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Paso to provide services to concussion patients and to help reduce
traumatic brain injury (TBI) among student athletes. After establish-
ing the program Salvatore reached out to athletics departments at
middle schools and high schools to launch programs that allow
student athletes to take courses on how to prevent concussions.
They spend around thirty hours in a clinic that treats and tracks
athletes with TBI. Salvatore also reviewed all community athletics
programs for contact sports to make sure student athletes, some
as young as six years old, were adequately protected. Accord-
ing to Salvatore: “I talked about a number of options on how to
improve the safety of these kids. Data are just beginning to get
collected, so we needed to be really conservative—especially with
young children.”
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Salvatore also enlisted school-based speech
therapists to enact changes in sports behavior.
How Do You Become a Sports Speech Therapist?
Anyone who wishes to work as a sports speech therapist needs at
least a master’s degree in speech-language pathology. Students
High Energy and Stamina Required
“[Being a speech-language pathologist] is always interesting
and far from boring. The field evolves through research, so
there are constantly new techniques and approaches to learn.
Additionally, the treatment sessions must be personalized to
ensure success, because each individual is unique and has his
or her own interests as well as strengths and weaknesses. . . .
You need to constantly engage the client and try to relate to him
or her. To be most effective during therapy sessions, high energy
and stamina are required.”
—Kimberly O. Scanlon, speech-language pathologist
Quoted in Juliet Farmer, “20 Questions: Kimberly O. Scanlon, SLP,” Student Doctor
Network, February 12, 2012.
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