Master of Science in Audiology and Speech Sciences, Sub-Specialization in Speech-Language Pathology (MSc) postgraduate personal statement example

Personal statement example

In the recording, a four-year-old boy stops for almost three seconds before saying 'and then the frog… goed away'. When I first transcribed it for my undergraduate dissertation, I typed the words and moved on. On the second pass I marked the pause, the self-correction he started and abandoned, and the overregularised past tense. I realised the transcript had become far more informative than my first version. That habit of listening again, and noticing what a child is reaching for rather than only what comes out, is a large part of why I want to train as a speech-language pathologist.

My dissertation, completed during a BA in English Language, compared spoken narratives from six children aged four and five. Each child told the story of Mercer Mayer's wordless picture book Frog, Where Are You?, which researchers have long used to elicit narratives because every child works from the same sequence of events. With parental consent and the help of a nursery manager who let me use a quiet corner, I recorded each session and transcribed it. I then looked at mean length of utterance, the connectives children used to link events, and whether they referred to the characters' feelings or simply listed actions. The sample was far too small to support any general conclusion, and I said so. However, the process taught me how much variation exists among typically developing children of the same age. It also showed how carefully an assessment has to be designed before its results mean anything. My modules in phonetics and child language acquisition gave me the tools: I can transcribe in the International Phonetic Alphabet and recognise common phonological processes such as fronting and cluster reduction. I am aware, though, that recognising them in a recording is very different from assessing and treating them in a clinic.

Since graduating I have worked as a library assistant. Most of my week involves shelving, issuing books and helping people with the public computers. On Tuesday and Thursday mornings, however, I lead rhyme time for babies, toddlers and their carers. I have learned to slow songs down, repeat actions, and leave gaps so that children can fill in the last word. Some carers have told me their child says the words at home but never in the group, which reminded me that communication depends heavily on setting. I also redesigned our handout of rhymes so that each one included the actions in simple drawings. This was useful for several parents whose first language is not English.

That connects with my volunteering at a weekly conversation café for adults learning English. The role is informal: I sit with a small group and keep the talk going. I have become more patient with silence and better at rephrasing a question rather than repeating it louder. I have also become interested in how accent, confidence and fatigue affect whether someone is understood. That last question is not part of speech-language pathology's core, but it has made me think about the people behind the speech I hope to work with.

Outside work I run with a local club, mostly five- and ten-kilometre races. Training around shifts has made me disciplined about planning my time, which I expect to need on a demanding clinical course.

I want postgraduate study because my current understanding is largely descriptive. I can describe a child's narrative, but I cannot yet judge whether a difficulty needs intervention, or how to plan therapy that a family can realistically continue at home. I am especially keen to learn about developmental language disorder and about adult acquired conditions such as aphasia, of which I know very little. I would bring careful listening, accurate transcription and practical experience of communicating with children and adults in everyday settings. I would also bring a clear sense of how much I still have to learn under proper clinical supervision.