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Transcript:
Jessica Almond
So we’ll go ahead and get started. So I am Jessica Almond. I am one of the clinical managers here at Invo. I live in the Northern California area, and I’m a clinical manager within the Greater Sacramento area. So in the Greater Sacramento area, we were known as school steps for the longest time before we finally merged and became one with Invo. You’ll see with some of our signatures, it says Invo slash school steps, just because the districts that we’ve had long-standing contracts with have known us previously as school steps. And then they get kind of confused sometimes. We’re like, wait, I thought you were a school step. So that’s why you’ll see a school step slash Invo. So yeah, and as I was going through our registration list and things like that, I noticed that we have like lots of different disciplines from a lot of different areas. Super excited. Super, super excited. So interdisciplinary knowledge and collaboration. This was a very fun presentation that I really enjoy putting together and researching because like, you know, we’ve been talking about that even though we’re,
Marketing Team
Jessica, I think we lost your sound.
Jessica Almond
One, two, three. Oh, you’re back. I always click on the test microphone. Oops. There we go.
Marketing Team
Okay, there we go. You’re good now. I’ll just shout it out if we stop hearing you.
Jessica Almond
Okay, that would be great. Thank you. So as I was saying that a lot of our disciplines either will overlap with each other or we will collaborate with you know somebody in a different discipline just because the kiddos that we serve in the school districts have mostly a variety of needs, right? So we’ll go ahead and get started.
Okay, so these are definitions that I pulled from Merriam-Webster about the exact definitions of interdisciplinary knowledge and collaboration. So, I mean, I think all of those terms are pretty self-explanatory, interdisciplinary, meaning that, you know, two or more, you know, areas are coming together, two or more disciplines are coming together to talk. Knowledge is, you know, the facts or what we know and the familiarity gained through experience. And then collaboration is our ability to work with others. And it is so important, as we’ll see in the case studies, as we do in just a few minutes, just because, you know, we’re all in our specific disciplines. But then if we are kind of just stuck in our zone, in our discipline, sometimes not looking at the kiddo as the big picture, but, you know, it could be kind of hard, we might accidentally miss something. And so that’s why interdisciplinary knowledge and collaboration is so important, especially in the school setting and in the workplace. Okay, so there are some benefits of interdisciplinary knowledge. So there’s a lot of interpersonal relationship building that takes place, you know, during, you know, collaboration. And then what intelligence group told us is that a collaborative workplace was more preferred than a competitive workplace. And it also helps boost job satisfaction. It creates ties with colleague, which can, you know, help enrich your lives. You have somebody else you can talk to, somebody else you can share things, you can vent to, things like that. It helps improve work performance. And then just like for a specific stat, that collaborative work, according to corporate productivity, work is, collaborative work is five times more likely to result in higher work performance.
Jessica Almond
And honestly, just speaking as an SLP in the school setting, I enjoy my job so much more when I can collaborate with people. When I can talk with the OT who’s right next to me, or I can talk to, you know, an RBT about a kiddo’s, you know, behavior, so on and so forth. And I’m sure that’s very similar for you guys, too. You guys don’t quite feel so isolated or like you’re on your own little island, you know, and that you, you know, have somebody else that you can reach to that you can look at the kiddo, you know, look at the kiddo as a whole and, you know, write collaborative goals for the kiddo, instead of them having their, you know, 15 goals, you can condense it to four or five goals and have a variety of disciplines working on, you know, the goal to promote that carry over. Okay, and then just some more benefits of, you know, having a collaborative workplace. It helps keeps us motivated. And we’re willing to take on, well, at least according to a Stanford study, that collaboration helps us want to take on additional challenges and helps reduce turnover because we really enjoy going to our jobs. Of course, we love doing what we do and working with the students. But then also, if we have, you know, colleagues that we can, you know, bounce things off of and things like that, we’re not as likely to be like, okay, I’m just burnt out, I’m isolated, I’m done, I’m going to go move on to someone else. OK, and then collaboration. So team effectiveness. So these are the seven C’s of team effectiveness. So we have capability, so recognizing each other’s strengths. Cooperation, so having mutual support amongst our team. Coordination, having really good time management skills. Communication, so helping foster our unity within the team. Cognition, so helping each other really reflect on our collective thinking, critical thinking skills. And our coaching, so that could be our leadership. So that could be our staff and admin. And then it could also be our individual leads or our individual clinical managers. And then, of course, conditions of the workplace. So all seven of these C’s, which is what OmniHR likes to categorize them as, helps team effectiveness. Does anybody have any questions before we move on?
Participant
OK.
