Speech-Language Pathologists
Job description
These individuals diagnose and treat people with a variety of disorders. These include communication (speech, language, voice, etc.) or swallowing disorders. They aim to restore or maintain people’s ability to communicate. They are sel-employed or work for:
- Local community service centres (CLSCs)
- Hospitals
- Rehabilitation centres
- Residential and long-term care centres
- Elementary and secondary schools
- CEGEPs
- The research sector
- The private sector
Environment
- Controlled ambient temperature
Main tasks
- Determine the type and consequences of communication and swallowing disorders.
- Develop and implement intervention plans to correct these disorders or promote communication autonomy.
- Help people overcome dysphasia, dyslexia, or aphasia following an accident or trauma.
- Address global problems associated with deafness, motor problems, autism, dementia, or intellectual disabilities.
- Treat stuttering and joint problems in degenerative diseases.
- Help people with voice-related problems (nodules on the vocal cords, after a laryngectomy, etc.).
- Provide counselling and education about communication and swallowing disorders.
- Collaborate with the person’s family and other health care professionals.
- Conduct research.
- Train and supervise trainees and staff.
Advancement and mobility
- Experience leads to management positions.
- Provincial licence to practise leads to mobility between provinces.
Training and requirements
Formation
Most training programs are offered in French only.
University
Speech therapy and audiology
Bachelor’s degree
Placement rate: 91.8%
5.5% of graduates pursue further studies
Master’s degree
Placement rate: 94.7%
3.3% of graduates pursue further studies
Also required
- Membership in the Ordre des orthophonistes et audiologistes du Québec (OOAQ [Quebec Order of Speech-Language Pathologists and Audiologists]).
Main skills and characteristics
Skills
- Data collection
- Active listening
- Reading comprehension
- Oral expression
- Critical thought
- Social perception
- Learning strategies
- Result evaluation
- Written expression
- Judgment and decision-making
- Active learning
- Solving complex problems
- Teaching
- Information processing
- Service oriented
- Coordination
- Time management
- System analysis
- Operation analysis
- Negotiation
- Persuasion
Abilities
- Oral comprehension
- Speech recognition
- Speech clarity
- Written expression
- Deductive reasoning
- Inductive reasoning
- Written comprehension
- Idea generation
- Verbal skills
- Awareness of issues
- Near vision
- Classification
- Information organization
- Hearing sensitivity
- Auditory attention
- Originality
- Processing flexibility
- Selective attention
- Perception speed
Knowledge and attributes
- Capacity to establish and maintain interpersonal relations
- Autonomy
- Sense of responsibility
- Capacity to adapt
- Knowledge of customer and personalized services
- Capacity to work in a team
- Vitality
- Sense of observation
- Open-mindedness
- Knowledge of medicine or dentistry
Interests
- Self-employment
- Assist and advise
- Teach or educate
- Assist or care for people
Personality profiles (RIASEC)
- Investigative
- People with this profile prefer relying on theoretical knowledge before acting. They like observation, analysis and problem solving.
- Social
- People with this profile prefer to be in contact with others, in particular to entertain, help or teach them.
- Enterprising
- People with this profile prefer having responsibilities, influencing others and responding to challenges.
Appellation d’emploi liée (à traduire)
Audiologists and speech-language pathologists (CNP 31112)
Skill type
Health
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Last update: January 29, 2026