954. A Day in the Life: What's It Really Like to Be a Speech Language Pathologist?

“One of the many wonderful things about working in this profession is that you can structure the work that you do based on your circumstances at any turning point of your life. The setting you work in, the kinds of clients you work with, the specific modalities that you offer, can all be created by you. When my son was born I wanted to be home every evening and on weekends, so I structured my private practice to make that happen. Earlier in my career my schedule and client base was quite different, which was ideal for that time in my life. But whatever the structure of my work, the thing that I really love about practicing speech language pathology is my one-on-one time with kids–there’s something beautiful that happens in those moments when I am able to use my passion and expertise to help kids that stutter become happy, healthy, effective communicators and help families better understand how to best support their loved one who stutters.”

Susie Harder, M.A., CCC-SLP is an experienced clinician who devotes much of her passion to working with children who stutter. She works in private practice and the school setting to help support children and provides workshops and consulting-based support to school districts. She recently created the Junior Authors Program, a revolutionary literacy-based platform. This community project engages students around the world in collaboratively writing a children’s book to raise funds for families who lost their home in the Central California Creek Fire in the fall of 2020.