
Hannah Simpson, MS CF-SLP (Guest):Absolutely. I would say just step into it. I know that politics and policy can be a very touchy subject. I think that there are so many people on this planet. There's just no one.
Hannah Simpson, MS CF-SLP (Guest):There's just no possibility that we all have the same experience, the same opinions. There's, it's just impossible. However, talking to other people and listening to what they say, whether we agree with them or not, we learn something. And if you are too nervous to talk to somebody, which is totally fine, because you wanna feel more ready to prepare or, or prepared to talk to somebody, there are other ways to follow or to get involved. I would say maybe 99% of the social media pages I follow that are SLP related have been post some form of politics related content, Inform yourself in that way, inform yourself, see what someone's posting, compare that to what someone else is posting on really digest it, really think critically about what they're saying and think about it in terms of how does this impact my, my, the field, how does this impact my clients and the families that I serve?
Hannah Simpson, MS CF-SLP (Guest):It's one thing to take away something and say, oh, I don't know if I necessarily agree with that, or I do agree with that a lot, but how does this impact the field and the patients that we serve and their families that we work with? That's something to think about. And it's not social media that you're involved in. You could also learn a lot about politics and policy going to your state's, chamber websites. If you go, California has 1 and in Oregon, each state has, should have a page.
Hannah Simpson, MS CF-SLP (Guest):Now I will say this is something I found completing the capstone project. Lot of states has a direct link to oh, this is an advocacy page and try to get involved here in the state of Wyoming. I'm just saying that I don't know if they have an advocacy link, but I will say that when I was in Oregon, I looked up the Oregon, page and their advocacy link was actually really well put together and I'm like Googling it now just to make sure. But they have, they break down literally how to, they break down how ideas become a law. They talk, they give pointers about how to get involved with politics or policy making, and they talk, they even give outlines.
Hannah Simpson, MS CF-SLP (Guest):If you're gonna give a testimonial for, piece of legislation that's being brought to the floor and you want to provide a testimonial, they actually give an outline and talk about like, this is what you can present. This is what you can talk about. This is how you can go around or about it. So not all states are, have a really, put together advocacy page. However, the, I know that Oregon had a really good one, but I was really taken back when I saw it because I'm like, this is what we need.
Hannah Simpson, MS CF-SLP (Guest):But I, if I had a dollar for every time I said, I heard someone say, we just don't know how to get involved or even looking at my capstone project, my partner and I were looking at what were those big points of that prevent people. And they're just like, I just really don't know where to get involved or what to do if I was to jump in. So those are ways to figure out a little bit about learn a little bit more about the process, how to get involved, what that looks like, what's expected of you. And I say that, but the reality is that nothing is really expected of you, whether you wanna participate or not. That's your decision.
Hannah Simpson, MS CF-SLP (Guest):I would encourage everyone to participate at least once to get a feel for what is this. There are people who do advocate a lot, and then there are some people who may just wanna dig their toes in and see a little bit about what this feels like to do some advocacy work in the field. And I think everyone should experience it, but everyone teach their own.
Melanie Evans, MS CCC-SLP:Yeah. And I definitely feel that do you, but I highly recommend doing this at least once. I know when I was in graduate school, I had the privilege of doing advocacy day in Washington DC. And so it it was very neat, and I am not a policy person. My mother is all poly she's a poli sci major.
Melanie Evans, MS CCC-SLP:She's an attorney, and that's where I got my, like, fix for that. But who wouldn't say that I was really a policy type person? And so going to advocacy day on the Capitol, just like what you said, I was nervous. Like, I was there, but I'm like, I to be honest, I actually have to do my own research on what we're even advocating for, what we're even lobbying for. And so it seems like you're giving really good tips on what we could do to even be informed.
Melanie Evans, MS CCC-SLP:Because, Hannah, I'll be honest with you. This is almost like more or less like your fabric. Right? This is what you love to do. Policy is something that you had to choose between speech and policy, and we find an excellent way to mix the 2 together.
