Many children and even grown-ups suffer from speaking disabilities – an inability to pronounce or word sentences accurately. This may be due to a variety of reasons, physical or articulation related, and speech therapists can be consulted to effectively understand the problem and phase it out with speech therapy.
A Speech Therapist – Committed to Solve Communication Defects
Also called a language pathologist or audiologist, a speech therapist can identify the kind of speaking disability through different tests, and chart a course of vocal practice, other means to correct the problem. An individual may be having articulation disorders, which is problem in uttering some sounds or may be repeating sounds, as in stuttering or cluttering. Some people tend to mumble through a sentence or jumble up the lingual use of words to express an idea. Using different techniques, games, practice for using the mouth, tongue and lips correctly to utter sounds and even mirrors, a speech therapist helps people to overcome their problem. People who are hearing impaired are trained through sign language to speak correctly.
Speech Therapist Salary – High Income Professionals
Identification of speaking disorders right from a young age helps target and correct the problems effectively. Speech therapy professionals are now in high demand. With specialized training on audiology or speech pathology from various universities or institutes. Speech therapist salary may range from $35,000 to $90,000. On an average, a therapist who specialized in speech earns around $30 to $50 per hour and so the median annual income comes to $62,930. Now, speech therapist salary depends mainly on where he/she is working, experience, area and location. Definitely, speech therapists living in cities are earning more. They extend their services in schools, nursing homes, hospitals, healthcare institutes or at home.
Speech Therapist Jobs – Very Noble
Over the past decade, demand for trained speech therapists has witnessed a substantial jump. A sizeable number of speech therapist jobs are in schools and other educational institutes, while hospitals, healthcare institutes and nursing homes are the other chief employers for speech therapists. There are audiologists who are self-employed and work for schools, hospitals, etc., or render individualized therapy at home to patients on call. They don’t get the same benefits like health cover for orthodontics, vision, etc., like their salaried counterparts. Some therapists work as consultants and extend services at medical centers or clinics of other medical practitioners. Most speech therapists in service are women, with 1-4 years of experience.