"If you can read this message, you might be a speech-language pathologist."

September 12, 2014

So you thought IPA was a beer and phonetics was passé, but not when you’re a Speech-Language Pathologist! In fact, speech-language pathologists use phonetics on a daily basis to write and describe speech sounds, using a system called the International Phonetic Alphabet, or the IPA. And it’s not as simple as your ABC’s! Although there are 26 letters in the English alphabet, there are 44 phonemes or sounds, and maybe even more, according to some people. Using the IPA allows us to be consistent across therapists and across countries, in describing the way that people say sounds. I think that makes speech-language pathologists bilingual, as we can read and write IPA! And most importantly, IPA is more than just a beer!

Thanks for reading,

Cindy McCallum, M.Sc., R.SLP, SLP(C), CCC-SLP

Registered Speech-Language Pathologist

Founder, WiseOwlSpeech