It happens every time you meet someone new. They ask, “what do you do?”
You respond with your job title or a description of what you are currently doing in life. Over the past 20 years, my conversation goes something like this…“I’m a Speech Language Pathologist,” and the person responds, without fail, “oh, my son/daughter/niece/nephew/insert child, is currently in/was in, speech therapy to help say r/s/th/any other sound. Then, I proceed to explain my field of Medical Speech Language Pathology (SLP).
I have the utmost respect for my colleagues who are in the schools, clinics, and private practices working on articulation and phonological processes (saying sounds such as r, s, th…) Intelligible speech is critical to a child’s success academically, socially and emotionally. Having said that, there is another side to Speech Language Pathology that many people do not know exists.
In graduate school, students who wish to become Medical SLPs take courses such as Neurological Disorders (i.e. Parkinson’s disease, brain injuries, stroke, and more), Dysphagia (difficulty with swallowing), Voice (ever heard of a famous singer with nodules?) and many others. Students can choose if they are interested in pediatric or adult populations.
My path in Medical SLP began at Wayne State University in Detroit, which lead to medical internships at C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital at the University of Michigan; and the VA Ann Arbor Healthcare System. I ultimately chose to work with adults who have experienced life altering medical issues that have affected their ability to communicate and/or swallow safely.
I created Renew Speech Language Pathology to help people recover their ability to talk and to eat again after illnesses. They have experienced damage to their brain or their throats making it hard to think of the words they want to say, or their voice is altered, or food and liquid go down the wrong pipe! There are so many treatments to help these conditions.
Medical SLPs who work with adults are found in trauma centers, hospitals, rehabilitation facilities, outpatient clinics and private practices as well as other locations. We see too many disorders to make a comprehensive list here; however, some areas include trauma to the head and neck, cancer, stroke, Parkinson’s Disease (PD), Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS), and dementia.
Have a question about Medical Speech Language Pathology? Ask me! dorinda@renewspeech.com
Very informative.