Although there is a nationwide shortage of speech language pathologists, Louisiana is not following the trend, according to Barbara Prejean, director of communicative disorders.Since an act was passed in Louisiana allowing individuals with a bachelor’s degree in communicative disorders to work as assistant speech language pathologists, the state has not faced a shortage of speech pathologists. A person with a bachelor’s degree in communicative disorders can have a job as an assistant speech language pathologist with a minimum of supervision hours per week from a certified individual.

They are not, however, allowed to work with a client who has a severe speech problem. Individuals with a master’s in communicative disorders can work with clients who have a serious disorder without any type of supervision.

A speech language pathologist works with people from infancy to adulthood in order to help them with their communicative disorders.

There is a communicative disorder clinic located on the first level of Talbot Hall. This clinic serves both the community and the students of Nicholls. The clinic also serves as a training for the students going into the speech pathology profession. In order to graduate and receive a job as an assistant speech pathologist, students have to finish 100 hours of training with supervision before they can receive a license to work as an assistant.

Five certified staff members work at the clinic. Four of the five are licensed speech pathologists, while one is a licensed audiologist.

“We always have a waiting list,” Prejean said. “The number of clients we serve depends on the number of majors we have. We can only serve a certain number of clients, and unfortunately, we have to turn some down.”

Between 50 and 55 students at Nicholls are currently under the communicative disorders degree program.

“My cousin has cerebral palsy and he went through extensive speech therapy,” Heather Orgeron, communicative disorder senior from Thibodaux, said. “I saw how it helped him, and that made me want to go into this type of work.”

Different types of communicative disorders include articulation, fluency, language and voice disorders. Speech language pathologists are employed by school systems, agencies that work with communicative problems, home health centers, private practices and rehab units in hospitals. Many of the Nicholls students are able to find jobs after graduation.

“We are diagnosing more language problems,” Prejean said.

According to Prejean, there has been an increase in the number of children who are diagnosed with autism over the past two decades. With the increase of children being diagnosed with autism, there are even more people who need the services of the clinic.

“My family owned a home health center,” Dana McKinney, communicative disorder senior from Gretna, said. “There was a speech pathologist there and she got me interested in this profession.