Speech Pathology Internships for Undergraduates: A Comprehensive Guide
Introduction
For undergraduate students interested in speech-language pathology (SLP) or audiology (AuD), internships offer invaluable opportunities to gain practical experience, explore career paths, and enhance their resumes. Although direct SLP internships are not usually available to undergraduate students, there are many ways to gain exposure to the field. This article explores the various avenues available to undergraduates seeking to gain experience in speech pathology, including research assistant positions, volunteer opportunities, and sub-clinical employment.
Exploring Opportunities During Your Undergraduate Studies
Research Assistant Positions
Many university research labs hire undergraduate research assistants. These positions may be paid, offer academic credit, or be strictly extracurricular. Look for these positions in the communication science and disorders research lab. Consider branching out and asking professors in other departments if they have availability. Departments to consider include ELL programs, education, pre-med/bio, and linguistics.
Volunteer Opportunities
Many communication disorders programs offer support groups for people with communication disorders within the community. You can volunteer to help with these groups. Look to the community around you for relevant volunteer work. Many nursing homes and hospitals have volunteers to visit their residents. You can also look into volunteering with special needs children or in literacy tutoring programs.
Observation and Clinic Hours
Check with your college's communication disorders department. As part of your program, you may have observation or clinic hours. Before you apply for a master's program, get some volunteer hours. These hours will stand out on your application.
Audiology Opportunities
If you're interested in audiology, check local audiology offices or clinics to see if you can help with hearing screenings. If you’re looking at schools, reach out to audiology (special education) departments or school nurses to volunteer with hearing screenings. Also, check with your college or master's college audiology or speech professors; they may work with clinics/labs.
Read also: Speech Topics for Students
Alternative Volunteer Experiences
Consider volunteering in unconventional settings. For example, one could volunteer in Mexico with incorporating communication with equine therapy, supporting individuals with hearing aids, cochlear implants, and ASL.
Sub-Clinical Employment
Even though direct SLP internships are not usually available to undergraduate students, you can find volunteer or sub-clinical employment opportunities as an undergrad. You can also find non-clinical internship opportunities in organizations that offer speech language therapy, working as an office assistant or in caregiver positions. Any of these options help you get exposure to the field and boost your chances of being accepted into a graduate program in SLP.
The Value of Internships
Practical Experience
Strong internships can provide practical, functional, and daily experience. This experience can assist in your understanding of what life and career would be like in a specific role/occupation. Internships provide a less academic and more experiential point of view.
Skill Development
Speech language pathology internships help build the skills you need to succeed in the industry and will shape your entire career as a speech therapist.
Exposure to Specialization Areas
Most schools include more than one rotation as a part of the typical master’s program. That gives you not only the breadth of experience but also a chance to sample the potential specialization areas within the field. It also exposes you to different work settings, so you can decide what kind of patients and what sort of jobs you are interested in pursuing after graduation.
Read also: Guide to SLP Education
Understanding Different Types of Clinical Experiences
Externships
Externship placements give you observational positions in hospitals, clinics, schools, or other environments where SLP services are offered. They give you a short-term exposure to the realities of SLP therapy work without completely immersing you for long periods. That makes them a great choice for getting an idea of what type of specialization you might be interested in pursuing in SLP. Externships offer a preview of what life is like in a particular kind of SLP position without actually putting you in that position. You have no real responsibility and possibly no patient contact in an externship position.
Clinical Fellowships
An SLP clinical fellowship is an option after graduation, but it is not the same thing as an externship. Fellowships are a type of time-limited job that is designed as a way to get highly specialized training in a particular area of SLP. Examples include intensive care, neurological rehabilitation, acute care, and pediatric care. Fellowships typically last a year. You are paid for your work there, but it’s as much a learning and training experience as a functional position. Instead, it’s just a longer and more intensive kind of on-the-job training than an internship, at a more advanced level.
Internships vs. Externships
An SLP internship is designed to deliver practical, on-the-job experience working with patients as a speech-language pathologist. An externship, on the other hand, is built to offer you an overview of the position. Externships may last only days or weeks, while internships are months or more. An internship gives you genuine tasks and responsibilities to complete as part of the learning experience.