Melanie Evans, MS CCC-SLP:But there are speech language pathologists who were just living life, going to work, doing speech therapy, going home, and then that's it. They'll watch their CEUs and no shade because I I am also part of the I've also been that people it's like like, the job itself is enough diving into the nitty gritty of, like, the policies and the politics and the lobbying, all of that. So what would you say for the speech pathologist who is curious about it and who wants to get their feet wet without going all in? That just wants to know just enough so that way they're well informed and can hold these conversations like what we're having.
Hannah Simpson, MS CF-SLP (Guest):Yeah. And I will I wanna correct what I said earlier. The Oregon state legislature page is if you wanna find some really good support on how to get involved, if you pulled up the Oregon state legislature page, and then at the top of the page, they have a get involved tab. And if you hover over it, it talks about engage. It talks about finding your legislators learn.
Hannah Simpson, MS CF-SLP (Guest):So this is neat because you're talking about who wanted some, someone who wants to get involved, but may not want to completely dedicate the rest of their life. The policy, if you go to this learn page, it tells you about how ideas become law. It talks about the legislative body. It talks about the legislative process. He even gives a legislative glossary.
Hannah Simpson, MS CF-SLP (Guest):We know in this field, there are a lot of big words that exist and some people can absolutely be swayed because they feel overwhelmed with just the terminology of what is it that I'm looking at? What do you mean? What is this talking about? So that's a, those are really good ways to, to get a little bit of information if your state has a get involved tab or if they have an advocacy tab, it might look like advocacy. There's also the opportunity for you to attend state state state meetings and board meetings.
Hannah Simpson, MS CF-SLP (Guest):So I was fortunate enough to be voted by my peers to be the student rep while I was at university of Oregon for the Oregon state speech and hearing association. And I represented university of Oregon and we had other student reps from the other universities in the state. It was really awesome. And we got, you learn a lot when you go to board meeting about different things that are happening in different regions of the state. Excuse me.
Hannah Simpson, MS CF-SLP (Guest):You also learn about like the budget. Each state has like a budget and how to raise money for this budget. What are we gonna do for this budget? Or this is how you can learn a little bit more about what's going on state to state wise. And I think it's really awesome.
Hannah Simpson, MS CF-SLP (Guest):I loved my time with the unit, with the Oregon state, speech and hearing association. They were really welcoming. And as a student, I participated in being a member of their diversity equity inclusivity group. That was actually fairly new. It started, they have this idea that was, that came to mind and started forming in just 2020.
Hannah Simpson, MS CF-SLP (Guest):And so we were as student participants, we were asked to even help create what are the guidelines for this committee? What are, what is it that we're expecting to do with this committee? And that was such an awesome opportunity and seeing how other individuals in the field were just as excited and just as willing to dedicate their time, even after work. There are some days as a grad student, I'm like, oh gosh, I don't wanna go to this meeting. That's the last thing I wanna do.
Hannah Simpson, MS CF-SLP (Guest):But to think about the people who are gonna be at the meeting, that was energizing. And so if you're interested, you want to know what your state is doing. That's a great opportunity, especially. And even if, even if you're busy, the, I think state states usually meet about once a month or once every couple of months, just go to a quarterly meeting, see what that's about. What are they talking about?
Hannah Simpson, MS CF-SLP (Guest):What's the big, what are the big agenda topics and where's money going? Where's funding being allocated to what are the different committees that are available? You might just find 1 or hear of 1 that sounds like, oh, I might like that. I might want to get involved with that. Or it sounds like they need help.
Hannah Simpson, MS CF-SLP (Guest):Maybe I can volunteer a little bit of my time to just do a little side project. Those are ways to get involved. Yeah. That I can think of.
Melanie Evans, MS CCC-SLP:Yeah. Shoot. That was great. That was great. If you wouldn't mind sending, some of those links so I can add it to the show notes for people to check out.
