Most people typically engage in verbal communication without much effort, but there are some among us who have difficulty speaking, hearing or swallowing, which can be extremely distressing.

Disorders of this nature usually call for the administration of speech rehabilitation by a qualified speech therapist, whose job is to provide assistance and guidance to individuals who suffer from speech-related impairments.

So, before getting to the career aspect of the field, one might ask - what does a degree programme in speech therapy entail?

Most Speech therapy degree programmes will involve students learning the skills to diagnose and treat biological, psychological and environmental speech-related disorders, including pitch or tone irregularities, stutters, problems with pronunciation/enunciation, overpowering accents and other cognitive speech deficiencies.

Through the course of their undergraduate studies, you will become familiar with speech communication (both normal and abnormal), the foundations and causes of a range of speech disorders and treatment methods.

Modules include phonetic linguistics, language and vocabulary acquisition, neurology, anatomy and speech pathology evaluation. Additionally, expect to spend many hours training in clinical and lab environments as well as working on research.
Upon graduation, you will be able to pursue careers in speech therapy, clinical speech and audiology pathology and get involved in speech-related research and development.

If you’re interested in verbal communication and are empathetic, compassionate and have a desire to help people overcome their speech-centric difficulties, we won’t need to spend much effort talking you into studying for a degree in Speech Therapy, we reckon.

Need the right advice? Speak with our education planners online.