Behind the Scenes as a Speech & Language Pathologist
Kate Morling - Certified Practising Speech Pathologist at Communicate with Kate Speech Therapy
It’s easy to look at one of our speech therapy sessions at Communicate with Kate Speech Therapy and think… you’re just playing! I like to joke with family and friends that I found a career where I can play playdoh and tea parties and not have to wear shoes to work. But what looks like ‘just play’ actually takes hours of planning, research and training, not to mention flexibility and the ability to ‘think on the spot’. Here’s what’s really going on behind the scenes as a Speech and Language Pathologist.
Research
As speech pathologists, our work with children is dependent on evidence based practices. Evidence what? Evidence based practice means that as speech therapists we use scientific research to support and guide our clinical practice. Whether it’s using multisensory approaches to literacy and learning for students with Dyslexia, or the Cycles Approach for speech sound disorders in children experiencing moderate to severe phonological disorders, there’s a reason we have shaving foam and slime on the table, and it’s not just for fun!
Flexibility
They say never to work with children or animals… Speech therapy sessions don’t always go to plan. The sign of an experienced and well trained speech pathologist is one who can pull any toy out of the toy cupboard and use it to target a client's goals. Want to play on the trampoline? Sure! Name as many items of clothing as you can while you do 10 jumps (categorization, naming, word finding goals). What about Pop Up Pirate? OK! Time to practice those speech sounds - use your best /s/ sound in 10 /s/ words before you get your turn. Having a tough day and don’t want to play? That’s OK too. Let’s crash in the pillows and beanbags and work on our regulation skills and expressing our ideas. Some days, even the most well thought out treatment plan gets thrown out the window so that we can meet our clients where they are.
Planning
While things don’t always go to plan, as speech therapists, we always have one. Based on our extensive research and assessment of clients strengths and areas which need support, our therapists develop engaging, motivating and effective speech therapy sessions. Planning a session goes well beyond just pulling out different games to play. We think carefully through:
What will motivate and engage this client?
What will encourage post-session, at home rehearsal of the skills we’ve practiced in session?
What materials do we need to prepare to implement this treatment approach (cue the printer and laminator…)
What worked well last session? What didn’t go so great? Why?
What does my research tell me?
How can I use this activity to target more than one of my clients goals?
How will I explain my rationale for this task in parent friendly language?
What homework will I prepare for this client to practice their skills outside of the clinic and session?
Do I need to touch base with other professionals (school, other therapists etc) regarding this client’s progress?
What’s my backup plan?
Literacy based speech therapy: providing context to speech therapy goals through stories.
Supervision and mentoring
Becoming a fantastic speech pathologist doesn’t happen overnight. Even the best university degree can’t prepare you for the real world of working with children and their families. Fantastic, knowledgeable speech therapists commit to life learning and actively seek out supervision and mentoring from senior professionals. Whether you are a early career SLP or trying to cover the gray hairs; we all benefit from supervision! Supervision gives us time to reflect on our performance, ensure that our approaches to therapy are seeing results for our clients, problem-solve difficult cases and most importantly grow as therapists and humans! Supervision isn’t just about making sure therapists are getting the job done, it’s about making sure our team feels supported, appreciated and have a space in which to debrief, reflect, and develop their skills.
Training and Professional Development
Speech Pathology is a rapidly growing industry with new research and approaches to therapy continually becoming available. A huge part of the behind the scenes of a speech therapy session lays in the continued training and professional development we as speech therapists undergo.
So while it looks like we’re ‘just playing’, remember there’s a well researched, planned (and back-up planned) reason that my mentor and I decided to have playdoh available in our session today!
Written by Kate Morling
Kate is the CEO and Senior Speech Pathologist at Communicate with Kate Speech Therapy. Kate has 10 years experience working across the globe with children with communication differences as well as supporting early career speech pathologists.