Essay On Speech Pathology

Speech-pathologists provide critical services to many children nationwide. While the numbers of children in need of special services continue to increase, the number of speech-language pathologists employed in schools has decreased. The shortage of speech-language pathologists, caused by a growing workload, could potentially threaten the education of special needs students. Today, special educators are faced with growing responsibilities that can be challenging. While trying to meet all the needs of their students with disabilities, special educators have rising levels of paperwork, complex caseloads, and limited resources to handle (Woltmann and Camron 178). Demanding responsibilities are causing stress and burnout within the field of speech-pathology, which could be detrimental to both student and teacher. Stress caused by the accumulation of task demands faced by SLPs can develop into burnout, a condition that results in lowered productivity and morale (Harris et al.). Hiring and keeping qualified speech-pathologists is a pressing issue (Katz et al. 149). According to Harris et al. “Individuals with particularly high levels of stress and burnout may be more likely to leave their positions” (110). …show more content…
Men and women in the field of speech-language pathology become overworked and no longer desire to work in special education. The conditions compelling speech-language pathologists to leave are also causing students to not enter the field in the first place. However, the number of children who need their services continue to grow. SLPs who stay in the field are given larger and larger caseloads until they experience burnout as well. Speech-language pathologists are vital for the specific education that speech-language impaired children need. Their education is in danger of being harmed due to the lack of professionals in the field of Speech-Language