Interview with AL, Speech-Language Pathology: Its Relation to Gender and the Pandemic, HIST 150 Spring 2022, Conducted by Lilly B, March 24, 2022.

Overview of Social Change Interview

The main themes discussed in this interview with AL are gender in the workplace, as well as how COVID-19 has impacted the interviewee’s work as a speech-language pathologist during times of a pandemic. Information from the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association, [ASHA], states that 96% of speech-language pathologists are female, which makes this field a highly gendered one.

AL discusses how this gender discrepancy has changed throughout her 25 years of being in the field, as well as impacts she has felt it has had on the practice. An article from the Frontiers in Neurology Journal describes how the COVID-19 pandemic has impacted the field of speech-language pathology, such as a change in service and testing strategies. AL provides insight on how this is true in her workplace, as well as gives specific examples of new strategies she has implemented to adjust to how she practices her job during the pandemic.

When looking at other interviews that have been completed, it looks like there were not many directly related to the topics covered in AL’s interview. However, some could relate after breaking up the topics, rather than trying to find them all together. One is Carter Payne’s interview about teaching during the pandemic, which was useful because AL works for the school system, so some of the experiences could be similar. Another useful one is Addison Surratt’s interview regarding gender stereotyping in nursing. While the professions are different, this interview was interesting because it talked about the gender discrepancy in school and the profession, which relates to the topic of the same thing mentioned in this interview. 

Biography

AL (she/her) grew up in Edgecombe County, North Carolina until she went to Meredith College to pursue a degree in Communications. After graduating in 1995, she worked at Matthews Rehabilitation as a recruiter and took prerequisites at NC State and East Carolina University for a year. She attended East Carolina University to obtain her master’s degree in Speech-Language Pathology in 1996 and graduated in 1998. After graduation, AL began working for Ballard Therapy Services until 2000. She then began practicing in the Pitt County School System in North Carolina, where she still works today. AL worked at Belvoir Elementary School and Stokes Elementary from 2000-2001 when she began working at Wintergreen Primary School from 2001 until the present. She also currently works for a private practice, Speech Therapy East, where she began working in 2013. She is married with one daughter and lives in Greenville, North Carolina.

Research

When I began this assignment, I felt as if I knew a good amount about speech pathology, simply because my mom had been talking about it my whole life. Regardless, I wanted to know more, specifically about the logistics of the gender gap in the field, as well as the impact of COVID-19 on the practice. One of the sources I found gave a visual representation of the demographics of speech-language pathologists (SLPs), showing that 96% of SLPs are female. I knew that the gap was large, but not this large, so this helped put some of the interviewee’s comments on this topic into perspective. This source also gave information on age and work setting statistics for SLPs, which also gave more context to where the interviewee falls in these areas. I also researched the impact of the pandemic on the practice of speech-language pathology. I found that the pandemic had decreased referrals for speech issues, as well as a change in how speech is practiced. For instance, there has been a transition from face-to-face to teletherapy. This also was interesting to compare with the interviewee’s experience, to see how it was similar or different to other places globally. 

Transcription

SPEAKERS: Lilly B, AL.

Lilly B  0:02  

Can you start by introducing yourself?

AL  0:06  

Hi, I’m Lilly’s mom. I am a speech-language pathologist in the Pitt County Schools district [in North Carolina]. 

Lilly B  0:11  

Okay, can you describe what made you decide to go into speech?

AL  0:16  

I tried out several different professions. I used- I did a lot of job shadowing, but I always knew that I wanted to be in a profession that helped people and that served others. 

Lilly B  0:30  

Okay. You have mentioned that you went to Meredith College, which is an all girls school for your undergraduate degree. How do you think your time there impacted your career path?

AL  0:39  

At Meredith was a very, very inclusive setting, but it was a very empowering setting as well. It was one that was definitely empowering to women, as well as gave a lot of networking possibilities. It was a lot of camaraderie there and a lot of the time that was spent in different aspects of our studies, as well as internships and any extracurricular activities, was always networking based. So it was definitely an avenue to find out about other professions to find out who would be helpers for jobs later on.

Lilly B  1:30  

Okay, so can you talk about the different settings that you’ve worked in since you have started practicing?

AL  1:37  

Okay, I had internships in the public school system, and in a traumatic brain injury unit in a big rehab hospital in Wilmington [North Carolina]. I also worked in private practice for the first couple of years out of graduate school. So I worked in a- in a clinic, I worked in homes, I worked in daycares, I worked with- with the- with the private practice. I also completed disability evaluations in people’s homes. And I have completed evaluations in nursing homes. So I have, I’ve touched pretty much every aspect of every setting, in the private practice. I worked for private practice for a couple of years, and then after that, I’ve been working for the school system since then. 

Lilly B  2:28  

[interrupts] You- sorry.

