A video posted by TikTok mom @eileena_marie, which received over 27,000 views and 110 comments, describes the strange behaviors she noticed from her son's former speech therapist, which led her to fire her without remorse. Eileena said that not only was her son visibly uncomfortable around the therapist, but she was also annoyed by some of the comments the therapist made about her efforts to teach her son on her own.
Eileena began the video by stating that after firing her son's speech therapist, she actually felt relieved. Apparently, there had been some tension brewing over the past few weeks between the two, and she admitted to feeling anxious whenever the therapist came around.
She explained that the therapist visited her son weekly, and every time she came by, she made unnecessary, critical comments that Eileena didn't find helpful. She went on to give an example of one of those moments, explaining that she would independently teach her son basic expressions of manners, like "please" and "thank you."
But instead of supporting the mom's efforts to teach her toddler, the speech therapist told her that she didn't need to teach him those words yet because the focus should be on teaching him nouns. Eileena said she was disturbed by the therapist's response, and so were many people in the comments. One commenter said that a therapist should collaborate with parents. They wrote, "Speech therapists should always be supportive and collaborative! Mommas know best."
Her Son Didn't Seem to Like His Old Speech Therapist and Wouldn't Talk Much
Eileena also said that the speech therapist was resistant to teaching her son any words besides nouns. She explained that she had put up a few educational posters in her son's room, which he was genuinely learning from. But despite the toddler's progress, the therapist discouraged her and said, "Those are great and all, but, like I said, you need to just focus on nouns. . . Those are pointless right now."
After that episode, Eileena said she was certain that this therapist had to go. She said her son's new speech therapist is awesome, and she's certain of that because her son loves her — and she loves him, too! This was a huge contrast to his experience with the old speech therapist because Eileena noticed that her son would speak much less during their sessions. She said her son is usually a chatterbox, so it was very unlike him to stay quiet for the first 20 minutes of a session.
Reactions to the video came mainly from users who supported her decision to fire the speech therapist. One commenter said that focusing on nouns seemed uncommon. They wrote, "Focusing on nouns is crazy. it should be functional and core words and working on combining words to make small sentences."
Another commenter agreed with this comment and wrote,, "As an SLP, core words always come first because they are functional!! Fringe words (nouns) come second. You made the right choice!!"
The Daily Dot was unable to independently verify the claims made by TikTok creator @eileena_marie, which are based solely on her account of her experiences with her son's former speech therapist shared in the TikTok video.
