Karen Leyba celebrates 30 years at the CRC

Karen Leyba, a speech pathologist at the Children's Resource Center, is celebrating her 30 years of work. Leyba performed speech services and said, "When I started out, I did babies through five-year-olds. And then we had Jenny Manning for a few years that helped, which took over the babies. And Jenny left two years ago now. And so now I'm back to doing all of them. Zero through five-year-olds."

Regarding what it is like working with the children, Leyba said, "It's exciting. It's rewarding. To see them grow, make progress."

When Leyba reflects on the past 30 years, she said, "It's flown by. It's like now I'm seeing kids of kids that I've served. So that's like, oh, I have been here a while. Yeah."

Not only has the past 30 years been fast for Leyba, but technology has also changed things a lot. She said, "Well, for me, I have a lot more technology, you know, notes than the documentation part has changed a lot. Technology in some ways hasn't been positive because kids are on iPads and screens way too much. So that holds back speech and language development."

Leyba described a little boy eight years ago who didn't know how to kick a soccer ball with his feet. Instead, he showed Leyba that he kicked when moving his thumbs as he did playing video games. Leyba added, "Wow. And I knew we were in trouble when our kids associate this motion as kicking."

When asked what is rewarding about her job, Leyba said, "Oh, everything. I love collaboration. The teamwork that we have here. Having the team approach where the physical therapists, occupational therapists, especially a teacher, all collaborate. That's what we do. We were having a staff meeting. We take three kids and say, 'Little Johnny, where is he at? What's working for you? How can I use the motor to help me with speech?' So we work on the whole child and not just being in my little closet doing the speech."

For Leyba's future plans, she said, "I've always said I'll stay with it till I can't get off the little chairs or the floor when I can get up and down. Because you're a preschool, you're going."

Leyba added that the Children's Resource Center is "a great organization to work for," and she is "very thankful. It's family-centered." Leyba also said about her bosses, "If you can't advocate for your own kids, how can I expect you to advocate for other kids? It's his philosophy. So it was a flexible schedule for me when my kids were growing up. If I had to run to the orthodontist... if I couldn't advocate for mine, how can I expect myself to advocate for others? That flexibility."

When it comes to seeing a success story about the work she has done in the kids and set them on a path, a trajectory, Leyba said, "Probably some of the best feelings I have is sometimes a middle school or a high school student will come back to me and say, 'You were my speech teacher.' And they remember that. And you helped me. So there's a couple that still comes back to me a high school, kiddo. You stay connected. I may follow those kids all the way through, even though they don't come back and talk to me. But there are those handfuls that will say, 'You are my speech teacher!' I mean, you know that you changed their lives. When they come back."