Why I Want To Be A Speech-Pathologist

Keaunna Knox has been a Speech-Language Pathologist (SLP) since 2007, and has worked ever since 2000 with children with special needs who had speech and language disorders. She began as an “Instructional/Speech Aide” at Pasadena Unified School District working with children with moderate and severe intellectual disabilities. All the students she worked with had speech and language disorders, and, since the Districts therapy was overloaded Keaunna implemented the communication goals she wrote. Based on that experience and many others, Keaunna decided to enroll at Cal State Los Angeles to pursue her professional career in teaching. She received her Master’s in Mild-Moderate Disabilities in Special Education from Cal State Los Angeles and a second

Speech and language therapist who assist children with a range of difficulties such as language delay, hearing impairment, stammering, autism, and those with eating and swallowing difficulties.

I am Samantha Peterson, as a child I was taught to be independent in my beliefs and to always follow my heart wherever it led me. I have always been one to go after what I want and never give up until my dreams are fulfilled. I plan to finish my associate degree at AB Tech and transfer to Western Carolina. I plan to graduate from Western Carolina with a master’s degree in speech pathology. Once I complete this phase in my life I hope to pursue my career and start a family of my own. To begin my career, I hope to still be employed at Mission Hospital, but as a speech pathologist rather than a medical assistant. As a speech pathologist I hope to make life changing improvements in people’s everyday lives that I cross paths with. While beginning

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.

My mother, Ann Peterka, works for Early Childhood Intervention services of Tarrant County. She works with children from birth to three who have disabilities, teaching each child’s family members intervention techniques to help with the child’s development. I chose to interview my mom because of her impact on my major selection, and her career itself. In the future, I would love to be a speech therapist or a speech pathologist, this career was brought to my attention by my mom. In her field, she noticed that there weren’t enough speech therapists to help out with many caseloads that each worker has. While my mom is trained to notice speech impediments she has said that she is not quite qualified to give a diagnosis or treatment, and that’s where having a speech therapist consult would come in handy.

"If you fail to plan, you plan to fail." I can hear one of my grandmother's highly regarded quotes resonating inside my head. Apprehension consumed me when I entered college as an undecided major. Unexpectedly that all changed a few weeks into my first semester. My grandmother had a stroke which ultimately affected her speech and was in dire need of a Speech Pathologist. This is what initially sparked my interest in this field. I was determined on working with the geriatric population because of the experience and attachment I endured with my grandmother. However, the irrefutable fact that this is my passion became evident when I started working as an Assistant Teacher at Clarke Schools for Hearing and Speech.

How often do passion and profession come together? For me, being a natural communicator, I have always dreamt of being part of a multi-disciplinary team, improving the lives of others in both a direct and true-to-life level. With my sincere interest in people and curiosity of the mechanisms’ of the human body, having a simple conversation with my cousin is what made me fall in love with this career.

Speech and language specialists- This service supports people that have had a stroke or with people who have a speech impairment

My greatest goal in life has always been to have a family. I so much desire a life with children and to provide them with a home that fosters empathy, integrity, kindness, and tenacity. In order for me to achieve this, I must first become an exemplary figure of these qualities myself.

While I am considering how I want my future to look as a Speech Pathologist, I have also taken much time to think about where I want to end up geographically and what populations I wish to work with. Detroit has always been a city that has been very close to my heart. Detroit is where my family grounded themselves when they first settled in the United States. This city had given so much to my family. This gave me a desire to return to our roots in Detroit. It is also the disadvantaged populations and underfunded schools in Detroit that give me such a passion for wanting to work in this city. The lack of funding to the Detroit public schools infuriating to me as it limits the amount of services these students can receive. I find important to

SLTS are health professional who work with children who have difficulties with speech, language and communication problem. They make observations on children and support them on one to one basis, using simple language to make it easy for the children to understand. SLTS also work closely with parents and other professionals, such as practitioners or occupational therapist.

For my research I have chosen to discuss the key role of a Speech Language Pathologist (SLP). Speech Language Pathologists can best be recognized as qualified practitioners that identify, diagnose and treat communicative disorders (Serpanos & Senzer, 2015). There are two types of disorders that a SLP can be used for: speech disorder and language disorder. A speech disorder can best be described as a person that has trouble producing sounds correctly or fluently. A language disorder is recognized as someone who has trouble expressing thoughts, feelings and ideas through speech. SLP’s are taught how to treat each pf these disorders.

Therefore, to make my verbal communication and reading skills better, I have decided to seek speech pathology therapy. Being close to the University of Northern Iowa, I have decided to avail the services provided by the university's speech clinic. Since, the clinic charges for the services to their customers,

A Speech pathologist provides remediations for varieties of disorders including articulation disorders, cognitive delays, swallowing problems, oral motor and oral feeding problems, auditory processing disorder, voice disorders, stuttering and fluency, receptive language delays and impairments, pragmatic disorders, expressive language delays, and social language use (Pritchard). Speech pathologists share the love of changing people’s lives and forming relationships with their different clients, along with their client’s families (Jennings). Speech pathology, an essential aspect out of all the different communication difficulties, comes with problems with literacy that relate to speech pathologists who specialize in this issue (Mercury). Speech

A). Interpersonal skills and social affect are pertinent qualities for a speech pathologist. Success as a speech-language pathologist is not only contingent upon being able to communicate with patients. Indeed, the purpose of our job revolves around rehabilitating or habilitating patients who may have had a stroke, dysphagia, and other speech and language disorders. Social skills concerning a patient necessitate positivity and motivation, we have to empower However, one has to consider familial involvement and the medical team, conversing with a parent or a teacher can greatly differ. Often, one needs to explain the progression of the patient differently and exhibit more patience.