What a Speech Pathologist Does

"I don’t need Speech therapy… I talk just fine!"

If I had a bite of cheesecake for every time I have heard this from a swallowing patient… So yes, I am a Speech-Language Pathologist (SLP).

What is a Speech Pathologist?

For those of you who are wondering the difference between an SLP and a Speech Therapist, there is none. SLP is the correct title, but lots of peeps just call us Speech Therapists because Pathologist is a weird word. That’s the best I can come up with.

To be an SLP, you have to receive your masters with the course work and hundreds of clinical hours to meet ASHA standards (our national accreditation), as well as complete a 9 month Clinical Fellowship Year (CFY) where you are basically practicing independently but have a supervisor monitoring to ensure you are competent to practice.

The reason the certification requirements are so stringent is because it is such a broad field. Once you receive your license to practice, you are certified to provide diagnosis, evaluation, and treatment for ALL ages in the areas of speech disorders, language disorders, cognitive disorders, AAC (alternative communication), voice, dysphagia (swallowing disorder), and stuttering. And in some of those things (especially dysphagia and trach patients), if you don’t know what you are doing the result can take lives, no lie. So they like to make sure we know what we’re doing…

Since I am a contract worker, I have had the opportunity to work in many different settings. But no matter what the age or setting, dysphagia is my favorite. I LOVE working with dysphagia. It’s a different issue depending on the age and diagnosis of the patient and I will spare you those details, but specifically in Zambia, I am working with babies and kiddos who have difficulty eating/swallowing.

Here’s how that happens: Babies have 2 jobs: eat and sleep. When a baby is born prematurely or with some type of disorder, they don’t have the muscles and strength to eat. Or they may be so sick that they can’t eat because everything goes down into the lungs instead of the tummy (aspiration) and have to rely on a feeding tube. Well, over here in Africa, feeding tubes and Speech Therapy 2x a week is not a luxury. So what do we do?

Well, I will tell you…

We modify and provide education to the Aunties (their caregivers). If the baby is a bottle feeder and they cannot get out a good amount of liquids in an appropriate amount of time, they end of expending more calories trying to eat than they are actually taking in. So we try special bottles, we provide pressure to their cheeks, we modify their bottle nipples, we pace feedings, etc. And then outside of feeding we provide lots and lots of stretches and stimulation to the muscles in order to help them gain strength and catch up. If the baby is having a hard time transitioning from bottle to solids, which is apparently a big issue here with the HIV Positive babies, we work on their tongue, cheek, and lip strength through stretches and exercise, as well as modify spoons and feeding utensils, as well as the food if needed.

So there you have it. Who knew the ability to eat normally was such a blessing?