(aka speech-language therapy; aka speech therapy; aka speech pathology)
Back in the early 70s, I completed a Bachelor of Arts degree with a major in writing but was necessarily led astray by the need to make a living. After qualifying, I worked as a speech-language pathologist for many years, primarily with adults who had speech and language problems following stroke or brain injury.
Later, I completed a PhD in Linguistics and moved into academia — researching, lecturing, and publishing in the area of clinical linguistics and aphasia. Along the way I was involved in the establishment of discipline of speech pathology at the University of Newcastle, New South Wales, Australia at both undergraduate coursework and postgraduate research levels and contributed to a national research team in the development of clinical education research and competency-based curriculum.
Writing remained a constant pleasure and I was able to publish two books and fifteen book chapters with international publishers, as wells as papers in a wide range of national and international peer-reviewed scholarly journals. (For details, see my profile on Researchgate.)
Ferguson, A., & Armstrong, E. (2009). Researching communication disorders. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan
Ferguson, A. (2008). Expert practice: A critical discourse. San Diego, CA: Plural Publishing.
Working as a speech pathologist is an enormously satisfying career. I couldn’t agree more with the presenter of this video from the UK about the speech pathology profession. In Australia, you can find out more from Speech Pathology Australia.