Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

Katie Childers is a Speech Language Pathologist, originally from Cordele. Being a speech pathologist, she works on anything from speaking to swallowing to cognition. She said that, “Many people don’t realize what a speech pathologist is.” She had been practicing speech pathology for around 5 years. One of the main reasons she got into this field is because she wanted to help children with special needs as it has been a passion of hers.

We asked Childers, why she thought her job of a Speech Language Pathologist is so important to those with autism? Her response was, “There is a big push right now in the speech therapy world to figure out how to be as neuro-diverse as possible but also making sure that everyone has the chance to communicate with a child with Autism.” She mentions that one of the things she likes is that every child with autism is different, which means that they will all have different way of communicating. This creates and challenge for Childers to find the right fit of how they can communicate but she mentions that it also creates a reward when they are able to find what fits best for the child to communicate what they need.

We asked Childers if Autism has ever had an affect on her life in any way. She mentioned that her mother and grandmother worked with special needs children as a Special Ed teacher, due this Childers grew up around it and was exposed to it. One would think that this had an impact on her when it came to choosing her career path.

We also asked, why she thought it was important to have and create resources for children with Autism? She said that, especially in Cordele being that it is such a small town that they can be the last ones to implement neuro-diverse strategies. She said that it is definitely important no matter the size of the town that there should be opportunities for everyone. As well as, while the generations keep evolving that it is important to continue to work on providing updated resources and ensuring nobody gets left behind.

If you would like to get in touch with Katie you can find her at Fyzical in Cordele 1107 S Greer St A, Cordele, GA 31015 (229) 273-9445,