Our History

Where did MindWorks Resources come from?

I'm often asked how I got started doing what I do. I think the question is less about how I became a speech pathologist, or where I got my education, but more about how I arrived at MindWorks Resources.

The answer is often "I'm not really sure." I didn't go to school to learn how start a publishing business and I certainly never expected to be a public speaker. I aspired to be a speech pathologist - to help struggling students succeed in education and in life. That's what I started out doing, and ultimately that's what I still do.

Out of necessity is born invention

I believe Plato suggested the notion that necessity is the mother of all invention. This pretty much sums up the evolution of MindWorks Resources.

Like many Speech Pathology majors, I aspired to work in the public schools, helping children overcome the challenges they faced with speech and language issues. My first assignment with Abilene Independent School District (AISD) was to serve as the speech therapist for two campuses: a brand new elementary school in a rapidly growing area of town, and a smaller school for behaviorally challenged students.

And here was the first necessity: managing a large caseload on my primary campus, combined with the need to travel to a second "alternative" campus. I naturally turned to my supervisor for assistance with this daunting challenge. The answer I received was that maybe I should try spending some time in the classroom working with multiple students at one time. The rest was up to me. I could take the advice or leave it.

A small group of therapists working for AISD in the late 1980s had attempted a similar approach. Their basic concept entailed reading a story to students and conducting a short language activity associated with the story - which they dubbed “language in the classroom”.

Endeavoring to persevere

So this is where I began. Solving problems with solutions that only introduced more problems. How to convince the teachers and administration to let me solve my problem with an unconventional, undocumented, and unpracticed suggestion. How to plan therapy lessons for an method which I was never taught in school. How to create activities from scratch, manage teacher schedules, give up an hour of my schedule for each classroom on campus, while at the same time still conducting the full caseload of pull-out therapy.

Ultimately, out of pure necessity to survive my first year as a public school speech therapist, I had begun to create a service delivery model that worked for me. I had successfully reduced my caseload to manageable numbers. I had convinced the teachers to allow me access to the students. And I had put some structure around my routine that worked for me. What I didn't know was that my little routine, one day, would be adopted and adapted by countless other educators struggling with the very same issues I had faced myself.

An unexpected calling

After relocating to Dallas, TX to complete my Master's degree at Texas Woman's University (TWU), I continued to adapt and evolve the concept of conducting language activities in the classroom in my new schools. Working full time and attending classes at night, my busy schedule as a speech therapist was now compounded as a working postgraduate student.

But as part of my clinical hours, I was encourage to conduct my language lessons as part of my graduate clinical hours. My professors liked the solutions I had forged for myself. They encouraged me to further formalize and refine my approaches as the basis for my professional paper for graduation.

Then the call came just before graduation. I was asked by one of my graduate supervisors if I had ever considered presenting my approach to other educators. This was certainly not my vision of my future, but I reluctantly agreed to do "just one."

Beauty in the eye of the beholder

Just one training, tuned into just one more, and then just one more after that. Before long I discovered I loved it, and wasn't bad at it either. I also began to discover that the same challenges I had faced in my early career were not unique. I began to see a need within the profession of speech pathology. A need not only for a theory and a personal success story, but a need for a repeatable process, with tangible activities that could be used with little or no preparation. It seems the need for more time to provide therapy services is universal.

So I began providing a small collection of my own personal language activities and a documented approach for implementing them to my workshop participants. People loved them. I submitted my ideas to the major speech pathology publishing companies and was convinced they would love them as well. The responses from the publishers started coming back slowly... "We're sorry. We don't believe there is a market for these materials at this time."  These were words I heard time after time.

I, however, knew otherwise. I also knew that I could benefit many more students and many more educators by training and providing materials than I could ever reach providing therapy myself. So I decided to self-publish my materials into their initial book form, Language Therapy in the Classroom: The Missing LINC. I then began to aggressively sell my speaking services around the State of Texas.

Expanding horizons

Over the course of the next few years my market continued to grow, and with that growth the demand for new and different language activities, particularly as the legislative pressures to provide more inclusive services, expanded. In response to that demand, I began to create additional LINC™ classroom activity books and wrote a book on the SLP's role in literacy development.

I ultimately incorporated my first business to manage the increasing demand for my solutions. The company was called Inclusion Therapy Specialists and was later renamed to MindWorks Resources to better represent its mission to create a broader offering of language and literacy solutions for use in multiple environments and stages of development.

I was still helping struggling students but I was doing it in a way I could have never imagined as a young undergrad looking for her first job.

A future of possibilities

Today, MindWorks Resources is proud to have published 11 unique Language in the Classroom™ (LINC™) classroom activity books from 6 different authors and The Missing LINC™ Instructor’s Reference Guide to help educators effortlessly begin implementing inclusive therapy models within their own schools. In addition, we have produced more than a dozen other product lines and created multiple different continuing education offerings, all being used to better serve the needs of students by thousands of educators in the US, Canada, and beyond.

Today, MindWorks Resources continues to grow with new subject matter, authors, and continuing education offerings. We are honored to have the continued opportunity to share with other educators their ability to work collaboratively in the classroom setting in a very simple and effective manner. From our modest beginnings, we humbly continue to help educators realize their potential to unlock the power of innovation in their own unique and personal way. MindWorks Resources is also proud to have offered many of these same educators the opportunity to share their own solutions by creating and publishing new and innovative products of their own.

A debt of gratitude

And that's the story - the short version of course. But it wouldn't be complete without thanking the countless colleagues, family, and friends who have supported me throughout my career. I have been truly blessed. And I look forward to the road ahead - innovating and sharing, helping others succeed, just like all of those who have helped me. And together I hope we are able to continue to build a better future for the children that we have all pledged to serve, each in our own slightly different way.

Sincerely,

Lynly A. Stephen
President, MindWorks Resources

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