What is a Speech Pathologist?
So now that you’ve made it here, you’re probably wondering, what’s a “speech pathologist”? And who could blame you? That title isn’t super clear.
Speech Pathologists AKA Speech Therapists AKA Speech Language Pathologists AKA Speech Teachers can treat a variety of deficits and disorders.
You can find us doing work in Neonatal Intensive Care Units (NICUs) to Hospitals to schools to nursing homes. Some SLPs have a clinical specialty and some are generalists. Have you caught on to the theme here that there’s just so much variety to what we do?
According to our governing body, The American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA), We are the “experts in communication”. https://www.asha.org/public/Who-Are-Speech-Language-Pathologists/
There are several communication domains that SLPs address:
Receptive Language—what your child understands.
Expressive Language—what your child says.
Social Communication—how your child interacts with others and reads and responds to cues.
Articulation/Phonology—how clearly your child speaks.
Voice—how your child’s voice sounds.
Fluency—how your child’s speech flows.
Literacy—how well your child reads and writes.
Cognitive Communication—how your child’s mind works including: problem solving, attention, organization, memory, and thinking skills.
Feeding/Swallowing—how your child sucks, chews, and swallows foods and liquids.
If you feel your child is struggling in any of these areas, a Speech Pathologist may be able to help.
As you can see, there are many areas that Speech Pathologists can work and specialize in and you’ll want to pick a SLP that has knowledge and experience treating the deficits that you are noticing in your child.
I think gut feelings of parents are an excellent reason to reach out to a provider. You don’t have to “wait and see”, you can reach out, you can ask questions, you can be proactive for your child, because you know your child best.
In my next post, I’ll go into more depth about HOW to pick a SLP for your child/family. In the meantime, if you have questions about any of these domains specific to YOUR child’s development, get in touch with me via the contact me page.