Speech-language pathologists are professionals who take care of preventing, identifying and treating speech, voice and language disorders. They work with different types of clients, including children and adults who have issues related to:
- Oral language (speaking and understanding)
- Developmental Language Disorder (dysphasia) and language delays
- Written language (reading and writing)
- Specific written language disorders including dyslexia and dysorthography.
- Communication
- Language difficulties related to autism spectrum disorder, intellectual disability or down syndrome.
- Speech
- Verbal dyspraxia and other speech disorders.
What does a speech pathologist do?
The speech-language pathologist must assess each patient, then decide and plan the best way to support and treat them. Patients may experience communication difficulties for a number of reasons.
Speech-language pathologists use different types of information for diagnosis, including medical notes and patient observation results, and then discuss the problem with them.
Their assessment is also based on conversations they have had with other health professionals, including doctors, nurses and psychologists. They also cooperate with teachers, family and carers.
The speech-language pathologist then elaborates a treatment plan. He can work in a variety of locations, including hospitals, clinics, health care centers, physician offices, schools, day centers and the client’s home. Speech-language pathologists can travel to work in different locations.
They also train people in contact with or under the care of the patient, such as teachers, nursing staff, parents and hospital staff. This educational and preventive function is becoming increasingly important.
How can I reduce waiting time?
As a speech-language pathologist, we would often like to be able to reduce the waiting lists and see more clients, but our administrative obligations and the limited number of hours in a day often mean that we cannot support as many young people as we would like.
This is all the more shocking when we see that there seems to be an increasing demand for language development.
It is difficult for a single person to do everything, even if sometimes we would like to take all the difficulties of all the children on our shoulders. Unfortunately, this is not possible. As a result, we feel guilty when we have to refuse follow-up with a client due to lack of availability or when we have to tell them that they will be on a waiting list for an indefinite period.
I don’t think I am teaching you anything by telling you that the earlier you intervene in your child’s language development, the better. Unfortunately, our current structure does not always allow this to be done optimally and some children find themselves having to wait several months before receiving speech therapy.
One of the ways you can reduce waiting time is through collaboration. By collaboration, I mean working with multipliers. These people can apply our speech and language therapy recommendations in the child’s life on a more regular basis.
You may be wondering how a language stimulation agent can help you reduce your waiting time. This is very simple. It often happens that we do not agree to assess a young person, because we know that we will not be able to offer him the follow-up he will need due to lack of availability.
The language stimulation agent can take over by intervening regularly according to our recommendations. It is important that he has access to a recent evaluation report and an up-to-date intervention plan in order to be able to apply our recommendations.
Collaboration between a language stimulation agent and a speech therapist
At Tutorax, we strongly believe in collaboration and cooperation between the different people involved in the child’s file. This is why our agents are specially trained to offer you regular follow-ups.
It is important for us that all stakeholders working on the same issue are on the same page and move in the same direction for the benefit of the child. After all, it’s the essence of teamwork!
Tutorax speech-language pathology services
Our team of speech-language pathologists offers assessments and interventions for children aged from 2 to 12 years old. Our services are available at home, online and in daycare.
Our speech therapy service is aimed at young people with problems related to written and oral language and pathologies related to communication and speech.