In order to obtain jobs with more responsibility and higher pay in this field, a master’s degree is definitely recommended. A master’s degree provides advanced training and research experience through subject-specific courses. You’ll learn how to work with patients suffering from a variety of communication disorders and impairments.

So if you’re thinking about earning a master’s degree, you’ve come to the right place. The information below outlines what to expect from a graduate program in speech pathology and how to choose a school that’s right for you!

Types of Graduate Programs in Speech Pathology

Graduate programs in this field are pretty diverse. You can focus on one particular area of speech pathology, such as the following:

• Applied Linguistics
• Behavioral Sciences
• Child Development
• Psychology
• Speech-Language Pathology

Graduate programs in psychology and the behavioral sciences often allow students to specialize in speech pathology, providing a well-rounded education that equips graduates with the conceptual knowledge and hard skills to succeed in this field. What program you choose all depends on what you’re interested in studying, as some programs are more research or teaching intensive than others.

What You Need to Apply

Applying to a master’s degree program can be a lengthy and arduous task. Schools often request an admissions package that includes:

• Transcripts from all previous attended post-secondary schools
  A minimum Grade Point Average (GPA) of 3.0 is often required
• List of prerequisite coursework
• Graduate Record Examination (GRE) scores
• Letters of recommendation
• Graduate school essay or personal statement

Each school is different and has its own set of admissions criteria. Just make sure you submit a complete application package! It’s also important to find out if field work is a requirement. Field work, or a practicum, requires your participation in either a research project or on-site clinical training sessions that help prepare you for your future career. The number of hours required varies by school and program, but if you’re working full-time or have other commitments that might interfere, it’s important to know this in advance before enrolling.

Additional Resources for Future Speech Pathologists

If you’re in the preliminary stage of your search, it can be a little overwhelming. With so many schools out there, how do you choose the right one? Online? Traditional? Hybrid? Full-time? Part-time? Of course the answers to these questions are entirely up to you. However, we’ve compiled a list of useful resource to help you decide what type of program you should apply for:

• Not sure what college or career school might be right for you?
• How to Pick the Right College
• Graduate School Guide

You might also want to check out your state’s board of audiology and speech-language pathology website. A quick Google search will help you locate the site, which often provides a great deal of information about licensing, career opportunities, and education and training resources.

A speech pathologist can work in a variety of settings, some of which may surprise you. Given the diverse care needs of patients receiving speech-language services, it’s no wonder why speech pathologists are employed by many different types of businesses and organizations.

Below you’ll find a list of employers that typically hire speech pathologists to treat patients of all ages, from children to seniors.

• Hospitals: Hospitals of all types and sizes hire speech pathologists to diagnose and treat a wide range of communication disorders. Children’s and psychiatric hospitals as well as military and rehabilitation hospitals refer patients to their on-site speech and language therapy clinic.
• Schools: From preschool to 12th grade and beyond, schools at every level need speech pathologists to work with students who have speech-language disorders. Some speech pathologists teach full-time at a school or provide individual and small-group services to students.
• Research Agencies: If you’re more research-minded, a number of institutes and laboratories need speech pathologists to conduct studies, clinical trials, and research groups.
• Private Practice: Some speech pathologists opt to start their own practice after gaining experience working in the field. Private practice allows therapists to set their own fees, determine their hours, select the location where they practice, and determine the types of services they wish to provide.
• Public Health Departments: It’s worth looking into the public health agencies in your area for employment opportunities. Depending on where you live, many states provide consultative services to other organizations. Some states even provide direct services to patients.
• Nursing Care Facilities: These facilities not only provide inpatient nursing and rehabilitation services, but speech and language therapy as well. Speech pathologists are often hired to work one-on-one with patients suffering from a variety of disorders.
• Educational Support Services: Tutoring centers and other educational support services look to hire speech pathologists to help their students overcome speech-language weaknesses. These support services are either privately or publicly operated. If your college or university has a career center, make sure to take full advantage of their services. They often have the inside scoop on job openings and internships in a variety of career fields.

If you’re currently studying speech pathology, why not set up meetings with your instructors to inquire about your employment options. It also helps to attend job fairs to network with other professionals in the field. If your college or university has a career center, make sure to take full advantage of their services. Career centers are great resources for interview preparation and and finding job and internship openings.

iPad

1. ConversationBuilder is designed to help elementary aged children learn how to have multi-exchange conversations with their peers in a variety of social settings.
2. iName it was designed by and for speech-language pathologists to assist individuals with word finding difficulty secondary to aphasia. Additionally, it can benefit individuals with apraxia that are assisted by visual and sentence completion cues.
3. Rainbow Sentences is designed to help students improve their ability to construct grammatically correct sentences by using color coded visual cues.
4. SentenceBuilder is designed to help elementary aged children learn how to build grammatically correct sentences.
5. Speech Journal is a customizable voice recorder that lets you pair recorded messages with your own imported images and image sequences.
6. Verbally is is an easy-to-use, comprehensive augmentative and alternative Communication (AAC) app for the iPad. Verbally brings speech to those without and enables real conversation with its simple, intuitive design. Just tap in what you want to say and Verbally speaks for you.