AL  2:28  

Then, I- for the first couple of years out of- in the school system, I had K-8 schools [schools with grade levels kindergarten through 8th grade], so I was working at a couple of different schools. But for the last 20 years, I’ve been at the same primary school and serve only that school.

Lilly B  2:48  

Is there a specific reason that you like the primary schools [school with grades kindergarten through 2nd grade] over the K-8 schools?

AL  2:55  

Absolutely, I do adore working with the younger children. I like the ability to have that parent contact, as well as the community contact. It’s really- they’re excited about learning. They’re excited about doing something new. The age of the children that I have, it’s never really- I don’t have to deal with the bullying so much. If someone says something differently, children are very accommodating and accepting of that, typically, it’s not typically a problem. And it’s just there’s just a great, great age to get lots of good hugs too.

Lilly B  3:38  

Can you talk about anything about the gender ratio in grad [graduate] school as well as what you’re noticing while you practice?

AL  3:46  

So I’m assuming you’re talking about other people in my profession?

Lilly B  3:51  

 Yes. 

AL  3:52  

Okay. So when I was in graduate school, there was 30 people in each graduate class. So there was a first year class and a second year class. So it was, you know, whichever year in graduate school you were in. In those two classes, we had one male that was in that class, and he was actually in between the two classes, so he was not- not a first year, but not a second year when I was a first year grad student. So there was that one male out of 60 females. The district that I work in has 35 speech pathologists within the system. And we have one male speech pathologist, and he’s been with us for about seven years now. But prior to that, we didn’t have any male speech pathologists, so it’s- very few males in the field that I’ve been- really been around.

Lilly B  4:52  

What impact do you think that that gender gap [the one described] does have on the profession of speech, if any?

AL  4:59  

I guess that it’s one of those professions that, you know, people think of as typically female, like the teaching profession is, especially in elementary grades, is typically female. We have PE [physical education] teachers here at my school that are male, we have one male teacher out of 36 classroom teachers, K-2 [kindergarten through 2nd grade] so we have 12 [teachers] in each grade level. So there’s one male teacher, out of those 36 classroom teachers, and then we have the two male, that are PE teachers, but it’s just not one of those fields that- that others think of as, I mean, it’s a predominantly female field. 

 

Lilly B  5:44  

Right.

Lilly B  5:45  

Okay, on a different topic, I know that the COVID-19 pandemic has had a big impact on what you’re doing. What- how do you think that has impacted your work, or can you describe how that has kind of changed what you’ve been doing over the past few years?

AL  6:02  

It’s changed everything about what I’ve been doing over the last few years. So, in March of 2020, when we went out of school, we started doing teletherapy [doing therapy electronically or virtually; in this case, over Zoom meetings]. And when I started beginning with teletherapy, I was trying to be as creative as possible. I like to think of myself as a fairly creative person, but there was lots of different things I was doing just to keep the children engaged, have that parent involvement as well. There were parts of the teletherapy that I really loved about the parent involvement, so the parents got to see what I was doing on a daily basis and were able to reinforce those skills, and continue with some of those skills. So the kids that were highly participating in teletherapy, they actually did not have any backslide in progress [in their speech development during therapy], they continued to make progress because of that parent support, and that continued work at home. So that’s one of the things that we did in the very beginning of the pandemic was starting that teletherapy, which was a new thing for us, we don’t typically do that, it’s more face to face. It required a lot of planning, and a lot of additional planning that, you know, to think outside of the box a lot of times. When we came back to school, I was able to have safety precautions in place, including plexiglass shields, face masks, those kinds of things, so children could still see my face. I learned that I’m pretty adept at writing backwards on a plexiglass screen, and children were able to write on their side of it and check words off, or we could complete language activities, and they would draw something next to an object. So it was- I was able to use what was for- there for a safety precaution, I was able to use that to my ability and- and use that as a productive tool in providing therapy. 

AL  8:14  

I’ve also had, you know, fewer students in my room at a time, I would typically do small group sessions, you know, so up to three kids, and in the beginning, when we first came back to school, I was- I was having one student, maybe two, because I could put a plexiglass screen between the students, as well as one between me and the students. So we were doing that for- for safety and precautions there. As far as other things that we did, and caseload, the caseload did not, did not really change a whole lot. It did not have, now I had less kids that participated, that actively participated in teletherapy. Some students and families in general were just trying to get by day by day and complete classroom assignments, and sometimes they requested work packets or me consulting with them, just phone calls and checking in more than anything. But it did not really affect my caseload number up until the last two or three months. Now is when they’re- when we’re really seeing a lot of referrals [request for speech therapy in the school system]. I’m having a lot of parent referrals for students that had private therapy during the pandemic that, you know, were never identified [for needing speech therapy] during- at the school system and they’re wanting to now have those students identified at the school, or there are academic concerns, and thus there are speech concerns with those as well, because speech has to pretty much screen every student that comes through special education. So, that is one thing that has definitely increased my caseload here at school during the pandemic.

