She does. Thanks.
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I did this towards my retirement because the pay was better and the benefits were better. He made sure the caseload conditions were monitored and adapted to fit our schedules. He paid for conferences. He gave us bonuses, provided materials and tests, catered our lunch meetings, and paid mileage. Had I known early on, I would have done this all my years! We worked in a variety of settings, including the public schools, but were paid by our private practice employer. He also was on one of the Boards of the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association. (ASHA)
I also worked as an early intervention specialist for 0 to 3 at-risk babies and was a contractor, from my district, for the local Head Start. Overall, I worked from peds to elders, ages 0-99+.
Always paid for liability insurance-One company HPSO, but there are others.
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Another specialty within speech language pathology is augmentative communication. We have seen a number of students who have benefited from some kind of voice output device to help them communicate with others. This is a growing area within our field. I think this one is a great blend for those interested in developing communication skills…and understanding the different technologies out there and how to choose what is right.
Social Communication is huge. We have a lot of students who seem to have the basic grammar and vocab…but have significant difficulty with social communication interactions. What to do, what is appropriate and what isn’t, etc. This ties in somewhat with functional communication. Social communication work takes many forms, and is both interesting, and rewarding.
I specialized in that. i stopped doing it because I couldn’t afford it. You need to have samples of what devices will do. You work in a team of rehab specialists who know about range of motion, cognitive abilities, and use of flaccid or spastic movements to place a device. I started showing families how to use an eye scanner in the hospitals with non-verbal patients.
It was a relatively new speciality when I started working with an enthusiastic professor and a university grant. The devices, like Stephen Hawking’s, were prohibitively expensive for families that were running from specialist to specialist and the insurance companies always rejected our requests. I wrote a grant for a unicorn pictogram keyboard for $1000. Now, similar keyboards are less than $10
I built my own switches to make it affordable for families. (My Dad was a jack of all trades, so he explained mechanics to me.) I learned how to solder and had my own set of tools/switches, peg board, sanders, pine lap trays, and used his jig saw on weekends, etc.
Fortunately, now, there are iPads, there are lending libraries, Qwerty Keyboards, better picture displays, visual displays, and the costs have come down significantly from $6k to less than $1k.
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Not if you work for an agency that specializes in augmentative communication. The agency buys the devices…not the SLP. We have an agency here in CT that does just that…AAC evaluations. In addition to having a LOT of different devices to trial based on student need, they also are sometimes able to do a short term lend to the student. OR advise how to get a short term use from a vendor.
There are ways to specialize in AAC without buying all the many different (and evolving) devices yourself!
This was back in 1990. I should have mentioned that. My districts were unfamiliar with what we could do with the devices.
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The field of Augmentative Communication has really taken off! So many many more options available for our students. I found it very exciting working with the consultants in this field to assist my students. They were amazingly knowledgable!
This link takes you to some good information from the American Speech Language Hearing Association. If you scroll to the bottom, you will see further links to more information!
I think these are all good reads for anyone interested in this profession.
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For the undergrad experience, what do you recommend students to major in, assuming that the school does not offer an undergrad SLP program? What courses can best prepare that student for grad school?
Additionally, how beneficial is it to major in SLP for undergrad? Are students who major in psychology or general health care, for example, less prepared?
Linguistics, English Grammar, Special Education, Psychology or anything that deals with human development.
I’m sure others with more knowledge of the profession will add to this… but I’ll share my D’s somewhat recent experience.
D got a master’s in speech pathology after an undergrad in psychology - she also took lots of science and had a minor in theater undergrad. The grad program she attended had a separate cohort for students without an undergrad degree in speech pathology (I think it may be different now – not sure).
As I remember she had classmates with undergrad majors in psychology, linguistics, science, education, as well as a variety of other unrelated things (ex. business.). She felt that different undergrad backgrounds were useful for different grad courses (ex. she felt particularly prepared for science based classes, linguistics majors had a stronger preparation for some language classes etc.). But every student in her cohort with all their different backgrounds successfully worked through the program.
The major benefits of an undergrad degree in speech pathology are: 1) it shortens the coursework needed for a master’s degree (less time/less cost); and 2) all prerequisite coursework for the masters degree would be completed. Some people take a year to complete the prerequisites before applying to grad school. My D only found a handful of grad schools that built the prerequisites into the program so non-speech pathology majors could apply directly after undergrad.
Other than her undergrad coursework my D shadowed two SLPs and took an intro to speech pathology course at a local college. I think this showed a commitment to the profession and more importantly she did enough work to feel confident that this was the path she wanted to take for grad school.
Hope her experience is helpful. She is very happy with her decision to become a SLP.
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The major benefits of an undergrad degree in speech pathology are: 1) it shortens the coursework needed for a master’s degree (less time/less cost); and 2) all prerequisite coursework for the masters degree would be completed
Yes, the prerequisite courses (listed above in one of my responses) would be completed with a major in the field in undergrad. But at some colleges, you would be able to take these as electives if in another major.
