Humane Network

Think about the kids you knew in elementary school who had a lisp or a stutter. Imagine how difficult life would be if you couldn’t accurately and effectively communicate due to a speaking disorder. Would you feel comfortable or capable dealing with those problems alone?

Stuttering and lisping are just two examples of common speech disorders. Speech disorders come from a person’s inability to produce sounds correctly or with fluency. And the problems can be even more complicated than that. A person can also suffer from communication disorders: receptive and expressive. A receptive communication disorder means the person is unable to accurately understand others, while an expressive communication disorder means they are unable to accurately express themselves. It must be a troublesome existence to be stuck in your own thoughts and ideas with no way to explain yourself. Fortunately, these difficulties can be remedied with the help of a speech-language pathologist.

A speech-language pathologist (SLP) is a specialist who works with those who struggle with speech and articulation, communication disorders, and fluency. Sometimes known as a speech therapist, an SLP’s work also allows them to assist those who have difficulty feeding or swallowing. SLPs are educated with a master’s degree and licensed or certified to diagnose and treat a number of speech communication and swallowing disorders. They work with clients of any age who may be suffering for any number of reasons, including cerebral palsy, cleft palate, traumatic injury, and mental illness.

Salary and Career Opportunities

Because the money is generally good and the field is growing, speech therapy can be an attractive career choice. A certified speech-language pathologist can make upwards of $70,000 a year. One can choose a concentration under the umbrella of the field, narrowing the work down to specific types of disorders and complications. Speech therapists typically work in research, educational, or healthcare environments. Because a majority of clients tend to be in their youth, SLPs often work in school settings, but research shows that speech difficulties can increase with age, creating a bigger need for SLPs among the elderly as well. This means that the job prospects arguably look bright for future SLPs as the field grows with each passing year.

Positive Benefits

What’s more attractive than the blossoming career opportunities, however, is the fact that SLPs can have a significantly positive impact on society. The work they do fosters the notion that everyone should be able to communicate clearly, accurately, and effectively. This is central to creating a social environment where one person’s voice is equally as important as anyone else’s, regardless of gender, age, culture, race, sexuality, or disability. For young patients, learning how to use their voice can help them mature. Speech therapy teaches them to develop their opinions and share them with less fear and anxiety of how they will be received. This can foster a culture where difficult and opinionated conversations are not so uneasily had and are welcomed as a source of positive change and growth. For the elderly, it can mean making their experienced voices as sharp and resonant in the cultural climate as any young person’s. Instead of being overlooked for suffering a traumatic injury or invasive surgery, one can recover to communicate the way they once could, and perhaps even better than before. In these ways, it is possible for speech-language pathology to change the world, one voice at a time. The world could use prospective SLPs, who are interested in putting a life of service and speaking before anything else.

1. I am enough.
2. I am not wrong or weak for feeling things deeply.
3. I deserve to be happy.
4. But that doesn’t mean I automatically deserve to have whatever I want, whenever I want.
5. Tomorrow is always a new day.
6. Everyone I know is a fully, three-dimensional person with feelings and insecurities and a life story that I haven’t heard – even if I don’t like them.
7. I can do this.
8. Bravery doesn’t usually come from feeling brave – it comes from doing something despite how afraid I feel.
9. I cannot settle for mediocrity.
10. The people I look up to didn’t get there by sitting on their asses.
11. Sometimes a really tiny and simple thing can completely turn someone’s day around.
12. Being in love will not always be easy and effortless.
13. I am me, and that can be a lot of different things, and that’s wonderful.
14. Being able to admit when I’m wrong is way more important than being right.
15. Sometimes I will try stuff that I won’t be automatically good at. But that doesn’t mean I can’t try to get better.
16. It is okay, and even necessary, to walk away from people who hurt me.
17. The online version of my life is not what gives me meaning.
18. Even my ideal dream job is still going to be incredibly difficult, because anything worthwhile takes blood and sweat and tears.
19. When I am going through heartbreak, it means I am experiencing one of the most universal feelings on the planet. I am not alone.
20. Sometimes maintaining friendships in adulthood is hard and that’s okay, as long as I keep trying with the people who matter to me.
21. The people who really love me are the ones who are telling me what I need to hear, even if I don’t want to hear it.
22. It’s normal that sometimes I truly crave credit or validation or praise. It’s part of being human.
23. I can be a different version of myself in front of different people, and it doesn’t make me any less authentic.
24. This doesn’t have to be where I end up if I don’t want it to be that way.
25. Sometimes, I’m just going to have a really rough day, or week, or year. But I will survive it. I’ve done it before and I’ll do it again.
26. My heart is fragile but my strength is unwavering.
27. I’m allowed to leave a job I hate to find something better.
28. No matter how careful I am, I’m going to make mistakes. What’s important is how I handle the aftermath.
29. The times when I really don’t want to get out of bed are usually the moments when it is most crucial that I do so.
30. Anxiety and depression and other mental health related struggles don’t make me weak. I just need to remember to be strong enough to ask for help.
31. It’s important to tell the truth, especially to myself.
32. Everybody is scared. I’m not the only one.
33. Sometimes feeling lost is a good thing.
34. Usually when I’m heavily judging someone, what I’m really doing is projecting something that I dislike within myself.
35. Money can make things easier and less stressful, but it won’t make me happier or more fulfilled.
36. I’m allowed to be proud of myself.
37. I should never take advantage of the fact that my loved ones are only a phone call away.
38. The only time procrastination feels good is in the moment.
39. I can’t change the fact that my body will age, but I can control how I handle it.
40. No matter how happy or put-together they seem, everyone is struggling with something, just like me.
41. Regret is much scarier than failure.
42. When I make others look good, I look good too. And it’s a much more joyful way to live.
43. Admitting that I care about something is so much more fun than trying to play it cool.
44. It’s important to be humble, but it’s also important to stand up for myself when I’m being treated unfairly.
45. Just because someone is cold to me doesn’t mean I need to be cold back.
46. There is no better quality than making others feel like, and understand that, they matter.
47. Laughter should always be a high priority.
48. Being warm to others can take me so incredibly far.
49. I am here to do something.
50. Looking for ways to feel grateful for things, instead of frustrated over them, can drastically change the way I look at the world and the way I feel about my life.

