Get to Know Kristy King

1/25/2018

By Jennifer Fogarty, communications content manager

At LJCDS, social and emotional development is equally as important as intellectual growth. When a student is struggling academically, socially or personally, there are many options and resources. The Learning Resource Center (LRC) is where students can receive educational and/or speech and language services to help them achieve academic success. Kristy King, speech and language pathologist, shares with Jennifer Fogarty, communications content manager, how she and the LRC work together with faculty and administration to provide students with the necessary tools to reach their fullest potential.

Jennifer Fogarty: What is your role on campus? Why would a student visit you?

Kristy King: As a speech and language pathologist, I work with a variety of speech and language needs, including articulation, voice, stuttering, receptive, expressive and social pragmatic language. As part of my therapy, I meet the needs of each student and determine how they will learn best. I’ve had the opportunity at LJCDS to incorporate mindfulness and movement in the form of yoga into my therapy sessions. It’s a centering of ourselves for the work my students and I are doing together and gives them another option of working through disorders.

JF: You recently completed the third part of certification with YogaKids that was made possible thanks to professional growth funds. What are you excited about implementing?

KK: We started a pilot program with Grades 1 and 2 that consists of a six-week rotation teaching different mindfulness methods. What I think is so neat and different from adult yoga is we can be group- or partner-oriented with the children. For example, going into tree pose and balancing against a partner, or we have a really cool activity called “pass the hoop” where everyone’s hands are connected, and you have to get the hula hoop around everyone’s bodies and throughout the circle. The students are engaged; they don’t realize they’re working their bodies, and at the same time, they are incorporating teamwork to make it happen.

JF: How does mindfulness help children?

KK: I think mindfulness is teaching people, not just children, to be present in the moment, and it doesn’t necessarily always mean being still. You can be mindful when you are playing on the playground or doing an activity in the classroom with your friends, but it’s being in that time, being present and being aware of what you’re doing.

Children are naturally in the moment and naturally mindful, we just need to allow that to happen. Sometimes in our hurried lives after school or on the weekends, we breeze through things so quickly that we don’t take the time to appreciate those moments.

What I’ve learned through my therapy is that once you give students the opportunity to take time to sit and breathe, maybe put on some music when they are stressed, you see them renewed, and they are ready to work. Any emotions that they may have had passes because they were allowed to feel the emotions, acknowledge them, and then move on with their lives. I think it’s important for children to realize that it’s OK to take that time to do it. You will find more benefits and be more productive.

JF: How do you balance traditional techniques with the new technology and the overuse of screen-time for children?

KK: Therapy needs to be a face-to-face opportunity for children to communicate and make connections with their therapist. I think that is what is special when kids come into the office; they get to have a different relationship with us where it’s focused on them, and they get to have a dialogue. Technology is wonderful, but at the same time, it can take away from that interaction between people. I’m the type of therapist that does not use a lot of technology in my sessions, but if I have them practice articulation or another language activity on the computer, we then turn it into a hands-on talking activity between two or more people.

JF: What else would you like to share with the LJCDS community?

KK: All of us in the LRC are a resource and parents are welcome to reach out to us anytime, whether or not their child is working with us. We are happy to talk to them and provide whatever help we can or offer resources.

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