speech language pathologist

pathology assistant

speech pathologist

front desk receptionist

interventionist

Speech Improvement Center

I have a lot of pros about this company, but also a lot of cons. I feel secure in my position, like my job wont disappear overnight. I enjoy my clients and working with them, but feel so overworked. We are expected to see a client every hour, and get questioned by management when they no show or cancel. Along with a full caseload, we are expected to purchase and create our own materials, write SOAP notes, and write reports (which is out of the scope of practice for a SLPA! They say we are copy and pasting written information from an SLP, but it just feels a bit sketchy). 

It feels as though management doesn't understand the scope of a SLPA, which is weird for a company that MOSTLY hires SLPAs. It would probably be beneficial for them to do some research and understand WHAT a SLPA is and our scope of practice. Additional training paid for by the company would be nice, especially since we work with Easterseals and get a lot of clients with behaviors. We aren't ABA therapists, we aren't trained in managing behaviors.

Asking for time off is hard. They want you to do it a month in advance, but sometimes emergencies happen and you need time off. I understand that isn't the fault of the company, but the nature of working with scheduled clients. 

The training was an absolute joke. There was a schedule that clearly wasn't followed, information was not well dispersed, and what is explained varies from therapist to therapist. I personally have had to provide training documents to new coworkers because they did not receive them.

I do enjoy this job, but that is because of the therapists I work with. We all support each other and help out where we can. 

Last thought, the office manager is VERY overworked and stretched thin, so things fall through the cracks. She needs an assistant or there needs to be two of her. 

I recently graduated with a degree in speech therapy and began my career at Speech Improvement. While I was excited to start, my experience was challenging and led to my decision to resign. 

My office lacked an onsite manager, relying instead on virtual check-ins and occasional visits from the area manager. Although the company emphasizes team bonding and engagement, some offices fall short. In my experience, staff often went directly to the area manager with issues rather than communicating directly with those involved. 

The overall work environment did not align with the company’s mission of being a great place to work where growth is championed. These challenges significantly impacted my job satisfaction and performance. I believe that with better team cohesion, clearer communication, and more consistent feedback, the company could better support new employees. 

Pros: 
- The company hires recent graduates, providing an opportunity to secure a job soon after graduation.
- There are opportunities for professional and personal development.

Cons: 
- A lack of support and team bonding, leading to feelings of isolation and difficulty integrating. 
- Ongoing misunderstandings about expectations, there was inconsistency in feedback—being told you are doing well by some, but then receiving criticism from the manager about poor performance.
- The company experiences very high turnover. 




SIC is money hungry. They mask their greediness with their “trainings” and wanting to “impact as many lives.” They also try to sell you on their we pay for cancellations policy, moving up the career ladder, and pride themselves on the culture. People moved up the career ladder and compensation was only a 3% raise(their favorite number). Most managers quit which makes you think if moving up the ladder is even a good idea. Corporate office has a “wall of success” and they had about 12 assistant managers and now there is like 4 left. If your office is not producing profit they require you to see 35-38 patients. If your office is profitable they still require you to see 35-38 patients to pick up the slack of the other offices. They pride themselves in having 22+ locations but have about 3 locations inactive due to staffing reasons. CEO does NOT listen to his employees. He does not invest the money back to its employees. They organize events like the “Gala” but they should work on more raises and better incentives. If you’re considering applying here this is not a company you want as a career. I hope SIC does improve because there are a few people who genuinely care and are there to support, but until the CEO understands and LISTENS retention rate will stay LOW and SIC will never become the million dollar company he wants it to be. 

A good place to dip your feet into the field and learn what is not good for you and is good for you. The company focuses too much on profits and doesn't listen to complaints no matter what. Losing people has been common and they almost all have the same complaints. To Speech Improvement Center only thinks about expanding and expanding but without thinking about "is the quality up to par?" It isn't. The people who have been with the company the longest are good at listening to your complaints but do not have any power to change things as the owner and people at corporate do the changes and usually, it's nothing beneficial. The activate encouragement to tell employees to speak their minds but often met with non-constructive criticism or an onslaught of rebuttal shows the company prefers to run in a circle. 

Here's a list of things that you shouldn't do as an SLPA: write reports, clean trash, speak 1-1 with parents acting like an SLP because there isn't an SLP to help you, require you to push services longer, etc.

At the end of this all, I saw many things and only ended up very disappointed. Save yourself the trouble.