Inspired by 300+ Top Inspirational Quotes & Quote Pictures | Quote Catalog

Catherine Sohon, a pilot from the wildlife investigation agency, stumbles upon a brutal crime scene at the beginning of the comic. Soon she meets Jon Bagg, a scruffy man with a rough attitude. She brings up her concerns with elephant poachers, explaining that the population needs protection, if not, elephants will be gone forever. Jon dismisses Catherine’s concerns and the struggle to expose the poachers begins.

Ivory Ghosts uses vivid and detailed artwork to tell its story. The murder mystery is compelling; while the fight to preserve elephants is enlightening. The issue of ivory trade is a real-world problem, despite the international ban on commercial trade. Ivory Ghost is an excellent tool to educate people about the ivory trade and spread the word about depleting elephant populations.

Ivory Ghosts is written by Dr. Caitlin O’Connell, who is a Consulting Assistant Professor in the Department of Otolaryngology, Head and Neck Surgery at Stanford University School of Medicine and a world-renowned expert on elephants and vibrotactile sensitivity. She is a real hero in the fight against the illegal ivory trade, which makes this comic so much more gripping. She also authored a novel of the same name, which the comic is based on.

This comic is a must read for animal lovers, activists, and graphic artist fans. The first issue is intriguing, fast pace, and exciting. Overall a very well-done comic that will leave you in anticipation for the next issue.

Ivory Ghost:

Written by: Caitlin O’Connell

Pencils by: Debora Carita

Inked by: Laurie Foster

Color by: Liezl Buenaventura

Lettering by: Saida Tempfonte

Cover by: Debora Carita

Art Director: Paul Daughetee

Publisher: D. Lynn Smith, Kymera Press. Kymera Press is a comic book publishing company that supports women in comics.

The American Humane, a nationwide humane organization that has been supporting the U.S. military in excess of a century, and Mars Petcare, a dog diet and healthcare business, have became a member of forces to create two free service canine training videos made to help train business and retail employees to higher accommodate veterans along with other patrons who’ve service dogs.

Market research conducted by American Humane suggests workers are ill-informed and unprepared to support the initial requirements of customers with service dogs. Nearly 7 in 10 (69 percent) of retail employees stated they never received training using their employer around the questions they’re legally permitted to inquire about people to verify a pet is really a service dog.

These new video tutorials provide useful information and guidance about how exactly employees can correctly and legitimately attend customers with service dogs in compliance using the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), and can include business proprietor and veteran testimonials. The downloadable videos can be found free.

In 2016 Mars Petcare and also the Schultz Family Foundation, amongst others, helped fund an attempt brought by American Humane and leaders within the veteran, service dog, veterinary, hotel and transportation fields to produce the very first national training standards for service dogs. These now-complete national standards are now being employed to better serve veterans grappling with publish-traumatic stress (PTS) and traumatic brain injuries (TBI), along with a new national registry has been designed to help verify legitimate service creatures inside a pilot program by American Humane and also the National Association of Veteran-Serving Organizations (NAVSO).

“Trying to create national standards for service dogs is only the oncoming of our critical partnership to aid veterans yet others who depend on their own help,” stated Jam Stewart, v.p., corporate matters at Mars Petcare, that has headquarters in Franklin, Tenn. “Our Better Metropolitan areas for Pets program concentrates on developing a world where pets are welcome across our communities, and with regards to service dogs, that mission is much more critical than ever before.“