Verbal Communication

“Getting Real”
Communication Sciences and Disorders
The field of communication sciences and disorders includes career paths in
audiology and speech-language pathology—we will focus on the latter here.
Individuals working in this field can work in schools, hospitals, private practice,
or in academia as researchers and professors. Speech and language disorders
affect millions of people. Between six and eight million people in the United
States have some kind of language impairment, ranging from stuttering to lack
of language comprehension to lack of language expression.American Speech-
Language-Hearing Association, accessed June 7, 2012,
http://www.asha.org/
careers/professions/default-overview.htm
. Speech language pathologists may
work with children who have exhibited a marked slowness or gap in language
acquisition or adults who have recently lost language abilities due to stroke or
some other trauma or disease. Speech-language pathologists often diagnose
and treat language disorders as part of a team that may include teachers,
physicians, social workers, and others. The career outlook is predicted to be
very strong for the next eight years as the baby boomers reach an age where
age-related hearing and language impairments develop, as medical advances
increase survival rates for premature babies and stroke and trauma victims,
and as schools continue to grow. Speech-language pathologists often obtain
graduate degrees, complete clinical experiences, and take tests for various
certifications and licenses. To be successful in this field, individuals must have
good interpersonal communication skills to work with a variety of clients and
other service providers, above-average intellectual aptitude (particularly in
science), and excellent oral and written communication skills. Typical salaries
range from $58,000 a year for individuals working in elementary schools to
$70,000 for those in health care settings.
1. What specific communication skills do you think would be
important for a speech-language pathologist and why?
2. The motto for the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association
is “Making effective communication a human right, accessible and
achievable for all.” How does this motto relate to our discussion of
communication ethics so far? What kinds of things do speech-
language pathologists do that fulfill that motto?
Chapter 3 Verbal Communication
3.1 Language and Meaning
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