International Speech Therapy Day (14/11)

For many adults, memories are of a man who, in their distant, bright childhood «, tries to extract the sound »r« from them and has the amazing ability to pronounce tongue twisters without hesitation, » vivid associations left in memory by the work of a specialist whose professional holiday is celebrated annually on November 14. Namely, — International Speech Therapy Day, which is celebrated mainly in the community of these specialists. This is despite the fact that every year the number of patients with problems and speech defects is growing.

Speech therapy (from the Greek lógos — word, speech and paideía — education, training) — is a branch of pedagogical science that studies speech disorders, ways to prevent them, identify and eliminate them through special education and upbringing. Speech therapy studies the causes, mechanisms, symptoms, course, structure of speech disorders, and the system of corrective action.

For the first time, issues of correction of speech disorders were described in works on deaf pedagogy of the 17th century (at that time the concept of deaf and dumb was still little different from hearing and other speech defects in hearing people). Since the second half of the 19th century, the study of speech deficiencies in normal hearing has acquired an independent, but primarily medical direction. Thus, speech correction, and only some deviations, began to be considered as a therapeutic procedure that was carried out by doctors or nurses.

Since the late 19th century, other ways of understanding, analyzing and transmitting speech began to be developed, and half a century later, new approaches to therapy made it possible to treat the psychological factors underlying speech disorders. Every year, scientific ideas about speech activity improved, and as a result, society received modern speech therapy, which, based on the general principles of defectology, interacting with psychology, physiology, and linguistics, considers speech as a systemic multifunctional education that affects mental development.

Today, most of the patients of a speech therapist — are undoubtedly children of preschool and primary school age. However, a speech therapist works not only with children, but also solves problems associated with the speech communication of adults.

The scope of this specialist is not limited to correcting the pronunciation of individual sounds; it covers a much wider range of tasks to help people suffering from congenital physical deviations of the speech apparatus, as well as those with speech and spelling problems caused by psychological traumatic factors.

The speech therapist also helps with the correction of various speech disorders: underdevelopment, pronunciation defects, tempo and timbre of speech. By helping a child overcome speech problems, a speech therapist helps prevent the development of spelling problems at an older age. This is precisely what is associated with an important aspect of the work of a modern speech therapist: early diagnosis and identification of speech therapy problems in order to carry out timely correctional work.

The work of a speech therapist is very individual and requires from a specialist not only theoretical knowledge and practical skills, but also a special character, knowledge and characteristics of age psychology. Not every child is able to work in a group; many children, and adults, are embarrassed by their problems, are not ready to open « immediately or in the presence of strangers. In such a situation, a speech therapist requires patience and sensitivity towards his patients, without which the success of all work is called into question. The speech therapist’s work is based on knowledge in the field of pedagogy, psychology, physiology, neurology, defectology, and linguistics.

Due to the growing number of children with speech impairments, a speech therapist works in every educational institution, as well as in special preschool educational institutions (speech therapy kindergartens) in Russia, who is engaged in early diagnosis and correctional work. In schools, a psychologist and a social teacher should work closely with a speech therapist. It is these three specialists who contribute to the process of socialization of the child, that is, to his formation as a full-fledged and full-fledged member of society. Therefore, the social significance of these professions is difficult to overestimate.

Considering the important role of speech therapists in the lives of patients, this international professional holiday was established in 2004.



Postcard «November 14 — International Speech Therapy Day»

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