What does a Speech Therapist do??

I have been reading over the ASHA (American Speech-Language-Hearing Association) Scope of Practice and Code of Ethics for my observation lab. They are an interesting, if not repetitive read for me, but I thought my readers might enjoy learning more about what an SLP does.

Some highlights from the Scope of Practice are listed below. They really spell it out in terms of what an SLP does and I think you will all find it very informative!


The overall objective of speech-language pathology services is to optimize individuals' ability to communicate and swallow, thereby improving quality of life.



Speech-language pathologists address typical and atypical communication and swallowing in the following areas:

• speech sound production

  • articulation

  • apraxia of speech

  • dysarthria

  • ataxia

  • dyskinesia

• resonance

  • hypernasality

  • hyponasality

  • cul-de-sac resonance

  • mixed resonance

• voice

  • phonation quality

  • pitch

  • loudness

  • respiration

• fluency

  • stuttering

  • cluttering

• language (comprehension and expression)

  • phonology

  • morphology

  • syntax

  • semantics

  • pragmatics (language use, social aspects of communication)

  • literacy (reading, writing, spelling)

  • prelinguistic communication (e.g., joint attention, intentionality, communicative signaling)

  • paralinguistic communication

• cognition

  • attention

  • memory

  • sequencing

  • problem solving

  • executive functioning

• feeding and swallowing

  • oral, pharyngeal, laryngeal, esophageal

  • orofacial myology (including tongue thrust)

  • oral-motor functions

If you missed the links above, you can find the entire "Scope of Practice" from ASHA's website: http://www.asha.org/docs/html/SP2007-00283.html and "ASHA's Code of Ethics" here: http://www.asha.org/docs/html/ET2010-00309.html