Jessica Almond
Okay, and one of the things that I wanted to touch on was how we’re gonna collaborate with the team. And as we stated before, Info has been a really great company because they really do promote collaboration between different disciplines. And in some places you don’t get that, in some places you do, some places you don’t. But I haven’t seen in the years that I’ve been in SLP that where collaboration is really, really promoted. I know like in the Northern California area for my team, we’ll do a little social get togethers where we just meet together as a group and it’ll be interdisciplinary. We’ll have OTs come together with school psychologists and RBTs and BCBAs, school nurses and so on and so forth. And we’ll just get together kind of like for a happy hour, where every couple of months or so, and just kind of talk about what’s going on. If I have a question about like an OT, like a sensory processing type of difficulty, I’ll reach out to one of my OT colleagues and they’ll reach out to me about speech, things along those lines. So Info, going back to that, it really promotes that collaboration. I think that was what helps us in our discipline and then helps us as a professional as well. And then I quoted ASHA, which is the American Speech Language and Hearing Association. So for those who are SLPs, you’re very familiar with ASHA. For those who may not be as immersed in the SLP world, ASHA is the main accreditation for speech language pathologists nationally, so in the United States. And so according to ASHA, it’s imperative that professionals of different disciplines work together to meet the needs of the students we serve. And then there is, we’re gonna go through seven different ways to collaborate with your team. And in today’s society, there are a variety of attitudes and a variety of personalities that sometimes you need to work around, not necessarily negative, but there’s also positive too. And so we’ll talk about that as well. But one of the biggest things that I have found is that thinking about what is the best or what is the best type of treatment, what is the best type of goals for the kiddos that you serve. And that’s really hard because we’re all human. So we’re gonna have our feelings and our thoughts and our emotions and things along those lines. But keeping that as the big picture, like yeah, this person, I don’t really jive with that personality or their personality is a little strong for me, but how can I work with them or how can I foster them to work with me to come together to think about what’s best for our students. And so number one, establishing a common goal. Understanding what we’re working toward can help our members utilize their time wisely and ensure that the team’s understanding the goals. And then that can lead us to number two, which helps us set up a workflow.
Jessica Almond
And that helps the team understand and meet the deadlines. So like if there’s an administrator or a teacher that may not necessarily be the most collaborative, helping them understand that we have a deadline and we understand that they have their feelings, that they’re entitled to their feelings, but looking again, what is in the best interest of the child in the best interest of the children. And then also identifying different strengths. So a powerful team like Invo, we have many individuals with many different talents and our employees or colleagues can introduce us to new skills and or have the opportunity to develop their skills even more. And then don’t be afraid to be an example. So, you know, taking that leadership role, you know, being, um, and not afraid to, you know, um, to kind of be like the, the point person to talk to, um, also, you know, uh, talk with your managers, the administration, things along those lines. Um, because you’re going to be learning new skills and you’re going to be teaching, you know, somebody who is not an expert in your field, new skills and you guys are just going to become even more, you know, well-rounded in a way. Um, so I know it’s easier said than done, but don’t be afraid to, um, to be an example. Um, and I mean, with it being the year 2025, we use technology a lot. Info is very email dependent, but you know, using things like email or video conferencing, digital calendars, inviting people to, um, you know, IEP meetings or, you know, just to staff meetings or whatnot can definitely help not only completion of a project, but it can also help, you know, just make sure everybody’s on the same page. I loved it when my staff would be like, Hey, you know, um, I’m going to put some, I’m going to look at your calendar. And if it looks like that you’re free, I’m going to put something on your calendar and invite you to it. And that helped so much just because, you know, I may not be available via phone or I may not check my email later that day. And so that helped a lot. Um, with the, you know, with zoom, for example, that not.
Marketing Team
Jessica, we lost your audio.
Jessica Almond
One, two, three. You’re back. You’re good. There we go. I think I found the issue. Yeah, I think I know what we’re going to do with me. Lose audio. My apologies, everybody. So going back to number five, using Zoom, not only does it help us collaborate together in different parts of the United States, but also during our IEP meetings and being able to talk with our parents and our families and things like that. Encouraging honesty. And it’s also very important that you feel safe, that you feel like you’re in a positive environment, and that you can honestly express your feelings. Just being able to express your capabilities and if there’s any time constraints. And then that can help team members gain confidence and also share your thoughts as well. And then that leads us to number seven. So how you guys feel about your colleagues and your workload can affect morale and the team’s productivity. So I know that number seven might be a little bit hard because there might be some personalities that don’t necessarily jive or that may be a little bit more difficult to work with and things like that. So trying to just keep in your mind that, yes, I don’t agree with this person. But what I’m about to say, it’s going to be a benefit for the team and to kind of get us on the track to meet our deadlines. And then one of my professors told me in grad school, don’t be afraid to ask for what you need. So if you do need more positivity in your workplace or you do notice that a lot of your meetings feel negative or there’s some other things that you’re noticing that are not maybe that are prohibiting the productivity that you want to see, don’t be afraid to bring that up. Don’t be afraid to say, hey, I need to be on a team where we can all work together and then come together as a team on how you can all achieve that.
