Many people have their reasons why they choose a career. There are people with in-built talent, and they decide to pursue their passion and choose a profession accordingly. On the other hand, others are clueless at the start of their journey but eventually go with a profession they believe is best for them.
The careers usually people prefer to go with include doctors, engineers, baseball players, journalists, IT administrators, etc. However, becoming a speech therapist is not a common career choice unless one is somehow aware of this profession. We have seen people doing a great job at one of the Chicago Speech Therapy centers, and found 10 reasons why someone should choose this career path and become a speech-language therapist:
1- Career Programs Around You
There are so many people who choose to become speech-language therapists because that was the program open upon graduating from school.
They could have chosen another career path, but it was in front of them and had a good employment potential.
Some of the workplaces where people do internships have these options and when people see potential they apply for this career. There is a huge scope of speech-language therapists in so many social institutes including schools, hospitals, rehabilitation centers, non-profit organizations, and more. And if you really think about it, this career is different than others and has fewer chances of being out of a job because there is really less competition.
2- Working with Diverse people
One of the reasons why many people choose to become a speech-language therapist is because this profession allows you to work with different types of people. You can have different patients that have totally different backgrounds from each other.
They could have the same diagnosis, but the background is making them unique. A speech-language therapist has to make a treatment plan according to the patient’s individual needs and background. This is somehow challenging but what keeps you on your feet.
Plus, this job is not just about teaching kids how to pronounce words, but it is accompanied by different exercises like working on Childhood Apraxia of Speech, participating in a social skill group, etc. After seeing a child patient, your next patient might be an adult who has difficulty speaking due to an accident. So, you get to know different people.
3- The Learning Never Ends
Another reason for becoming a speech-language therapist is that it enables you to learn new things. The thing is when people from diverse backgrounds seek treatment, you have to learn about their circumstances and then help them to a level that is comfortable for them.
This field is also dynamic and the learning perspective is both positive and negative somehow. You are learning as you see more and more people, and this gives you time to learn different techniques to help people.
Every day there is new research and techniques that are better. Opting for new techniques will make their way to change your perspective about communication disorders. One can never learn all about language and communication disorders in grad school. You learn by having diverse patients. Plus, you get to stay updated with the latest methods, studies, and techniques if you want a better career.
4- It’s a Versatile Profession
If you have chosen the path to become a speech-language therapist then there is a catch. While you may find a good and permanent job at any of the institutes, you can also become self-employed.
You are allowed to see private clients and it is a common practice for many speech pathologists. Another amazing perk to this profession is the ability to be self-employed. They can make extra money.
Many speech pathologists work on weekends or after regular hours to see private clients. For this, this profession has an edge over others where you can’t make decisions on your own.
5- Liberty to Use Your Creativity
Although you are taught to use your understanding when you encounter a situation in every profession, this career path allows you to be creative.
Since every person is unique and the same approach can’t be used on every person, you have a free hand to use your creativity. You need different and creative approaches to keep the therapy sessions interesting and motivating at the same time.
There is no rule to abide by so there is more room for creativity. In schools, the goal is to build success and motivate kids to do better. This requires patience, time, and lots of creativity.
6- Specialize or Not
In the medical field or engineering field, you have to specialize in one of the areas of your choice. But in speech pathology, specialization is optional for you.
You can choose to do it exclusively with children or adults. You may specialize in disorder types like swallowing, stroke, early language intervention, stuttering, or motor speech disorders. If you don’t specialize, you are not going to jeopardize your job.
7- Feeling Accomplished If your Client Make Progress
It makes you feel accomplished as a speech pathologist when your client makes progress and achieves a huge milestone. Helping people to manage their social life is pretty amazing.
8- Kid’s Progress
It is an amazing feeling to watch any client making progress but when it is a child with whom you have spent a particularly long time, it’s beyond amazing. You get an opportunity to know more about those kids while they spend time with you in one-to-one private sessions. You feel rewarded by watching your child client embark on a path for which you both put a lot of energy.
9- Empowering Adults
When children need special care regarding their communication, their parents, guardians, and teachers must be educated as well. This way you are not only empowering people with communication disorders, but you are also empowering parents.
10- Knowing that You Made an Impact
Everyone wants to leave a long-lasting impact on someone’s life, but speech pathologists actually get to do that. Especially when they are working with a child and they do better than you know that you made an impact on someone’s life forever.