I can't remember how many times people have asked me what I do as a speech language pathologist(SLP) since I became one almost a decade ago. I am always happy to share with everyone what we do as SLPs. More often than not, there are misconceptions that SLPs "just help people with their lisps or stuttering." I see this question as a great opportunity to educate everyone and to advocate for people who have communication and swallowing difficulties and for their families.
You may find reading about the scope of practice of speech language pathology on The American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA) website helpful. In general, SLPs support anyone who struggles with speech, language, cognitive, voice, and swallowing difficulties and beyond. We, as SLPs, also help guide families of people with communication and swallowing difficulties at all ages, to support their loved ones in expanding their skills and ultimately improving their quality of life.
So the next question is, where do you find an SLP for your needs? There are SLPs in the medical setting (i.e., hospitals, nursing homes, medical clinics, and home health), in the schools, and in private practices. You can likely and easily search for one on the internet by using key words such as "speech therapy for kids," "adult speech therapy," and "voice therapy." The American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA) has a great tool called ASHA ProFind to help you locate the SLPs who specialize in the area(s) you are interested in.
There are SLPs who provide adult speech therapy and/or pediatric speech therapy and will travel to homes or places of your choosing. Sometimes insurances or the states may offer these in-home speech therapy services if the individuals meet the criteria. Sometimes people choose to private pay an SLP to provide the in home service. In addition, there are SLPs who provide speech therapy at outpatient clinics or at the inpatient settings at medical facilities and these are typically covered by insurance. There are also private practices where they only accept private-pay clients to provide their professional services although you may be reimbursed from your insurance. These private practices may come to you at your convenience, meet you virtually, or at their clinic offices. Now you may wonder where you should find your speech therapist after realizing there are options. Well, it all depends on your needs and what the availabilities and specialities are of the speech therapists or facilities.
People typically go with the speech therapy service their insurances provide, but it is often difficult to navigate the medical system to figure out what it is that you or your loved ones need to finally get a referral and then be seen by a speech therapist. There are also limitations such scheduling conflicts, languages spoken, insurances' discharging criteria, and not enough providers who are trained in the areas of your needs. So, you may be curious how a private-pay structure works and why you would want to work with a private-pay only SLP or clinic. The benefits of working with a private practice or private speech therapist like me are that private SLPs may provide specialized speech therapy services based on their professional experiences and trainings not provided by some of the insurance/medical settings. Some of those specialized areas are infant feeding therapy, gender affirming voice therapy, and cognitive therapy. Private-pay practitioners may have more flexibilities in terms of hours. This pay structure eliminates restrictions from insurance companies allowing the speech therapist to collaborate to meet your individual needs in therapy.
I mention there is a possibility that your insurance could reimburse you for the speech therapy services you paid for out-of-pocket in advance. To make this work, you can request superbills* to be provided to you for reimbursement. I always recommend that people contact their insurance carrier to verify coverage and reimbursement percentages PRIOR to the initial evaluation to avoid any surprise response from the insurance carriers.
I hope this post helps you understand what a speech language pathologist is and what you can do if you are in need of one.
If you would like to learn more about speech therapy and our setting, you can call or text us at 818.823.8022 or email us at hello@thechatroomtherapy.com.
We provide virtual speech therapy visits/telehealth visits in California, and in home services in Montrose, La Crescenta, La Canada, and Pasadena, CA areas.
We also provide speech therapy in Mandarin Chinese. 中文/國語語言治療
Vicki Chia Hui Lin, M.S., CCC-SLP
Founder, The Chat Room Therapy
Vicki is a California licensed and American Speech Language and Hearing Association certified speech language pathologist. She has extensive experience with both adults and children, with particular specialties in gender affirming voice therapy, adult voice disorders, post stroke or head and neck cancer related voice, communication, cognitive, and swallow difficulties.
*A superbill is an itemized form used by healthcare providers that reflects services rendered. A superbill is the main data source for the creation of a healthcare claim, which will be submitted to payers (the insurance company, funds, programs) for reimbursement.
informative
This is such a great breakdown of what we do as SLPs!
Great description and very informative! Nice breakdown of all the different areas an SLP might address
Great info! thanks for sharing your knowledge.
Thank you Vicki for the great information! I have always been curious about speech therapy.