Spectrum News: Speech therapist shortage impacting some New York agencies
BUFFALO, N.Y. — Helping people find ways to communicate is pretty much the job description for speech therapists.
According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, this career is expected to grow 19% from 2022 to 2032, which is much faster than average.
They're services vital to people like Becky, who's struggled with finding a voice for 32 years.
“Becky has been special since she was born,” explained Tim Terrana, Becky’s dad.
It’s been something Becky’s struggled with for 32 years.
Because of a rare gene mutation, Becky deals with a lot of developmental delays. A year and a half ago, after her dad insisted she be retested to see if speech therapy could help. They found it could, and recently, the communication has been flowing a bit easier.
“Within a month, she was starting to get good with the buttons and then we just progressed a little bit at a time,” said Terrana.
It’s the impact speech therapy can make.