Speech Pathologist

"First ask yourself what did I say? Not what are they doing." -Sister Swenson

In class this week, we talked about the importance of looking at the triggers for the crisis cycle. We discussed the behaviorist view of child development and the need for motivation. We watched a video of parents talking about finally being able to connect with a support group because of their child with a disability and the advantages associated with the support group. We talked about the importance of connecting with the parents of our students so we can work together.

Another thing Sister Swenson mentioned was the difference between being a shepherd of the 99 or a shepherd of the 1. This really resonated with me because I have struggled for years since being in college as I have gone into the classroom and have been expected to work with the 99. This isn't my calling and it felt great to be validated and to understand this about myself.

For my HWD this week, I researched the difference between a speech pathologist and a speech therapist. I came across this article by Donald Fuller:

The terms "speech therapist" and "speech pathologist" have been used for years as titles for persons who work with persons having communication impairments. In the past, the term "speech pathologist" was used by professionals to describe themselves, but the term most commonly used today is "speech-language pathologist" or "SLP." Lay people have more often referred to us as "speech therapists," "speech correctionists," or even "speech teachers."

These are all terms that describe the same profession, but "speech-language pathologist" is the preferred term because it captures the essence of our work (speech and language) and also signifies that we are qualified by our training and clinical experience to identify, assess, and provide remediation for pathological conditions of communication. The term "speech" is used to denote the components of vocal activity such as phonation (the production of a vocal tone via the larynx or "voice box"), articulation (the movement of the structures in the mouth to create speech sounds to produce words), resonance (the overall quality of the voice as well as the process that transforms the vocal tone into what we recognize as a person's "voice") and fluency (the timing and synchronization of these components of the complex speech act). "Language" refers to the comprehension and production of language, including the mode in which it is comprehended or produced (oral, gesturing, writing, or reading).

Even the term "speech-language pathologist" doesn't quite capture the totality of our scope of practice. For example, speech-language pathologists also address the needs of persons who exhibit difficulties with cognitive functions (attention, memory, problem-solving), literacy, social interaction, and swallowing. Considering such a wide scope of practice, perhaps in the future a new term will be coined to describe who we are and what we do.

http://www.speechpathology.com/ask-the-experts/what-difference-between-speech-therapist-1057

From this, I learned that a speech pathologist and a speech therapist are the same thing and that they do more than working with speech. Next week for my HWD I am going to research what I would need to do to get into graduate school to become a speech pathologist.