The Student Room Group

OT vs SALT 2018 entry

After shadowing both Speech & Language Therapy and Occupational Therapy I struggling to decide which would be best for me to study.

I really enjoyed both & like the idea of both careers!! I started the year thinking I was definitely going for SALT but the more I learnt about OT, the more confused I got about which to choose!

I'm starting my UCAS soon and need to make a definite decision!

As for choices, SALT - Man Met, university of Manchester, Leeds Beckett, BCU & DMU
OT - Salford, Sheffield Hallam, York St John, Oxford Brookes & St George's

Any useful advice out there from current students or whatever would be greatly appreciated 😊 Thanks!
Reply 1
The problem with these two is that it's not really a choice between two careers but a choice between many. They're both incredibly diverse but overlap in many areas too.
I did some work alongside an OT once and I enjoyed how you got to really know a client quite well. Not that you don't get that with SLT but I think the model is potentially moving away from that, particularly in paediatrics, although some might disagree.
The reason I ultimately went for SLT was because I loved languages and it genuinely gets me buzzing. I love peeling back the layers of language. If you don't get excited by communication and language then you probably shouldn't be doing it. The course is very academic and very technical on this side of things and you need to be comfortable doing that if you're going to get through. You can't really know what a role is like until you're actually doing it so you have to think more about what you know would make you happy for three or four years. I do know that as more SLT courses are moving to three year courses from four they are getting a lot tougher. You're in no less than three and a half days a week full time and you've got placement on top of that. If you don't love language or at least have a fairly solid base of tolerance for it, you're not going to want to get through to see what the career options at the other end are like.
Reply 2
Original post by giella
The problem with these two is that it's not really a choice between two careers but a choice between many. They're both incredibly diverse but overlap in many areas too.
I did some work alongside an OT once and I enjoyed how you got to really know a client quite well. Not that you don't get that with SLT but I think the model is potentially moving away from that, particularly in paediatrics, although some might disagree.
The reason I ultimately went for SLT was because I loved languages and it genuinely gets me buzzing. I love peeling back the layers of language. If you don't get excited by communication and language then you probably shouldn't be doing it. The course is very academic and very technical on this side of things and you need to be comfortable doing that if you're going to get through. You can't really know what a role is like until you're actually doing it so you have to think more about what you know would make you happy for three or four years. I do know that as more SLT courses are moving to three year courses from four they are getting a lot tougher. You're in no less than three and a half days a week full time and you've got placement on top of that. If you don't love language or at least have a fairly solid base of tolerance for it, you're not going to want to get through to see what the career options at the other end are like.


Thank you for your reply, where did you study SLT?

I really enjoyed English (& Welsh!) at gcse level but did psychology, sociology and the Welsh baccalaureate for A Level so the linguists is something that I'm slightly nervous about. I'm currently doing an access course in health science as my A Levels were over 5 years ago so I'm getting back into the swing of education again!!

I'm really excited about it all but feel frustrated that I can't decide between them!

Thanks again, your advice is much appreciated!

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