Speech Therapist Career

Many will fall under the category of good speech therapist. However, the few that are categorized as great not only use knowledge and practice, they go a step further and treat the whole person. A whole person approach includes knowledge, practice, interpersonal skills, perspective and problem solving.

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.

The opportunity to observe the work overview of a Speech Pathologist, has tremendously solidified my interest in this field. At the Diana Rogovin Speech Center at Brooklyn College, I observed clients of various ages with different speech language disorders including articulation, language, voice, fluency and accent modification. Observing clinicians at the speech center gave me the opportunity to learn how important client-clinician interaction is for the session and how essential it is to build a good relationship with the client. Although I learned the

In 2008 physical therapy assistants and aides held about 109,000 jobs (U.S. Department of Labor). With the escalating demand for physical therapy services, job projection for physical therapy assistants are expected to be really nice in skilled nursing, orthopedic settings, and hospitals where the elderly are most often treated.

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.

The qualities I possess to make me a successful speech language pathologist include compassion, open-mindedness, knowing how to be a team player and how to live out the FISH philosophy which is an approach dealing with workplace issues. Compassion is important to have in order to be patient with my future clients. Throughout my college years, I served on the executive council for my sorority for two years as Vice President of Member Development. While sitting in those meetings, I learned how to be open-minded to others’ opinions on certain topics being discussed. I also had to meet with people who were having a hard time maintaining good membership status. Sitting down and talking to those individuals taught me to be objective about the individual’s circumstance and to be as fair as possible. Not only does a speech language pathologist need to be skilled in speech treatment but also with counseling the parents and loved ones of the client who feel hopeless and helpless. Being empathetic helps create a trusting relationship between the clinician, client and family. Another quality of a great speech pathologist is being able to be a team player. Most cases require the collaboration of the speech pathologist, occupational therapist, physical therapist, schoolteacher, paraprofessional, orthodontist, audiologists, and social services to

A speech and language therapist specialises primarily in language, communication and speech problems and in some circumstances, may also offer support with feeding problems. They assess, diagnose and develop programmes to help children develop communication skills. This may include verbal (i.e. using speech) or non verbal, using signs, symbols or communication aids. They work closely with families and the settings children attend depending upon the child’s needs and circumstances. Often the best way for a speech therapist to work is by assessing the child’s needs and developing a programme that is then carried out in the child’s setting or home. This allows for more opportunity to practice their skills in a natural

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.

Some of the duties of a speech pathologist are, but are not limited to, evaluate patients’ levels of speech, language, or swallowing difficulty, identify treatment options, teach patients how to make sounds and improve their voices, work with patients to develop and strengthen the muscles used to swallow, and counsel patients and families on how to cope with communication and swallowing disorders (Duties, www.bls.org, 2015). ‘If the speech-language pathologists work in medical facilities, they work with physicians and surgeons, social workers, psychologists, and other healthcare workers’ (Duties, www.bls.org, 2015).

With the variety of majors and interests college offers, the decision of choosing a career holds a heavy weight. There are many paths one can go to have a successful, fulfilling job for the rest of their lives; this is where college can explore a person’s likes and dislikes. From taking taking the self-assessment, it resulted careers that revolve around medical and/or as educators to help others. These choices seemed very very accurate and possible that I want to pursue. I have always been passionate of caring for others in some source. The four careers that I decided to further research are: occupational therapist, social and human service assistant, pharmacist, and veterinarian.

Speech and language therapy helps provide children, young people and their families with life changing treatments and support. Speech and language therapy can provide a wide range of help the services are mainly known for helping children and young people with communication problems but they also help children and young people that have problems eating, drinking and swallowing. Using specialist skills, the speech and language therapy work directly with clients and their careers and help develop tailored support that suits their individual needs. These therapists work alongside teachers and other health professionals, such as doctors and nurses the people that benefit from speech and language therapy range from all ages.

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.

As mentioned, I noted that Jason uses behavioral, and social interactionist approach in his work. There is also a cognitive aspect as well. The behavioral approach deals in the realm of unlearning to learning a new behavior, cognitive deals in the realm of memory, how one learns and process, and social deals in the realm of culture and social with the interaction with adults. A Speech Language Pathologist encompasses many roles, and has to be agile in all approaches to meet the needs of a diverse clientele. There is no one size fit all

The most interesting part of the job to me was that it had such a positive outlook on job growth. Employment of physical therapists is expected to increase 39 percent from 2010 to 2020, much faster than the average for all occupations. Demand for physical therapy services will come, in large part, from the aging baby boomers, who are staying active later in life than previous generations did. I consider this to be perfect timing with my graduation being in the prime of the growth in this occupation.