Speech therapy is a unique and exciting career that allows you to attain higher education in bioscience, becoming a health professional. It gives you great working flexibility and possesses a brighter prospect. If you want to climb a career ladder as a speech and language therapist but confused about how to begin, this article is for you. In this article, you will discover everything about becoming a speech therapist that would surely help you relieve all doubts towards your final decision to a future career.
Speech & Language Therapist (SLP)
Speech and language therapist or speech-language pathologist is a health professional that assist people of all the ages with their speaking, communication, and language problems which can be due to mental health problems, developmental delays, trauma, and physical disability. They also help people who suffer problems with swallowing to eat and drink.
Nearly 6000 speech and language therapists are working in all over the Canada, where nearly 4% of pre-school Canadian children and nearly 1% of adults suffer speech and communication problems.
Skills requirements for becoming a speech therapist
You will require a few skills to pursue your career as a good speech and language therapist. It includes,
- Ability to understand and catch things quickly.
- Good knowledge of the English language. If you are working in a country where the main language is not English (such as Arabic, Hindi and French), then good command on locally spoken language is essential to work competently.
- Willing to get mould and adjust in any environment.
- Ability to look and pick every small detail.
- Expert ability in verbal communication with the patient.
- Remain calm and patient in stressful circumstances.
- Basic computer operating knowledge.
- Understanding of hand-held device use.
What can I expect working as a speech therapist?
As a speech therapist, your responsibility will need to:
- Engage with patients, observe, and examine their cause and level of their specific difficulties.
- Decide and formulate therapeutic plans and programmes.
- Deliver support to the patient throughout the treatment.
- Work in close with colleagues such as doctors and teachers
- Educate parents or those who live with the patient to ensure that they continue therapy later at home.
- Keep every detail about the patient’s progress.
Educational requirements for becoming a speech therapist:
In Canada, you will require a master’s level degree to pursue your career as a speech and language therapist.
Additionally, you will require, undergraduate degree in Science . However, if you have a first degree in science from a recognized university, you can enrol in the postgraduate programme for speech and language pathologist programme. It will require you minimum 3.0 GPA, and proficiency in English. Nevertheless, either you have attained a degree from Canada or from abroad, it needs to be recognized by Speech language & Audiology Canada (SAC).
Subject of interest involved in the curriculum of speech and language therapy programme:
Throughout your degree/post graduate programme, you will be studying biological and medical subjects including,
- anatomy
- neurology
- audiology
- psychiatry
- paediatric
- gerontology
- statistics
- biological process.
How can I progress further as a speech therapist?
You can pursue by acquiring higher qualifications such as specialization in the respective field. Post-graduation can be done in specific disorders such as learning disabilities, hearing impairments, neuro-generative disorder, developmental speech delay, secondary injuries due to accidents, head, and neck cancers.
Specialised and more experienced speech therapists are more involved in research and teaching fields. Perhaps, higher position brings more responsibilities on the shoulders such as supervising assistants and junior staff.
As a speech therapist with whom I will interact/deal?
You will interact with a varied range of patients from a child to an old, aged man.
You will assist children if they have.
- varying levels of learning problems (receptive disorder)
- speech delay, difficulty in producing varied sounds (articulation disorder)
- hearing difficulty (auditory processing disorder)
- Stammer
- vocal problem (resonance disorder)
- selective mute state
- developmental speech disorder(aphasia)
- cleft lip and palate.
Not only this, but you will also be working with infants and babies, suffering from feeding and swallowing issues. In adults you will help people who have swallowing problem due to neurological and cognitive-communication disorder) and degenerative (dysarthria) diseases such as stroke, dementia, and head trauma. You will assist patients with vocal cord problems, mental health issues, learning problems, stammer, and hearing difficulties.
Working nature & environment:
You can work either as a private practitioner or collaborate with other health professional such as doctors and nurses. You will be required to work in a diverse range of environments, it includes, schools, nurseries, care homes, child development centre, prisons, patient’s home, clinics, and hospitals.
Salary package & Working hours:
As a speech and language therapist in Canada, you will be allowed to work nearly 35-40 hours in a week. During working hours, you might need to stay on some weekends or in the evenings if it suits your client. However, the good news is you can work flexibly as part-time or become self-employed. In terms of salary, a new speech therapist earns nearly$41/hour and a basic average pay is $70,000/year. A speech therapist with more higher qualifications could earn nearly $81,000/yr. However, senior specialist is paid to $107,000/yr.
However, the salary does not intend to be the same as given. It is subjected for a guide only and pay-scale can vary.
Can I get a job straight away after my degree?
It has become quite competitive to get a paid job soon after acquiring a degree. Therefore, obtaining work experience via volunteering is a good option. As a volunteer, you can work with children and adults suffering from learning, hearing and communication difficulties and people recovering from trauma. Additionally, you can also work as an assistant under a qualified speech therapist to gain valuable experience.
Conclusion
Undoubtedly, adopting a career in speech and language therapy is a noble profession, where therapists work as a healthcare professional to deal with a variety of patients seeking their help against different medical health conditions. Becoming a speech therapist requires relatively easy to join as compared to enrolling in a medical school. Once you step in the career, it would be much easier to progress higher in the respective field.