Aruna Hari Prasad, MA, CCC-SLP
Whether you’ve just started your career as a school-based speech-language pathologist (SLP) or are moving to the school setting from another setting such as a hospital, private practice or outpatient clinic, SLPs play a critical role in student success—and there’s a lot to know as you step into this environment. Here are three things to keep in mind.
Use the resources and support in your school, district, state, and ASHA. The ASHA School Services in Speech-Language Pathology team has five members, all of whom are here to assist you. The team’s responsibilities include creating and moderating professional development courses and programs and advocating on behalf of members on school-based practice issues.
The School Services team is available Monday through Friday, 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., EST, to answer any questions related to school-based clinical and professional topics. Check out the following resources that they offer:
Remember, ASHA refers to the full range of your responsibilities as a school-based SLP by using the term workload—and advocates for manageable workloads. Caseload is a component of workload. To practice quantifying and qualifying workload, try out an edition of the ASHA Workload Calculator (AWC). Choose from one of several options to meet your unique needs: The AWC comes in weekly, monthly, and telepractice editions.
These tools allow you to capture the time you spend providing direct and indirect services to students. You can also analyze how your work with individual students contributes to your overall workload using the ASHA Workload Analysis Calculator. Bottom line—become knowledgeable about solution-based advocacy with tools like the AWC.
School-based SLPs have a range of roles and responsibilities as clinical service providers and members of school teams. In the most recent ASHA Schools Survey, SLPs reported having large, dynamic, and varied caseloads; demanding workloads; and work environment conditions that may not be equitable. These and other factors may lead to feelings of overwhelm. Typically, when experiencing overwhelm, a person may still be working toward—and even meeting—goals.
ASHA’s Workload Factors That Contribute to Overwhelm [PDF] checklist can (a) help you identify tasks leading to feeling overwhelmed, (b) define action steps to handle, and (c) develop a plan to help prevent overwhelm going forward.
ASHA’s Addressing Stress, Overwhelm, and Burnout in School-Based SLP Practice webpage identifies symptoms of burnout and how to address it.
These Leader articles—on collaboration, workload management and stress, overwhelm, and burnout—were developed by SLPs for SLPs:
Wherever you are on your career journey, the ASHA School Services Team is here to support you. Email us directly at schools@asha.org with your questions—we’d love to hear from you!