Daniel Said:

Which SUNY school has a great Speech-Language Pathology (Communication Disorder) graduate program?

We Answered:

Have you thought of

SUNY At Plattsburg? It's got a good program and the campus is very nice.

:)

Anthony Said:

Speech language pathology/communication disorder majors, any input?

We Answered:

I was in the same boat as you, and eventually became a speech pathologist after changing my major several times.
You won't have a problem with the "technical" (as Monkey put it) part, as you have a bent for biology. Neuropsych is a big part of the job, as is psychology.
The equipment used? Another no-brainer. We use: endoscopes, dental mirrors, electrolarynges, augmentative communication devices-- think Stephen Hawking-- (working with such devices is a subspecialty in SP-- you may never have the need to use one), sometimes cochlear implants during therapy, psychometric tests, tracheostomy tubes with speaking valves, oral prostheses, and voice prostheses.
Labs focus on clinical practica, and include clinical courses on and off campus (hospital practice) There are only a handful of programs with dissection of the vocal tract.
I found SLP to be the perfect marriage of science and language/psych.
I loved working in hospitals; particularly academic medical centers--- that's where the action is. Every day is different, you learn new things every day, and the caseload and the disorders represented were very diverse.
The drawbacks? It can be very draining emotionally if you can't keep your professional distance.
It took 5 years of practice before I felt truly competent in the medical setting (I had a 3.8 master's GPA and scored in the 96th percentile on the nat'l exam, so it wasn't that I didn't know the academics-- it was getting up to speed on the medicine part (how SP corresponds with medical diagnoses and their treatment)).
Paperwork was the bane of my existence. It's not too bad if you keep up with it, but it becomes a monster if you let it slide.
It was a profession I adored, but I had to retire due to disability (unrelated to my job).
Good luck!

Frederick Said:

if you had a child with moderate learning difficulties and a language disorder effecting speech?

We Answered:

I would go for language, if he can communicate and talk he can learn life skills much more easily. We are in the same position at the moment and gosh I have never been so stuck with a decision in my life. I am at a complete loss to know what to do so know exactly how you feel.