Or the student could take them during a gap year between undergrad and grad school. And maybe work as a special education para educator, or work in a daycare, or work in a SNF…something that shows some work with others.
Regarding shortening the masters program…that really doesn’t happen. It takes two full years to complete the masters course of study. The courses MUST be graduate courses taken as part of your program (I don’t know any masters program that will take grad transfer courses for speech pathology, and courses taken as an undergrad don’t apply to your masters). So…the likelihood of shortening the program to less than the full two years is very very small.
Admission to graduate Speech Language Pathology programs is somewhat competitive. More at some places than others. As long as you have done well in undergrad, and have taken the courses listed above during undergrad, you will be OK taking any other major. I view this as a “do what you love, love what you do” situation.
I transferred sophomore year of my undergrad. I had NO idea what to declare as a major (I had been a music major previously, then switched to education). When I got to my new school, I looked at the various courses of study…I chose speech path for a try, and loved it.
Now…regarding undergrad speech pathology programs…some of those are competitive as well. Some require a student to meet a certain bar GPA as a freshman…and then the student applies to be in the SLP major. You need to check policies on that at different colleges.
Here are the prerequisites courses…
**These courses
- Anatomy & Physiology of the Speech Mechanism.
- Phonetics (transcription skills)
- Language Acquisition (also called Language Development)
- Communication Disorders**
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Having an undergraduate SLP degree did lead to a shorter (and less expensive) masters program at D’s grad school. This is because those without an undergraduate degree were accepted with no prerequisite coursework and these prerequisites were built in to the start of their program. Her cohort also had more observation time and hours in the school clinic. This led to a longer program as compared to the cohort with SLP undergrads. Again, this experience was specific to D’s program but it did work well for her.
Some other grad programs that D applied to accepted students with no prerequisites and then ran them through an intensive summer program to get the prerequisites (making the grad program longer).
My D found that the prerequisite courses did vary a bit from program to program. It is important to look at the specifics for each program.
Students considering a career as a SLP might also want to look at the ASHA required non-speech courses while they are undergrads. Prerequisite Course Content Areas Related to SLP Certification Standards My D had completed these courses as an undergrad but some in her cohort needed to take an additional class or two.
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So my daughter is doing this now. She first went to a college in theater design, switched to another college junior year for Cultural Anthropology with polici minor. Always intrigue with speech as she has experience working with theater for autism etc.
She gapped between Junior year when she made her switch. Always worked
She’s 25 and is doing her Post Bac in Speech pathology now and loves it. She feels entering it a bit older has been very beneficial to her. She is actually helping some of the younger students in their studies…
Many of her classmates are taking their undergrad classes but it seems most are like her to some extent. The professors actually told her for graduate school they prefer some work experience etc before entering since the course work is very challenging.
So I guess you can enter the field in many different ways, which actually I feel is great.
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After completing your masters degree, you will need to do a Clinical Fellowship Year (CFY). You will not be licensed and certified until you complete this year (it’s actually 9 months) and pass the appropriate tests.
Finding a good CFY can be tricky. About 15 years ago I was contacted by an agency to supervise a student during her CFY. She was working for a school district and despite the fact that there were many SLPs in her district, none of them had the time to adequately supervise her. It should be noted that school based SLPs are often very, very busy.
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The good news is that Clinical Fellowship Year is a paid job. Anyone supervising a CFY clinician is required to take a course through ASHA about this before they take a CFY supervisory role.
I will say…ASHA makes it pretty clear that their certified SLPs should do CFY supervisions. I’ve done a number of them, and they are not burdensome usually.
Plus, there is a huge shortage of SLPs and snagging a recent and up to date graduate is a great thing that most districts (and other sites) really want! These folks are less costly to hire than more experienced SLPs…and really can bring some fresh and wonderful ideas to the schools.
Here, in clinical and hospital settings, CFY supervision isn’t usually an issue. Again…these places need SLPs!
I supervised a CFY last summer and learned that I had to take that course prior to supervising.
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I supervised a student 5 years ago. She wanted to get more pediatric hours in. I had been supervising students over my career, so when my boss contacted me, he asked me if I would be willing to supervise a CFY.
No one, in the local school district, was “qualified” to supervise her, so they contacted me (I was assigned at a private school, in a different area, but in the same county within a ½ hr commute to that city). Apparently, ASHA had to check my ASHA status and look up my history, qualifications, years teaching, licenses and status of how many students I had previously supervised.
There is a lot of documentation involved on the part of the SLP and the CFY and it has to start from day 1. You have to be familiar with the CFY stipulations and “paperwork”.
My colleagues in the hospitals, have always had multiple applicants for each CFY position. They’ve had so much experience in supervision training that I think they’ve been grandfathered for the required training?
Nope. Everyone who wants to supervise a CFY must now do this training.
But the CFY doesn’t need to do any special training. Being familiar with the paperwork is a good idea. I think it’s actually gotten much easier since all the tracking and reporting is done online now, I believe. I know our state supervised clinical year is totally online.
Exactly the same for us.
I had my last student take “screenshots” just in case a “technical” snafu might occur.