For Noor Al Radi, communication is more than just words—it’s about connection, identity and ensuring that every individual can tell their own story. As a speech-language pathologist (SLP) at Holland Bloorview, Noor works with children and youth who face complex communication challenges, helping them navigate a world that often makes assumptions about their abilities.
Throughout her career, Noor has been driven by a desire to break down barriers and challenge assumptions about communication. She emphasizes the importance of patience and understanding, advocating for her clients to be seen and heard in their own unique ways. Her approach to speech-language pathology is deeply rooted in cultural and linguistic diversity, ensuring that every client feels supported and valued.
For Noor, the ability to communicate is fundamental to how we navigate the world. “Language shapes how we see the world, gives shape to our thoughts, and in return, how others think of us,” she explains. “I read once that if you can’t tell your own story, you run the risk of others telling it for you. That left a profound imprint on me, particularly given the population of individuals that we serve in our community at Holland Bloorview.”
Noor’s connection to Holland Bloorview began in her high school days in Toronto, where the hospital, then known as Bloorview MacMillan, was a coveted place to volunteer. After completing her graduate studies in New York, Noor stayed to work for a few years before returning to Toronto drawn by the hospital’s multidisciplinary team approach. She found in Holland Bloorview the essence of collaborative care that she had cherished in New York and continued this part of her professional journey in the fall of 2019.
Read more about Noor’s unique journey and the impact of her work here at Holland Bloorview.
How has your journey here at Holland Bloorview shaped your professional/career growth?
Coming from an outpatient clinical world, the learning curve in the inpatient setting was dizzyingly steep. Going through school, we are often taught in black/white and siloed ways, but the more you learn the more flexible you become clinically – and this has very much been the case in my time here. My journey at Holland Bloorview has also made apparent to me the importance of clinical voices in informing care – in the immediate sense of course, but also in navigating and considering health-care systems and processes.
What are the most common challenges clients face, and how do you help them navigate through these difficulties?
As communication is the primary way in which we engage with our world, the first challenge lies with the assumptions of others. People often, unintentionally, make snap judgements based on how someone communicates, and many of our clients often have to work to break those assumptions down. Therapy will often begin with awareness and gradually build up to advocacy. The next challenge might be the impatience of others – and sometimes this is a well-meaning kind of impatience, a quickness to jump in, help, and fill-in the blanks. We also live in a world that moves fast, making it hard to give one another needed time.
Can you share a story of a client whose progress/story deeply impacted you?
A clinician’s engagement with families on the inpatient units is unique in its intensity, we are so present in each others’ lives and for that moment feature so largely in one another’s every day.
A few years ago, there was a teenager – spunky, kind and hilarious – who had sustained a brain injury in a tragic accident. For the latter part of her admission, our focus was on a eulogy that she was determined to give. Never have I been more acutely aware of the interplay between language, emotion and relationships – of how much we are the stories we tell ourselves and others. We worked on her projection and pacing so that she would be clearly understood, navigated how the context informed in/formality of language, and discussed perspective. We worked on language structures and organization so that she could convey exactly what she had in mind. She did beautifully – her and her family’s resilience and grace has remained with me since.
How do you address cultural or linguistic diversity in your practice to ensure all clients feel seen and supported?
Having studied in the US at a time when the over-representation of bilingual English-language learners in special education was beginning to be more openly discussed, this features heavily in my practice. So many children misdiagnosed. As such, how I address cultural and linguistic diversity is tangible in the very way I approach testing, how I use scores, and how I adjust tasks to represent skill vs. language-learning. Given the social aspects of communication, it also means I get to have fun learning about others’ social customs to better understand engagement and different ways they might view contexts based on vocabulary or grammar structures from their own language. I may have hated grammar growing up, but looking at how the structure of a word or sentence can change how we judge or process information is truly sometimes astounding.
How has being a speech-language pathologist transformed your own life?
Being a speech-language pathologist has certainly made my friends hyper aware of their speech and mannerisms – a party favourite for sure. More seriously though, as alluded to above, how someone communicates can offer a window into who they are. That awareness has made me more sensitive, patient and attentive. The poet Mary Oliver said that “attention without feeling, is only a report. An openness – an empathy – was necessary if the attention was to matter.” Working with clients has been a school in how to attend, to really attend – this has been wholly transformative.
What do you find most rewarding about your job? And what are you most proud of in your time at Holland Bloorview?
The intensity of inpatient, and the therapeutic opportunities that come with that intensity have been a surprising source of reward. It affords us time - a rarity in the clinical world. Time that has allowed me to sit with my clients and hear their stories, help a client who regained her voice record a song with medical instruments, build a cardboard school where Elton John is the music teacher…. Ultimately time that has allowed for creativity and resourcefulness for both me and the clients.
How do you think communities can better support individuals with speech and language challenges?
Taking a moment to check one’s assumptions, and when in doubt ask the individual about their preferences. We are social creatures (most of the time) and so in many ways are hard wired to want to be helpful, to jump in, to ease someone’s social engagement; however, with individuals with speech and language challenges this can often unintentionally become speaking for vs. speaking with them.
Do you have any hobbies or passions outside of work? What motivates you beyond your professional life?
I love to futz and dabble in truly anything – a bit of woodwork, calligraphy, restoring furniture, doodling, painting, gardening… I’m not particularly good at any of the above, but I love the hands-on tangibility of it all. In the height of COVID-19, I bought a set of online courses which turned out to be entirely in Spanish, so if you ask me about any of the above be ready for only Spanish terminology. Reading, travel, and, no surprise, exposing myself to other languages are also great sources of joy.
Is there anything else you would like to share about your work?
That being an SLP doesn’t work in isolation. When approaching therapeutic goals, the ultimate goal is generalization – that a skill be demonstrated across contexts. Being able to work so closely with clients, their families, and other disciplines is what makes “the work” work.
