Career Mirror -- by Mark Sproxton

Barb Kostyk displays some of the tools she uses as a speech-language pathologist.

Driving across the city, even during the busy lunch-hour rush, comes as a welcome change for the speech-language pathologist. The morning hours were filled with helping an autistic child and the afternoon holds three sessions for adults with literacy issues. The drive allows her down-time to change gears and re-focus as the issues she deals with are considerably different.

"In private practice, you have to deal with a wide range of patients," explains Barb Kostyk, a speech-language pathologist who runs her own business, Rocky Mountain Rehabilitation. "You don't get bored." Speech language pathologists who work in traditional hospital settings, which is a large majority, tend to deal with specific disorders, working in clinics dealing with adults with brain injuries, kids who stutter or people with voice problems referred by medical doctors for example, she added.

"I came into private practice almost by accident," the University of Alberta graduate said. "It was a goal, but I thought I would work and get more experience first. At the time I graduated there weren't many jobs." That was in 1996, so, she started her own business by drumming up clients one by one. "I got to like it and don't think I could go back to being employed (elsewhere)."

Kostyk's place of employment may be non-traditional, but her goal is the same as other speech-language pathologists: help patients overcome their language problems through teaching, assessing problems or designing communication strategies. "In practice, it's comparable to physiotherapy, but the nature of the problem is a little more chronic," she said.

Before moving into the post-secondary world, Kostyk once considered physiotherapy as an option, but eventually decided on speech-language pathology instead. "I was always good at languages and this was a natural transition," she said. "I started out in education and found it was quite related." She completed her undergraduate degree, and later a master of science degree in speech-language pathology in Edmonton.

Now she uses that education and over five years of experience helping Calgarians four days a week. "I like being in private practice because I have control over who I want to see and my schedule," Kostyk said. "You can be as busy as you want, and you do make a difference.

"The thing I don't like so much is when I'm not working I don't have unemployment benefits and it is a little difficult because funding is restricted for some people who need the services." Some conditions she deals with fall outside the scope of universal health care coverage, or have limited coverage, meaning people may have to pay out of pocket for her help. She bills per hour at the same rate whether it's for assessment or treatment.

Her work consists of two types of days, one where she visits the homes of kids with autism and the other where adults with literacy problems visit her in the office. The once-a-week home visits consist of meeting with the child and the child's therapist who provides home-schooling. "I'll work with the child and the therapist to address their specific speech and language goal." Kostyk will leave behind assignments for them to work on for the rest of the week. These sessions last one to three hours.

The office visits with adults consists of exercises to help overcome reading, writing, spelling and reading comprehension deficiencies. One exercise includes using pictures of a mouth in certain shapes as they relate to common sounds. Once that concept is grasped, those sounds are then related to special dice showing the letters of the sounds. "Many are re-training to get back in the workforce," Kostyk said. "Most are in school so I tailor what I do to help them get through (their classes)." These sessions last about one-and-a-half hours.

In addition to specialized training, Kostyk said good communication skills and a desire to help others are paramount for this type of work. She also believes there are many opportunities ahead in this field. "The demand is there and it's not going to taper off. The focus is shifting toward prevention and treatment at an earlier age."