Speech therapy is a therapeutic discipline which aims to treat written and oral language disorders. In this sheet, you will discover this discipline in more detail, what a speech therapy assessment consists of, what are the disorders that speech therapy can treat, how a session takes place, how to become a speech therapist and finally, what are the contraindications. ?

Coming from the words “ortho” which means “right” and phonie “which means” voice “, speech therapy is a paramedical discipline sometimes called speech therapy which allows the management of written and oral language disorders and more broadly speaking disorders. Communication. The speech therapist also takes care of hearing, voice and swallowing disorders. It detects, assesses and offers treatment for these disorders.

The overall goal of speech therapy is for the person in care to communicate better, in writing or orally. In some cases, this can take place not through rehabilitation but through palliative strategies such as the use of computers in the event of paralysis, for example.

Speech therapy assessment

The speech therapy assessment aims to highlight the nature of the patient’s disorders in order to determine how to resolve them. It can only be performed on medical prescription, and by a speech therapist.

First, the speech therapist will first talk to his patient (and his family, if it is a child). This interview will consist in carrying out the anamnesis of the individual, using various questions on his life, his development and his complaint. Based on these initial results, the practitioner will then select the most suitable tests and protocols in order to determine the disorders present. These tests will aim to explore the patient’s language skills, whether in oral or written language. They will also be used to measure cognitive skills, through memory, attention or time tracking exercises. Once the assessment is complete, the speech therapist will make a diagnosis in which he can propose a series of additional examinations.

Written language disorders

Speech therapy can help treat dyslexia and dysorthography, which are the two main written language disorders. The objectives can consist in helping the individual to acquire the alphabetic principle, the morphology, the segmentation and to make the link between the oral and the written.

Oral language disorders

Speech therapists take care of stammering, zozing and other pronunciation defects but also, and more broadly, speech and language disorders. They also take care of people suffering from speech loss after an accident or due to illness. Thus, in Parkinson’s disease, speech therapy sessions make it possible to deal with language disorders due to a joint made difficult by the disease.

Learning disabilities

Speech therapy plays a key role in the management of learning to read disorders such as dyslexia. It can also help children who cannot learn logical reasoning, who have a language delay, or who have difficulty learning to read and speak.

Hearing impairment

Auditory Processing Disorder can be improved with speech therapy through exercises aimed at re-educating oral language so as to improve the individual’s communication with others. This can be achieved by working the patient’s attention and comprehension skills.

Swallowing disorders

Following certain neurological diseases, swallowing disorders can appear because certain muscles are affected. Speech therapy can help find compensatory strategies to improve swallowing.

The specialist

The speech therapist, who follows mainly children, practices in a private practice, in liberal or within a hospital structure, a rehabilitation center or a specialized establishment. It can also evolve in a school establishment.

Course of a session

Speech therapists intervene in many fields, at all ages of life. Before starting treatment, they carry out an assessment based on clinical observation, then a diagnosis. At the end of this diagnosis, rehabilitation sessions are offered. Their number, duration and nature vary greatly depending on the disorder. Thus, a session can last 30 minutes if it is a joint disorder, to 1 hour if it is a disabling disorder such as deafness. For a minor disorder, a few sessions may be sufficient. On the other hand, for a more pronounced disorder, the sessions can be spread over several years, depending on the progress and the evolution of the person being followed. As for the exercises, they are all adapted to the disorder, and also depend on the age of the patient. For example, in the event of learning to read disorders, speech therapy sessions are based on playful exercises, to be repeated many times.

Become a speech therapist

Like medical studies, speech therapy studies are subject to a numerus clausus. This means that the number of students accepted in the first year is limited each year. There are 19 schools in France which issue the certification of speech therapist ability after five years of study. Selection by competition is difficult since only 5% to 10% of candidates are accepted. The training includes general (anatomy, physiology, neurology, etc.) and specific (phonetic, linguistic, etc.) courses as well as practical internships carried out at the end of each year.

In Canada, you have to get a master’s degree. Or two years after a first cycle diploma.