Marketing Team
Thank you.
Jessica Almond
And I’m trying, oh there we go, okay, so now I want to go into a case study.
Marketing Team
We lost you again.
Jessica Almond
One, two, three, four, okay, there we go. Sorry, I don’t know what is going on with my computer. So case study, so while I was working on that audio, sure you guys have had an opportunity to read the case study, but just to summarize it, we have a third grade student who’s reading at a first grade level. He’s grasping his pencil like a club. He puts very light pressure on his paper. He, writing is an unprepared activity for him and when he’s asked to write, he behaviors such as defiance, refusal, or elopement, that takes place. He also states that it’s often hard for him to see the wording on the page and on the board. Teachers have also brought up concerns about his articulation, sentence structure, and inappropriate usage of syntax and semantics. So I wanna turn it back over to you guys about what professionals would you collaborate with regarding this student? And don’t be shy, because there is no wrong answer.
Participant
I would say in my scope from working in the school districts for a long time, generally they would immediately bring in like a school psychologist to start paperwork. And then we would have OT and physical therapy and speech therapy and everybody kind of worked together to figure out exactly what this child’s issue is and how we can address it.
Jessica Almond
Mm-hmm. Thank you, Sarah.
Participant
Can I piggyback on that? I’ve had something kind of similar in the school and it was my first time really being in the school. It was my fellowship after graduate school, but I definitely reached out to the teachers to see if they had trouble in class, if there was a place in the classroom that they could sit and see the board better. I also reached out to our special education team and OT about student grips. And then also I had a similar concern too. I had talked to the nurse about how they did on their, when their last vision screening was.
Jessica Almond
Mm hmm. Very good. Thank you.
Marketing Team
You’re welcome. Yeah. I think we might have lost you, Jessica.
Jessica Almond
Oh, I wasn’t. Nope, you’re good. Okay. I thought I saw your mouth.
Marketing Team
moving but I couldn’t hear you
Jessica Almond
The no worries. No, I was just giving a little bit more time for anybody to reread it or to see if there was anything else they wanted to add.
Participant
That’s it.
Jessica Almond
Okay, so we’ll go ahead and go on to the next slide.
Jessica Almond
There we go. Okay. So you guys, you know, already, you know, hit like a lot of the specialists in the schools, oops, in the school settings, right? So for our reading challenges, we could, you know, talk to our special ed team. If there is a reading interventionist on campus, sometimes, you know, it depends on, you know, finances, it depends on the district or whatnot, but sometimes we’ll have a reading interventionist. They might want to start with what we call response to intervention before they go to a full team assessment. Let’s see, for writing challenges, like you guys said, you know, an occupational therapist or an assistive technology specialist, behavioral challenges, definitely school psychologists or a RBT or…
Marketing Team
Okay, yeah, we can’t hear you this time.
Jessica Almond
One, two, three. Okay. Very good. All right. And then, of course, you know, for articulation, grammar, syntax, or SLPs. And then, of course, we don’t want to leave out our gen ed teachers because our gen ed teachers are with the students the most. So we don’t, we also want to see, you know, how they act or how the student does with other, you know, areas of the curriculum. So, you know, during math time, you know, are we getting the same sort of behaviors? Or, you know, how are there, you know, you know, skills during lunch and recess, you know, things along those lines? And then, of course, you know, introductory-wise, you know, we don’t want to forget to include our parents as well because they’re with their kiddos when they’re not in school. And so, you know, just getting, reaching out and getting parent input as to, you know, do you have any concerns? We’re noticing that there is difficulty. But a kiddo as what, like we talked about, who is two reading levels behind, most likely it’s not going to come as a surprise to parents. They’re probably going to already be wanting to inquire what kind of services can we provide, you know, this kiddo. Okay, so while we’re waiting for the next slide, the next slide asks if we weren’t to, if we did not collaborate with the other professionals that we have access to, what do you think some of the negative implications could be? And I want to open that up to you guys. So like for an example, if we didn’t reach out to the school psychologist or if we didn’t reach out, you know, to the gen ed teacher, what might be a result of that?
Participant
I want to point back to something that you said prior, as far as the collaboration being helpful for, say, for instance, IEP writing goals and, you know, categorizing them and kind of, what is the word I’m trying to look for, consolidating them with another helpful source. And so, because that’s right up my alley because all I do is write IEPs. So, yeah, that would be like, it’s actually, you know, it would be beneficial for myself as well as, you know, everyone connected to the student.