They significantly underpay SLPs. They say they will provide training, but the trainings are all on corporate values B.S. like teamwork and customer service. Huge waste of time. There is no actual clinical skills training or mentorship. They have you spend a week “training” at the headquarters in Pacoima, which they don’t tell you will be mandatory until after you’re hired. They will not provide transportation or accommodations for those that do not live near Pacoima. Corporate management is very superficial and only care about profit. They don’t listen to employees at all. They are more focused on expanding rather than investing in the current locations to make those offices better. Recruiters don’t know anything about speech therapy. Turnover is constant. SLPAs are overworked and have basically no supervision. Many offices do not actually have an SLP present (only SLPAs), so expect to be doing remote evals for all the other offices if you’re an SLP. The PSCs are also overworked and undervalued. The actual clients/families and my direct coworkers in my location were lovely people. They are the only  things that made it a bearable place to work. I learned a lot about what I don’t want in a work place.

For a company who train about “over communication is better than none”, they certainly need to first learn how to apply it to themselves. You will find out of things with little to no time it will happen. Depending on the area you work for, the managers are great, but they are overworked therefore makes it complicated to get to them. PSCs are overworked AND overlooked. Expectations are very high and pay does not match, at all yet they expect you always exceed on your work. SLPAs are overworked, underpaid and the turnover rate is scary. A child will have probably 2-3 therapists within their first year of speech therapy. Supervisors are usually out of state. There isn’t many SLPs.. This is a okay starting job, but doesn’t seem like a long-term company to work for. They pride themselves in having 20-something offices, but don’t even know what is going on in their offices. CEO is definitely a little sketchy. wants to make it the “Starbucks” of Speech Therapy, take that as you will. Profit is all in his mind, doesn’t really care or worry why his employees are leaving so quickly. 

I have worked at a few other places and by far this place has been the worst. Poor management, low pay, lack of transparency, and very little benefits offered on top of that, high expectations.

With the amount of turn over I have seen during my time with the company you are always playing catch up. If you end up staying with the company you’ll just be left to clean up their mess. Doing more work than what you were promised because they are short staffed. The problem is that they are always short because of their poor treatment of employees. In my opinion, there is no long term benefit in staying with this company. It’s just a stepping stone to something better. Which is why most people don’t last more than maybe a year. It’s sad to see that these families don’t get the service they deserve and that employees get treated like they are disposable. 

I've worked at SIC for over a year as an SLP. The company's main focus is opening more offices and prioritizing maximum amount of patient visits even if it brings down the quality. SLPs are not very experienced and I have had no growth in the year I have been here. The retention rate is very low, slps are very burnt out with very little support. You can always tell how good a company is by the retention rate and SIC is so low parents have switched between 2-3 therapist within 2 years. When you say that, the response is "did you ask about it". They also do not follow ASHA guidelines and have supervisors rarely supervise CFs and slpas. If you are a CF looking to come here I would strongly advise against it. you can find a more supportive place with SLPs that have had 10+ experience. This company only cares about profit and claims to care for its patients and workers but their actions do not show that. 

After a week of “training” that had very little to do with Speech Therapy and more to do with unnecessary “Mind Set” and “Family Oriented Environment” activities during 8hr long meetings, I had an uneasy feeling specially after they abruptly dismissed a trainee after the second day. I had already put in my 2wks notice to my current job, so I continued. When hired they had discussed a full time placement at a desired location. The week before I was supposed to start, they changed everything they had originally offered. Overall, I felt they hired me under false pretense and that was it, I resigned. I wish I would’ve read reviews before I made life changing decisions. It’s potentially a good opportunity for those that are training or recent graduates, but definitely not for seasoned therapist or anyone that wants consistency in pay.

I applied for their SLPA internship program but did not decide to stay. I wasn’t getting the hours needed to complete my program due to constant cancellations. In the interview, they said the schedule was flexible and that I would get my hours completed by the end of my program. They failed to mention cancellations, low case load, and the 9-5 schedule which was not flexible at all.

The mandatory orientation was at their Pacoima office which is an hour away from me. I did my fieldwork hours at their Santa Ana office which is a 2 hour commute. I simply don’t think the commute is worth it. 

When applying as a licensed SLPA, their recruiter canceled my interview due to scheduling issues. However, she never got back to me to schedule another appointment. 

These factors are what discouraged me from applying to SIC. Overall, management needs work but they have a good working environment 

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Speech language pathologist 1475 salaries reported	$41.29 per hour
Pathology assistant 1533 salaries reported	$55,111 per year
Speech pathologist 112 salaries reported	$65.00 per hour
Front desk receptionist 120 salaries reported	$19.57 per hour
Interventionist 55 salaries reported	$25.25 per hour

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