Speech and language specialists treat people of all ages with many types of speech, language and communication problems. They first assess the problem through tests, observations, and one-on-one talks with individual patients. They then prescribe an appropriate treatment plan depending on the needs of the patient. This may involve activities like exercising.
Communication skills are essential in this role. A speech and language specialist needs to communicate well to evaluate patients' speech level, language skills, and swallowing difficulties. They must have compassion in order to teach patients how to improve their conditions. They also perform counselling to their families to help cope with communication and swallowing disorders.
Most speech and language specialists work full time 40 hours a week, but some work part time. Speech and language specialists work in the education and healthcare sectors and private practice.
Speech And Language Specialist Overview
Speech And Language Specialist Careers
There is more than meets the eye when it comes to being a speech and language specialist. For example, did you know that they make an average of $28.09 an hour? That's $58,434 a year!
Between 2018 and 2028, the career is expected to grow 27% and produce 41,900 job opportunities across the U.S.
What Does a Speech And Language Specialist Do
There are certain skills that many speech and language specialists have in order to accomplish their responsibilities. By taking a look through resumes, we were able to narrow down the most common skills for a person in this position. We discovered that a lot of resumes listed analytical skills, communication skills and detail oriented.
When it comes to the most important skills required to be a speech and language specialist, we found that a lot of resumes listed 13.7% of speech and language specialists included slp, while 10.1% of resumes included caseload, and 9.3% of resumes included ieps. Hard skills like these are helpful to have when it comes to performing essential job responsibilities.
When it comes to searching for a job, many search for a key term or phrase. Instead, it might be more helpful to search by industry, as you might be missing jobs that you never thought about in industries that you didn't even think offered positions related to the speech and language specialist job title. But what industry to start with? Most speech and language specialists actually find jobs in the education and non profits industries.
How To Become a Speech And Language Specialist
If you're interested in becoming a speech and language specialist, one of the first things to consider is how much education you need. We've determined that 24.2% of speech and language specialists have a bachelor's degree. In terms of higher education levels, we found that 65.8% of speech and language specialists have master's degrees. Even though most speech and language specialists have a college degree, it's impossible to become one with only a high school degree or GED.
Choosing the right major is always an important step when researching how to become a speech and language specialist. When we researched the most common majors for a speech and language specialist, we found that they most commonly earn master's degree degrees or bachelor's degree degrees. Other degrees that we often see on speech and language specialist resumes include associate degree degrees or doctoral degree degrees.
You may find that experience in other jobs will help you become a speech and language specialist. In fact, many speech and language specialist jobs require experience in a role such as speech language pathologist. Meanwhile, many speech and language specialists also have previous career experience in roles such as student clinician or speech-language pathology internship.
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Speech And Language Specialist Career Paths
As you move along in your career, you may start taking on more responsibilities or notice that you've taken on a leadership role. Using our career map, a speech and language specialist can determine their career goals through the career progression. For example, they could start out with a role such as speech language pathologist, progress to a title such as therapy program manager and then eventually end up with the title therapy program manager.
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Average Salary for a Speech And Language Specialist
Best Paying Cities
Recently Added Salaries
Job TitleCompany  | Company | Start Date | Salary |
|---|---|---|---|
Bakersfield City School District Speech and Language Specialist/Therapist School Year) Speech and Language Specialist/Therapist School Year) | Bakersfield City School District Bakersfield City School District | 01/29/2021 01/29/2021 | $53,97401/29/2021 $53,974 |
Campbell Union School District Extended School Year: Speech, Language and Hearing Specialist Extended School Year: Speech, Language and Hearing Specialist | Campbell Union School District Campbell Union School District | 01/27/2021 01/27/2021 | $83,48001/27/2021 $83,480 |
Anaheim Elementary School District (K-6) Speech and Language Specialist-Bilingual Spanish Preferred Speech and Language Specialist-Bilingual Spanish Preferred | Anaheim Elementary School District (K-6) Anaheim Elementary School District (K-6) | 01/21/2021 01/21/2021 | $59,92401/21/2021 $59,924 |
Panama Buena Vista Union Elementary Speech Specialist Speech Specialist | Panama Buena Vista Union Elementary Panama Buena Vista Union Elementary | 12/09/2020 12/09/2020 | $73,03912/09/2020 $73,039 |
Colusa County Office of Education Speech and Language Specialist Speech and Language Specialist | Colusa County Office of Education Colusa County Office of Education | 03/31/2020 03/31/2020 | $72,38703/31/2020 $72,387 |
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Top Colleges for Speech And Language Specialists
1. University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Chapel Hill, NC • Public
2. University of Virginia
Charlottesville, VA • Public
3. Northwestern University
Evanston, IL • Private
4. Columbia University in the City of New York
New York, NY • Private
5. Vanderbilt University
Nashville, TN • Private
6. University of Florida
Gainesville, FL • Public
7. University of Texas at Austin
Austin, TX • Public
8. Washington University in St Louis
Saint Louis, MO • Private
9. California State University - Long Beach
Long Beach, CA • Public
10. USF Sarasota-Manatee
Sarasota, FL • Public
Top Skills For a Speech And Language Specialist
The skills section on your resume can be almost as important as the experience section, so you want it to be an accurate portrayal of what you can do. Luckily, we've found all of the skills you'll need so even if you don't have these skills yet, you know what you need to work on. Out of all the resumes we looked through, 13.7% of speech and language specialists listed slp on their resume, but soft skills such as analytical skills and communication skills are important as well.
- SLP, 13.7%
- Caseload, 10.1%
- Ieps, 9.3%
- Group Therapy, 8.6%
- Communication Disorders, 6.7%
- Other Skills, 51.6% See All Speech And Language Specialist Skills
Best States For a Speech And Language Specialist
Some places are better than others when it comes to starting a career as a speech and language specialist. The best states for people in this position are Alaska, Massachusetts, Missouri, and Virginia. Speech and language specialists make the most in Alaska with an average salary of $74,079. Whereas in Massachusetts and Missouri, they would average $71,948 and $66,799, respectively. While speech and language specialists would only make an average of $65,486 in Virginia, you would still make more there than in the rest of the country. We determined these as the best states based on job availability and pay. By finding the median salary, cost of living, and using the Bureau of Labor Statistics' Location Quotient, we narrowed down our list of states to these four.
1. Massachusetts
$71,948
Avg. Salary
2. Connecticut
$64,809
Avg. Salary
3. Delaware
$63,310
Avg. Salary
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