[nabs-l] speech-language pathology or special ed

[Arielle Silverman]

Hi all,

In general, when making career decisions, I think it's important to
keep in mind that it's not necessary to be able to do every single
aspect of the job independently. Readers and assistants can, if
judiciously used, make many jobs fully accessible by assisting with
the few aspects of the job that aren't accessible on their own. What
is more important is whether you think you have the skills, aptitudes
and passions required to do the bulk of the job duties. With speech
pathology, it seems quite possible to hire an assistant to help with
the occasional swallow check. What's more important is that people go
into the profession who care about helping other people and are
patient and attentive to details. Most of the time, essential job
skills have little to do with blindness and more to do with personal
strengths and interests.

Best,
Arielle

On 9/14/13, Sandra Gayer <sandragayer7 at gmail.com> wrote:
> Hello again Kelsey,
> Speech Pathology has many different areas in it and some are more
> visual than others. For example, it would be very difficult to assess
> the effectiveness of someone's swallow in a laryngoscopy. If a person
> had had a stroke and could only communicate non-verbally, how would
> you assess their cognative abilities and their perception of language.
> There are various medical tasks an SLP has to undertake such as
> suction if someone has aspirated food. (Some SLPs ask nurces to help
> with this whether they see or not. It's something you have to feel
> your way around anyway so sight makes very very little difference).
> However, helping someone work through stuttering, helping someone to
> readjust to their face after a  cleft pallet operation, teaching
> people to use their voices again after throat operations such as
> correcting Sulcus Vocalis... these are  far easier for a blind SLP as
> you have to use your ears more than anything else. If you're doing a
> Masters in Speech Pathology, you have to consider every area in the
> field but, once you qualified, you could specialise in certain
> aspects. Look at a few masters degrees and their book lists. If you've
> read all the books on a booklist, have spent time shadowing speech
> pathologists  and are still wholeheartedly passionate about Speech
> Pathology, you have your answer. There's a Speech Pathologist on
> Career Connect. I remember you asking about an online Speech Pathology
> degree. This is a spectacularly bad idea! You will need all the hands
> on experience you can get and doing it in person is the only way to
> go.
>
> I'll echo everyone else when I say that it's important to choose the
> career path you are most interested in. It's no good going for
> something because other people recommend it to you as they won't be
> the ones doing the job for over 40 years. Pick the career path you
> truly love and persevere.
>
>  Very best wishes,
> Sandra.
>
> PS I haven't introduced myself to this list yet. (I know Kelsey from
> another list). I'm Sandra and I'm a Soprano Singer and Broadcast
> Presenter. I also teach Braille Music.
> Very best wishes,
> Sandra.
>
> On 9/13/13, Carly Mihalakis <carlymih at comcast.net> wrote:
>> Good afternoon, Kelsey, and other interesteds,
>>
>>  From what you have learned of a potential speech language pathology
>> direction, does it seem that you can do the job? Now, I'm not
>> talking' that shit about "as well or better than ol' Sighty." You
>> gotta make your strategies related to working in the field of speech
>> language pathology, your own.
>> Don't worry about anyone's standards or, the way they think it should
>> be. You don't need that.unless it will help you feel motivated if not
>> entirely comfortable. I am thinking about getting a masters degree in
>> speech-language pathology.  However, I was talking to my former
>> second grade teacher yesterday about it.  She said that she doesn't
>> think I would be successful with this because of the high degree of
>> visual tasks such as being able to see how someone is moving their
>> mouth during speech or things like that.  I indicated that I could
>> maybe do it by feel, but she still feels that this would be too
>> visual.  This came from having talked to the speech therapist at the
>> elementary school.  On the other hand, I have also considered the
>> special education field.  I have been tutoring two students in
>> Braille since June and really enjoy it.  My sister thinks that I'd
>> make a good Braille teacher.  So I am wondering which field would be
>> better suited for a totally blind student.  I want to make sure my
>> money is being well spent.
>>>In other words, I don't want to go through the speech-language
>>>pathology program only to find out that I cannot do it.  Any
>>>opinions on this would be greatly appreciated.
>>>Thanks in advance,
>>>Kelsey Nicolay
>>>
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>
>
> --
> Soprano Singer
>  www.sandragayer.com
>
> Broadcast Presenter
>
> www.insightradio.co.uk/music-box.html
>
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