How to become a Speech Pathologist

By an allied health world contributing writer
Published: January 16th, 2010

How to Become a Speech-Language Pathologist

The following are the most direct steps to pursuing a career in this exciting field.

Earn a bachelor’s degree in speech pathology or something in the biology or liberal arts field. Examples of possible majors that will tie in well for a career in speech pathology include: English, Communication, Linguistics, Phonics, Anatomy, Psychology, Human Development, Biology, and Physiology.
Earn a master’s degree in speech pathology from an accredited program. In this program one must earn 400 clinical experience hours.
Complete a Clinical Fellowship Year by applying for various speech pathologist positions. This CFY will involve being closely supervised and monitored since you’re new to the profession.
Sit for and pass the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association national certification exam to earn the SLP-CCC credentials.
Become licensed by your state. This usually just requires submitting an application, transcripts, and proof of passing the ASHA certification exam.
Find a job in this rewarding field.
Maintain 30 continuing education credits every three years. Also keep up with your state’s continuing education requirements if necessary.

What types of personality traits would make someone a good fit for this profession?

If you’re considering pursuing a career as a speech pathologist, you want to ensure this is a good fit with your How to become a Speech Pathologist skills and personality traits. Arguably the trait one must possess above all others to succeed in this field is to have a genuine interest in helping others. Other traits necessary for success in this field include having excellent organization skills, a high attention to detail, enjoying working with people and children, and being able to effectively multitask. Also, speech pathologists must be flexible, especially when working with children. They must be willing to deviate from the initial plan of treatment when necessary. Being creative is a huge benefit in this field because with some patients, especially children, it takes outside the box thinking to really help a person and motivate them to succeed through therapy. A speech pathologist must be able to relate to his/her patients. It also is helpful for a speech pathologist to be able to work well in a team environment since oftentimes he/she is working with several other professionals to help a patient.

Read more and learn more about the speech pathology salary. The information on the speech pathology salary page was researched utilizing a variety of sources, providing you with the latest salary information available.

The various speech pathology degree available are discussed on the speech pathology degree page. A speech pathology position requires an individual to be highly educated, skilled, and qualified, so an advanced degree is necessary in most cases.