Lilly B  10:19  

Had- I know, you said that you see kids in smaller amounts, did the pandemic have any impact on how you test students or find them for placement?

AL  10:30  

Absolutely. So in testing students, we had safety precautions in place. So we had the screens and you know, all the things to put in place. But we also had these things called a Freudian flip, so it was like a little plexiglass screen that would cover the book, so students weren’t touching the book. We had, you know, of course, all the sanitizers and all that thing that they would use before or after. We had some speech pathologists were using a pencil, the student was using a pencil, so they were touching with a pencil instead of with their hand, it was very, very difficult to have articulation [clearness and distinction of sounds] assessments and therapy wearing a mask, because we were required to wear a mask at school for up until this upcoming- this semester. So until January of [20]22, students were required to wear a mask at school. I would ask them to briefly pull it down, with the parent permission, of course, I mean, I always made sure I checked with the parent, where that was concerned, if they could pull that mask down if the other safety precautions were in place. So, face shield or that plexiglass screen, me wearing a mask. But those mask wearing restrictions have been lifted since January of this year, of [20]22. Some students are still wearing masks, but there are very few of those. 

 

Lilly B  12:03  

Okay, and just to kind of wrap up, how did you feel when you started practicing versus now, in the middle of a pandemic. So how has your attitude kind of changed over the past 20 plus years?

 

AL  12:15  

It’s- I love my job, I still love my job this very day, a lot of parts of the pandemic have made my job much more difficult. It is so very difficult to teach an articulation, placement to teach those sound productions when a child cannot see what’s going on [gestures to mouth]. So I’ve definitely had to be more creative. And I really think that that’s something that I have seen in my growth as a professional is that I have definitely learned to think out of the box even more than I already did working with kids, you have to stay on your toes. But I’ve definitely been able to be more creative, as well as thinking outside of the box and just rolling with the punches. So it’s- I still love it every day. I really think, had I been- had this happened to me in the beginning of my profession, without the amount of technology that we have now, it would have been so much more difficult. So you know, 23 years ago, 20, I guess 25 years ago, it would have been much more difficult without the level of technology. So, it was- it’s been much more easy, easily dealt with, with the level of technology and the experience to do that. I say that and then I- then I know colleagues of mine who have been doing this as long, that are kind of set in their ways and aren’t outside of the box kind of people or don’t have the technology skills and are not comfortable with that. So I do know that there are some therapists that haven’t been comfortable with- with that part of it though.

Lilly B  14:17  

Alright, well, I think that’s all I have for you. Thank you so much for taking the time out of your day to do this. 

AL  14:22  

You’re welcome.

 

Transcribed by https://otter.ai

 

Technology and Interview Process

I conducted this interview over Zoom on March 24, 2022. We talked in the days before and set up a day in time to interview. We both connected to Zoom on our computers in our respective locations: I was at JMU while she was in her office at work, and we had no issues or difficulties. It was very easy to complete, and I did not have to make any edits to the audio. 

Bibliography

ASHA. “A Demographic Snapshot of SLPs.” At a Glance, ASHA Leader, July 2019, https://leader.pubs.asha.org/doi/pdf/10.1044/leader.AAG.24072019.32. 

Chadd, Katie, et al. “Impact of Covid-19 on the Speech and Language Therapy Profession and Their Patients.” Frontiers in Neurology, vol. 12, 2021, https://doi.org/10.3389/fneur.2021.629190. 

Matthews, Jairus-Joaquin R., and Derek E. Daniels. “The Gendered Experiences of Male Students in a Speech-Language Pathology Graduate Program: A Multi-Case Study.” Teaching and Learning in Communication Sciences & Disorders, vol. 3, no. 2, 2019, https://doi.org/10.30707/tlcsd3.2matthews. 

 

Choices made during the transcription process

The only issues I ran into were during the transcription process, with both voice differentiation and false starts. Since the interviewee is my mom, we sound very similar, so Otter.AI had a difficult time differentiating between our voices. This was easy to fix by picking out the questions from the answers. The other issue was adding dashes for false starts, because the interviewee sometimes started a thought or sentence, then decided to do something else instead. This was also relatively easy to fix by simply listening to the interview audio. 

I also decided to leave out words like “um,” because I found that both the interviewee and myself said this a few times, and I found it somewhat distracting. There were also some terms that were specific to the field of speech pathology that I defined in brackets for the benefit of the audience. 

I also struggled with some punctuation during the transcription process. For example, some sentences started with “and,” which isn’t grammatically correct. I chose to leave these in because I think it contributes to the flow of information.