iPad, iPhone

7. ArtikPix – Full version 2.2 is an update with flashcard and matching activities for children. It utilizes speech sound delays through 21 decks for the following sounds: th, f, v, ch, sh, k, g, s, z, l, r, s-blends, r-blends, l-blends, p, b, m, n, t, d, j. The decks are combined, selected for sound group, then practiced in full-featured flashcard and matching activities. The features include recorded audio, voice recording, and scoring (aka data collection).
8. iCommunicate lets you design visual schedules, storyboards, communication boards, routines, flash cards, choice boards, speech cards, and more. Includes twelve languages.
9. MyVoice Communication Aid helps thousands of people around the world to speak out loud. MyVoice was designed in collaboration with top research institutions to be easy to learn and use. Children are engaged by MyVoice’s bright colors and simple shapes, while adults are proud to use an app that looks so polished and attractive.
10. Proloquo2Go is an AAC that provides natural sounding text-to-speech voices (American, British, and Indian English only), high resolution up-to-date symbols, powerful automatic conjugations, a default vocabulary of over 7000 items, advanced word prediction, full expandability and extreme ease of use.
11. Speech Pairs offers a unique way of improving your child’s speech by using “minimal pairs” (a pair of words that differ by only one sound). For example, this application will put words such as “Which” and “Rich” (for children who have problems with R) side-by-side to highlight the slight differences between what children are saying and what they should be saying.
12. Speech Tutor brings the latest in technology and animation to the world of speech. The animations inside Speech Tutor take the areas of the face that impede the view of tongue placement and positioning and make them transparent. Now one can literally see inside the mouth as the sounds are being made.
13. TouchChat HD is a full-featured communication solution designed for individuals with Autism, Down Syndrome, ALS, apraxia, stroke, or other conditions that affect a person’s ability to use natural speech. TouchChat is a full featured communication application for iPod/iPad technology.
14. Type n Talk has a word predictor and capacity to save the most frequently used sentences for literate individuals who have speech disorders and may have related motor difficulties. It is equipped with a very powerful, next-generation text-to-speech synthesizer that transforms written text into a male or female voice with the same acoustics as a human voice.

Android

15. AAC speech communicator is an Android application for people with speech disabilities, and a generic and easy way to learn communication method for anyone with speech disabilities.
16. Aac Talking Tabs is a simple augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) device that you can use to create tables or record tales as well.
17. Classic Text To Speech Engine is designed by SVOX, a Swiss company that creates voices for navigation systems built into BMW, VW, Chrysler, Ferrari, and many other cars. SVOX is now bringing its voice solutions to the Android Market. Use their voices in Android apps for navigation, e-book reading, speech-to-speech translation, language learning, and games.
18. DAF Professional was developed to be the leading app to help people who stammer or have Parkinson’s Disease.
19. JABtalk was designed as a communication tool for children with special needs, but has evolved into a communication tool used by special needs children, stroke patients, toddlers, speech-language pathologists, and others.
20. Pocket SLP – Articulation is a flashcard app for speech therapy. Add client names, store highly specific results and export data by emailing. Target phonemes in initial, medial, and final positions at the word and/or sentence level. Also available for Droid tablets that run the Honeycomb OS only.
21. Praxis II Speech-Language Pathology is a study guide written by exam experts who painstakingly researched every topic and concept that speech pathologists need to know to ace that test.
22. Text-To-Speech Extended is a speech-enabled eyes-free Android application that makes this phone’s accessibility features make it easier to use if you have visual impairments. Accessibility settings let you modify your phone’s display and sound options, such as increasing the text size, ending a call using the power button, and more.

Across the Board

23. AAC Speech Buddy allows users to create PECS Speech Sets and download them to your device. Use iPad, iPhone, iTouch, Android OS, or Java Desktop.
24. Alexicom Tech allows you to create your own customized pages. Communication pages are paired with voice output so users can communicate with others. You can use this software on your existing computer, laptop, or other internet-accessible device.
25. Gabby Tabs Lite — AAC for Kids is a kid friendly, easy to use, augmentative communication app that helps and encourages non-verbal children to communicate. Despite their “coming soon” illustration at top for Android, it is available on that market as well as the iPhone market.
26. iPractice Verbs, originally designed for iPod, now is available on the Android market, too. iPractice Verbs was designed by a speech and language pathologist, and it features over 120 verbs.
27. Quick Talk AAC was designed with a simple mission – to change the world by giving a voice to those who cannot speak for themselves. Available across the board, including including the Galaxy Tab, Acer tablets, and the Kindle Fire.
28. Skill Tracker Pro has been designed to increase efficiency in the instruction of children with Autism. This site also contains Behavior Tracker Pro is a behavior data collection application for PDAs that allows BCBAs, behavioral therapists, aides, teachers or parents to track behaviors and graph them. Designed for the iPhone market, Android, and BlackBerry.
29. SpeakAP — Analyze Pronunciation is for everyone who wants to improve or learn American English pronunciation. Now available for Android and iPhones.
30. TapToTalk is a free application for iPod and iPad as well as for iPod Touch, Android, Nook, and the BlackBerry PlayBook. TapToTalk turns an all three devices into an augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) device. This free TapToTalk app comes with a fully functional album that you can use with children.

