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Speech-language pathologist / speech and language therapist — skills, knowledge and links
Where this job sits in the official classifications, what those classifications say it demands, and what it connects to. Every block names its source: our own judgements, the U.S. Department of Labor's O*NET, or the U.S. Department of Education.
How it connects#
O*NET also lists (no page here yet): Speech-Language Pathology Assistants · Occupational Therapy Assistants · Audiologists · Occupational Therapy Aides · Recreational Therapists · Advanced Practice Psychiatric Nurses · Low Vision Therapists, Orientation and Mobility Specialists, and Vision Rehabilitation Therapists
In the official classification#
Speech-Language Pathologists
Fit with this page: same job
Job Zone 5: extensive preparation
See it on O*NET OnLine ↗In Europe, internationally and in Singapore
Audiologists and speech therapists
Fit with this page: broader than this page
Speech therapist
Fit with this page: same job
What O*NET rates highest#
From O*NET 29-1127.00 (Speech-Language Pathologists). Ordered by O*NET's importance rating; the words are O*NET's own scale anchors.
Transferable skills
- Social PerceptivenessVery important
- InstructingVery important
- Complex Problem SolvingVery important
- Service OrientationVery important
- Judgment and Decision MakingVery important
- CoordinationImportant
- Time ManagementImportant
- Systems AnalysisImportant
Knowledge
- English LanguageExtremely important
- Education and TrainingVery important
- Customer and Personal ServiceVery important
- PsychologyVery important
- Therapy and CounselingVery important
- AdministrativeVery important
Work activities
- Documenting/Recording InformationExtremely important
- Getting InformationExtremely important
- Establishing and Maintaining Interpersonal RelationshipsExtremely important
- Organizing, Planning, and Prioritizing WorkExtremely important
- Making Decisions and Solving ProblemsExtremely important
- Developing Objectives and StrategiesVery important
Abilities
- Oral ComprehensionExtremely important
- Oral ExpressionVery important
- Written ExpressionVery important
- Speech RecognitionVery important
- Written ComprehensionVery important
- Speech ClarityVery important
Essential skills
- Reading ComprehensionVery important
- Active ListeningVery important
- Critical ThinkingVery important
- WritingVery important
- SpeakingVery important
Each task in O*NET's terms#
O*NET describes work as detailed activities. Each of this page's 4 tasks is matched only against the activities O*NET lists for this occupation, with a stated fit; 4 match at least one. The alignment and its fit are this site's judgement, made task by task by its AI agent (Claude) on 2026-09-26; O*NET does not align tasks like ours. The activity names are O*NET's, the translations ours.
- Assessing communication and swallowingAnalyze patient data to determine patient needs or treatment goals.the closest O*NET has, not the same · Analyzing Data or Information · O*NET 31.0The same activity in: Occupational therapist · Paramedic · Dietitian · Surgeon
- Delivering therapy and practiceDevelop treatment plans that use non-medical therapies.the closest O*NET has, not the same · Thinking Creatively · O*NET 31.0The same activity in: Occupational therapistMonitor patient progress or responses to treatments.the closest O*NET has, not the same · Monitoring Processes, Materials, or Surroundings · O*NET 31.0The same activity in: Anaesthesiologist · Physiotherapist · Surgeon
- Managing swallowing problemsOperate diagnostic or therapeutic medical instruments or equipment.the closest O*NET has, not the same · Controlling Machines and Processes · O*NET 31.0The same activity in: Respiratory therapist · ParamedicCollaborate with healthcare professionals to plan or provide treatment.the closest O*NET has, not the same · Communicating with Supervisors, Peers, or Subordinates · O*NET 31.0The same activity in: Occupational therapist · Dietitian
- Records, reports and coaching familiesPrepare reports summarizing patient diagnostic or care activities.the closest O*NET has, not the same · Documenting/Recording Information · O*NET 31.0The same activity in: Occupational therapist · Pathologist · RadiologistTrain patients, family members, or caregivers in techniques for managing disabilities or illnesses.the closest O*NET has, not the same · Training and Teaching Others · O*NET 31.0The same activity in: Respiratory therapist
Our task judgements#
O*NET says what this job demands. It does not say what automation is doing to it — that is what this site's 4 task judgements are for: 1 backed by a verified event, 3 platform inference. VOLO judgement
Sources and rules#
- Each block says where it comes from: this site's own judgements, O*NET, the U.S. Department of Education's CIP–SOC crosswalk, the European ESCO classification and its official crosswalk to O*NET, the ILO's ISCO-08, Singapore's SSOC 2024, or something computed mechanically from those. Nothing on this page is a rating we made up.
- O*NET's importance ratings are used only to order and shorten the lists. They are never combined with this site's impact index or evidence counts.
- The fit between our page and an O*NET occupation is our judgement and is stated per code: same job, broader, part of it, or only the closest there is.
- The ESCO and ISCO-08 fits are derived mechanically from the official ESCO–O*NET crosswalk; where we override it, we say why in our data (for example, the crosswalk pairs radiologists with radiographers, which is a different job). The SSOC 2024 fit is our reading of the Singapore Department of Statistics' own titles and definitions. Official names are shown as their publishers write them; we do not translate them.
- Each task is matched only against the detailed work activities O*NET lists for the codes this page maps to. Where nothing fits, the page says why instead of forcing a match: work O*NET does not describe yet (used only for tasks we judge to be emerging), or nothing in O*NET's list for this occupation. An alignment never changes a task's direction, its basis or the impact index.
- Rules are read only from this site's verified records. A rule's official name must appear word for word in a record that reads it, so no name is made up; a policy mandate is read only as 'must', 'must not' or 'funds', because 'should' and 'in principle' are not a mandate. Reading a rule never changes a task's direction, its basis or the impact index.
- How these pieces fit together — objects, links and the actions that change them — is drawn as one diagram: The VOLO ontology
- ESCO (European Commission), occupation records from the ESCO API; CC BY 4.0. ESCO–O*NET crosswalk, ESCO Secretariat with the U.S. Department of Labor/ETA, version 1 (Sep 2022), O*NET-SOC 2019 ↔ ESCO v1.1.0; CC BY 4.0. Singapore Department of Statistics, Singapore Standard Occupational Classification 2024 and its correspondence with ISCO-08.
- O*NET 31.0 Database, August 2026 release, U.S. Department of Labor/Employment and Training Administration, CC BY 4.0. O*NET® is a trademark of USDOL/ETA. The translations of O*NET descriptors on this page are ours, not O*NET's.