5 Reasons Why Speech Language Therapists Love Their Jobs
Being a speech language therapist certainly isn’t without its stressful moments or challenging situations, but the opportunity to make a difference to the lives of children with speech and language disorders, including articulation, cognitive-communication and expressive disorders, makes it such a rewarding role that those in the profession love.
Whether you’re considering a career in speech and language pathology or you’re a parent of a child with speech and communication issues and you’d like to learn more, here are a few of the many things we love about being a speech language therapist and helping children.
Watching Children Progress and Improve
The feeling of watching children improve their language and speaking skills is an aspect of the role that makes all the hard work involved so worthwhile. Which isn’t to say we don’t enjoy the hard work. As a paediatric speech pathologist, it’s such an uplifting feeling and boost to see children not only improve their articulation or pronunciation skills but to also share in the joy they experience as a result of their gains. We love watching children succeed.
Helping Parents Through Education
Effective speech and language pathology extends to home and social life as well as clinical practices, which means an important part of our role as a speech language therapist is to help parents help their children. We facilitate this by educating parents on the activities and exercises they can do with their child, the apps and online tools they can access, and general advice on managing a child with communication difficulties. We recognise just how difficult it can be for parents whose children are affected by speech and language disorders.
Never Stop Learning
Scientific and technological breakthroughs that enhance our understanding of speech and language disorders and, consequently, our ability to diagnose and treat these disorders, is an important aspect of the career we choose as speech and language therapy specialists. We know ongoing study and learning is vital to delivering the best outcomes for the kids we work with and we welcome the opportunity to expand our knowledge, skills and abilities.
Working with Kids with Diverse Needs
Speech, language and communication impairments and disorders are just as diverse as the children who need help managing them. As a result, speech therapists work with kids with incredibly diverse needs, like kids with autism, PTSD and a range of disorders. While this increases our daily challenges as therapists, it also pushes us harder to find innovative and effective methods to make a difference in the lives of the kids we work with.
Making a Difference that Counts
All of this (and so much more) adds up to what is for many of us the most important part of our role as speech language therapists — making a difference that counts.
From the ongoing learning that enables us to deliver better speech and language development outcomes for the kids we work with to sharing in their successes and helping parents help their kids (and cope with the challenges that a child with a speech disorder presents), we love making a difference in the lives of those we work with.
Like to learn more about the speech and language therapy we offer at our Newcastle speech pathology clinic? Contact us online or call 02 4067 3753 to learn more or book an appointment. Educare is a registered and accredited provider of NDIS services.