Melanie Evans, MS CCC-SLP:So, Hannah, we are actually almost at our time. So I I think that this is an amazing conversation for speech pathologists who might be, like, a little intimidated by this topic. So I really appreciate you coming on, showing grace, sharing your expertise. Is there anything I always ask this question at the very end. Any changes that you would like to see made in the field when it pertains to this or anything at all?
Hannah Simpson, MS CF-SLP (Guest):That's a good question. I have to give a shout out to university of Oregon, and that was my grad school. I do. I love them very much and my experience there and the things that I learned, the work that they're doing there was really touching to me. There is just not enough diversity in the field.
Hannah Simpson, MS CF-SLP (Guest):Okay. And this is a topic that comes up over and over again. I just cried when I got in to university of Oregon, because I just was like, not convinced I was gonna make it. I didn't know. I didn't think I was gonna make it Are purposely looking for diverse students.
Hannah Simpson, MS CF-SLP (Guest):And we talk a lot about diversity in terms of ethnicity and race, but, the diverse students that I worked with at university of Oregon. We're talking about neurodivergent. We're talking about queer individual representation there. It was important and I learned so much. And so if there's ever a topic that I'm going to bring up where I feel like needs to improve, it's always going to be diversity.
Hannah Simpson, MS CF-SLP (Guest):And I think university of Oregon is knocking the ball out the park. And that's when I can speak to, I know universities are making way. I hope so. Because that is, is really important. When you think about who are we are working with and who are we representing in this country, there needs to be more representation of the patients that we serve.
Hannah Simpson, MS CF-SLP (Guest):I can never forget the look of a woman's face who came into the radiology unit when I was a graduate student working in a hospital or had a hospital placement. And we were doing modifieds. We did modifieds once a week. We did 7 back to back. And this woman came into the radiology unit, and she was a black woman.
Hannah Simpson, MS CF-SLP (Guest):And she was just like, oh, hello. Yeah. Yeah. And I will never forget that. I will never forget that.
Hannah Simpson, MS CF-SLP (Guest):I'll never forget my school placement and going to a school where this sweet young girl, black young girl came up to me and literally said, you look like me. And I know that we're here talking about quality policy and politics and talking about those tough conversations, but that's just as tough of a conversation. I know there are a lot of people out there who are doing really good work. So shout out to those people. I appreciate you.
Hannah Simpson, MS CF-SLP (Guest):I see you because it it needs to the work needs to be done, and we're just not getting as much diversity as we need in the time that we've been working at it.
Melanie Evans, MS CCC-SLP:Yeah. I agree. It's definitely a work in progress. And I think these past 4 years, we've made it we've broken a lot of ground. It might take another massive event for there to be a crazy shift, like how we had the 2020 George Floyd and the pandemic, and we were forced to watch all of the inequities and witness it and feel it.
Melanie Evans, MS CCC-SLP:Who knows? Hopefully, that doesn't have to happen, but we're taking steps in the right directions. Yes. Yes. Hannah, thank you so much.
Melanie Evans, MS CCC-SLP:Where can people find you if they wanna learn more about your capstone and the work that you're doing now in the field?
Hannah Simpson, MS CF-SLP (Guest):Of course I have an I, an Instagram page that you can follow and I answer direct messages. It is SLP for advocacy. So you can follow me there. Feel free. I love talking to people.
Hannah Simpson, MS CF-SLP (Guest):I'm a big yassler. Yeah.
Melanie Evans, MS CCC-SLP:Amazing. Amazing. Yes. We love the yappers. We love the yappers.
Melanie Evans, MS CCC-SLP:Thank you so much, Hannah, for joining us in this conversation. Thank you everyone who watched live and who's watching the replay, and we will see you soon. Thank you, Hannah.
Hannah Simpson, MS CF-SLP (Guest):Yeah. Thanks.