Top 12 Speech Therapist Skills to Put on Your Resume

Crafting a strong resume as a speech therapist means threading together clinical know-how with people-first instincts. Employers look for evidence of clear assessment, thoughtful intervention, and steady carryover. The skills below signal you can move clients forward and keep families, care teams, and data in the loop.

Speech Therapist Skills

1. Articulation
2. Fluency
3. AAC Devices
4. PROMPT Technique
5. LSVT LOUD
6. Dysphagia Management
7. Voice Therapy
8. Language Disorders
9. Cognitive-Communication
10. Pediatric Feeding
11. SpeechEasy
12. Teletherapy Platforms

1. Articulation

Articulation is the precise choreography of tongue, lips, jaw, and palate that shapes speech sounds into words. Therapy targets misarticulations and faulty patterns so speech lands crisp and intelligible.

Why It's Important

Clear articulation unlocks everyday communication—needs, stories, jokes, all of it. When speech is easier to understand, confidence rises and participation stops feeling like a hurdle.

How to Improve Articulation Skills

1. Assess precisely: Pin down error sounds, positions, and patterns; check stimulability and consistency across contexts.

2. Drill targets smartly: Start in isolation, climb to syllables, words, phrases, and conversation. Slow, accurate reps beat rushed ones.

3. Make it visual: Mirrors, video, mouth placement diagrams—show, don’t just tell.

4. Tune the ear: Build auditory discrimination so learners can spot correct vs. distorted productions.

5. Layer feedback: Immediate, specific cues; fade prompts as accuracy stabilizes.

6. Generalize widely: Practice in varied settings, tasks, and with different partners to cement motor patterns.

7. Maintain gains: Short booster practice, periodic check-ins, and carryover goals keep clarity intact.

For complex profiles or plateauing progress, partner with a certified SLP for refined planning and calibration.

How to Display Articulation Skills on Your Resume

2. Fluency

Fluency is the flow—rate, rhythm, and ease—of speech. It’s about smooth forward movement without excessive tension or blocks.

Why It's Important

Fluent speech helps people jump into conversations, present ideas, and stay socially connected. Therapy that steadies fluency often lifts self-advocacy and quality of life.

How to Improve Fluency Skills

1. Rate control: Stretch syllables, add pauses, and gradually increase pace while keeping ease.

2. Breath and voice: Coordinate respiration and phonation; use gentle onsets and light contacts to cut tension.

3. Structured reading: Choral reading, metronome pacing, and scripted practice build rhythm you can carry into conversation.

4. Desensitization: Approach feared words and situations in small, supported steps; reduce avoidance.

5. Self-monitoring: Record, reflect, and set micro-goals; measure moments of stuttering and ease.

6. Communication attitudes: Address beliefs and emotions around speech; celebrate communication, not perfection.

How to Display Fluency Skills on Your Resume

3. AAC Devices

AAC (augmentative and alternative communication) spans from picture boards to eye-gaze speech-generating devices. It gives people a reliable way to say what matters when speech alone doesn’t cover it.

Why It's Important

AAC opens doors—autonomy, participation, and safety. It’s not a last resort; it’s language access.

How to Improve AAC Devices Skills

1. Match access: Direct touch, keyguards, switches, scanning, eye gaze—select the method that fits motor, vision, and endurance.

2. Personalize vocabulary: Core words first, then rich fringe; build quick phrases that match real routines.

3. Model relentlessly: Use aided language input in natural contexts; partners talk with the system, not just about it.

4. Train partners: Coach families, teachers, and staff on prompting, wait time, and honoring all attempts.

5. Track and iterate: Review usage data and qualitative observations; tweak layout, dwell times, and access settings as needs shift.

6. Plan for durability: Mounting, cases, backup low-tech boards, and a maintenance schedule keep communication available.

How to Display AAC Devices Skills on Your Resume

4. PROMPT Technique

PROMPT (Prompts for Restructuring Oral Muscular Phonetic Targets) uses targeted tactile cues on the face to shape motor movements for speech. It’s hands-on motor planning, delivered with precision.

Why It's Important

For motor speech disorders, tactile-kinesthetic input can unlock movements that verbal cues can’t touch. PROMPT provides a scaffold for control, timing, and sound sequences.

