I currently work in a public school (elementary) and work with a variety of communication disorders, including written language. I do a lot of push-in during writing.
2 Likes
When you work in the public schools you will see a wide variety of disorders, and you really need to be “on top” of it all. I do a lot of professional development, I speak with SLPs in neighboring districts, and I work closely with the teachers.
The field is always evolving. I did not work on written language as much many years ago, although it was always within our scope of practice. I work on it a lot now, as well areas of reading (our work overlaps a lot with special ed). Push-in and co-teaching are very common service delivery models in public schools.
1 Like
So my daughter is in her second year of her master’s for SLP and love, love, loves it.
She comes from getting her undergraduate in Cultural Anthropology and Polici minor. In high school she was in a Pre professional high school for the arts. She was in musical theater. She went to a SLP and an ENT for nodes on her vocal cords. She was scoped etc. Fun fact. Same medical professional treated Jennifer Hudson… 
.
She had to go back to school to do a Post Bac. She graduated undergrad during the pandemic. She worked several year’s before doing the post Bac and somewhere in there had a Gap year from college.
My daughter in high school and college and post has worked with autistic children. Has been a nanny, worked in an outdoor preschool in Oregon, was a reading specialist with a few young kids and baby sat etc. She did shadow a SLP that does home rounds. I was 100% positive she would do educational SLP. She told me in high school she’s “never “going to do anything in the medical field.
Well, she wants to be on the medical side of SLP. She starts a medical hospital internship this month. She finished an outpatient one. She is doing and submitting research on some CSD their doing. Loves brain injury type of stuff. Will be trained to do the throat scopes she had to indure. It’s really cool seeing her passion for this profession. She is studying to take her board’s now. Applying for fellowships etc.
OT /PT are so different from each other and of course from SLP
Pay is by region. But depending on where they are pay can be similar but….. You do things that speak to you and not because there is better pay anyway.
I would highly suggest any shadowing opportunities. I am still blown away she is going into the medical side of this. She uses all her knowledge working with clients in school from her performance day’s, her undergrad knowledge and her new gained knowledge. She is actually glad she’s a bit older also. It gives her a different perspective on her career and goals.
3 Likes
I started my career working in hospitals with both children and adults. I also worked a few hours a week in private practice. Following this, I moved to home care and center based work in early intervention.
Now I work in a public school, where I see many of the same disorders that I did when I worked with kids in a medical setting. Language delays/disorders, articulation, autism, voice and resonance disorders, brain injuries etc are found in all settings. As a school based SLP I have worked/consulted with orthodontists, various therapists, psychiatrists, psychologists, hospitals, ENTs, neuropsychologists, developmental pediatricians, geneticists etc.
Medical centers follow the medical model. Schools follow the education model, meaning that there must be an educational impact (academic or social). For example, if a student stutters but it is not impacting them socially or academically (based on teacher reports and observations) they would not qualify for school based services and would have to be seen at a private practice or outpatient clinic. I try to see these students “informally,” without an IEP. Years ago I had a student like this and got into “trouble” for providing an IEP.
The reason for my post is to show that there is a lot of overlap between medical and educational.
3 Likes
Just a note that for OT, you only need a two-year masters program and to sit for a licensing exam. I’m a practicing OT and got my masters from Tufts. I will say though, that since my graduation from OT school, some programs have gotten rid of their masters programs in favor of doctorate programs. I work in early intervention and only 1 OT (of about 12) has a doctorate (and she is a brand new grad, so I think this may become more common).
1 Like
Ah, okay. Thanks for clearing that up!
I have a friend whose daughter specifically chose SLP over OT because she said the system was changing to require extra schooling for OT – but I misunderstood and thought that had already happened, instead of something that may happen in the future.
1 Like
Hi! It is likely depends on the school/program. And also, things may have changed over the last 25 years! 
I started grad school in Fall of 1999. I completed two longer term fieldwork placements (summer after my first year and during the spring of my second year. These were each full time and three months long).
I also completed two shorter fieldwork placements. These short term placements ran concurrently with classes and were really just to get a “feel” for different populations and work environments.
I graduated from OT school in May of 2001, studied for my certification test, took that in July and was working full time as a registered OT in September 2001. So almost exactly two years. My course work was actually only 3 semesters full time, and I was done with that by Jan of my second year (at which point completed my second fieldwork placement).
I did have to take a prerequisite physiology course with lab before starting the program, which I did over a summer 4 week intensive at Tufts in August of ‘99, just before starting my masters coursework.
Sorry- I don’t mean to derail this thread!
1 Like
Hi I’m a little bit late to your questions but I’ll try to answer with my experiences. I initially began as a clinical SLP in the hospitals and clinics working mostly with geriatric populations. I’m bilingual and our area had a large combination of cultural influences. I was supposedly the resident expert in all of the cultures (because obviously Spanish covers every culture! HA!), but I also had early pediatric patients (toddlers) who had issues.
I specialized in cleft palate speech, voice disorders, and augmentative communication.
Barbara Hodson the phonological guru was my professor for four years. So my phonology skills were really good.
My point is that I was able to do a lot and experience a lot in the hospitals before I transitioned to the schools. (My children’s school schedules were impacting my 12 hour shifts at the hospital.)
