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

[Anna Givens]

Kelsey,
I think Arielle spoke very well to your question.  And I recommend that you take her suggestions.  
Also I think job shadowing may be very useful to you.  I don't know what all you have done so far, and not sure if you have chosen or completed your Bachelor's yet.  But I can say that there are so many blind people doing things they have been told they cannot do.  I would try to find a blind person working in speech pathology.  Calling the national office may be of value in finding someone who knows about this, if you can't find anything locally or on the professional email lists.  
I would work on that, and in the meantime see if you can shadow a speech pathologist a few times, blind or sighted.  It is good to see exactly what their day to day is like and be making a professional connection at the same time.  Also check out American Foundation for the Blind and American Council of the Blind.  One or both of them have various resources and mentors in different fields.  See if you can find someone there.  Keep looking for resources and you will find them.  
If you really want to do speech language pathology, you should definitely pursue it.  If you want to do special education or braille teacher then you should do that.  But if special ed is a back up plan, something you enjoy but not what you choose first, it is better to go with first choice.  
I have seen people choose careers that are "easier" for them, being blind, and while they do excellent work, they enjoy what they do, and they're work is needed, they aren't actually doing near as good of a job as they would be if they stuck stubbornly with their passion, their first choice career.  
If we all took the road that was easier, we would not have accomplished nearly as much as we have.

Anna E Givens

On Sep 12, 2013, at 6:07 PM, Kelsey Nicolay <piano.girl0299 at gmail.com> wrote:

> Hello,
> I posted before that 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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