Beginning Clinic for SLP Grads

Once grad school begins, schedules and situations will likely vary from school to school. In some SLP graduate programs, the first semester focuses primarily on coursework. In my school, we did not start clinical practicum until the second semester.  Clinical practicum, or just "clinic," as we lovingly call it, is a very big part of what makes the SLP grad student's experience unique. Grad students are usually assigned clients with whom they will work throughout the semester. We provide therapy for these clients as graduate student clinicians under the supervision of a certified speech-language pathologist. 

Placements vary depending on need and availability. At one point, I only had one client I was seeing once weekly. At another time, I was doing therapy three different times a week (once a week with one client, and twice a week with a second client). During my three semesters in clinic, I worked with both children and adults with varying difficulties in expressive/receptive language, articulation, fluency (stuttering), and others. While this may sound intimidating (we were all slightly terrified at first), clinic provides students with invaluable hands on experience. Additionally, supervisors are present to guide students and share their own brilliant insight.

Clinic is a time when you begin to learn what works and what doesn't work for you as a clinician. Skills that you thought you already had, like talking to other adults, may have to be slightly relearned as you begin conversing with parents about their child's speech needs (though a supervisor will also typically be present when you do this). Other skills like taking data, time management, and client behavior modifications should also improve during clinic.

Do you have a question or a clinical experience that you'd like to share? Post it in the comments below or send me a message via the link at the bottom of the page. I look forward to hearing from you about your own experiences as a SLP grad student!