The Myth of Having All the Answers

And if I didn’t have all the answers, well, by no means let the kids know, right?!!  Because then they’d take advantage.  They would run amok!  Gone would be any control I’d have over therapy sessions.

It’s been 24 years, ya’ll.  I don’t have all the answers.  Sorry to disappoint.  LOL.  Seems I’ve got fewer answers each year!  And you know what else?  Not only am I not a failure, not only do the kids not run amok. It seems to increase our rapport when I admit I don’t know something or show them a flaw.

Lessons in Vulnerability: My Stutter and More

For example, I have more stutterers this year than I’ve ever had before.  I also have recently suffered Post Concussive Disorder, which seems to have increased my “normal” stuttering.  So I have gotten into the habit of pointing out my repeated sounds and words to my students. 

I just shrug and say, “Look, there I stuttered again.” As if it was a hiccup.  Because, really, that pretty much describes what it feels like for me.  Take a moment and imagine how that would affect a middle school stutterer. Perhaps you could show them this TedxTalk video, about “The Power of a Stutter.”

Or maybe I have a question that they don’t answer correctly.  Sometimes I realize I didn’t ask it well – and I tell them that.  Sure, I’m an adult, and I may know more than they do, but I’m not infallible. They need to see me admit that with grace and humor. Have you ever tried to work with someone who can’t admit they were wrong?  Or tried to have a relationship with one?  I’m showing these kids they can admit they made an error with no judgement.

Beyond Perfection: Growth, Resilience, and Acceptance

This goes far beyond the new-fangled concept of ableism.  Not that I’m not behind that idea 100%!  I fully support the idea of not trying to change things that are simply the way people are made. 

This is the idea of teaching children that it is ok not to be perfect.  Some may call it Growth Mindset, some may call it resilience. There are many names for it.   It’s been recycled through the years.  Why?  Because we have tried to reach perfection from the dawn of history.

For years, I chased the elusive notion of perfection as an SLP, only to realize it hindered my connection with my students. I was so preoccupied with trying to be flawless that I forgot to truly engage during out sessions.  If I wasn’t engaged, then my students sure weren’t!  And what life lessons were they learning?  That they weren’t good enough the way they were?  That mistakes were bad?

Teaching Embracing Imperfection By Modeling

Each time I make a mistake, and show my students how to accept it with grace, I am teaching them that they don’t have to be perfect.  Giving them resilience so that their inevitable mistakes don’t push them down. They can work to be better. Yet, they are wonderful the way they are.  You know why AI generated people always look weird – it’s because they are too perfect!  We need our little idiosyncrasies!

So, forget about achieving 100 speech goals. What truly matters is nurturing a culture of acceptance and growth—one mistake at a time. After all, isn’t that the greatest lesson of all?

Love yourselves, my e-speechies!  ‘Till next time,

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I put this on my board one school day. See, for the last 5 or so years, I’d had a poster-size white erase board in the hallway of my school. It was beside the entrance to the cafeteria. Therefore, every student would have a chance to see it during the day. I then sit in my room and listen to the conversations in the hallway. The children, I think, would have voted this joke as the best one that year.

But my board had a purpose beyond the amusement of everyone in the school. Not only did it lighten the mood and start the day with fun, every child in that school knew who I was. I wasn’t just an unknown adult that pulled kids out of classes. I raised the bar for vocabulary for the entire school. It gave everyone a common thing to talk about, and (let’s be honest) identified students that likely would need my services at one time or another.

The Therapeutic Value of Humor

Most of us feel better after a good laugh, and it’s not all in your head. Laughter increases those feel good chemicals in your brain. It boosts the immune system and relieves stress.  It gives us a social connection and helps shift perspectives into a lighter side of life. It even improves circulation and gives your tummy a bit of a workout. I have no doubt it created a happier, more connected school environment than there otherwise would have been.

Academic Benefits of Humor

Most of us have thought about how jokes can address multiple speech and language skills. To understand humor, students have to understand nuances, multiple meanings, and wordplay. Often jokes rely on figurative language. They involve cognitive processes like inference, prediction, and abstract thinking. 

Jokes help students practice social skills such as turn-taking, perspective taking, and understanding social cues. They build rapport. When telling a joke, students are practicing fluency skills like pacing and intonation, as well as articulation skills. Students are encouraged to commit the joke to memory so they can retell it. This helps them work on memory skills as well.

Building Rapport and Engagement:

Humor builds a bridge between students and teachers. It makes school a more light-hearted place.  Having a joke to share gives shy or anxious children a low-pressure way to engage in conversation.  The kids would tell the jokes to each other, and talk about whether it was funny or not. They discussed what made it a joke. I often heard teachers using the jokes as a teaching opportunity in the hallways.

As I talked with others about why I had the joke board, it raised awareness with teachers. They realized that what I did with students inside my little room wasn’t just working on /r/ and /s/. When I called it my “school-wide intervention,” it highlighted how essential speech and language skills are for daily communication.  Students in the school knew who I was, and saw me as a positive person in the school.  I had teachers and students alike bringing me jokes.

Addressing Challenges and Limitations:

So, what is the problem with using humor? I did have to be careful that the jokes were school appropriate, of course. No jokes about “two guys walk into a bar.” They had to be age-appropriate as well, so I skipped over a lot of jokes. Some of these the students at my school might not have the context or vocabulary for. And some kids just didn’t get the jokes (and they were usually on my list for MTSS interventions).

Finding enough jokes for the entire year was a bit difficult the first year. I then had to keep track of them somehow. Now I have It’s So Punny, a document that is over 50 pages long, full of jokes appropriate for school, which you can find in my TPT store.

The board itself was an issue at some points through every school year.  There is always that one student who finds it entertaining to erase it with their fingers. I would switch from dry erase to wet erase to whiteboard crayons throughout the year. Having a transparent cover might have helped that problem. I had to get permission to hang the whiteboard on the wall (I used removable adhesive strips).

Two Thumbs Up

In conclusion, though, I would highly recommend a joke board in your school or classroom. There are so many reasons to incorporate humor in the school day. The conversations I heard outside of my room were often the best part of the day. Hearing the students comment as they walked by was truly enjoyable. 

Keep that funny bone tickled,

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