Preparing for a Private Practice Placement

All SLP graduate clinicians must complete off-campus clinical placements during graduate school (also known as externships, internships, or clinical practicums). The exact number of placements varies by the graduate program. One of the most diverse type of placements is a private practice. Private practices serve a wide variety of populations and ages. Below are tips for preparing for a private practice placement in Speech-Language Pathology.

Clinician Characteristics

Clinicians in private practices may see clients in a brick-and-mortar site, in the client’s home, online, in schools, or even in the client’s offices. It’s a unique experience! Also, speaking a second language may be beneficial, so be sure to let the supervisor know during the interview what other languages you speak.

In order to be successful in any private practice placement setting, there are specific traits that are beneficial. Clinicians who excel in these placements usually are:

• Flexible
• Driven and hard-working
• Adept at problem-solving
• Good communicators
• Critical thinkers
• Self-reliant
• Easy going

Before Beginning Placement

To succeed in any private practice placement, you need to have a diverse range of interests in Speech-Language Pathology. On any given day, you may work with a pediatric client on articulation, another client with severe autism, and an adult client with accent modification. Prior to beginning the placement, I strongly recommend you do the following:

• Develop soft skills (i.e., interpersonal communication, empathy, etc.)
• Know developmental milestones (i.e., motor, speech/language, feeding, cognition, play)
• Familiarize yourself with other disciplines and co-treatment strategies (e.g., OT, PT, Psy, ABA, Play Therapy)
• Review common pediatric assessments (e.g., Battelle, PLS-5, CELF-5)
• Ask the externship supervisor what materials will be available and then review them
• Ask what populations are primarily seen and research information on them (e.g., accent modification, apraxia/dysarthria, bilingual language development, developmental delay, autism, AAC, literacy, feeding, etc.)

During Placement

For graduate clinicians, private practices can be less intense compared to a medical placement or school. Deadlines are often driven by insurance or the supervisor’s schedule vs. an IEP and while clients can be medically complex, there usually aren’t machines beeping at you. Although a unique challenge to private practices is cancellations. They have a big impact on the practice’s revenue as well as the number of clock hours that student clinicians are able to obtain. 😕

Once you are in the middle of the placement, you will be glad that you did some prep work beforehand. There are still things that you can do to minimize your stress and keep yourself organized throughout the placement. In order to have a rewarding experience, clinicians should be:

• Comfortable with interacting with caregivers
• Comfortable with behavior management
• Flexible and adaptable
• Willing to accept feedback during sessions
• Proactive in researching information
• Able to work collaboratively with other SLPs and related professionals
• Open to various supervision styles as you may have multiple supervisors
• Creative with materials and assessments

In the comments below, let me know if you are a student or supervisor and what skills you think are necessary for excelling in any private practice placement. 👇 Be sure to check out my other posts:

How to Have a Successful Clinical Practicum (Part 1)
How to Have a Successful Clinical Practicum (Part 2)
Preparing for a Pediatric Medical Placement