Speech therapist - who is this? Goals and objectives of the speech therapist

The profession of a speech therapist is simply underestimated by many people. But this is a very important and necessary craft for society. Everything about the profession of a speech therapist will be described in our article.

Speech therapist: who is this?

A speech therapist is a highly qualified specialist whose main working function is to study various speech defects. The speech therapist is obliged to qualitatively study the causes of these defects, as well as prescribe an effective course of treatment. Treatment can include different kinds of techniques, techniques and training. Contrary to popular belief, a speech therapist is by no means a pediatric specialist. Despite the fact that most of the patients with whom this professional works are children, adults are also not averse to seeking qualified help.

A competent speech therapist must master the basics of psychology, pedagogy and medicine. Especially important in the profession under consideration is the ability to qualitatively classify the groups of people who need help. The approach to children and adults is very different. So, recently, speech therapists have begun to be divided into child and adult specialists altogether.

Speech therapist is a very important, developing and demanded profession. What else can you tell about her?

Why do we need speech therapists?

As mentioned above, many people greatly underestimate the profession of a speech therapist. Moreover, individuals do not at all understand why this profession is needed. Citizens call this specialty "another useless occupation" and "useless craft".

They are named until they themselves face obvious problems. We are talking about those cases when, for example, a four-year-old child is, in principle, unable to articulate. Some immediately blame the parents on this problem: they say, they did not work well with the children. However, not all so simple. The child may show extremely serious forms of diseases, such as dyslexia, dysgraphia and other extremely unpleasant defects. Fixing them is not so easy. This is where the qualified help of a competent specialist is needed. A speech therapist is just such a person.

Qualities required for work

Before proceeding with the analysis of the main professional duties and functions of an employee, it is worth talking a little about what important qualities and character traits a speech therapist should have. And this is really important: children, when communicating with this specialist, very often worry and feel uncomfortable. A competent professional must possess certain skills and character traits in order to be able to win over children.

A children's speech therapist must possess such qualities as communication skills, openness and benevolence, tact and observation. Not every person is capable of working in such a specialty. Nervous, stressed, tactless people shouldn't even think about the profession of a speech therapist. A speech therapist himself is an excellent psychologist who can recognize the temperament and character of a child in a matter of minutes, as well as find the source of speech problems.

Getting a profession

Where can you get training to master the profession of a speech therapist? Today, in almost every large city in Russia or other CIS countries, there are many higher educational institutions that are ready to provide their services for high-quality education of citizens. A job as a speech therapist can be obtained after training in institutions such as:

• MGPU - Moscow State Pedagogical University. Today this university remains one of the best teaching institutions in the world. Here you can qualitatively master the profession of a speech therapist, and then work in leading clinics, schools and other institutions of the country.
• Sholokhov Moscow State University for the Humanities is the country's leading humanitarian university.
• The Herzen State Pedagogical University is another elite pedagogical university.
• Wallenberg Institute of Pedagogy and Psychology.

Naturally, there are many other universities in the country that are ready to provide courses in speech therapy.

Professional responsibilities

It is especially important to list the main professional functions and responsibilities of the employee. It is what a speech therapist does that best characterizes the profession itself.

What are the main responsibilities here? Here are the most basic ones:

• high-quality examination of patients, during which the main features of the development of speech should be identified;
• diagnosis, definition of the main problem;
• a set of methods and methods of treatment;
• conducting the main groups of work - the so-called classes with a speech therapist (this includes carrying out exercises, issuing "homework", assistance in the development of basic speech abilities);
• evaluating the results based on the results of the lessons, comparing the results with the initial data.

Thus, such a specialist as a speech therapist has a fairly large and structured number of responsibilities. The feedback on the work of these professionals is usually overwhelmingly positive. And it could not be otherwise: a person for at least five years studied and practiced methods of developing a person's speech characteristics. Of course, this is bearing fruit.

Features of the profession

The profession of a speech therapist has many interesting and surprising features. Some of them are worth mentioning separately.

