Jobs for Speech Therapists?

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  1. #1

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    Jobs for Speech Therapists?

    Hi. I am currently working as a certified Speech and Language Pathologist in the United States and will be moving to HK in August. I am having trouble finding practices that are hiring Native English speaking Speech Therapists. Any information would be greatly appreciated!


  2. #2

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    Realistically, the market must be minuscule. I assume anyone who needs speech therapy does it in their native language, so your target market is the native English speakers in Hong Kong. That's about 40,000 people. And what proportion of people need speech therapy? I feel it must be less than 1 in a thousand, so the total market here is likely to be a few tens of people at most. Add to that the likelihood that expat families are less likely to move away from their native country if they have members requiring such therapy, and I would hazard a guess that the number of people undergoing speech therapy in English in Hong Kong is in single digits or even zero.

    Last edited by PDLM; 05-06-2009 at 02:35 AM.

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    Well, you're guess is completely wrong, PDLM and a simple google search would tell you so... or even a trip over to Geobaby/kids!

    I think that you'd also be surprised at the number of children who have speech and language difficulties, whether they be easily repaired or longer term difficulties.

    There are probably upwards of 30 native English speaking SLT/Ps in HK working a variety of settings. These therapists work with expat families (primairly paediatrics due to very few older expat numbers).
    The caseload numbers overall must be in the thousands. In fact, many international schools have SLTs on staff because it's not usual to find 1-2 children per class with difficulties.

    becsant - I will PM you some details.


  4. #4

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    Out of curiosity - what sort of speech problems to kids have? I know nothing about children and just assumed they progress gradually from general babbling through to some kind of coherence. Besides general shyness, I've not encountered kids with problems as such.


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    Hang on a minute. The number of native English-speaking people in total in Hong Kong is well under 40,000. I can't immediately find a breakout of native language or nationality by age, but for the population as a whole less than 10% are aged 0-9 years. Therefore, the number of number of native English speaking children (0-9 years) in HK must be under 10,000 and is probably less than 5,000. Your claim that "thousands" of native English speaking kids in Hong Kong require speech therapy is simply implausible.

    If ever there was a solution in search of a problem this is it.


  6. #6

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    Quote Originally Posted by PDLM:
    Hang on a minute. The number of native English-speaking people in total in Hong Kong is well under 40,000. I can't immediately find a breakout of native language or nationality by age, but for the population as a whole less than 10% are aged 0-9 years. Therefore, the number of number of native English speaking children (0-9 years) in HK must be under 10,000 and is probably less than 5,000. Your claim that "thousands" of native English speaking kids in Hong Kong require speech therapy is simply implausible.

    If ever there was a solution in search of a problem this is it.
    I agree with your maths, but perhaps the SLTs also deal with other expat nationalities? Otherwise as you say it does not make sense.

  7. #7

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    The 40,000 figure has plenty of room for all the Brits, Australians, Canadians, Americans and Indians claiming "English" as their "usual" language at home according to the 2006 Census (and the number of native English speaking will be lower than that, particularly for Indians). There really aren't very many expats in HK if you exclude the domestic helpers (almost none of whom have kids here)

    There are only 11,000 residents of HK who are not one of Chinese, South Asian (Indian sub-continent), Thai, Filipino, Indonesian, Japanese, Brit/US/Canadian/Aussie.

    Last edited by PDLM; 05-06-2009 at 01:51 PM.

  8. #8

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    Well, you can type numbers all day long and tell me what you think you know about an industry that you clearly have no idea about.

    There are over 15,000 children attending ESF schools alone.

    ESF Website:

    Our 15,000 students include over 50 different nationalities. At the same time, more than 70% of our students have parents who are permanent residents of Hong Kong.
    There are probably a similar number if not more in other international schools. There are lots of local people with English as there primary educational languge.

    OK, so by thousands, I might not be talking tens of thousands of clients but I stand by my estimate.

    To answer the question jgl, children can have a wide number of difficulties. These can include problems with speech and articulation to language difficulties (often but not always associated with learning difficulties), stammers, hearing impairments, auditory processing problems, eating and drinking difficulties, dyslexia, social interaction difficulties. The list goes on.

    And beleive me that speech and language therapists do not train to make money so accusing them of creating a need for therapy is just ridiculous in the extreme.

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    250000 British passport holeders in hong kong. SCMP
    Posted via Mobile Device


  10. #10

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    goodbye: Not all attending ESF are native-English speakers. A great deal are local Hong Kongers, plus pupils from Korea, Japan, South Asia, Africa, etc. - all not native-English speakers. Again many of those at international schools are non-native-English speakers and locals.


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