Speech-Language Pathology Report

Within my year and half of clinician experience, I constructed a few future goals that I would like to achieve while in graduate school. One goal is to continue growing my knowledge with working with children with language impairments. This goal is one reason that drew me towards The University of North Texas. With the hands on experience from the preschool for children with language impairments, I could work towards my completion of this goal. Another goal of mine is to gain more experience with working with adults. My clinical experience was centered on children; therefore I would like to become better rounded as a clinician by getting the opportunity to work with adults who may have diverse impairments. Lastly, I would enjoy learning new therapy techniques and how to ultimately become the best Speech-Language Pathologist that I can

My intensive Speech Language Pathology coursework at California State University- Fresno has provided me with the skills to implement treatment plans, assist during speech and language assessments, and keep formal documentation of client’s progress in speech therapy. These are the necessary skills required to be an effective Speech Language Pathology Assistant and will make me as asset to have in the school speech setting.

As an undergraduate student, one of my requirements is to have clinical hours. I assist and observe the graduate students when needed. I believe this gives me more of an insight of what a clinical setting looks like. After observing during the semester, I understood the skill set and the drive an individual needs to become a successful speech pathologist. I was inspired to help individuals with speech and language disorders, understand their disorder and achieve more effective communication skills in educational and social settings.

Through speech pathology, people are reached and shown compassion who are typically considered outcasts in society. SLPs work with individuals who are struggling with various sets of problems and help to solve those problems through undivided attention and spirits of patience and willingness to aid people with speech, language, and mental impairments. I believe this would be a good career fit for me due to my heart for people and my teaching spirit. My mom’s perspective of me pursuing a career as an SLP is that it would be a good fit due to my kind and gentle spirit and conduciveness with working with struggling individuals. I also have an immediate family legacy of multiple speech pathologists that work in both the medical and educational fields which increases my knowledge and familiarity with the career. While I believe that speech pathology would ultimately be a good fit for me, I tend to struggle with patience, a key component of working as an SLP, which is a challenge that I would have to work to overcome in order fulfill my role as a speech pathologist.

Likewise, they offer many opportunities for the graduate students to further expand their knowledge in the field of speech-language pathology. Additionally, I cherish that the personnel in this program are highly knowledgeable about the field and will help their students as much as they can. Every time I needed advice, I could always rely on the professors to give me their honest opinions and guidance, which I value since it demonstrates that they are genuine faculty who wants nothing but the best for their

My goal is to maintain a GPA of 3.25 or higher to keep my place in the speech-language pathology program. Marywood University was my first choice college and I couldn’t be happier that I’m here. I committed to come to Marywood because of the speech program, the atmosphere, the stress on service, and the importance of education. The reasons I can here parallel the Core Values of Marywood. They also put me on the right track to accomplish my own goals. I want to serve others, get an education, and become a welcoming friend to all who need one.

Speech pathology focuses on aiding individuals who struggle with or cannot use their voice. Without a voice, individuals would not be able to communicate with one another face to face, or even talk on the phone. Within every field, controversy exists. In speech pathology, one such controversy is nonspeech oral motor exercises (NSOME), where a patient does different tasks involving their mouth or fingers. These exercises are believed to have no connection with actually assisting the speech pathological part of the brain, since they do not involve any sort of speech activity. Nonspeech oral motor exercises do not assist in the healing process of patients with actual disabilities, nor are they an efficient practice at a professional treatment center.

A fourth category of disorders treated by speech therapists is cognitive communication disorders, which involve thinking skills such as organizing thoughts, memory, attention, solving problems, and so on, and are often result of brain injury, or individuals can be born with them. Lastly, there are social communication disorders, which consist of issues with pragmatics (things like social cues, non-verbal communication, commenting, and so on) and can be caused by traumatic brain injury.

Educational standards for American public school system children who struggle with various communication disorders cannot be maintained without an increase in the number of school-based Speech Language Pathologists. While the Individuals With Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) requires public school staffing of Speech Language Pathologists, access to such services continues to be compromised by the ongoing shortage of these school-based specialists. I have been inspired to apply to Speech Language Pathology graduate school partly because of the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association's efforts to lessen the shortage; without trained Speech Language Pathologists, children cannot receive the care ensured to them by IDEA.

Everyone needs a little help. I need help from my teachers to learn, and other people need help to do simple tasks, as simple as tying their shoes. I have three younger brothers. Their names are Trevor, Drake, and Ross. All three of my brothers have a speech delay. I am the only one of my siblings to not have this. My little brothers were all put on an IEP for speech. They also attended the preschool at Fort Jennings School to get help. As my brothers grew up, only Drake was taken off his IEP for speech. Trevor, who is 16, and Ross, who is 8, still have a speech delay today. They are one of the reasons I believe I am meant to become a Speech Language Pathologist (SLP).

I am a Speech-Language Pathology/Audiology and Deaf Studies combined major. Throughout middle and high school I was fortunate enough to be able to volunteer in elementary school classrooms. Many times, I worked in the second grade special education classrooms. This experience engrained in my mind what I wanted to do for the rest of my life. My favorite part of volunteering was helping the children with special needs. Many of these children were isolated from their classmates as a result of what was described to me then as a disability. As I got to know a little bit about these children I saw more and more that the label "disabled" that society places upon these children was not applicable. Deafness is a difference, not a disability.

Choosing a career might be considered one of the most important decisions in an individual’s life. The type of career people choose often paves the way for most of their opportunities and certainly has a direct impact in their self-identity. It has been recorded over the years, that gender roles and stereotypes have a direct influence when it comes to career decision making. For example; most men, who are considered the primary breadwinner of the home, tend to choose careers that ensure financial benefits and professional advancement such as medicine, law, finance, and politics. Women, on the other hand, focus on choosing a career in which they can balance their family life and has a more nurturing aspect to them such as teaching, nursing,

In the near future, I envision myself as a speech-language pathologist, working with a manifold of patients. This career entails solving speech and swallowing problems within young clients. There is a large probability that their parents will come to me thinking that their child has a serious defect because information from unverified or satirical websites such as “The Onion”. For example, the fake news site posted a story stating “nearly two-thirds of all human speech transpires under people’s breath”, from the “Center for Applied Linguistics”, which is an actual organization. This could easily lead to confusion to people unaware of satire in media. Furthermore, unverified information may lead to disagreements in diagnoses. As Camila Domonoske’s article about “fake news” states, people are likely to

My decision to pursue Speech Language Pathology as a career was not a difficult one. I knew I wanted to do something in the medical field and really love helping people as a result, that lead me to speech therapy. There are multiple avenues that a speech therapist can choose as far as their career, their patients and even location. My passion is working with the elderly and veterans; therefore I would love to work in a skilled-nursing facility or an outpatient rehab facility with patients who struggle with speech and or communication disorders. This is currently not a program offered at Southern Regional Technical College.

Many people would like to make a difference, not only in their own life, but in others’ lives as well. Deepak Chopra once said, “Everyone has a purpose in life…a unique gift or special talent to give to others. And when we blend this unique talent with service to others, we experience the ecstasy and exultation of our own spirit, which is the ultimate goal of all goals.” All of us, at one point in our lives, have to make the difficult decision of the goals we want to work towards. We all have certain goals, standards, and expectations of ourselves. Not everyone will figure out what they want to be right away, and some will know from the very beginning. My plan for my life is helping others through Speech Language