Your areas of expertise as an SLLP will include cognitive-communication, social communication, and swallowing disorders amongst a large spectrum of patients starting from young children to elderly people who have suffered from a stroke.
In order to qualify as a practicing speech-language pathologist, you will have to secure a master's degree and should be state-licensed and nationally certified by the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association. To have a better understanding about what the jobs look like in this field, you may want to check out open SLP job positions. In the following segment, we will be outlining the major steps of becoming a speech-language pathologist for your better understanding.
- Complete an Undergraduate Program in Communication Sciences and Disorders (CSD)
Even though securing an undergraduate degree in CSD is not tagged as compulsory, completing it would remove the necessity of enrolling yourself in a set of curriculums before commencing graduate studies. With an undergraduate degree at your disposal, you will be able to smoothly move on to the master's program which, in turn, is mandatory.
The CSD undergraduate program principally comprises of the rudiments of statistics and physical, biological, social, and behavioral sciences. Besides, you'll be also learning about language disorders and phonology, normal language development, linguistics, and anatomy of hearing and speech mechanisms. There are a lot of UG programs that encourage students to actively take part in research activities curated to refine the skills indispensable for seamless clinical practice.
- Complete a CAA-Accredited Graduate degree program in CSD
To be granted the license of a speech-language pathologist, you must inexorably complete an entry-level degree from any one of the programs listed by the Council on Academic Accreditation in Audiology and Speech-Language Pathology (CAA). The graduate program will have clinical and academic coursework which, if required, can be also coupled with projects based on research.
- Requirements for a clinical practicum- Although the requirements for clinical practicum is different in different states but, all of them are aimed at complying with a single objective; that is, acquainting the student with the speech pathology profession and teaching them the right applications of their newly-gained knowledge. In Texas, the course duration is 400 hours, while in Pennsylvania and Florida it is 375 hours and 300 hours respectively.
- Admission requirements- The basic admission requirements consist of GRE scores, a GPA of minimum 3.0, admission essay, and letters of recommendation.
- Complete a post-graduate fellowship
In this stage of fellowship, the catch is, you might have to apply for a temporary license (depending on the state you hail from) via the board of speech-language pathology and audiology of your state. To be authorized for the license, you must either own a doctoral degree or a master’s degree for that matter from a CAA-accredited program and produce a well-delineated plan for your fellowship signed by a licensed supervisor before the authorities concerned. Through the clinical fellowship program, you will be mentored by an ASHA-certified speech-language pathology professional for about 36 weeks; but, these regulations vary from one state to another.
- Take a National Exam in Speech-Language Pathology
To get your hands on the state licensure, you must appear for the National Exam in Speech-Language Pathology and be rewarded with passing marks. Ideally, you can take this text any time after you complete the CAA-accredited program but, most students prefer sitting for the examination during their clinical fellowship. The fact that each state has its own passing score requirements for the exam cannot be overlooked here; but, because most of them abide by the CCC-SLP certification, the minimum score should be of 162.
- Apply for state licensure
The penultimate step of becoming a speech-language pathologist revolves around applying for state licensure. For this, you will be needed to submit the application fees, documents of graduation degree sent directly by the CAA-accredited institute, Praxis exam score, and reports of a thorough criminal background check. However, this is not all; to preserve your state license as a speech-language pathologist, you must satisfy the obligatory number of continuing education requirements mentioned during the renewal period.
- You can acquire professional certification
To acquire a certificate from the Speech-Language Pathology Certificate of Clinical Competence (CCC-SLP), you must complete a master’s or doctoral degree from a CAA-accredited institution and clinical fellowship, and pass the Praxis II that includes subject assessment in speech-language pathology.