Preparing for a Speech Pathology Internship
Essential Skills and Knowledge
Graduate student clinicians in off-campus internships will bring skills already mastered during previous clinical courses and practica. Upon successful completion of the internship, students will have experience working directly with the patient or the patient's family in assessment, intervention, and counseling.
The Importance of English Language Proficiency
Applicants whose primary language is not English must submit results from the Test of English as a Foreign Language Internet-based test (TOEFL iBT). Scores from the speaking portion of the exam are given particular consideration in admission decisions. equivalence by an accredited credential evaluation service company prior to submission. Please refer to the National Association of Credential Evaluation Services for a list of qualified companies.
Read also: Alumni Homecoming Speech Guide
Making the Most of Your Internship
An internship is always a time-limited opportunity. So, you need to be prepared to make the most of that experience starting on day one. And the single most important factor you can control is your attitude toward learning.
Your goals need to be an asset that is low-maintenance and high-value… the person who brings the coffee and donuts in the morning and doesn’t complain about the hours. No one at your placement owes you anything. You need them to want to ask you to sit in on the most interesting cases, to chat with you over lunch about the tips and tricks that have made their careers a success.
Other winning techniques to get the most out of your internship include:
- Learn everyone’s name on day one
- Be excited about what you are seeing and learning
- Be respectful and don’t overstep your bounds
- Go to work with goals for what you want to learn every day
- Be flexible about what you are willing to take on
- Prepare for both your cases and for professional interaction and communication
Although it can be intimidating to show up for the first day of an internship placement, keep in mind that everyone at your placement went through the same thing. They are going to understand your challenges and help you through. You’ll fit in in no time at all.
Finding Internship Opportunities
University Programs
Your first stop in internship searches should be your master’s program. Since internships are a required part of the program, you can be sure they have worked out arrangements with various local providers to place students in a variety of positions. Odds are, they have a good working relationship with most local SLP employers and probably even trained some of the staff at those organizations, so there is already an inside track set up for you.
Independent Searches
Sometimes, though, you may be interested in interning in a type of setting that your program hasn’t dealt with before, or outside the local area. Your counselors and professors are likely to be supportive, but you are going to be left to do a lot of footwork on your own if that’s your goal.
Many clinics are happy to have the extra set of hands around at a low cost that an intern represents. But they aren’t always familiar with the process of hiring and managing interns. If they aren’t marked as such, it’s sometimes useful to just look for organizations hiring entry-level SLPs. That tells you they are in the market for someone at a beginner level and maybe not wanting to pay a lot-perfect candidates to talk into an internship offer.
Life as an Intern
A Learning Experience
One of the most exciting parts of your training to become a speech language pathologist is taking part in internships. No matter how interesting and exciting your classroom experiences are, they don’t hold a candle to the thrill of actually stepping into the job of offering speech therapy to real-world patients. That’s what an internship gives you. You are placed in a real job, handling the real challenge of speech language therapy on a daily basis. All those examples you read about in the classroom are suddenly walking in the door. You get the intense experience of interacting with patients who need you, and the important guidance of colleagues who have come before you.
Hard Work
Becoming a speech language pathologist is serious business, and an internship is hard work. You need to be a sponge, soaking up everything you see, absorbing knowledge and skills. You need to model your behavior and practices on the experienced professionals around you. At the same time, you need to constantly be thinking about how you can do it different, do it better, once you are licensed and responsible for your own patients.
It’s a lot to wrap up in a few months, but it’s an experience you’ll have to master on the path to becoming an SLP.
What Comes After Your Speech Pathology Internship?
Internships for SLP students aren’t the end of the road in your education. You might look for a fellowship opportunity, but most new SLP graduates are likely to put in a few years on the job before making such a serious decision.
Finding a Full-Time Role
After you complete your internship, you’ll need to find a full-time role. Here’s how to prepare for an SLP interview.
Even after your master’s degree and internship experience, almost no employer is truly going to consider you to be fully trained in your first full-time position. You can expect to aim for entry-level positions that are going to include a lot of basic cases and mentorship from other staff while you get up to speed.
But don’t forget what you learn in your internship placements, either. You should treat them as a full dress rehearsal for the reality of day-to-day work in speech therapy.
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