Pearl Said:

What jobs are available to Speech Therapy grads who have not yet gotten a Master's degree? Any at all?

We Answered:

SLP Assistant
Teacher's Aid
Teach for America Teacher
School Secretary
Nursing home employee/tech
Tutor
Babysitter
Daycare employee
Personal Assistant for someone with a disability

These positions can all give you valuable experience working with populations that you may see as an SLP. Also, if you work in a school or nursing home, you may get the opportunity to observe a real-world SLP at work.

Good luck :)

Deanna Said:

What age should you start speech therapy?

We Answered:

I have a son that has a speech problem also. I would suggest calling the local Early Intervention. They provide free evaluations and services to children under 3 needing these types of things. They are wonderful and it's better to seek help earlier than later when he will have to deal with it in school. Best wishes! If you let me know where you live I can get you more information on your local Early Intervention, or you can possibly look it up online or in the phone book!

Rick Said:

What is the Right age to start Speech Therapy?

We Answered:

if shes behind on talking, i would do it now, the earlier the better with this kind of thing. even though she now has hearing aids, she still can have hearing problems and she may not know how to interpret the sounds from the hearing aids, so just learning like any other kid may not be an option. not all cases are the same, but its not something you want to mess with, so i would send her, see how she does, and if she seems like she can get along without it, you can always take her out. i started when i was 4, but i didnt have any hearing problems, i just couldnt speak correctly and they didnt really know what was wrong up until then. it was covered by insurance for me because i was legally speech impaired, so theyll probably do the same for you if you have insurance.

Louis Said:

What is the best way to improve rhotacism without proper speech therapy?

We Answered:

first of all, dont give up. you sound highly motivated to really work at this difficult sound. also, dont be hard on yourself in not being able to master the /r/ sound while young. it is the most challenging sound to successfully correct, and there is a rather large percentage of people who are never able to fully correct their production of /r/.

the main thing holding you back is being able to successfully navigate the parts of your mouth for placement of a correct /r/. i would recommend standing in front of the bathroom mirror everyday and doing tongue exercises that focus on raising the sides of your mid to back tongue and touching them to the inner sides of your upper teeth. practice moving your tongue sides back and forth against the sides of your upper teeth. this is where your tongue needs to be when producing the /r/. as for the mid part and front of your tongue, you need to practice making a "cup like" motion with it. these are the two basic placements for the /r/. i would also do some practicing in retracting your tongue (starting with it on your front top teeth and scraping it back along the top of your mouth. a fun challenge to do to strengthen your tongue retraction is drink pudding (like a snack cup) from a regular straw cut in half. this is difficult to do, but strengthens those retracting tongue muscles and actually mimics the placement your tongue needs in producing the /r/.

a good resource all about this is the book "successful R therapy" by pam marshalla. you can buy this book from the website "superduperinc.com" it goes step by step what to try and do, and describes the tongue position in detail. once you acheive that tongue position, its just a matter of practicing words, phrases, and sentences with that good /r/.

good luck!

Francis Said:

how to start an outpatient speech therapy clinic?

We Answered:

I would imagine that you would want to be licensed. Each state has there own requirements and it's very likely that ASHA required clinicians in a private practice to be fully licensed. Good luck.
In Austin? Drop me a line.

Suzanne Said:

I am considering a career in speech therapy, any help please?

We Answered:

The 2 terms are synonymous. For more information, the best place to check out is www.asha.org.
You will need to get a Master's degree in communication disorders from an accredited university - available on ASHA website. Pay information is also available on this website - do a search for salary reports.
There are a variety of settings in which you can work: clinics, schools, hospitals, private practice, agencies.
If you are not interested in going for a Master's you could always look into becoming a SLPA (speech assistant). http://www.asha.org/about/membership-cer…
http://www.asha.org/public/slp.htm