There are three parts to the voice — phonation, loudness and pitch, and resonance. Disorders in this category are covered, as well as speech and language disorders. This list, by no means, covers the entire gamut of voice disorders; but, it can provide a base to organize communication disorders in general.

Voice Disorders

1. Phonation disorders: To phonate means to produce sound. Phonation disorders occur when there is some change in the vocal folds, which can cause the voice to sound breathy, harsh, or hoarse. Cancer of the larynx, paralysis of the vocal folds, physical trauma and injury (such as a car accident, strangulation, or bullet wound) can cause these issues. Swallowing sharp objects also can produce phonation issues. Other causes include vocally abusive behaviors that include screaming, shouting, constant talking, coughing, and a throat clearing. Vocally abusive behaviors result in increased tension and irritation of the vocal folds.
2. Loudness and pitch: People who seek treatment for loudness disorders may have either excessive loudness that results in phonation disorders, or results in vocal nodules and polyps that cause such soft speaking that it’s difficult to hear the speaker. Pitch disorders may include examples such as too high of a pitch in males, or too low pitch in females. Mostly, pitch disorders are more discernible in adults.
3. Resonance disorders: Resonance means the modification of sounds by structures in the throat, mouth, and nose as it passes through them. Some people sound like they are hyper nasal or speaking through the nose. Hyper nasality occurs when the velopharyngeal mechanism is unable to close the opening to the nose cavity during the production of non-nasal sounds. Some of the organic causes of hyper nasality are cleft palate and velopharyngeal inadequacy. These types of disorders may also cause pain or discomfort when speaking.

Speech disorders:

1. Articulation disorders: This disorder usually is caused by impairments in coordination with the components of physical speech mechanisms (vocal cords, tongue, lips, teeth, soft and hard palate, and lungs). Articulation problems can also result from a child’s chronic ear infections. Physical impairments such as cleft lip, cleft palate, and tongue-tie indicate long-term problems if no intervention occurs. In each of these instances, surgery can correct the problem; however, depending on the age of the child and the severity of the original physical impairment, extensive speech therapy may still be needed. These physical impairments can cause difficulties producing sounds in syllables or saying words incorrectly to the point that listeners can’t understand what’s being said.
2. Dysphagia/oral feeding disorders: Difficulty swallowing (dysphagia) is a constant effort with moving food or liquid from the mouth to the stomach. This development can occur at any age, but it’s more common in older adults, in patients who have had strokes, and in patients who are admitted to acute care hospitals or chronic care facilities. Dysphagia is a symptom of many different causes, which can usually be elicited through a careful history by the treating physician. A formal oropharyngeal dysphagia evaluation is performed by a speech-language pathologist.
3. Fluency disorders: This speech disorder is diagnosed as an interruption in the normal speech flow by frequent repetitions or prolongations of speech sounds, syllables, or words or by an individual’s inability to start a word. Problems include stuttering, which may be accompanied by rapid eye blinks, tremors of the lips and/or jaw or other struggle behaviors that a person who stutters may use in an attempt to speak. A qualified speech-language pathologist can help children, young adults, and adults make significant progress towards fluency. Fluency therapy may help prevent developmental stuttering from becoming a life-long problem.
4. Apraxia: Also known as dyspraxia, is a speech disorder in which a person has trouble saying what he or she wants to say correctly and consistently. It is not due to weakness or paralysis of the speech muscles (the muscles of the face, tongue, and lips). The severity of apraxia of speech can range from mild to severe. Acquired apraxia of speech can affect a person at any age, although it most typically occurs in adults. It is caused by damage to the parts of the brain that are involved in speaking, and involves the loss or impairment of existing speech abilities. Developmental apraxia of speech (DAS) occurs in children and is present from birth.

Language disorders:

1. Receptive disorders: A child with receptive language disorder often has difficulty understanding what people are saying to him or her. Other names for receptive language disorder include ‘central auditory processing disorder’ and ‘comprehension deficit.’ In most cases the child also has an expressive language disorder (see below), which means they have trouble using spoken language. Hearing tests are required to make sure the problems aren’t caused by hearing loss. Treatment options include speech–language therapy.
2. Expressive disorders: In this disorder, individuals find it difficult to put words together. That person usually has a limited vocabulary, or is unable to use language in a socially appropriate way. Acquired expressive language disorder is caused by damage to the brain. Damage can be sustained during a stroke, or as the result of traumatic head injury, seizures , or other medical conditions. In cases where there is no damage, it is unknown how this disorder manifests itself.
3. Aphasia: This class of language disorder ranges from having difficulty remembering words to being completely unable to speak, read, or write. Aphasia disorders usually develop quickly as a result of head injury or stroke, but can develop slowly from a brain tumor, infection, or dementia, or can be a learning disability such as dysnomia. Some symptoms include the inabilities to comprehend language, to pronounce, to speak spontaneously, to form words, to name objects, to read, and to write, among other symptoms.