Correcting People, Politely
SLPs have asked before, "what do you do when someone calls you 'speech teacher' or 'speech therapist?' It feels awkward to correct them."
Another made a great suggestion, think about it the way you would correcting your name. For example, my name (Autumn) starts with "A" and is a real word so people (especially older people) frequently call me "April" or "Amber." Do you think I never correct them because I'm afraid of how it will make them feel? That would be silly. I just do it tactfully.
My husband's name is "Lawrence" but he hates to be called "Larry" and he goes by "Law" as a nickname instead, so he tells people that. There's nothing wrong with clarification. As communication experts, I know we see the value in accuracy and clarity and how to do something tactfully using nice pragmatic skills.
When someone says, "Here's your speech teacher," I respond with "Hi, I'm Autumn - the Speech-Language Pathologist" so it's not a direct correction but a clarification.
If they say something like "How do you like being a speech teacher" I say something like, "Actually I'm a Speech-Language Pathologist." It opens the floor for them to ask me about the difference. It's a teachable moment. Alternatively, I could just follow up with, "I like that being a Speech-Language Pathologist gives me the flexibility to diagnose and treat communication disorders in a variety of settings from nursing homes to schools, and with a wide range of patients from infants to the elderly."
A fellow SLP just pointed out to me recently that in her state, a "speech teacher" is a debate coach and a "speech therapist" is a Bachelor's level clinician who was grandfathered in (I have also heard similar distinctions regarding SLPs in other countries). I wouldn't want to misrepresent myself by calling myself, or allowing others to mistakingly call me, by one of those titles.
The American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA) issued a decree that all of us holding a Master's or above and Certificate of Clinical Competence are to use the title "Speech-Language Pathologist."
When we are inconsistent with our title, we allow and foster confusion between us and similar sounding professions. As a result, some parents and patients end up in the hands of other disciplines when they should be seeing a Speech-Language Pathologist. Others, mistakenly devalue clinical impressions provided by what the perceive to be a less educated clinician based on the title or don't know who to ask for when they need to seek out a new provider. When we do this, we are also setting ourselves up to be underpaid and underfunded, resulting in limited supplies, resources, and time for the people in our care.
Maybe, the next time that someone refers to me as a speech therapist or speech teacher, I will say, "Those are titles earned by Bachelor's level clinicians or educators. A speech teacher studies debate and public speaking rather than communication disorders. I am a master's level clinician who works on communication disorders, so my title is Speech-Language Pathologist ...and ironically, I've never studied public speaking." Injecting a little humor is another way to correct someone tactfully.
As SLPs, we are communication experts. We study semantics and pragmatics. We know the importance of both and teach them to others. We can do this! We can politely let others know our real title, what it means, and why it's important.
I just shared how I correct my title in conversation. How do you do it?
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