How to Improve PROMPT Technique Skills

1. Get trained and mentored: Complete formal courses and seek supervised practice for feedback on cue accuracy.

2. Drill the hierarchy: Map underpinnings, syllable transitions, and prosody; select cues that match the motor goal, not just the sound.

3. Refine touch: Calibrate pressure, timing, and placement; consistency matters more than force.

4. Document clearly: Write cue plans and response patterns so another clinician could replicate your approach.

5. Mind hygiene and consent: Explain the method, gain consent, follow infection control, and offer alternatives as needed.

How to Display PROMPT Technique Skills on Your Resume

5. LSVT LOUD

LSVT LOUD is an intensive voice program (typically 4 sessions/week for 4 weeks) that boosts vocal loudness and clarity, especially for Parkinson’s disease and related conditions.

Why It's Important

It’s evidence-based and structured, which means repeatable gains in loudness, intonation, and functional communication for many clients who’ve been speaking too softly for too long.

How to Improve LSVT LOUD Skills

1. Stay current: Maintain certification, review new research, and refresh calibration skills regularly.

2. Individualize dosage: Keep the core protocol while tailoring home practice, cueing, and carryover tasks to daily priorities.

3. Leverage tech: Use metering apps, recording tools, or companion software to measure loudness and consistency.

4. Build a team: Coordinate with neurology, PT/OT, and caregivers to reinforce effort and posture, and to time sessions with medication cycles.

5. Chase carryover: Embed “Think Loud” in phone calls, community tasks, and spontaneous chats.

6. Monitor and tune: Track intensity, fatigue, and outcomes; adjust tasks to keep challenge without overload.

How to Display LSVT LOUD Skills on Your Resume

6. Dysphagia Management

Dysphagia management covers screening, instrumental assessment, targeted intervention, and education to make swallowing safer and more efficient.

Why It's Important

Safe swallowing is non-negotiable. Good management cuts aspiration risk, supports nutrition and hydration, and reduces hospitalizations.

How to Improve Dysphagia Management Skills

1. Assess comprehensively: Pair a detailed clinical exam with VFSS or FEES when indicated; consider respiratory status and cognition.

2. Target the mechanism: Choose exercises and maneuvers (e.g., effortful swallow, Mendelsohn, supraglottic swallow) that match identified deficits.

3. Optimize consistencies: Use the IDDSI framework (Levels 0–7) for consistent diets and fluid thickness; re-evaluate as status changes.

4. Align posture and pacing: Positioning, rate control, and bolus size often shift the risk/benefit balance.

5. Prioritize oral care: Rigorous oral hygiene lowers aspiration pneumonia risk—make it a daily protocol.

6. Work as a team: Coordinate with medicine, nursing, dietetics, OT/PT, and caregivers for coherent plans and follow-through.

How to Display Dysphagia Management Skills on Your Resume

7. Voice Therapy

Voice therapy blends technique, hygiene, and behavior change to restore or improve vocal function—less strain, better resonance, more stamina.

Why It's Important

For teachers, performers, or anyone whose voice pays the bills (or sings bedtime stories), healthy voicing is freedom. Therapy protects the instrument and refines it.

How to Improve Voice Therapy Skills

1. Expand your toolkit: Resonant voice, semi-occluded vocal tract work, flow phonation, circumlaryngeal massage—know when and why to use each.

2. Measure and reflect: Acoustic/aerodynamic metrics, patient-reported outcomes, and recordings guide fine-tuning.

3. Personalize load: Calibrate intensity and rest; program warm-ups and cool-downs that fit daily demands.

4. Collaborate wisely: Loop in ENTs for laryngeal exams, and involve vocal coaches when performance goals dominate.

5. Teach vocal hygiene: Hydration, reflux management, noise avoidance, and mindful amplification—habits beat heroics.

How to Display Voice Therapy Skills on Your Resume

8. Language Disorders

Language disorders touch comprehension, expression, and discourse—spoken and written—across ages. Think DLD, aphasia, and everything between.

Why It's Important

Language scaffolds learning, relationships, independence. Accurate diagnosis and targeted intervention ripple into school success and workplace function.

How to Improve Language Disorders Skills

1. Assess deeply: Combine standardized tests with dynamic probes, language samples, and curriculum-based measures.

2. Set sharp goals: Functional, measurable, and tied to real activities—classroom tasks, job demands, social routines.

3. Use layered intervention: Explicit teaching, recasts, narrative work, vocabulary depth, grammar targets, and—when appropriate—AAC supports.

