Mrs. Bate has been a speech therapist for the last 17 years and joins the PA Distance family with a wealth of knowledge and experience that she brings to her therapy sessions to benefit her students. She grew up with a particular interest in speech and communication having a father who was deaf.
“I grew up with sign language and have always had a love for people with communication difficulties and helping them,” she explained. “Later on in life, he had a stroke and had to enter into speech therapy to help him regain his speech and communication skills.”
She attended California University of Pennsylvania and graduated with a Bachelor’s in Communication Disorders but was still unsure of what she wanted to pursue as a career. After graduation, she began working in an outpatient speech facility and realized that she wanted to pursue a career in speech therapy, in which she went on to receive a Master’s Degree in Communication Disorders, also from California University of Pennsylvania.
After 17 years of working within outpatient facilities, hospitals, nursing homes and the latter years with the Birth to Three population, Mrs. Bate decided she wanted to try something new.
“The only job I hadn't had was within a school,” she said. “So, I began looking around for a new opportunity.”
Soon after, she found a perfect role as a speech therapist at PA Distance where she helps her K-6 students tackle a wide range of speech and language difficulties.
“It was meant to be,” she noted. “I love it here.”
At PA Distance, she meets with her students one-on-one, 1-2 times a week depending on their specific needs, for up to 30-minutes each.
Each student is unique and, with that, so are their speech and language issues. She works with students who have trouble pronouncing certain sounds including “s” and “r” sounds and sometimes “th” sounds. Some of her students have a lateral lisp and a variety of other pronunciation difficulties. Mrs. Bate also helps students comprehend language verbally and within written text.
“It’s better to correct their speech issues when they're young,” she said. “It becomes a harder habit to break as they age.” “I feel that being able to work with my students one on one has given each student such an opportunity to improve on his/her speech”.
During her sessions, Mrs. Bate uses a variety of teaching strategies to help her students grasp new concepts. Although she meets one-on-one with them virtually, she finds that it's the same feeling as being in the same room with them. “I wasn’t sure how I would adjust not being “next to” the child. It didn’t take long for that feeling to return, and now I am just as connected with my students as I would be in person.”
“I play a lot of games with them to keep their attention while helping them with their speech lessons,” she said. “I love my students. Knowing that I’m helping them is really rewarding.”
She also noted that parent involvement is also important and when parents sit in on a therapy session, they learn some techniques to use throughout the day with their child.
“I’ve already had a few success cases,” she added. “Parents have also reached out to tell me how well their children are doing when they have conversations at home.”
Mrs. Bate explained that she found comfort within the PA Distance family while she was nervous about doing everything virtually.
“I’ve learned a lot and the team at PA Distance is amazing. I never feel like I’m alone in this. Everyone has dropped what they were doing to help me figure out how things work here,” she explained. “PA Distance has found a way to bring the students and the staff together in a way to feel comfortable and that they are a part of something positive.”
“Being a speech pathologist, in 17 years I experience something different every day and it makes me feel like this career is where I belong,” she added.