Speech therapist teacher: 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, since the beginning of the 90s of the last century, the number of preschool children with identified speech disorders has been steadily and steadily increasing all over the world.

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 activity, expressed to one degree or another.

Modern neuroscientists have proven that with 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 preschool age. Problems of this kind are solved at a certain level by medical specialists, among whom is a speech therapist teacher.

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

The profession of a speech therapist appeared relatively recently. For the first time they began to study speech therapy at the beginning of the 17th century on the territory of Europe.Initially, the speech therapist worked with children with hearing impairments. And only after almost three centuries, speech therapy acquired those forms that were aimed specifically at working with the correction of the speech function. 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 human mental development are inextricably linked. Many defects of speech reproduction have psychological roots and, much less often, congenital anatomical pathologies. Speech disorders 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 teacher must be fluent in various techniques that allow working with students of any age group.

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

The profession of a speech therapist teacher is not only generally recognized as useful, but also in high demand. It allows people to improve the quality of their life and gives them the opportunity to realize themselves in it. But besides universal human values, speech therapy has other advantages.

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

Despite all the positive aspects, as in any other case, speech therapy has its own certain disadvantages.

• Classes conducted with children of different temperaments constantly require a lot of psychological stress and physical endurance.... Often, a speech therapist teacher is forced not only to deal with problems of speech function, but also to act as a psychologist who needs to listen to the patient's story and treat the situation with sympathy and understanding.
• In addition to any other load, the teacher is responsible for maintaining the necessary documentation, this is especially true for those professionals who work in government agencies.Every year the number of documents drawn up for each student only increases, and this is a rather serious burden for any specialist.
• The success and result of the work done by the speech therapist mainly depends on the patient himself, his desire and attitude to eliminate his speech deficiencies... The performance 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 conducted with him, despite the efforts and high level of professionalism of the teacher-defectologist.
• The results of classes or at least small improvements, for example, with alalia, stuttering, aphasia may not appear soon, sometimes they can only be expected after 3 or even 5 years of hard work.

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

In order to carry out his professional activity, a speech therapist teacher must know and understand the physiology and mechanism of voice formation in humans, and have certain 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.

When thinking about how to learn to be a speech therapist, some high school graduates mistakenly assume that just completing certain courses is enough. But you need to understand that their completion 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 persons who already have a basic higher medical or pedagogical education. To become a real specialist in the field of speech therapy, you need to graduate from a higher educational institution (HEI), where there is a faculty of defectology or the department of speech therapy.

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

• biology;
• Russian language;
• Social Studies;
• literature or mathematics (depending 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 the applicant to pass the budgetary form of education. 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 familiarize yourself with the requirements of the university for the applicant in advance.

However, apart from exams, you will also have to get a medical certificate from a speech therapist that you yourself do not suffer from speech impairments... In addition, many universities conduct interviews with applicants in order to identify their ability to study at the chosen faculty. This is a kind of test and you need to prepare for it in advance by 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 for Special Pedagogy and Psychology;
• A. I. Herzen State Pedagogical University;
• Sholokhov Moscow State University for the Humanities;
• 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.

Completion 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 teacher to provide quality assistance to his students must constantly study new and improving techniques developed for corrective work with speech defects.