4. Enlist partners: Coach families and educators so strategies travel from the therapy room to daily life.

5. Blend literacy: Map language work onto reading and writing for stronger carryover.

6. Monitor and adapt: Short data cycles, quick pivots—drop what’s not working, amplify what is.

How to Display Language Disorders Skills on Your Resume

9. Cognitive-Communication

This intersection of thinking and talking spans attention, memory, processing speed, and executive functions—and how those drive real-world communication.

Why It's Important

After TBI, stroke, or with progressive conditions, cognitive-communication skills can make or break independence, safety, and social connection.

How to Improve Cognitive-Communication Skills

1. Target what matters: Use tools like the CLQT+ or functional tasks to pinpoint breakdowns that actually disrupt daily life.

2. Train strategies: External aids (planners, alarms), internal methods (chunking, rehearsal), and metacognitive routines (plan–do–review).

3. Shape attention and memory: Graded activities for sustained, selective, and alternating attention; encode–store–retrieve drills that generalize.

4. Exercise executive function: Problem-solving, prioritizing, and flexible thinking embedded in real scenarios.

5. Practice socially: Group sessions, role-plays, and community tasks to pressure-test skills.

How to Display Cognitive-Communication Skills on Your Resume

10. Pediatric Feeding

Pediatric feeding work zeroes in on safe, efficient eating and the behaviors around mealtimes—from breast/bottle to complex textures.

Why It's Important

Nutrition, growth, oral development, and family sanity all sit on this foundation. Safer swallows and calmer meals help everyone breathe easier.

How to Improve Pediatric Feeding Skills

1. Start with a wide lens: Medical history, growth, GI and respiratory factors, oral structures, sensory profile, and caregiver routines.

2. Build oral skills: Strengthen lip seal, tongue lateralization, chewing patterns, and coordination with paced practice.

3. Address sensory needs: Gentle, graded exposure to textures, temperatures, and flavors; respect the child’s cues.

4. Optimize posture and equipment: Neutral alignment, stable base of support, and adaptive tools as needed.

5. Coach caregivers: Responsive feeding, clear routines, and mealtime pacing without pressure.

6. Collaborate: Work with pediatrics, GI, dietitians, and OT to align safety, nutrition, and skill growth.

How to Display Pediatric Feeding Skills on Your Resume

11. SpeechEasy

SpeechEasy is a wearable device that uses delayed and frequency-shifted auditory feedback to support fluency for some people who stutter.

Why It's Important

For select users, it can reduce stuttering quickly enough to boost confidence and participation, especially in high-pressure moments.

How to Improve SpeechEasy Skills

1. Customize settings: Tweak delay and pitch shift to the individual; verify comfort and benefit across tasks.

2. Blend with therapy: Pair device use with core strategies (rate control, easy onsets, desensitization) for better carryover.

3. Monitor outcomes: Track severity and naturalness in and out of sessions; adjust as speaking demands change.

4. Set expectations: It’s a tool, not a cure. Plan for maintenance, practice, and situations where the device won’t be used.

5. Prioritize choice: Offer trials, discuss costs and contexts, and center the client’s goals in decision-making.

How to Display SpeechEasy Skills on Your Resume

12. Teletherapy Platforms

Teletherapy platforms enable remote evaluation and treatment through video, shared activities, and secure messaging—care that travels.

Why It's Important

Access matters. Telepractice reaches clients who can’t make it in, keeps services going during disruptions, and widens choices for families.

How to Improve Teletherapy Platforms Skills

1. Design for access: Follow current accessibility standards (e.g., WCAG 2.2), with keyboard navigation, captions, and clear contrast.

2. Engage interactively: Use shared whiteboards, annotation, and manipulatives; switch it up to fight screen fatigue.

3. Optimize performance: Stable connections, low-latency settings, and device-agnostic interfaces keep sessions smooth.

4. Secure the space: HIPAA-compliant platforms, BAAs where required, informed consent, and end-to-end encryption.

5. Simplify logistics: Built-in scheduling, reminders, and easy file sharing remove friction.

6. Gather feedback: Quick check-ins and user surveys guide feature tweaks and content pacing.

7. Plan contingencies: Backup links, phone audio options, and clear emergency procedures protect continuity of care.

How to Display Teletherapy Platforms Skills on Your Resume