Why I Want To Be A Speech Therapist

Language plays a crucial role as a key medium of communication. Language links people together by conveying their thoughts, and hence, connecting their souls.

Without the ability to express one’s thought through clear speech, one may feel stressed and upset. Such circumstances may also lead to inconveniences in one’s daily communication and social life. In a Psycholinguistics course, we looked into some cases of patients suffering from Broca’s Aphasia and Wernicke’s Aphasia. After watching short videos of their speech therapy, I started to wonder how it would be like if I cannot talk as I want to. How would it be if one could no longer comprehend speech? I believe it would be overwhelming and frustrating for the patient. As these aphasia usually

For instance, swallowing problems are also common for the elderly or patients with head and neck injury. Hence, there are a lot to learn in order to deal with all kinds of possible cases, offering help to people in need.

Patience, attitude and communication skills are essential factors for being a professional speech therapist. Intending to build up mutual trust with the patients and their family, the therapist should have the patience to get a full picture of the patients’ needs and design a tailor-made therapy plan. Moreover, the therapist should remain professional while handling cases no matter how difficult it may be.

My study tour to Singapore has equipped me with patience, persistence and positive attitude. Conducting surveys on streets might not be easy, since passers-by are usually in a hurry, heading to their destinations. Despite receiving several denials, I learnt to remain cheerful and friendly when approaching people, shortening our interpersonal distance. Furthermore, such exposure to a foreign country broadened my horizon, encouraging me to see things in multiple perspectives instead of holding on to a one-sided perception of the world. This allows me to adopt and adapt different new concepts or ideas, and to understand other

Joining the Elite Leaders Programme has brought me fruitful experiences in teamwork and problem solving skills, which could be important for being a professional speech therapist. I have organized a 4-day study tour to Taipei with fellow students, and we worked as a team in arranging organization visits and itinerary planning. Several hurdles arose during our preparation, such as time conflicts and receiving no reply from one of the target organizations. We immediately turn to our backup plan and contact some other potential organizations. At the same time, tried our best to communicate between those organizations in order to come up with a feasible arrangement. Something unexpected came up during our visit – the presenter of the organization could not arrive in time. Therefore, our team soon divided our duties, my teammates introduced the organization to the participants while I contact the organization for an alternative plan. We soon came up with an idea of giving an office tour before the presentation. The visit went on smooth with our