Most people take the ability to verbally communicate for granted since the average person never has to deal with communication problems. But for people with a condition or brain injury that affects their communication skills, all areas of their lives can be impacted, including relationships, education, and employment.
Human communication is a complicated dance between throat muscles, vocal cords, the tongue and the brain and includes language comprehension, hand gestures and eye contact. Any condition that interferes with these may require the intervention of a speech pathologist. Some of these conditions include the following:
- Autism: Autism, a developmental disorder that essentially turns a child inward to exclude interaction with family, friends and the outside world.
- ADHD: Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, a not-yet-understood disorder that can prevent people from accurately picking up on the small non-verbal clues that often accompany communication and can cause problems with controlling impulsive behavior.
- Brain Injury: Brain injury due to accident or stroke often produces a disorder called aphasia—the inability to use words even though the thoughts are intact in the brain.
A speech pathologist is a highly trained and licensed professional who helps people overcome communication problems. There are many exciting careers in speech pathology right now, and advancements in computer use in speech therapy are creating even more. Like any medical profession, there’s a lot of intensive training involved. To work in the US in most states, a speech pathologist must have earned a master’s degree from an accredited institution and must also pass the Praxis Exam in Speech-Language Pathology.
You can find out if you would be a good match for this career by taking a short quiz here.
Being a speech pathologist could be the perfect career for someone wanting the satisfaction of helping others overcome communication problems.
