Q: What do you enjoy most about being a speech therapist?

 

A: “I love giving children a voice and being able to see their progress throughout their time in therapy. I also love the joy that children bring and their unpredictability. You never know what funny thing they will say or do next!”

 

Q: When did you decide to become a speech therapist?

 

A: “When I was in high school. I was able to complete an internship in which I shadowed professionals in areas of interest to me and I decided that speech therapy was for me.”

 

Q: Why did you choose a career in speech therapy?

 

A: “I always knew that I enjoyed working with children and wanted to find a career path that would allow me to work with children and help them along the way. After shadowing professionals in the field I decided that this would be a path of interest for me.”

 

Q: What’s the biggest challenge/reward in working with individuals who require speech therapy?

 

A: “There is always something new that I haven’t seen before or I have to find a new way to solve a common problem. This is always tricky but makes me a better therapist in the end. Sometimes we have to deal with behaviors in children as well which can be difficult at times.”

 

Q: How has ASD personally affected/influenced your life? Do you know anybody outside of the workplace that has ASD?

 

A: “My main exposure to ASD has been through work, I do not have any close real-life contacts that have autism. Through my work with this population, I have found that they are an amazing population to work with and the kids always keep me laughing and on my toes!”

 

Q: In your opinion, how can we, as a society, move forward from preconceived, negative ideas surrounding those with ASD?

 

A: “Understand that people with autism just may see the world a little differently and that is not a bad thing. Autism or not, we all have different perceptions, perspectives, thoughts, feelings, ways of socializing, etc. We can stop looking at autism as something that needs to be “fixed” and, rather, embrace the individuality of every person. There is a big push right now to embrace neurodivergence rather than seeing it as a disability.”

 

Q: Describe what a typical day is like for you. What do you typically do during sessions? What resources do you use/adapt? What is the most important thing you do at work?

 

A: “I see children for 30 minute sessions throughout the day. Most children I see 2-3x/week. Sessions vary greatly by client goals, age, and compliance. I like to make sessions interesting and fun for each child so I like to do play based therapy. I use a lot of common toys and games and adapt them in any way that I can to match a client’s goals. I also have a lot of speech and language based games/materials that work on higher level language skills. Some materials I find online as well.”

 

Q: How do you build rapport with students?

A: “As I mentioned before, I try to find something that a child likes and build it into a play-based session so that we are working on goals without it feeling like work and gaining their respect. I try to create an environment that a child wants to keep coming back to and where they get excited to come to speech.”