MAC MIDWEST: SLP FAQ

Foreign I think we are live today. I am going to talk about speech language pathology. But first, let me introduce myself. My name is Jovana and I am a speech language pathologist and I work at Mac Midwest. So Mac Midwest, we serve individuals with autism and their families. And so I just wanted to give some insight into what the field of speech language pathology entails and kind of how we support individuals with autism and their families. P. a lot and you might not know what that stands for. SLP stands for a speech language pathologist, and that's a professional who diagnoses and treats issues related to speech, language, communication, swallowing, and also cognition.

Cognition is kind of an umbrella term that encompasses memory, attention, problem solving, and other sort of executive functioning skills. The cool thing about speech language pathology is that support people birth to death, like the entire lifespan. There are SLPs that work in the NICU with little premature babies and they work with them on feeding and tolerating meals. We work in the schools, we work in outpatient clinics, we work in the hospitals, and then we also work in long term care facilities or nursing homes with older adults.

But here with Mac Midwest, we can support individuals with autism. And let me tell you what that might look like. So we are really communication specialists. So as a part of our work, we might provide the following services. We might evaluate and diagnose speech, language, voice and fluency disorders in children and then help develop therapies to help patients improve their ability to communicate as well as to eat and swallow. A lot of kids with autism have sensory issues that impact their feeding abilities and really impacts the foods that they consume.

And so they have kind of a limited diet. Other things we do is identify treatment goals for the kids that we work with. So maybe we're not seeing them directly for speech, but we can say, hey, looks like maybe they're having some sensory issues. And we can collaborate with occupational therapy and get them on board to get those kids the support and services they need. We can also provide treatment, skilled treatment. And so this might look like teaching kids how to make specific sounds a lot of time.

Kids with autism might also have speech sound disorders, which is just a fancy way of saying they have difficulties articulating words. And so we can help provide instruction on how they can better produce those sounds. We can help kids who might have voice deficits. Maybe they speak in a very soft voice or a very loud voice, and so making them more aware of how to better utilize their voice. We can develop exercises to strengthen the muscles they use for swallowing. If there is a swallowing disorder, we can help support vocabulary development.

And for those kiddos who are non speaking or minimally speaking, or have issues with speaking, we can set them up with an AAC system. So an alternative and augmentative communication system. I actually did a live about that back in February, so you can go look at that if you're curious what AAC all entails. So while our focus day to day is generally on the kid or client with autism, we also spend a lot of time collaborating with with other professionals like the occupational therapists, social workers, schools to better support the kids and also the number one person in the kid's life, their family members.

So we get feedback from parents or guardians or other family members to determine what needs are at home. And we can provide strategies and training on how they can implement what we are working on in speech or feeding therapy so that there can be carryover in the home setting as well. So now that I have given the whole spiel about speech language pathology, I also want to just give a little insight into how one could become a speech language pathologist, because there's definitely a need for SLPs.

So the first thing you have to do is earn a bachelor's degree in communication science and disorders or a related field. It doesn't necessarily have to be communication science and disorders. I went to grad school with a lady who had a sociology degree. You just have to meet those prerequisites. Might need to take an additional class or two. But after you complete your bachelor's, you'll then need to earn a master's degree in Speech Language pathology. And that usually looks like three semesters of coursework and then two semesters of a practicum experience.

Generally, one semester you spend in the educational setting and then the other semester in a medical setting. So it's kind of helpful because our field is so broad you get to get your toes a little wet. You know, there's still so much to learn once you're out there, but you get a taste of what each setting can, can look like. And so then after you complete your master's degree, you have to. Sometimes you have to pass the praxis before you graduate. Other programs you can wait until after. But basically the praxis is a comprehensive exam, so you'll have to pass that and then you complete a clinical fellowship.

And so typically that's about nine months where you have a mentor you check in who makes sure that you are competent because you need to prove you're competent. So that you can get your certificate of clinical competency or your Cs, which a lot of C states and jobs require you to have to practice, but not all. Then the last step would be get your state's license to practice. That is all I have to share today about speech language pathology, what our field entails, how we support individuals with autism and their families, especially here at Mac Midwest, and then also how one could go about becoming a speech language pathologist.

So does anybody have any questions? All right. Well, I'll stop the live stream. It takes about five seconds to stop. But thank you all so much for joining. Have a great day.