My Major

I realize at this point that I haven't really talked much about my major. I've made many mentions to it, and maybe gave it a title, but not really discussed it. I'll be doing that now, and also touching on where people post discussions or articles in my field of interest.

What do students learn to do?

So far I've been discovering that students who study Speech, Language, and Hearing Sciences are learning how to recognize, diagnose, and treat communication disorders. They learn how to work with people who have difficulties communicating, whether that be because of a communication disorder or hearing loss. They can go into either audiology, and work with hearing, or speech pathology, and work with speech production.

What do people who get degrees in SLHS go on to do for work?

People generally take one of two paths in the program itself. They can take the audiology route or speech pathology route. If one were to go into audiology, they deal with the ear and hearing. This includes doing tests on newborns to detect hearing loss as early as possible. If a hearing loss is detected, they can work with the child and parents in the treatment of that. They will help them with either a cochlear implant, hearing aids, body mics, etc.

If a person were to take the Speech Pathology route in the SLHS program, they would work more in speech production. They could work with children who stutter, either in schools as a speech therapist, or in a private practice. This is the same for any type of speech impediment. They could also work in accent reduction for people who want to lessen their native accent when they speak English. Speech pathologists can go into a variety of job types, and either start their own practice or work with a hospital, school, or existing company.

So why am I interested in it?

To be honest, I had no intention of going into speech pathology at all when I was younger. I wanted to either be a mechanical engineer or a pediatrician. That changed a little after congresswoman Gabby Giffords was shot in the head. I watched a documentary they did on her, and while she was going through therapy, they had a music therapist come in to work with her. I immediately thought that was what I wanted to do. It wasn't until I realized I didn't know how to play any instruments other than my voice that I realized I probably should find something different to do....

I still wanted to do some sort of rehabilitative therapy, but I didn't know what to do other than music. It wasn't until I took sign language my junior year of high school that I realized I wanted to do speech pathology. I had fallen in love with Deaf Culture, and I wanted to work with children who were deaf and learning to speak orally. I realized that I wanted to keep my interest in the medical field, and my interest in speech production and hearing and utilize that in the Speech, Language, and Hearing Sciences field.

Leaders in the SLHS field:

One of the main voices for SLHS is ASHA, which is the American Speech, Language, and Hearing Association.

Some leading doctors in the world of Speech, Language, and Hearing Sciences that I have found are Dr. John Rosenbek, Dr. Daniel Boone, and Dr. Gary McCullough.

Journals for SLHS Publications:

The first scholarly journal I found for SLHS is the Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research.

Another publication journal is the American Journal of Speech-Language Pathology.

I also found the American Journal of Audiology and the Journal for Language, Speech, and Hearing Services in Schools.