Essential Question: How do we make speech and language intervention available, or at least advocate for its availability, through the use of federal funding for those unable or their lack of insurance?

Foundation Questions:

1. What are the statistics on persons who have been denied speech and language service, or who have received service and are unable to pay, due to inability to pay or lack of insurance?

2. What criteria do hospitals and professional services look at when determining a persons ablility to pay upon receiving services?

3. What legal routes need to be taken to ensure proper implementation of such a program?

4. What federal funding is available to professionals for them to provide intervention to 100% of all people who require speech therapy?

5. If such people recieve service and have insurance, what do insurance companies look at in order to provide payment?

I think that trying to pinpoint a specific learning experienc is hard for anyone. Learning takes place everytime we complete an action. Everytime we do something we are re-programming our learning center to do it faster and quicker. Anyway, one learning experience I had was when I started this program at Marshall. I thought that a public service field was for me, but I didnt know which route to take. As I began to delve into the material that accompanies this field I began to realize that application of what we learn is far more important than just learning itself. You see, we can take in all the information from our teachers and classmate that we want, but until we apply it in practice, it will be useless. The way I learn is by applying my current information pool into everyday situations. I mean lets face it, we have to deal with everyday life so why not apply a little more of what we learn to make it easier!

For instance, if you take my job. We are trying to provide the skills that those people have lost due to their brain injury. Yet, instead of just sitting them down and teaching them book knowledge, we use our training to implement activities that will give them the same knowledge and practice. I thing I have learned is that if you let someone go to the brink of hurt or failure, or even let them fail in certain cases, that is the best learning experience anyone could ask for. Think about it, if you get burnt by a stove, you are 99% less likely to approach that stove in the same way again. Its the same way with learning. If you try something new and it doesnt work, you will probably never do it that way again. On the other hand, if what you are doing is a big success, then you will probably stick with it. Thats learning, being able to make decisions based on knowledge given and then making those decisions apparent in your life.

Some things that impede my learning are quite simple. They consist of 2 things. One, I cannot stand to just hear someone lecture. I need the application part of learning too. Second, I cannot stand when someone in a classroom repeats just what the teacher said in the form of a question. For some reason that throws my train of thought completely out the window and makes my anger rage inside. I know those seem like trivial things, but believe me they really affect my performance in any setting.

The one thing that really makes me appreciate learning is when you can apply that knowledge to whatever you are doing. Then again, I think that is what learning is all about in the end. Our jobs depend on our ability to apply what we have learned. So, with me stating the obvious, I talk to you later!

My essential question is "How do we make speech and language intervention available, or at least advocate for its availability , to those who require other federal assistance?" I feel this topic is of urgent notice and some questions I need to answer to aide in answering my essential question are:

1. What are the statistics on persons who have been denied speech and language service, or who have received service and are unable to pay, due to inability to pay or lack of insurance?

2. What federal funding is available to professionals for them to provide intervention to 100% of all people who require speech therapy?

3. What legal routes need to be taken to ensure proper implementation of such a program?

4. What criteria do hospitals and professional services look at when determining a persons ablility to pay upon receiving services?

5. If such people recieve service and have insurance, what do insurance companies look at in order to provide payment?