Speech-Language Pathology Report

During my interview with Speech Pathologist, Deborah Kirsch, I learned countless details about the Speech Pathology career field. When we first began talking, I learned that Mrs. Kirsch works out of a company called “Professional Therapy Services”, where she is contracted out to work for “Eunice Smith Nursing Home” which is located in Alton, Illinois. She has been working at this facility for about a year. She is a newly found graduate from Southern Illinois University Edwardsville, and she graduated in May 2011. Another thing that I learned about Mrs. Kirsch is that she originally did not go to school to become a speech pathologist, this was a career that she found later in life. After she had graduated from SIUE, the first time with a bachelors in Psychiatry, she started working at a nursing home around this area. She came to know a Speech Pathologist that worked there and she quickly found the field very fascinating. She had always been driven to help others, and she witnessed some of the exercises being done with individuals at the nursing home and decided to go back to school to get her masters in Speech Pathology.

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

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.

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.

From being diagnosed at a young age with dyslexia and apraxia of the speech, I am not sure where I would be without the help and encouragement of my speech pathologists. ‘Speech-language pathologists assess, diagnose, treat, and help to prevent communication and swallowing disorders in patients’ (Summary, www.bls.org, 2015). Along with helping their patients overcome or learn how to understand their disorders, speech pathologists must keep records.

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.

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

As a Speech Language Pathologist it is my responsibility to provide a means of communication to any individual who has an impairment as it relates to communication. No matter how severe the deficit may be as it relates to cognitive functioning, motor skills,etc.. and any other disability that may impact the traditional means of communication. A Speech language Pathologist who works with individuals who require the use of an Augmentative and alternative communication device, must keep in mind that it is their responsibility to make sure that more than one mode of alternative and or augmentative can be used, monitor the progression of intervention as well as evaluate the individual and most importantly keep up to date with current practice through

The second limitation that Speech-Language Pathologists deal with when working with families is educating families. Janice Swanson, a Speech-Language Pathologist in Lincoln, NE, works with families both in a research setting through the University and also a healthcare setting through Madonna Rehabilitation Hospital. Swanson says that she engages families in their child’s therapy by educating them. She said that she provides them with strategies that they can use at home to continue to make improvements when they can’t be seen by the Speech Pathologist (personal communication, February 3, 2017). “Family members know the characteristics of their member with a language disorder more intimately than anyone else and come to share this insight with

For Speech and Language Pathologists, there exists a myriad of roles and responsibilities to be met, as it is stated by ASHA, they work to prevent, assess, diagnose and treat speech and/or language difficulties. But cognitive communication is also included, as well as swallowing disorders in both children and adults. From the list of Reflection Tool Summary; I have chosen one option from each of the four areas that I found most appealing to me.

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.

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.

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.

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

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,