About Talk in Action

Talk in Action may be one of the newest private practices in speech-language pathology to open in Burlington, ON, but I, as its owner/operator, am anything but new to the profession of speech-language pathology. In fact, I have been identifying myself as a speech-language pathologist now for well over 35 years! 

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Allow me to share with you some of my work history and accomplishments, so that you might have a better idea of what I have to offer to Burlington-area adolescents and adults with speech, voice, language, and/or swallowing disorders. When you finish reading this column and the one on the right, I am confident you will want to choose Talk in Action as the provider of your, your loved one's, or your patient's speech, voice, language, and/or swallowing needs. 

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I am proud to say that I am a member of the first class to graduate from the University of Toronto's program in Speech-Language Pathology with a Master of Health Science (M.H.Sc.) degree. Although the University of Toronto has the distinction of having opened the first English-language training program for speech-language pathologists in Canada in 1958, and of having graduated its first class of clinic-ready professionals in 1960, it took another 20 years and considerable effort from a dedicated group of speech-language pathologists and others before the University was ready to turn out its first graduates with a Master's degree.

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After graduating from the University of Toronto, I worked for over 12 years as a clinician in both Saskatchewan and Ontario, working in hospitals, in home care, and in private practice. I still remember with fondness many of the patients/clients I assessed and treated as I gained my footing as a new clinician. I learned something new - about communication disorders, about how resilient people can be when facing difficult times, and about myself - from just about every patient/client I met. 

 

I also volunteered my time to help people with communication disorders in a variety of ways, including: as co-organizer of a support group for stroke survivors; as a board member for a learning disability association; as a board member for a foundation that supports Ontarians with communication disorders; and as a member of several committees or subcommittees of a provincial professional association.

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In the 1990's, I returned to university to pursue a doctoral degree (Ph.D.) at the State University of New York (SUNY) at Buffalo. A few years later, I completed a one-year research fellowship at McMaster University (Hamilton, Ontario), after which I accepted a tenure-track faculty position in the Department of Applied Language Studies (now Department of Applied Linguistics) at Brock University. That was 20 years ago! Then, two years after I started at Brock University, I completed my dissertation, and graduated with my Ph.D.in Communicative Disorders and Sciences from SUNY at Buffalo.

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Thank you for reading,

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Richard J. Welland, Ph.D., Reg. CASLPO

Speech-Language Pathologist

Registration #2834