what does a speach pathologist do?

This is a great field to get into. I am trying to get my bachelors so I can go and get my Speech pathology masters. Speech Pathologists work with people with speech disabilities such as stuttering and or cognitive and swallowing problems. You can work in a private practice, a school, retirement homes or in a hospital. The minimum education requirement is a master’s in speech pathology. You can also check out audiology, a lot of speech pathologists major in both. Also, the US dept. of labor says that the demand for SP is going to be growing in the next couple of years. check out their site for salary information as well as working conditions. Keep in mind it is therapeutic job and very demanding of your time and attention to details. It can be frustrating because patient’s progress might take long, but it is all worth it in the end. If you are interest, a great thing to do is learn sign language if you dont already know it. There are great books and dvds at your local library as well as good websites for free. Good luck!

I am not a speech pathologist but I know generally what they do in the public schools…they are responsible for diagnosing speech problems, starting with possible physical deformations in the mouth and tongue that make it hard to speak. They also listen to sounds and articulations the children speak and identify patterns that can be worked on. Also there is receptive language; what children are perceiving from others and if there is a communication barrier that prevents them from understanding language correctly. A speech pathologist gives children various tests to see where they rate in these kinds of areas. Using these tests and observations, a speech pathologist makes recommendations to the school’s ARD commitee (special education). It is just basically a meeting to address the child’s speech issues, make goals, discuss their progress toward their past goals and suggest new goals for the upcoming year, or exit the student from special ed speech services if they are on track after several years.

A speech pathologist also oversees speech teachers on campuses and does observations on the speech teachers to make sure they are doing their jobs correctly.

Hope that helps!

Well the first thing he’d do for you is teach you how to spell