Career Opportunities
Speech Language Pathologists
They work with clients of all ages and:
Careers for Speech Language Pathologists
- Assist children who are delayed in their acquisition of speech and language or who demonstrate
communicative disorders, for instance those due to cleft palate, or neurological dysfunction, such as
cerebral palsy, autism, or mental retardation.
- Help people with articulation disorders to learn proper production of speech sounds
- Help people who stutter to speak more fluently
- Assist people with voice disorders to improve voice
- Help people with aphasia to relearn speech and language skills
- Assist people who have difficulty swallowing as a result of illness, surgery, stroke or injury
- Evaluate, select, and develop augmentativecommunication systems (such as voice synthesizing computers
and communication boards) for people with severe speech problems
- Enhance communication effectiveness: improving everyday communication skills, such as pitch, projection,
accent, and nonverbal communication
- Conduct research to develop new and better ways to evaluate and treat speech, language, and swallowing
problems
Audiologists
- Test and diagnose hearing and balance disorders in infants, children, and adults
- Educate consumers and professionals on the prevention of hearing loss
- Select, fit, and dispense hearing aids and assistive listening, alerting, and captioning devices
- Consult and administer help through hearing conservation programs in industry to prevent workplace-related
and recreational hearing loss
- Consult federal, state, and local agencies on reducing community noise
- Conduct research into environmental influences on hearing, new testing methods, and new rehabilitative
devices such as cochlear implants
- Work with adults and children who need aural rehabilitation such as auditory training and speech reading
Career Opportunities for Speech-Language Pathologists and Audiologists
With additional training, education, and appropriate coursework, students with a baccalaureate degree
may also apply to law school, medical, or dental school or pursue graduate programs in areas including, but
not limited to, psychology, special education, business, education, and social work. More information about
the fields of speech-language pathology and audiology may be found on the American Speech-Language Hearing
Association's web site: http://www.asha.org.
Examples of where Speech-Language Pathologists and Audiologists may be employed include (those in bold are
the most common):
Career options list
- Hospitals
- Public and Private Schools
- Medical Clinics
- Rehabilitation Centers
- Private Practice
- Research Laboratories
- Nursing Care Facilities
- Community Centers
- Colleges and Universities
- Health Departments
- State and Federal Agencies
Informative Web Sites