gemmi said:
hey, im in year 12 and thinking of studying occupational therapy, nursing or speech pathology. what do you recon about these courses? cos i know im interested in the health sciences but i need sum guidance..lol
what exactly do you want to know about Speech Path? I'm a 3rd year speechie, which makes me the oldest speech path student on here :wave: :worried:
The degree I can tell you, is an absolute bitch. It's very difficult, and very demanding. You will have easy subjects along the way (a lot of the psych subjects are pretty breazy), but the speech path ones are so bloody hard, as well as the bio ones, that you'll feel pretty overwhelmed at times. First year is all theoretical stuff: you do pracs involving cadavers, which is often a surprise to speechies. You do a few psych subjects, a few bio subjects (neuro, speech science, hearing science), and they get progressively harder. 2nd yr neurobio is by far the hardest subject i've had to do in my life. You start doing some clinical subjects in 1st year, 2nd sem, namely Professional Development I.... prof dev is a crock of shit, and you do the same shit every semester till you graduate. But you have to write your name on the roll every week, so it actually gets the biggest turn out
Second year is where Speech Path takes a turn for the worse.... Clinical really starts then. As long as you pass your subjects in first year, namely Linguistics, Speech Science etc, you'll start clinic in 1st sem, 2nd yr... you are partnered with a 4th year for the 1st semester, and you see a real, paying client, each week, and you do speech therapy with them. 2nd sem, 2nd year, they've been playing around with the system, but basically you get partnered again with a 4th yr, but this time, you do almost all of the work, especially the practical side of things. And let me warn you, there is a shitload of paperwork. And then 3rd year starts, and this year, I'm expected to do everything on my own, with a staff member supervising me. And then 4th year, you spend 6 months on campus, partnered with 2nd yr students, and then 6 months off campus, where you do 2 6-week placements, one in a school surrounding, one in a hospital.
As for what speech paths do... the main areas are: articulation, phonology (i.e. sounds), voice, fluency (i.e. stuttering), neuro stuff (mainly speech problems after some kind of stroke), swallowing, feeding, and language (usually school aged stuff). So its a very big field, lots of different areas to work in. Speech Path's are often based in community health centres, private clinics, hospitals, and within the school system.
Hope that helps!
