We all want to be Speech Therapists
Someone in my course was talking to a bloke from down the corridor in her halls. He asked what she studied, she answered ‘Speech and Language Therapy’, he went on to ask what she planned to do after graduating. ‘Well,’ she said, ‘I sort of thought I might try being a Speech and Language Therapist’. I’ve noticed a lot of people having the same ambition.
There’s a ‘type’, on this course. As you may or may not know, Speech and Language Therapy is quite a broad clinical area (and, despite its name, not limited to speech and language). The training prepares us to go into acute hospital settings but also for community work targeted at whole sections of the population; it’s a wide spectrum with many possibilities along it. Whichever route you go down though, it’s work with people, mostly involving their families, mostly working to improve one specific aspect of their life, mostly involving their social and emotional wellbeing. My coursemates are, by default, supportive, practical, non-judgemental people. What could be nicer?
It’s not all roses: some things about the ‘type’ seem arbitrary and potentially worrying. Nearly everyone’s a white woman in her twenties. I hesitate to criticise the situation, as a white woman in my twenties, it would seem unfair. But it’s really noticeable, especially as we’re in the middle of London, and I do wonder why there aren’t a broader spectrum of people applying to this course.
The other thing I really like is the fact that it’s postgrad. We’ve got people from a whole range of different academic and professional backgrounds, and we can help each other out. For example, I might be able to help someone with linguistics in the morning, have to ask someone about autistic children at lunchtime, and then spend my afternoon getting advice about how to take case histories from someone with a clinical background. Someone told us that this particular course is known for the students working together, and we do. It’s a hard course, so anything to make it easier is more than welcome. I love it.