A speech therapist must have incredible patience. Probably, it is no longer a joke to say that some soulless robot would be the best speech therapist. After all, you need to love your job very much so that from time to time, in a calm manner, you can give the same recommendations to not the most diligent children (and even some adults). Excellent speech therapists are people who can convince even a child of how important it is to be able to speak beautifully and clearly. Unfortunately, not everyone can create the necessary motivation for the patient.

A speech therapist must be an excellent psychologist. Each patient should have an individual approach. If this is a child, you need to remember about the basics of developmental psychology, about critical and lytic periods; if this is an adult, a mature person, it is worth remembering about the possible presence of various complexes and mental disorders in him.

Income

Another important topic that should be touched upon is the salary of speech therapists. In the Russian Federation, as you might guess, this is not the best way. Thus, the average salary of a speech therapist in the country is slightly more than 20 thousand rubles. Of course, we are talking about the public sector - schools, kindergartens, hospitals, etc. In private clinics, salaries can be slightly higher.

It becomes somewhat sad if you start comparing the incomes of Russian speech therapists with those of foreign ones. So, in European countries, as well as in the United States, a speech therapist is a very important and necessary specialist for society. Accordingly, the income there is several times higher. And this despite the fact that in Russia at the moment there is an acute shortage of such specialists: in many schools and kindergartens, speech therapists are simply absent, as a result of which individual speech work with children is not carried out at all.

History of the profession

Logos - speech, Paideia - education. This is how the name of the craft in question can be translated from Greek. Education of speech is a short but capacious characteristic of the profession of a speech therapist.

The profession of a speech therapist was born not so long ago - in the 17th century. The best educators in Europe have tried to combat hearing impairment in children. Apparatuses of varying degrees of whimsy were developed, and special methods and methods of treatment appeared. However, over time, the speech therapy direction only grew, absorbing more and more various problems and disorders. Towards the 20th century, speech therapy became relatively similar to what it is today: the work of correcting speech defects.

By the 21st century, speech therapy has absorbed a great variety of very different theories, methods and methods of treatment. Any speech therapist in a kindergarten for children, at school or in a simple clinic has a rich spectrum of knowledge and skills.

The first group of benefits of work

Like any other work activity, the profession of a speech therapist has a number of "spiritual" and "material" advantages. If we talk about the intangible component, then it is worth highlighting, perhaps, the utility. The point is that, despite not the most intelligent judgments, the profession of a speech therapist is still very useful and necessary for society.

Every person wants to speak clearly, competently and clearly. Probably, there are no people in the world who would like their own speech defects. A speech therapist comes to the rescue here.

The second group of benefits of work

It was not difficult to deal with the "spiritual" component of the profession. And if you pay attention to something material? The more "mundane" advantages of the profession include:

• The ability to constantly evolve. If you establish yourself as a high-quality and competent specialist, which many people know about, you can try to increase your status (and, accordingly, income) by moving to private institutions.
• High "geography" of employment. Today the profession of a speech therapist is considered very important and necessary for society. A speech therapist at school, in kindergarten is not a frequent occurrence. He is simply not there. A speech therapist should definitely not have problems with employment.
• Speech therapists have no concept of "retirement age". You can work as long as your health allows.

Disadvantages of the profession

Like any other professional sphere, the labor activity of a speech therapist contains a number of certain disadvantages. It is worth noting:

• Huge power costs. A speech therapist spends a lot of energy working with only one patient. It is good if a professional has considerable experience, and therefore experience. In this case, a certain habit and some skills of working with "problem" patients should be formed (certain tasks of a speech therapist, suitable for age, character, etc.). But for young and inexperienced workers it will be really hard.

• A lot of documentation. Almost every worker has this problem today. What can we say about doctors: lately, all the burden of maintaining all sorts of papers has been falling on them. And this, as a result of reductions, is completely abnormal.
• Small wages. The income of a specialist has already been discussed above. A speech therapist in a kindergarten, school or other budgetary institution really receives very little money.

Thus, a speech therapist is a very original, special specialist. His activities cannot be confused with anything.