erinma

stephpop, on 05 April 2011 - 09:48 AM, said: Just curious, how does one become an SLPA? I looked into this in MA. Apparently MA has some of the most stringent requirements for being certified as an SLPA. However, I talked to someone who is an SLPA here - she was a communications disorders undergrad and I had the impression she had trouble getting into grad school the first time she applied so she went the SLPA route and is reapplying later. Anyway, she said the job market here for SLPAs is very limited, with the tight economy most employers just want to spend money on the SLPs. Mass. law is pretty strict about how SLPAs have to be supervised and what they can and cannot do so you can't hire just an SLPA without an SLP to work closely with them. I could find almost no job listings in MA for SLPAs and I even saw some ads for SLPs that specifically said "Please no SLPAs". I was disappointed. If you look at Occupational Therapy Assistants and Physical Therapy Assistants, those are official jobs that are certified by the national governing body, but ASHA seems to have very little interest in SLPAs. Maybe other states that don't have as strict regulations on what SLPAs can do have better job markets, but here it seems to be very little. I would have to take one more CSD class and do 25 observation hours to get certified (I don't have a CSD undergrad, but I have been taking the pre-reqs to apply to grad school), but I'm wondering if it's even worth it. I am probably not getting into grad school this cycle, so if I want some related experience I think I am going to have to try to get into some sort of ABA tech/aide position.