Speech and language therapist – teacher of the deaf is an expert who is working with people with speech and language disorders and people with hearing impairment. For a successful communication, speech, language and hearing should be appropriately developed. In the context of communication problems, early childhood intervention is crucial. That is why more and more children with speech-language problems are already in the kindergarten directed to speech and language therapist or teacher of the deaf. Unfortunately, most kindergartens, as well as schools, do not have an employee of their speech and language therapist – teacher of the deaf. In Slovenia, we solve the problem by sharing one speech and language therapist – teacher of the deaf into several institutions. Because he works in various institutions we call him a mobile speech and language therapist – teacher for deaf.
The reason for the conduction of this research was to analyse work of mobile speech and language therapists – teachers of the deaf and to find out how they are experiencing the attitude of educators, teachers and parents to their work. We were interested what the actual situation in practice is.
The empirical part focuses on mobile speech and language therapist – teacher of the deaf and their opinion on the situation in practice. We were especially interested in the following areas: tasks of mobile speech and language therapists – teachers of the deaf, direct work with children, additional professional help, cooperation, spatial conditions, material conditions, advantages and disadvantages of mobile work, problems of mobile work, the benefit of mobile work, and their experiencing relationships with educators, teachers and parents.
For this thesis, an author questionnaire was made. It consists data on respondents (time of employment, basic employment, number of work locations, number of children treated). In addition to the data on respondents, it contains six content sections: tasks of mobile speech and language therapist – teacher of the deaf, direct work with children, additional professional help, cooperation and working conditions, and experiencing the relationship of educators, teachers and parents to their work.
Research results showed that the work of the mobile speech and language therapist – teacher of the deaf is very dynamic, requires a large degree of self-organization and self-initiative, and that the participants encounter many problems. Nevertheless, they feel accepted at the workplace.
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