Speech Pathology: Competency, Communication, and Lifelong Learning

This essay delves into the field of speech pathology, emphasizing the importance of professional engagement, competency, and adherence to established standards. It highlights the significance of tools like the Competency Assessment in Speech Therapy (COMPASS) used in Australia to evaluate student performance across key areas such as professionalism, lifelong learning, communication, and reasoning. The essay provides personal reflections on how these competencies have been applied in the author's life, including the decision to pursue speech pathology and the application of communication skills. It then outlines the structure of occupational competencies, detailing seven units and their elements, with a specific focus on planning evidence-based practices (Unit 3) and assessment (Unit 1). The author sets goals for clinical placement, such as gathering information from clients' significant others to inform treatment strategies and proper assessment of clients' concerns. The essay underscores the critical role of all units and elements in achieving optimal outcomes for clients, advocating for the effective utilization of both in speech pathology practice, and concludes with references to support the concepts discussed.

Running Head: SPEECH PATHOLOGY 1
Speech Pathology
(Student’s Name)
(Institutional Affiliation)

SPEECH PATHOLOGY 2
Speech Pathology
Speech Pathologists are expected to professionally engage in various platforms with their
clients, employers, as well as their clients’ significant others. These workers are expected to be
competent in their jobs to provide the best results. There are certain standards that these workers
are supposed to uphold (Ho, Whitehill, & Ciocca, 2014). For entry levels, speech pathologists
are expected to show that they are competent in all the units relating to pediatric as well as adult
speech pathology of the competency based occupational standards (CBOS). These areas consist
of the language, the voice used, swallowing, speech, fluency and multi modal communication.
Students in this field, therefore, need to be competent before they can start practicing the
profession. In Australia, a tool that is used to gauge how students are performing in their
placements is the Competency Assessment in Speech Therapy (COMPASS). This tool has four
units that collectively determine how well a student is performing (Bowen, 2014). These
include; professionalism, lifelong learning, communication as well as reasoning.
Reasoning refers to the assessment of a given situation in a manner that is both sensible
and logical. In the past, reasoning has applied in my life in a myriad of ways. One such instance
was when I had to choose a course to pursue. The choices included pathology, teaching, and
engineering. I have always felt that I have a passion for speech pathology which could be
attributed to the fact that my elder brother used to stammer earlier on in his life and I wished I
could help him. However, I was good at physics. Teaching, however, did not appeal to me in any
way. Therefore, after thinking critically about what each decision would mean, I decided to
follow my passion and become a speech pathologist
Communication refers to the process of passing and receiving information to convey a
given message. Communication is very vital because it is the tool that people use to fulfill their

SPEECH PATHOLOGY 3
various needs be they vocational, educational, social, or emotional (Mcallister et al., 2009).
Communication could be oral or written. It can also be verbal or non-verbal, and it takes into
consideration the voice used to communicate as well as the fluency in communication. A
situation where communication applied in my life, was when I needed to inform my parents
about the course I had chosen to pursue. In so doing, I effectively explained that I am passionate
about speech pathology and I believe that I will do an excellent job in practicing it.
Lifelong learning refers to the continued search for information and reading it to better
one’s understanding of a particular or different types of information (Australia, 2011). I have
applied lifelong learning in my daily life. I have a keen interest in matters relating to investment
strategies. I continuously study the concept to know what is happening in the markets and other
investment related areas and apply it. This leads to better performance for my portfolio that
keeps on improving over time.
Professionalism is the act of practicing in a given line of work, by someone who has
received training in that field for a given amount of time and has, therefore, gained the formal
qualification to work (Mcallister, 2005). I have applied professionalism in speech pathology. For
instance, whenever we are required to demonstrate how to work in this profession, I follow the
expected policies. These policies are regarding dress, language, behavior that follows the code of
ethics, and conventional procedures (Kenny, Lincoln, & Balandin, 2007).

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Occupational competencies are made up of seven units with different activities
(American Speech-Language-Hearing Association, 2007). These include; lifelong learning and
reflective practice, professional and supervisory activities, management and planning,
implementation, gathering evidence relating to speech pathology, analysis and interpretation, and
assessment of the problem. These units further have elements that explain them in more detail.
The elements on the other hand are further defined in criteria that assess performance which aid
the assessors to conclude how students are performing.
For this study, let’s consider the elements within unit three and unit one. Unit three
involves the planning of evidence based on speech pathology practices. It means taking in
evidence and planning for the speech pathology activity based on the collected information.
Element 3.3 in this unit seeks to discuss the outcomes that may be long term with an individual
client or with others who have a relationship with the client in a bid to decide if strategies
relating to speech pathology are needed or suitable.
Element 3.3 is a goal that I would like to develop during my clinical placement. This is
because it is vital to identify whether an individual strategy of speech therapy is suitable for the
client before carrying it out. By so doing, the activity will bring in the expected results.
Otherwise, the effects may be detrimental to the client’s speech or swallowing and instead of
bringing progress, the action may be retrogressive. By having the client’s significant others bring
in input concerning the client and themselves, this ensures that the speech pathologist can make
an informed decision (Ferguson, Duffield, & Worrall, 2010). Therefore, one of my first goals
would be to carry out a background check on clients by sourcing for information from the people
that surround them. With this in mind, I would progress to analyze and find out the best
strategies to proceed with in the speech pathology exercise and hence avoid mistakes.

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Unit one, on the other hand, involves assessment. The first element of unit one, element
1.1, requires the investigation as well as documentation of the client’s issues. These problems
could have to do with swallowing or communication in which case the primary concerns the
client are explored in a bid to address and correct them. The goal achieved in addressing this
element is that with the proper assessment of the client’s concern, as a speech pathologist, I can
know what exactly am dealing with and it is, therefore, effortless to begin the speech pathology
process. This is, therefore, the very first step when practicing as a speech pathologist.
It is therefore evident that all the units in occupational competence are vital when dealing
with clients who have various concerns. The elements in these units are crucial as well and
should be well executed to achieve the best results. Speech pathologists should, therefore, take
advantage of both the units and their elements when assisting clients.

SPEECH PATHOLOGY 6
References
American Speech-Language-Hearing Association. (2007). Scope of the practice in speech-
language pathology.
Australia, T. S. P. A. of. (2011). Competency-oriented Occupational Standards for Speech
Pathologists: initial Level.
Bowen, C. (2014). Policy and Practice. Webwords 49, 11.8
Ferguson, A., Duffield, G., & Worrall, L. (2010). Legal decision-making by people who have
aphasia: important incidents for speech pathologists. International Journal of Language &
Communication Disorders, 28(1–2), 102–116.
Ho, D. W. L., Whitehill, T. L., & Ciocca, V. (2014). Performance of speech-language pathology
students in issue-based learning tutorials and in clinical practice. Clinical Linguistics &
Phonetics, 45(2), 244–258.
Kenny, B., Lincoln, M., & Balandin, S. (2007). Designing proper evaluataion of students ’
competency in the workplace, 2–32. Mcallister, S. (2005). Competency Based Evaluation of
Speech Pathology Students ’ Performance in the Workplace. Published Thesis, The
University of Sydney, (June).
Mcallister, S., Lincoln, M., Ferguson, A., Mcallister, L., Mcallister, S., Lincoln, M., …
Mcallister, L. (2009). A dynamic model of ethical thinking in speech pathology. J Med
Ethics, 28(7), 905–908.