Jerome in the Sound

During my summer placement in a town of 6500+ people (+ indicates the many cottagers visiting), I got to participate in and attend several activities and events in and around the area: beach volleyball, hiking, swimming in the Georgian Bay, a water-skiing show, and an art festival to name a few. 

My weekend ritual was to take a stroll to the beach where I taught myself how to swim in open water. As an avid movie-goer, I thanked the gods that the town had a local movie theatre, so I could catch the latest Marvel flick. The housing, provided by Northern Ontario School of Medicine, was a spacious, homey apartment I had to myself for the better part of my stay before my cool and knowledgeable roommate joined me.

Parry Sound was not only amazing for its beaches and relaxing pace of life, but the people truly made it special. At One Kids Place, the children’s treatment centre where I did my eight-to-four grind, I met incredible clients and professionals. The parents of the preschool children were always happy to have me, a student, work with their child —some of them even showed great enthusiasm about it!

Most of the caseload fell into the early language development or articulation categories. This meant that I developed my parent coaching skills, and my organisation skills needed to do articulation drills. A lot of clients (more than I expected, anyway) cancelled appointments, but I couldn’t even blame them because it was summer - enjoy the lake, folks!  Regardless, I still worked with enough clients over the summer to come home confident in my skills to work with the preschool population.

The team at One Kids Place consisted of my preceptor SLP, a CDA, PTs, OTs, a manager, and office administrator. My preceptor was very organised which made me feel comfortable as the placement progressed and my responsibilities increased. Outside of the clinic, my preceptor was kind enough to be my guide in the area, taking me to fun events and tasty restaurants. The other professionals allowed me to observe their sessions, helped me when I had car trouble, and told me about exciting events in the area.

I applied to this out-of-catchment placement because I wanted to work with the First Nations communities who are underserviced. Unfortunately, since school was out for the summer, I didn’t get to visit the First Nations schools that my preceptor normally would. I did get to help some families within that population.

I vividly remember the smile on the child’s face and the joy in his mom’s eyes when the child finally produced an “oy” sound as in “boy”. I’ll be doing another out-of-catchment placement, this time in Manitoba. I’m looking forward to what adventures living in a new province will bring. But mostly, I’m ecstatic to have more opportunities to learn how to help preschool First Nations children and their families as a speech-language pathologist.