Jessica Almond
Yeah, absolutely. And I’m sure all of you have seen IEPs that a kiddo has 14 different goals, and they’re all worded very similarly. And it’s like, we could completely condense these goals to where the kid has, you know, four or five main goals, and we can, you know, bring in so many other disciplines to help with that generalization piece. So I’m a big proponent and something that I’m trying to help teach my team in the California area, Northern California, is to, you know, do cross collaboration. Yeah, excellent point. Yeah, so going back to the question, if we didn’t bring in any of the specialists that we had just talked about, what could be some of the negative implications?
Participant
I think a delay of service at times or sometimes duplication of services and it’s a big waste of time.
Participant
Thank you.
Jessica Almond
Mm-hmm, very good, thank you.
Participant
lack of progress. I think by bringing in, I found that I’ve noticed that when we bring in other experts for, say, one child, that the progress is much faster for the child by not bringing them in that it would be delaying the child’s progress.
Jessica Almond
Yep, exactly, Will. And I think for the longest time, there has been this inclination that increases services always equals faster progress, which in a way it can. But at the same time, going back to what Will was saying is that if we’re not including the other professionals that can help with some of the other difficulties that these students are having, then we don’t necessarily need to increase the services but make it more collaborative in a way if that makes sense. All righty, well, very good. And I am trying to get to my PowerPoint to go to the next slide. Oh, OK, there we go. OK, so we kind of already touched a little bit about this, potential outcomes without collaboration. And we don’t necessarily need to go over it again, so let’s see. So wanting to kind of jump into how to collaborate with team members with different ideologies. So we’re all going to run into this at one time or another, and we probably have run into it at one time or another. We’ve kind of touched a little bit on it. And our fields are wonderful. We’re experts in our fields. But sometimes we do run into team members that have a difference of beliefs and attitudes. So here are some tips and strategies that I was able to gather from LinkedIn to help collaboration with professionals that may be difficult to work with at times. And just know that it’s OK to acknowledge that. It’s OK that you don’t get along with everybody all the time. And that’s not an expectation. Take it along with everybody all the time. These are just some tips to kind of help with that maybe not getting you into that fight or flight type of response, and maybe just helping you take a deep breath, being like, OK, what’s the big picture on this? How can we resolve conflicts? That sort of thing. So according to LinkedIn, number one is trying to identify the problem. So what is the source of the difficulty that you’re having with the team members or the team member with you? Is it a personality clash? Is it a misunderstanding? Is it a personal issue? There could be a colleague that is going through something very personally, and they don’t want to share it. So they’re kind of taking it out on other people, but it’s not necessarily against you. I find that just being honest with our colleagues, just like, hey, I’m noticing that there’s a little bit of tension. You don’t have to tell me what is happening, but I’m here to talk. I’m here to help support you. Or is it something that I did that I’m unaware of? Things like that. And then number two, communicating effectively. So choosing the right time, place, and tone to address the issue. Trying not to find the problem when emotions are running high. So probably Friday at 5 o’clock when somebody’s out the door is probably not the best time to talk about an issue that’s happening, maybe giving the weekend or giving you and your colleague the weekend to maybe chill out a little bit, get some sleep over the weekend, coming back on that Monday.
Jessica Almond
So that’s also really, really important. And then when you’re trying to resolve conflicts, trying to find a solution that works for both of you, and that aligns with the team deadlines. Again, using a collaborative approach to ask them for their suggestions and an input. And if a resolution cannot be reached, that’s what your manager is there for. That’s what your facilitator, your principal, that’s what they’re there for. And then you wanna try to help foster collaboration. And so, you know, starting off by trying to build trust, rapport and respect with your team member, showing appreciation for their strengths and involve them in decision-making. And then that too, hopefully will come back to you where they will show appreciation for your strengths and involve you in decision-making as well. Number five, it’s easier said than done, but you might need to adjust to be behavior, communications and your expectations to suit their personality and preferences. So like for an example, if you have a team member that complains a lot, empathize with their frustrations and then try to help them reach solutions. Or, you know, if they’re complaining a lot, empathize with their frustrations by saying, oh, I understand that you’re frustrated. How can we solve this so you’re not as frustrated? And then hopefully that goodness comes back around that they’re able to help you if you need help. And then learning from experience, reflecting on what you did well, what could have gone better, and how to improve in the future. Use it as an opportunity to increase your skills. And then, you know, just a few closing notes that in the school setting, you know, and also not just in the school setting, but anywhere, it is important that we all work together to not only meet the needs of students we work with, but to also provide support and education for our team members. So without our cross-collaboration and teamwork, we cannot create an educational plan that would best serve our students. And then also we might feel less motivated, stressed out, isolated, maybe resentful or disregarded. And of course, you know, we don’t want to feel that way. And then also, this is a big takeaway, it is okay and assign a strength to ask colleagues for information and assistance. And that is the end of my presentation