I did elementary placements, but my favorite clientele were the high school students. I didn’t have to do a lot of “prep” with them. They came with their own books, assignments and had significant difficulty in their English courses. I had a strong background in English coursework in high school and college. I enjoyed classic literature along with contemporary readings and poetry.
These kids absolutely hated their English classes. I got creative with them. One way: I asked them to bring in the lyrics to their favorite music. Each session, we targeted one child’s music selection. We listened to the music. We then dissected each “stanza”.
Once they understood how sentences were formulated, using the basic subject, verb, object, they started understanding more complicated grammatical rules of structure, syntax, morphology, semantics, etc. This was difficult, but we did a lot of games to help them understand the complications of expressing language and receiving and interpreting language.
I hope this helps. Teaching language is really difficult because you are trying to supplement or erase years of confusion. The children with language disorders get very frustrated but not if you make it into a game that they can understand.
4 Likes
Thanks for all of the feedback and advice for my daughter applying to her school’s CSD undergrad program. Pitt also offers ASL certificate which would add an additional 18crs. which is listed among the frequently pursued minors for CSD. She has room as she would like to stay for 4 semesters and only has 41cr to go to finish her bachelor’s in CSD. She is also pursuing a dance minor and 6cr remaining there.
To the practicing SLPs or those currently pursing grad school - would ASL certificate in undergrad be helpful? More competitive across grad school applications? Is there a different minor you’d recommend to complement CSD undergrad? Would it be a value to take a teaching English Learners Language course as well if she ultimately wants to work in a school setting? Her handbook offers the following:
Many students are able to complete certificate programs or minors in addition to the major requirements in Communication Science. In recent years, students have attained certificates in Conceptual Foundations of Medicine, Latin American studies, American Sign Language and Children’s Literature. Minors included, education, neuroscience, linguistics, social work and sociology, among others.
In some locations, employment as a speech-language pathologist within an educational setting requires additional courses for certification. Students considering work in educational settings should consider enrolling in education courses (i.e., IL 1257 – Teaching English Language Learners) as electives.
Most important….your daughter needs to complete and do well in the required courses for SLP grad program admissions. A minor is not required at all.
IF your daughter wants that ASL certification, it certainly won’t hurt and could show her dedication to this particular skill. She needs to keep in mind that she will need to use her ASL skills…not just take a course. I was fluent enough in ASL that I actually taught an ASL course to undergrads while I was a teaching assistant in grad school. I absolutely could not do that now…I haven’t used those skills in many years. But she can do this if it interests her.
3 Likes
Thank you! I will share with her! 18 credits does seem like a significant investment so it may be more prudent to focus on her CSD coursework directly across the upper level courses and semesters remaining. I appreciate your feedback!
That’s 18 credits Over two years? So…one course per term? Is that manageable for her, and does she want to do it.
ETA…my ASL courses were one or two credit hours per term…BUT they met three hours a week. And we were expected to practice between classes. I have no idea what this looks like now. Mine were when the dinosaurs roamed.
1 Like
She has an interest, but wants to make sure it will have utility and be manageable with her core courses. Upon further review, it appears to 18credits after the pre-reqs in ASL1 and ASL2 are met (both 4cr) so this may be more than she’d like to undertake with only 4 semesters even with completing Nature of Lang (3 of the required elective credits for ASL) within her CSD coursework.
My D completed her MS in CSD a few years ago. She found it to be a rigorous program without adding in additional coursework. Of course YMMV. Remember that there will be time at the school’s clinic as well as rotations (in school, hospital, etc.) as part of the MS program.
3 Likes
I think it’s great if she wants to do it, but it won’t matter for grad school.
If I had to do it again I think I would take special education classes, if available.
2 Likes
This is great advice! There is a may-mester study abroad course the department offers to work with other majors within their school (CSD, OT, PT) with children with disabilities in Northern Ireland. Description provides, “This course provides undergraduate students who have interests in health, rehabilitation and education with the opportunity for inter-professional learning about health and education policy and services for children with disabilities in Northern Ireland.” She is excited to look into this opportunity and learn more.
1 Like
Regarding school-based SLP starting salaries - in our school district (suburbs PA) the starting salary for school based SLPs appears to be 63K which is 2K higher than the starting teacher salary for year 1 in our district. Other local districts seem comparable for year 1 as I’m seeing between 61K-68K. When I try to dig into median salaries for the profession online I’m seeing estimates closer to 95-105K. Recognizing that setting makes a marked difference in salary, is mid 60s a low starting salary for school-based SLP (presuming they are also full benefits/healthcare etc on a teacher contract)? Assuming higher COL areas would have school-based SLPs with a higher teacher/contract type pay scale as well.
This sounds like a reasonable starting salary to me. The SLP in the schools is paid on the masters or bachelors plus 60 credits salary schedule. Not the starting bachelors salary.
And as noted, in the schools, the benefits are usually quite good.
3 Likes
Salary depends on level of education and whether you have additional credits (ie BA, BA + 15, etc).
Step 1 in my district (BA with no experience) is in the low 60’s, but other districts might be higher.
1 Like
TY! Do most school-based SLPs also follow the teacher/union contract and reach top out steps as well? It seems in our same district SLPs there 10yrs+ are all at/near 89-92K ($2,400 yearly raise on avg).