What does a Speech Pathologist do?

Great question! I've often wondered if my occupation could be better named. Communication specialist? (Maybe, sounds like someone who works in marketing), Head and neck therapist? That doesn't fit either. Even after studying and practicing for nearly 10 years I still often have surprised comments from family members and close friends 'I didn't know that you helped with that' 'Is that REALLY something that you have knowledge about?'

Speech Pathologists are allied health professionals for whom our core business is assisting all people across the lifespan with communication and swallowing.

This includes the way speech sounds. There are multiple areas of practice that we could squeeze under this category. Simply this includes articulation (how sounds are made with our lips, tongue and oral cavity), voice - the quality and tone of our voice, and prosody - the rate, volume and intonation with which we speak.

Next is language, this is about understanding and expressing meaning using the agreed upon linguistic rules of the language. Including ability to understand others in spoken word, text or symbols as well as expressing oneself functionally

Social Skills, which we call 'pragmatics' considers the social functions of language and includes, initiation, turn taking, topic choice and maintenance.

And assisting those who communicate by augmentative and alternative (AAC) approaches, we all use non-verbal communication, for some people using AAC assists to enhance their non verbal communication which gesture, symbols, and speech technology to both understand and express their message.

Then there is the spanner in the works - Swallowing - This is our area of practice that most frequently surprises others. We assist people with safe, eating and drinking. Assess for and provide management plans for Dysphagia (which means difficulty swallowing). We are uniquely placed with this skills due to our extensive training and knowledge of the head and neck. If you think about it, the parts of our body we use for communicating are also the parts that we use for eating and drinking. This area also extends to safe eating in infants and children.

In a typical speech pathologist appointment your speech pathologist will work with you to establish goals within these areas, complete assessments and collect data, then design a therapy plan. A speech pathologist may deliver all the therapy on the plan via 1:1 intervention, in a group, or with the an Allied Health Assistant. Your speech pathologist may want to upskill and build capacity for your communication partners i.e. family, friends, colleagues, teachers. This is because communication is always at least a two-way street. We usually provide you with some homework.

A speech pathologist in Australia is guided by Speech Pathology Australia's Code of Ethics. Which you can view here. As health professionals we are evidence based, which means the assessments and therapy we plan are supported by data and evidence.

That's about as brief as I can keep it! If you have concerns about you or a loved ones ability to communicate or eat safely, it may be worthwhile speaking to a Speech Pathologist about your concerns.

For further information about our scope of practice, click here