How To Become A Speech/Language Therapist: What It Is and Career Path

What is a speech/language therapist and how to become one

Updated January 8, 2025

3 min read

Quoted expert

Ron Precht

A speech/language therapist is a healthcare professional trained to diagnose and treat people with speech, language and communication difficulties. Their patients can be either children or adults, or both, and they assist in treating disorders such as stutters, stammers, Tourettes, and mutism. They do this by performing assessments of the patient histories to determine the underlying causes of the speech and language impediments affecting them.

A speech and language therapist may opt to provide his/her /her services to a particular age group or treat patients across all age groups. In the course of performing their work, they can collaborate with other professionals such as neurologists and psychotherapists. Speech therapists typically work in hospitals, schools, rehab centers, clinics, outpatient centers, etc.

A speech therapist works regular hours of 40 hours a week, 9-to-5. For those in self-employment, they may work hours and even weekends.

What general advice would you give to a speech/language therapist?

Ron Precht

Senior Manager, American Massage Therapy Association

Generally, metropolitan areas have had more openings for massage therapists. This is a report from the end of 2019 that has the most recent data we have available. Report

ScoreSpeech/Language TherapistUS Average

Salary

5.3

Avg. Salary $67,378

Avg. Salary $59,228

Stability level

5.5

Growth rate 21%

Growth rate 0.3%

Diversity

4.9

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 0.36%

Asian 4.51%

Black or African American 4.89%

Hispanic or Latino 9.59%

Unknown 3.78%

White 76.88%

Gender

female 94.62%

male 5.38%

Age - 38

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 3.00%

Asian 7.00%

Black or African American 14.00%

Hispanic or Latino 19.00%

White 57.00%

Gender

female 47.00%

male 53.00%

Age - 38

Stress level

5.5

Stress level is manageable

7.1 - high

Complexity level

9.7

Complexity level is advanced

7 - challenging

Work life balance

8.1

Work life balance is good

6.4 - fair

Key steps to become a speech/language therapist

Explore speech/language therapist education requirements

Most common speech/language therapist degrees

Bachelor's

70.9 %

Master's

23.2 %

Associate

3.9 %

Start to develop specific speech/language therapist skills

Skills	Percentages
Patients	23.32%
Rehabilitation	9.82%
SLP	9.39%
Home Health	6.97%
Autism	5.85%

Complete relevant speech/language therapist training and internships

Accountants spend an average of Less than 1 month on post-employment, on-the-job training. New speech/language therapists learn the skills and techniques required for their job and employer during this time. The chart below shows how long it takes to gain competency as a speech/language therapist based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data and data from real speech/language therapist resumes.

Research speech/language therapist duties and responsibilities

Provide speech therapy and child development services to children with autism and/or severe social and emotional delays.
Work with children and teenagers with autism, learning difficulties, mental challenges, ADHD, and speech and language disorders
Provide treatment for students diagnose with learning disabilities who demonstrate processing difficulties in various receptive and expressive language areas.
Detail goal and objective writing and Medicaid billing

Prepare your speech/language therapist resume

When your background is strong enough, you can start writing your speech/language therapist resume.

You can use Zippia's AI resume builder to make the resume writing process easier while also making sure that you include key information that hiring managers expect to see on a speech/language therapist resume. You'll find resume tips and examples of skills, responsibilities, and summaries, all provided by Zippi, your career sidekick.

Choose from 10+ customizable speech/language therapist resume templates

Build a professional speech/language therapist resume in minutes. Browse through our resume examples to identify the best way to word your resume. Then choose from 10+ resume templates to create your speech/language therapist resume.