Therapists are a very important profession, as so many people benefit from them every day. The career can vary, ranging from counselors to psychotherapists and many more. The profession that is of interest in this article is Speech therapists. They help all sorts of people with different kinds of speech impairment or difficulties in language. This article should be useful for anyone with an interest in the field and that has any interest in following this career path. Speech therapists has been a part of my life for a long time as I was attained with a speech impairment at a very young age, so much so, that I even decided to choose this field as my choice of profession.
A speech therapist is a trained specialist in the diagnosis and treatment of a multitude of speech, voice and language disorders. A speech therapist will work with people who are unable to make speech sounds or cannot make them clearly. They also work with people who have fluency and rhythm problems, inappropriate pitch, stutter, harsh voice and speech quality problems.
The duty of a speech therapist is to set up a program of speech exercises which will help to reduce the disability and seek the assistance of a psychologist or psychiatrist if needed. Also, knowing that there are many variables which can cause a speech disorder, they need to keep a detailed and accurate record of the evaluation and progress of their patients and develop and integrate unique treatment programs to each patients based on the input of physicians, psychiatric social workers, and psychologists. It is important for a speech therapist to understand and emphasise with the emotions that the patients and their family that comes with these disorders in order to help them manage their stress and give them techniques that can be used at home.
A speech therapist will go early in the morning to help his patients to use their ‘’ their safe swallow strategies during breakfast.’’ Then there is a short staff meeting to quickly discuss appointments, discharge plans, medical complications and many more. Then, they treat patients from 08:30 to 12. During lunch break they document daily/weekly progress notes and restart therapy again at 1 p.m. There are usually 2-3 sessions left. After that, they will have to write daily and weekly notes. Finally, they need look at the patients that is going to come tomorrow.
Speech therapists are usually found working indoor, whether it would be in an office, or other various establishments such as hospitals, schools, college and universities, rehabilitations centers, long-term, residential health care facilities.
In order to become a Speech Therapist you need to have a Master’s degree in Speech Pathology, you need to have 375 hours of supervised clinical experience under your belt, a passing grade on a national examination and a minimum of 9 months of post-graduate professional experience.
The salary of a speech therapist can vary. Indeed, here in Canada, a speech therapist who work in the province of Alberta can make up to $107,738 which is highest and $44,597 which is the lowest.
A speech therapist needs to work on his communication skills and his listening skills, show a lot of compassion, needs to have critical-thinking skills, be detail oriented and work on having a great patience. All of those previously mentioned skills can be developped during the daily life, internships and
There is no specific physical danger that are directly related to the job.
With the growing technological interest in the medical field, it is not hard to imagine a world with artificial embodiment of therapists. Indeed, according to a research by Amelia Fiske from the University of Munich, the idea of virtual psychotherapists has already been an interesting research field. Fiske decided to study ethical impacts as well as the benefits of an A.I.-based therapists. Results from the paper show that the benefits are promising, however, further research is needed before committing to a full transition. Furthermore, other research also shows that the risk of automation of therapists’ positions is close to none. Although this is not exclusively related to speech therapists, we can assume that speech therapists also fall into the research scope.
In Canada, according to Canada's Government Job Bank, the average age of retirement for a psychologist is 65 years old. Given the nature of their jobs and the similarities, we can estimate a common age for speech therapists
To conclude, speech therapists are and should be seen as a very important field in our lives, because although they do not save lives or provide essential material, they help people everyday with difficulties they are facing.
Rationale: to inform or educate
Authority: this author’s opinion
Date: still relevant
Accuracy: probably true
Relevance: relevant for this document
Sources: cites sources
Rationale: to inform or educate
Date: still relevant
Accuracy: probably true
Relevance: relevant for this document
Sources: cites sources