Crimson Wife

I'm starting the SLPA program at my local community college this fall and taking a few of the upperclass grad school pre-reqs at Utah State online this summer. For state certification as as SLPA & grad school admissions, I could either do the full SLPA program plus 4-5 upper-level courses or the full USU 2nd bachelor's plus 4 SLPA courses. I missed this year's application cycle for out-of-field MS-SLP programs because up until February I thought I was going to do ed therapy. I'm really glad that I found out about my daughter's hearing loss before I submitted the ed therapy applications rather than after because I would've been out $$$. As it was, I had to tell my literacy tutoring supervisor to hang onto the LoR she was writing because it's going to need to be revised for SLP.

Any school like this is probably going to turn their nose up at me for being middle-aged and a former stay-at-home mom. Ironically, I'm much more ambitious at this stage of my life than I was in my 20's when I had babies on the brain.

Then that would be something they should consider implementing if they don't want to lose admitted applicants to other programs...

As with everything, pay ranges are going to vary by region. SLPA's in my neck of the woods make $20-$30/hr plus they typically receive benefits and a guaranteed work schedule, unlike ABA interventionists. The minimum wage in my state is $10/hr. so $15/hr. is comparatively low. It's less than the going rate for babysitters.

Or they could increase their financial aid to make their program more attractive. Even if my "dream school" was X, if school Y offered me a better deal financially, I'd probably go with them.

Some autistic kids can be physically aggressive at times but what I've witnessed at my daughter's ABA center is mostly toddlerish behavior (pinching, biting, kicking, etc.) even if the kids are chronologically older than toddlers. The employees aren't in any real danger of harm from the kids (I would have to double-check the agreement I signed but I'm pretty sure that would be grounds to discharge the client).

Be forewarned that the entry-level ABA jobs don't pay very well. The going rate in my area is $15-$18/hr. without benefits or a guaranteed number of hours per week. If you get your master's (many agencies have tuition reimbursement programs) and board certification, the supervisory positions are decent-paying. ABA work is hard because the interventionist is often trying to get the autistic child to do something he/she doesn't want or trying to stop him/her from engaging in a preferred-but-nonfunctional behavior. My autistic child can be very sweet and fun to work with on a good day but on a bad day, she can tantrum for the majority of the 3.5 hour session.

Are you fluent in Spanish? The SLP Asst. program I'm going to be starting this fall had a job posting recently for bilingual SLPA's offering a salary of $60k/yr. Getting strong real-world experience as a SLPA would help towards making up for a weak GPA.

After-school hours are very much in-demand for SLP's. Most of the SLP's (and OT's, etc.) my kids have worked with have their earliest slot at noon and their latest at 6:30 P.M.

Most ed therapists focus on reading but others focus on dyscalculia (math LD), executive functioning deficits, etc. I haven't really looked into training programs for those because my special needs child is actually strong in math and EF is more for middle school & up rather than the primary grades. Dyslexia remediation would be the area of ed therapy most relevant for SLP since many kids with speech & language impairments also have dyslexia. MGH actually has a MS-SLP program with a concentration in reading that is IMSLEC-accredited. There may be other SLP programs with a reading concentration as well.

I would call them back and ask if you could try CLEP/DSST testing (can't remember which has the exam) out of the stats requirement at the very least. Stats is one of those classes where it's pretty easy to self-study. I basically did that during my 1st UG degree because the class was taught by a grad student whose accent was so strong that nobody could understand him. Khan Academy has loads of videos on the subject: https://www.khanacademy.org/math/probability The Cartoon Guide to Statistics is a great reference guide as well. Chemistry/Physics is something you could try testing out as well, but it would almost certainly take longer than June 1st to learn.

Wilson might be a good choice since most of the training can be done online. You'd need to do the introductory workshop (usually held over a weekend) and then the rest of the training is online. The practicum requirement can be done using a local student and then emailing the videos to your mentor (this is what a lot of folks do in order to save $$$). Dyslexia Training Institute is 100% online but it's not quite as marketable a certification as Wilson or the other ones listed above. http://www.dyslexiatraininginstitute.org/certification.html

I'll come at the question from a different angle: that of a parent whose special needs child has worked with many different SLP's, OT's, and Applied Behavioral Analysis therapists over the years. Especially with the ABA, there is a lot of training of new therapists going on during my daughter's sessions because they learn on-the-job rather than doing a formal grad school practicum like SLP's and OT's do. What makes these kinds of sessions most successful is when the lead therapist actively involves the individual doing the observing/training. Playing a game to target a specific skill tends to work well because then it's more naturalistic to have multiple people involved.

The CBEST is super-easy, especially compared to the GRE. A lot of dyslexia remediation training programs operate over the summer and after you complete them, you can get initial certification and start working as a tutor or academic language practiitioner. Here are a few lists: IMSLEC: http://www.imslec.org/directory.asp?action=accredited AOGPE: http://www.ortonacademy.org/training_courses.php Wilson: http://www.wilsonlanguage.com/FS_PD_Public_Workshops.htm Slingerland: https://www.regonline.com/builder/site/?eventid=1661625

I'm going to a couple of workshops in June on listening & spoken language for the deaf/hard-of-hearing in order to learn how to help my HoH child. Both offer CEU's but neither has any formal way to earn credits already pre-arranged. I will be taking 2 of the grad school pre-reqs through USU online this summer and when I was on the website, I noticed that there is a way to arrange an independent study course. I don't mind doing extra work beyond attending the workshops in order to earn IS credit. I can write a paper or put together a presentation, etc. I'm just wondering if it's worth the extra tuition $ to get it officially onto my transcript. Would grad schools see that as a positive or would it just be a "whatever" reaction?

