Bilingual speech-language pathology graduate programs

[g1slp]

Is anyone on the forums looking to do bilingual speech-language pathology (particularly Spanish-English)? I applied to a variety of schools, some with a bilingual emphasis or certificate and some without, and I am having trouble assessing which path would be best. I will most likely end up working in the Chicago area where, I have been assured by current SLPs, I will "definitely" have access to bilingual clients regardless of my training. That being said, I want to make sure I at least get some amount of practice in bilingual speech-language pathology before I begin my professional experiences, and I want to keep my Spanish language skills in tact until then. My main concern is that I do not want to specialize at the cost of other areas I may be interested in (i.e., I don't want to sacrifice learning about other things to focus specifically on bilingualism - that seems limiting!).

 

Is anyone else going through this? Is a bilingual certificate/emphasis rendered unnecessary if a university could potentially provide a bilingual experience during clinicals (however minimal)? Would the more important thing be to make sure a university has a bilingual clinical supervisor? What are your general feelings towards specialization or extra certificates that complement your degree?

 

Literally any advice would be appreciated!

[midnight]

I think the most important thing for you personally is keeping your Spanish skills intact any way that you can while jumping on any bilingual opportunities that you can. Language retention and practice seem more important than a specific cert or track, though I may be wrong.

[TimothyP]

Edited August 29, 2013 by TimothyP

[SLPamy]

I may be wrong, but I was under the impression that you needed a certificate to work with bilingual clients in their non-English language. So even if you are a native Spanish speaker, without the certificate you would not be able to work with a bilingual client in Spanish. My sister is a bilingual (Spanish-English) kindergarten teacher and she is always complaining because there are no certified SLPs to work with her kids that need therapy, even though there are SLPs that speak Spanish. 

I have looked into it, as I'm minoring in Spanish, but I don't think I'm advanced enough to actually get certified. If I was a native speaker I definitely would do it! I live in the Chicago area as well and from what I hear bilingual SLP's definitely get more $$$$$ because they're in such high demand. Plus, you can also find agencies to pay for your grad school if you agree to work as a bilingual SLP for them for x amount of years after graduating.

I know at Marquette the bilingual speech path students just have to take like 4 extra classes, and most of their clients are bilingual. But even if all of your clients are bilingual or native Spanish speakers, they will all still have different disorders... so it's not like you won't be exposed to different things? You will obviously still have to learn about the same things every other grad student learns about.

As far as keeping your language skills in tact, this website is interesting/useful: www.conversationexchange.com

[castikat]

IIRC, U of MN Twin Cities has a bilingual program as do some schools in California. I can't remember exactly which school in cali I was looking at but you just had to take a special california standardized language exam thing to get bilingual certification.