Classroom teacher to speech teacher/pathologist?

[Anonymous]

I've been a classroom teacher for seven years in MoCo. I have a BA in psychology and an M.Ed. in elementary ed. I'd like to transition out of the classroom and into a specialist role. The most appealing specialist job is being a speech and language teacher. How do I make this transition? Can I take some classes and a praxis test? Or do I need to get a whole new degree?

[Anonymous]

I'm an slp and you would need an entirely new masters degree. You would need to take 6 prerequisites (very little would transfer). The prereqs are in things like speech science, language development, audiology. The masters with those classes took me 2 years and three summers. I'm happy to answer any questions you have about the profession to so that you can make an informed choice!

[Anonymous]

I am also an SLP. As previous poster noted you will need a new Masters degree. If your undergrad is not in speech pathology or hearing and speech sciences then you probably do not have all of the necessary prerequisites and it may take longer. Since this was the case for me, I had to complete a prereq year, so my MA took a total 3 fall semesters, 3 spring semesters and 2 summers. I attended UMD. Here is the link to their program :http://hesp.umd.edu/content/master-arts-speech-language-pathology-overview

[Anonymous]

I think your classroom experience would be very valuable, but the training program would be quite different from teaching. Unless they have changed things, you have to do internships both in a school setting with kids and in a hospital with adult disorders. Your first year in the field is, or at least used to be, a clinical fellowship year with various paperwork requirements connected to that. Lots of people go in without an undergraduate degree, but typically it would take 3 years not including the clinical fellowship year. Perhaps things have changed but this is how it used to be.