What specifically is your area of interest within SLP? I think it's easier to formulate a Plan B that will make you a more attractive reapplicant if you do something related to whatever that area of interest is. My youngest child has multiple disabilities and I know that there are always plenty of openings in the following jobs. The pay isn't great and not all employers offer benefits but you will get relevant experience: -special education aide/paraeducator -Applied Behavioral Analysis interventionist -Early Intervention preschool teacher (check state regulations since you might need a certain number of credit hours in child development/ECE for this) -Lindamood-Bell tutor If you want to make good money and are willing to invest in the training, educational therapy is something to consider. That's actually what my original Plan A was before the audiologist discovered my daughter's hearing loss and I decided SLP would be a better way to help her.

Adding to my list of schools to research: University of Arkansas Medical Sciences Auditory-Based Intervention track.

I got halfway through the pre-med sequence way back in the day (probably when some of the younger folks here were babies ) and also took statistics & a bunch of psych courses. Is SLP like nursing where the science courses have to be within the past 5-7 years? Or do they just have to be on the transcript? I checked the ASHA site and it didn't say anything about the pre-reqs having to be within a certain time period but I don't want to be surprised when it comes time for me to apply.

USU has one but check the pre-reqs to make sure you can enroll. I was hoping to take it this fall along with Aural Rehabilitation because my youngest child was recently diagnosed with profound hearing loss. I figured it's one of the more personally relevant of the grad school pre-reqs I have to do but the USU sequence puts it in the 3rd semester or later.

In case anyone else comes across this thread in the future, I asked in a different group dedicated to listening & spoken language for the D/HoH and got the following suggestions: -Utah State -Akron -Toledo -Texas San Antonio (appears only to have the M.Ed. and not SLP) -Washington University in St. Louis (appears only to have the M.Ed. and not SLP) An acquaintance suggested Vanderbilt and while that would probably be a total longshot due to their selectivity, they do indeed have a concentration in LSL.

I live in California and will be doing the SLPA program at a local community college. Several of the CSU's also have SLPA programs. I looked into Sacramento State but it's a lot more $$$ than the community college since I'd need to do a 2nd bachelor's. If you already have your degree in CSD it would only be 2 courses. Application deadline is April 20th so if you wanted to do that, you'd better hurry!

Have you considered becoming an academic language therapist? I was actually in the middle of applying for a master's in educational therapy for this fall when we discovered my youngest daughter (previously diagnosed with autism and MERLD) had profound hearing loss. My plans switched to SLP with a concentration in auditory-verbal therapy for the deaf/hard-of-hearing but I am leaning towards still doing a grad certificate in ed therapy so that I can incorporate dyslexia remediation into my SLP practice. To become fully certified as an academic language therapist you will need a master's in a related field (SLP counts) but to get started as an academic language practitioner you only need a bachelor's plus completion of a multisensory systematic reading intervention program like Orton-Gillingham, Wilson, Slingerland, etc. https://www.altaread.org/membership.asp There is a real shortage of academic language therapists and the pay is good (in my neck of the woods it's $75+/hr). I have a major admiration for SPED teachers but I know my skills are better suited for 1:1 or 1:2 work rather than trying to teach a whole classroom.

Is there a major bias among grad schools against older applicants? That scares me as I'll be 40 by the time I finish up the SLPA coursework and master's pre-reqs. I didn't know what I wanted to do with my life in my 20's and frankly, I wouldn't have had the patience back then to work with special needs kids. It took having a SN child of my own to develop the necessary patience. If I can get similar GRE scores as I did back as a senior in college that should help, right? I had a 720M, 720V, and 780A that unfortunately are long expired. Looking at the ETS website conversion table that would be a 168V, 156Q, and the new AW section is too different from the old logic puzzles to be at all relevant.

I would like to continue homeschooling my older kids (currently in 7th and 3rd grades) through the end of jr. high if possible but it remains TBD how well I'll be able to juggle that with going back to school myself. I've never had an interest in homeschooling high school and the fact that my oldest is rapidly approaching it is one impetus for getting my backside in gear to figure out the next phase of my life. For grad school, I haven't yet decided whether to try for a FT program or a PT/hybrid one like Northern AZ or Eastern NM. I don't think I want to do an online-only program like CSU Northridge but that may be my age showing

Out of curiosity, is there a reason you're not looking into the SLP Assistant programs at the community colleges like Orange Coast, Pasadena, and Santa Ana? Doing a SLPA program rather than a post-bacc seems to me like a much more cost-effective way of completing many of the master's pre-reqs plus then you could legally work as a SLPA during grad school (probably only PT but $20-$25/hr. is not bad). I've obviously never been a SLP hiring manager for a hospital/clinic/school but in my previous business career an applicant with directly relevant work experience (even at a lower level) always had a distinct advantage over someone who was brand-new out of school with nothing but extracurriculars & volunteer experience.