Briona Daugherty (MS-SLP ’22)’s Speech Language Pathology (SLP) journey began aboard a cruise ship. Daugherty graduated from San Diego State University with a BA in Theater Performance. She studied opera and musical theatre, and she originally wanted to be a singer when she toured her style of show on Broadway.
Briona Daugherty – MS-SLP ’22
After spending time as a professional singer in Las Vegas and New York City, she began her career performing on cruise ships for five years in China, Japan, South Korea and Thailand. The longer she worked on a cruise ship, the more other vocalists helped her adjust to life onboard. This included enabling entertainment employees to sustain her voice for over two hours a night in her 2,000-seat theater. After witnessing entertainers experience vocal injuries and ailments from overuse, she became interested in knowing what caused the injuries. Her goal was to help these singers recover faster and prevent future injuries.
“It’s so hard to see someone you know who has worked for 15 years get a great contract and then see that colleague go home with an injury. No one on board really understood the injury and how to support it. I did,” says Daugherty.
A year before the pandemic, she began taking prerequisites to become a speech pathologist. All contracts for cruise ship employees have since been put on hold due to COVID-19.
Daugherty decided to pursue a Master of Science in Virtually Taught Speech Language Pathology program and went to USAHS. She explains that much of a person’s identity in everyday life revolves around what they do for a living.
“One of the first things people ask me when I introduce myself is what I think about myself when I look in the mirror. “Because I was a singer, I wasn’t a graduate student or an SLP,” says Daugherty.
“College, because of my background, turned backwards to help me get placement for a vocal cord disorder. During my clinical experience, I started seeing professional vocalists. I knew exactly what they were dealing with with their injuries, their fear of losing their livelihoods, their work pressures, and for the first time in my life, I finally know how to help them.”
music therapy
While at USAHS, Daugherty enjoyed using music in therapy. She found it difficult to find songs and books for young children that featured SLP her target her sound.
“I was looking for /r/ books, but I was shocked to find none. . Children lose interest in word lists but remember rhymes, songs and stories. ”
When a parent reported her 3-year-old singing songs and citing limericks in the bathtub, she knew her idea was working.
Since graduating, Daugherty has published five books on Speech Delay, Apraxia, Autism Spectrum Disorder, and Articulation in Amazon’s My Speech Pals series. Tiggy the Turtle hit #1 on his Amazon picklist for Speech Language Pathology hot new in the first week.
Kathryn Flurry Mercer (MCD, CCC-SLP), clinical facilitator and contributing faculty member, said: In a virtual setting, finding ways to motivate toddlers to practice speech sounds went beyond typical face-to-face challenges. It helped me practice my speech sounds in a familiar way. ”
Daugherty said: Bring your ukulele next time. The university helped me realize that what a cruise ship performer might end up looking like in SLP is a little different, and not hesitate to do so. Once I fully accepted it as part of my career, I embraced it and ran! ”
St. Augustine University Health Sciences (USAHS) Master of Science in Speech Language Pathology (MS-SLP) program. Designed for working students, MS-SLP is an online program with his four required on-campus residencies at either the USAHS Austin or Dallas campuses. The program allows two admissions per year, January and he September. Join collaborative cohorts of peers who learn under the guidance of expert faculty. Get ready to make a difference in the lives of your clients for a lifetime with a meaningful career in speech therapy!
For students with a Bachelor’s degree in a field other than Communication Sciences and Disabilities (CSD) or SLP, and for students with a CSD or SLP degree whose undergraduate program did not include the required leveling coursework , which provides: SLP leveling course To complete the prerequisites required to enter the graduate program.
The Master of Science (MS) teaching program in Speech Language Pathology {distance learning} at St. Augustine University Health Sciences is a candidate for accreditation by the Academic Accreditation Council for Audiology and Speech Language Pathology (CAA). American Speech-Language Hearing Association, 2200 Research Boulevard, #310, Rockville, MD 20850, 800-498-2071 or 301-296-5700. Candidacy is her CAA’s “pre-accredited” status, which is given to developing or emerging programs for up to five years.
