Speech therapist: description, advantages and disadvantages, training

The demand for specialists in the field of speech therapy is steadily increasing every year. According to the World Health Organization, from the beginning of the 90s of the last century, the number of preschool children with identified impairment of speech function has been constantly and steadily increasing.

In the human body, speech activity is directly related to the work of the central nervous system, that is, the brain. With various disorders of the brain as a result of birth or other injuries, burdened heredity or other pathologies, the child has problems with memory, thinking, attention and other mental activities, expressed to one degree or another.

Modern neuroscientists have proved that in case of impaired speech function the child subsequently develops problems in the field of intellectual development. The most favorable and effective time for eliminating speech disorders is considered to be preschool age. Problems of this plan are solved by a certain level of medical specialists, among whom is a speech therapist.

A speech therapist is a highly qualified specialist who studies various speech defects, their causes and solutions. To normalize the speech process, a speech therapist in his work uses specially developed methods and techniques, thanks to which speech function in adults and children is improved or completely restored.

The profession of speech therapist appeared relatively recently. For the first time, speech therapy was started at the beginning of the 17th century in Europe.Initially, a speech therapist was engaged with children with a pathology of auditory perception. And only after almost three centuries, speech therapy has acquired those forms that have become aimed specifically at working with the correction of the function of speech. In general, the work of a speech therapist boils down to teaching a person to correctly pronounce all the sounds of his native speech.

In order for speech correction to be effective, a speech therapist needs to know the basics of such a science as psychology, because speech and the human mental development are inextricably linked. Many defects in speech reproduction have psychological roots and, much less often, congenital anatomical pathologies. Violations of speech function can occur in a person’s life not only in early childhood, but also at any other age, for example, after a stroke. Therefore, a professional speech therapist must be fluent in various techniques that allow you to work with students of any age category.

Currently the profession of a speech therapist teacher is subdivided into a specialist working only with children and only with adult patients. The responsibilities of both categories of this profession are generally similar, the differences are only in the methods of approach to the person being trained.

Many people mistakenly assume that a speech therapist is it is more a doctor than a specialist who knows pedagogical aspects. On the one hand, it may look like this, but the profession of a speech therapist implies a symbiosis of pedagogy and, to a certain extent, medicine. The teacher is faced with the task not of treating the patient, but of teaching him the pronunciation of letters and sounds. In addition, it is worth noting the fact that as such a profession, called a "speech therapist," does not exist. So often people call a specialist with a higher medical education, who took professional development courses in the field of defectology.

The profession of a speech therapist has not only universally recognized utility, but also a high demand. It allows people to improve the quality of their life and makes it possible to realize themselves in it. But besides universal values, speech therapy has other pluses.

• The salary of a defectologist does not provide for a large monetary reward, but such a specialist always has the opportunity to work part-time in the form of private consultations at bargain prices, and each defectologist is free to choose the time for such private practices according to his abilities.
• Speech therapists are ubiquitous. Employment is possible in kindergarten, school, clinic, private training center, in the rehabilitation department and so on.
• The speech therapist determines the duration of work for himself. In this profession there are no such unspoken prerequisites as age. Even when retired, this specialist can very well continue his career both officially and privately.

Despite all the positive aspects, as in any other business, there are certain disadvantages to speech therapy.

• Classes conducted with children of different temperament, constantly require great psychological stress and physical endurance. Often, a speech therapist is forced not only to deal with the problems of speech function, but also to act as a psychologist who needs to listen to the patient’s history and treat the situation with compassion and understanding.
• In addition to any other load, the teacher has the responsibility of maintaining the necessary documentation, This is especially true for those professionals who work in public institutions.Every year, the number of documents drawn up for each student only increases, and this is a pretty serious burden for any specialist.
• The success and result of the work done by a speech therapist mainly depends on the patient himself, his desire and disposition to eliminate his speech shortcomings. The workability and motivation of all people are different, and sometimes the student for a number of reasons does not strive for the effectiveness of the classes held with him, despite the efforts and high level of professionalism of the defectologist.
• The results of classes or at least small improvements, for example, with alalia, stuttering, aphasia, may not appear soon, sometimes they can be expected only after 3 or even 5 years of hard work.

Many people, mainly, of course, girls, still in school make for themselves the choice of their future profession, leaning towards the direction of defectology. However, to become a real speech therapist, a specialist himself must have a competent and clear speech without pronunciation defects. In addition, the general culture of speech is important. In communicating with students of any age, you can not make mistakes of orthoepy, stylistics, and it is also important not to use colloquial expressions. The speech of a speech therapist is always a model for his student, who learns and improves his speech skills by imitation.

In order to carry out his professional activities, a speech therapist must know and understand the physiology and mechanism of voice formation in humans, have some knowledge of anatomy. When working with people with speech impairments, a specialist should be familiar with such sciences as ethics, pedagogy, and the basics of child psychology.

Reflecting on how to learn to be a speech therapist, some school graduates mistakenly assume that it is enough to just complete certain courses. But you need to understand that their graduation will not give you the right to engage in pedagogical work with official employment. The fact is that specialized courses are just a retraining program for those people who already have basic higher medical or pedagogical education. To become a true specialist in the field of speech therapy, you need to graduate from a higher educational institution (university), where there is a department of defectology or a department of speech therapy.

To study in a specialized university, you need to prepare in advance, studying in depth subjects that need to be taken after grade 11:

• biology;
• Russian language;
• Social Studies;
• literature or mathematics (depends on the requirements of the university).

The main subjects for admission to the university will be biology and the Russian language, it is they who determine the number of points that, according to the results of the exam, will be taken into account for passing an applicant to a budgetary form of study. Moreover, the list of subjects can be changed or supplemented depending on the requirements of the higher educational institution in which you would like to study. Therefore, it is best to get acquainted with the requirements of the university to the applicant in advance.

However, in addition to exams, You will also have to receive a medical certificate from a speech therapist stating that you yourself do not suffer from speech impairment. In addition, many universities conduct interviews with applicants in order to identify their ability to study at the selected faculty. This is a kind of test and it is necessary to prepare for it in advance, carefully considering your oral speech in the form of a short speech.

The best specialized Russian universities that can be completed as a basic education are:

• R. Wallenberg Institute of Special Pedagogy and Psychology;
• State Pedagogical University named after A.I. Herzen;
• Moscow State University for the Humanities named after M. A. Sholokhov;
• Moscow Psychological and Social University;
• Leningrad State University named after A.S. Pushkin;
• St. Petersburg State Pediatric University;
• Nizhny Novgorod State Pedagogical Institute named after K. Minin;
• Yaroslavl State Pedagogical Institute named after K. D. Ushinsky.

The end of the university and specialized advanced training courses in the field of defectology does not mean that your further increase in the level of knowledge should stop there. On the contrary, a speech therapist to provide quality assistance to their students must constantly study new and improving techniques developed for corrective work with speech defects.