In his latest “Health Care Heart to Heart” podcast, now streaming, UNMC Chancellor Jeffrey P. Gold, MD, speaks with Sydney Norton, a speech language pathologist at the Munroe-Meyer Institute’s RiteCare Clinic in Hastings, Nebraska.
As Developmental Disabilities Awareness Month continues, Norton and Dr. Gold discuss the role of a speech language pathologist and the effect therapies can have on her young patients and their families.
“We always say we have the best job in the world, because we get to play all day,” Norton said. “And if we’re doing our job really well, that’s what it looks like — and the kids really don’t know any different. We get the joy of meeting kids where they’re at and going through the journey with parents, of getting a diagnosis and getting intervention.
“It is a really exciting job. It’s a really joyful job.”
Norton, who was featured in an award-winning story about one patient’s journey, also speaks about the significance of Developmental Disabilities Awareness Month.
“I think (it’s) just a message of acceptance, of accepting children, accepting people with disabilities, for their unique interests, for who they are, and taking the time to really slow down and listen to what they have to say, whatever form of communication that may be in, in order to learn and to develop with them,” she said.”