Northview Elementary SLP empowers students by helping them find their voice

First grader Cal Kotecki sees Sally Etzenbach, a speech language pathologist at Northview Elementary in Peru, for 40 minutes every week to work on his pronunciation of the letter “r.”

Kotecki said he likes working with Etzenbach because “she’s fun” and “kind.” He said his favorite part is playing speech games on the smart board “because it’s fun.”

Etzenbach helps Kotecki by giving him verbal cues of what his tongue and mouth need to do to make the “r” sound correctly.

“The tongue goes up and my mouth smiles,” Kotecki said.

Etzenbach said Kotecki has improved so much he will graduate from speech therapy soon. She said it’s been exciting to hear how crisp and accurate his speech has become.

Etzenbach has 35 students she works with to improve their speech and communication skills. Aside from working with Cal, Etzenbach also works with students with autism at Northview. The students in the autism classroom are in grades kindergarten through fourth grade and have limited verbal communication.

“Behavior is communication. Even when they’re not saying anything but they’re behaving a certain way, they really are saying something to us,” Etzenbach said. “So I feel like we’re always brainstorming and trying to be detectives and get to the bottom of what’s going on and find solutions.”

They have rights just like everybody else. They should get to go to lunch like everyone else, they should get to go to recess and get to do everything everyone else is doing, just on a modified level. So we really try to be advocates for those kiddos because they don’t always have a voice to advocate for themselves.”

—  Sally Etzenbach, speech language pathologist at Northview Elementary

Teacher Amy Perona has worked alongside Etzenbach over the past four years. Perona said Etzenbach has a growth mindset and is always trying to learn and grow to better help her students.

“Sally really takes a deep dive into knowing her students, and once she has that info, she goes to her craft and looks at the multiple communication modalities … she has been able to educate not only our Northview community, but the larger community,” Perona said.

In her time at Northview, Etzenbach said, she’s worked on educating staff and faculty on neuro-diverse populations and promoting acceptance.

“They have rights just like everybody else. They should get to go to lunch like everyone else. They should get to go to recess and get to do everything everyone else is doing, just on a modified level,” Etzenbach said. “So, we really try to be advocates for those kiddos because they don’t always have a voice to advocate for themselves.”

Etzenbach said the teachers have been very receptive and Principal Sara McDonald has been “wonderful” in wanting to change and emphasizing the importance of keeping kids at Northview, rather than sending them to outplacement in a bigger city.

“Sometimes we have to do a lot of educating that it’s OK one kid is doing something different,” Etzenbach said. “Not every kid has to look the same, sit on the carpet the same and walk quietly in the hallway the same because every kid has different needs, different sensory needs, different attention abilities.”

To help students improve their independent communication, each student gets an Indivdualized Education Plan with specific goals catered to individual student needs.

“Every kid in there is different and every kid I’ve ever worked with with autism is very different and they’re all unique in their own way, which is awesome,” Etzenbach said.

She starts the process with visuals and works on teaching the desire to initiate communication. The first step is associating items with a picture and using visuals to communicate needs.

“It’s a lot of early developing skills that you don’t really think about,” Etzenbach said. “It just takes them a bit longer to learn some of those skills that a neurotypical kid just picks up on.”

Etzenbach said the most exciting part is seeing students make progress with their communication skills.

“Sometimes it’s a slow growth, but it’s so exciting,” Etzenbach said.

One of the students Etzenbach works with is third grader Sloan Hefner. While her speech is limited, Hefner will say “let’s go” or “c’mon” or other phrases, which Etzenbach said is a big breakthrough. When Hefner first started at Northview, she didn’t talk at all, Etzenbach said.

In addition to achieving IEP goals, Etzenbach said there are other ways she sees improvement that are just as exciting.

“Sometimes it’s the other things that you can’t track or don’t necessarily track and report out on that are exciting.”

For example, all the kids in the autism classroom at Northview hang up their coats and book bags when they get to class without being prompted, Etzenbach said. While it’s not an IEP goal, that skill is something the students couldn’t do a year ago.

“I feel like that’s us helping them have more success in their lives and be happier in their everyday lives,” Etzenbach said. “So it’s all those little successes that are exciting.”