Speech-Language Pathology Assistant job description
292 verified openings in Allied Health & Therapy
BLS publishes no wage line of its own for this job. SLPAs are counted inside 31-9099, Healthcare Support Workers, All Other, a catch-all group of 109,740 whose May 2025 median was $48,430, with $34,770 at the tenth percentile and $71,470 at the ninetieth. Those figures belong to the whole group, not to SLPAs specifically, so treat them as a neighborhood rather than an address. O*NET does describe the occupation on its own terms: assistants implement speech and language programs a pathologist planned, help assess speech, language, voice, and fluency disorders, and monitor how clients use alternative communication devices.
Core Duties and Responsibilities
The job's first duty is documentation: recording client progress against the objectives the pathologist set. Carrying out those treatment plans as directed comes next, then gathering and compiling data on client performance and program quality. Assistants choose and prepare the instructional materials, keep records and supplies and schedule sessions, help conduct screenings of language, voice, fluency, articulation, or hearing, and build the charts and graphs that show a client where their performance stands.
Common Skills and Technologies
Active listening, reading comprehension, and speaking are the three skills this job leans on hardest. Nothing but Microsoft Office is named as a technology employers request, which puts the interesting tools further down the list: text to speech conversion software, music or sound editing software, and medical records systems all appear against the occupation.
Education, Training, and Career Path
Job Zone Three. Assistants surveyed reported 58% an associate's degree, 23% a bachelor's, and 14% a post-baccalaureate certificate, which points to more than one route in. Job ads use several names for the same role, among them Speech Paraeducator, Speech-Language Technician, Communication Assistant, and SLPA.
Sources: O*NET 30.0, 31-9099.01 Speech-Language Pathology Assistants, https://www.onetonline.org/link/summary/31-9099.01. BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025, 31-9099 Healthcare Support Workers, All Other, https://www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes319099.htm.