There is a common misconception that speech and language jobs are all about teaching children how to speak.
“At weddings, people would come up to me and say, ‘oh, my child has a lisp’ or ‘my child has a stammer.’ The thing is, that’s not what I focus on,” says Perah Memon, a speech and language therapist in England’s National Health Service (NHS). “The role is much broader than what people think.”
According to the NHS, those in speech and language jobs provide life-changing treatment, support and care for children and adults who have difficulties with communication, eating, drinking and swallowing. They help people who, for physical or psychological reasons, have problems with speaking and communication.
Around 14 million people have trouble with at least one of the challenges mentioned above, reports SENsational, an organisation specialising in assisting children with autism, ADD/ADHD, dyslexia and other special education needs.
So that’s where Memon comes in.
Memon during her graduation at King’s College London. She graduated with a BSc in Psychology. Source: Perah Memon
How a work placement kickstarted her interest in the field
Born in Ireland and raised in London and Pakistan, Memon’s interest in speech and language therapy only started after a work placement in Bali.
“I attended King’s College London for a BSc in Psychology, so at that point in time, I was just focusing entirely on psychology and hoped to do a doctorate in it,” says Memon.
“But it changed when I was working in Bali.”
The placement required her to work on several projects for six weeks at random locations. Memon had the opportunity to work with children with learning disabilities and autism, as well as adults with schizophrenia or those in psychiatric hospitals.
The thing was, working in Indonesia meant that Memon had to deal with a language barrier when working with her patients.
Add that to the nature of her work, where the children’s neurodevelopment delays further limited their communication, Memon had to get creative with how she could speak to them.
Her solution? Through pictures, writing, gestures, and head nods.
“The way we communicated was incredible and eye-opening,” shares Memon. “It allowed the children to express their thoughts, even if they couldn’t do it verbally.”
This led to Memon’s own lightbulb moment — a realisation that aside from just tunnel visioning in on her doctorate, she could pursue speech and language jobs instead.
“The experience I had in Bali was incredible,” says Memon. “Having the ability to give a child or an adult the means to communicate and giving them a voice — it was inspiring for me.’
Upon returning to the UK, she pursued an MSc in Speech and Language Sciences at University College London (UCL).
Today, she’s a speech and language therapist at the NHS Trust.
Memon is now working for the NHS in London, UK. Source: Perah Memon
‘Communication and speech are a part of self-identity’
“I think our speech and communication is our self-identity,” says Memon. “It’s in the way we communicate, the way we express our thoughts, the way we express our feelings, and even in our mannerisms, jobs, banter — everything a neurotypical person does verbally.”
However, this all changes for a non-neurotypical person.
There are several ways people can lose their ability to speak, such as laryngeal trauma, vocal cord paralysis, and strokes. Those who have lost the ability to communicate won’t be able even to have basic conversations.
“Losing the ability to ask for your favourite food or drink, and even saying you’re in pain, is very heartbreaking,” says Memon. “It can also be tricky as you have lost your self-identity, how you view yourself, and how you communicate with your loved ones.”
When patients don’t receive speech and language therapy, they may experience difficulties communicating effectively, leading to potential social isolation, frustration, decreased self-esteem, hindered learning abilities, and even mental issues like anxiety and depression.
Children with social communication difficulties (SCDS) often have trouble with following social “rules,” understanding tones, context, and meaning behind words, as well as understanding verbal and non-verbal cues, according to Australian parenting website raisingchildren.net.au.
That’s not all; they might also experience anxiety, have difficulty concentrating, or have difficulty managing their emotions.
Conducting speech and language therapy is one way to help them communicate properly, as well as rebuild their confidence.
While helping patients with their speech is an essential aspect of speech and language jobs, Memon’s job goes beyond that. She helps her patients relearn how to swallow, eat, and drink.
“It’s a part of everyday life, says Memon. “To live, we literally need to eat, swallow, and drink, but many aren’t able to do just that.”
Difficulty in swallowing often happens because of accidents, strokes, or head injuries. Not being able to eat and drink your favourite things or being able to sit with your family for a meal will take a toll on you. When a patient loses that aspect of life, it’s a challenge.
However, people tend to mistakenly think that speech and language therapy has nothing to do with drinking and swallowing because the primary focus of “speech” and “language” in the term can lead to people believing it only deals with verbal communication.
Many don’t realise that swallowing is considered a motor function that’s closely related to the muscle used for speech production. Therefore, it falls under the scope of speech and language therapists’ expertise — precisely what Memon is doing.
During her Master’s programme, Memon participated in several work placements in the NHS, in both London and Kent. Source: Perah Memon
What it takes to be in speech and language jobs
As with most careers in the healthcare field, it takes a certain grit and determination to succeed in speech and language jobs.
It comes with a set of challenges, and one of them is that you’ll have to watch some of your patients’ conditions remain stagnant or even deteriorate.
“Sometimes they won’t improve due to multiple factors, making the rehab they receive unfeasible,” shares Memon. “You’ve worked hard on a patient, you’ve given them all your time, and no matter how motivated they are, it can just not work at all.”
This can be psychologically challenging for patient and therapist.
“It feels like you’re throwing them back into the deep end or even to a foreign end where they don’t speak the language and you can’t understand what they’re saying even if they tried to tell what they’re feeling,” says Memon.
However, Memon has tips to help you prepare for the journey ahead.
It begins with having empathy.
Becoming a good speech and language therapist is not just feeling for your patients, but truly stepping into their world.
“Understanding your patients and putting yourself into their shooes makes you the best therapist,” says Memon.
It’s not always easy. Speech and language therapy is as much about offering solutions as it’s about focusing on the person in front of you, even when it challenges your own instincts.
“You’ll always need to be person-centred, and sometimes you’ll even have to go the extra mile and remove your personal feelings from the situation,” Memon shares. “You can’t go on with your agenda. It needs to be weaved into what your patients want and need.”
It’s a delicate balance of listening, feeling, and thinking ahead. But above all, it’s about connecting.
“I think empathy goes strongly with the understanding of what they’re feeling,” she says.
Because in the end, helping someone heal starts with truly understanding what they need, even when they can’t always say it out loud.
A second but equally important skill is communication. While this might seem like the most obvious skill for a speech and language therapist, Memon highlights that it’s much more than just talking.
It’s how you carry yourself, the way you listen, the way you make someone feel understood, even when words fail.
“To become a speech and language therapist, you’ll need good communication skills; it also intertwines into your mannerisms and ability to be an active listener,” she says.
But words alone won’t get you far. Patience and keen observation are necessary too.
“It’s important because you’ll be working alongside patients who won’t understand much of what you’re saying, and they’ll have difficulty expressing themselves,” says Memon.
That’s where the real work comes in: breaking things down, translating knowledge into something accessible, and finding ways to connect without overwhelming your patients — which leads to the last point: problem-solving.
There will be moments — many, in fact — when things don’t go according to plan. Times when, despite your best efforts, you’re left wondering what to do next.
In those moments, Memon says, “you have to turn to what you do know, and that will be in the literature, science, and evidence. You’ll disseminate the research and link it back to the problem you have.”
But even then, it’s not always straightforward. Research isn’t always the solution as the answers aren’t always a one-size-fits-all.
What works in theory may not always work in practice.
“Every patient is different. Every case asks for something new,” she says.
