Duties and responsibilities
An educational audiologist focuses on supporting students with hearing difficulties. They will work in an educational setting, and will target their treatment around academic success, communication abilities and psychosocial well-being. Their typical duties and responsibilities include:
- Participating in meetings to discuss students and their needs
- Providing diagnostic services to evaluate hearing and auditory processing and then identifying the help each student will need in an educational environment
- Making recommendations on what the educational institution can do to help each child
- Providing support and counselling to children and parents with auditory issues
- Providing training about hearing, hearing loss and other disorders to school personnel
Qualifications
Educational Audiologists will need a Master’s or Doctoral degree in Audiology from an accredited University. They will also need a valid license to practice Audiology in their state.
Skills and relevant work experience
As well as an in depth understanding of the audiology, educational audiologists will need:
- Verbal communication skills as they will need to communicate with students, parents and a wide range of educational professionals
- Written communication skills, as educational audiologists must maintain records and files to the highest standard and make clear and concise notes
- Leadership and teaching skills, as educational audiologists will be in charge of directing and instructing other professionals (e.g., teachers) and they must be able to do this confidently
- Problem solving skills are essential in order to provide the most effective interventions for both the student and the school as a whole
Hours
Most educational audiologists will work full-time. They may have to work evenings or weekends to accommodate their clients and they may spend time travelling to and from different educational settings.
Salary
According to Salary Expert, the median annual salary for an educational audiologists in the United States is $72,290 per year. At the lower end, the median annual salary was around $52,432 per year. At the higher end, experienced educational audiologists can expect to earn around $90,341 per year.
Progression
It is likely that educational audiologists will have lots of exciting job opportunities over the coming year as educational bodies will continue to see the importance of improving their services for the hearing impaired. Educational audiologists consultants can progress further by taking additional training (e.g., special degrees). This will give them the further knowledge and skills to open their own practice and employ consultants to work under them.