In my master’s degree thesis I focus on the opinions of a sample group of speech and language therapists working on partner cooperation with parents.
In the theoretical part I describe various models of cooperation, which includes partnership model as well. I define the concept of partnership, on the basis of expert knowledge of various authors. I also define the difference between the concepts of partnership and cooperation. I list the elements of partnership mentioned by the authors. In a special section I concentrate on the obstacles and advantages for partner cooperation. I focus the most frequently mentioned factors in the literature which are important in establishing and building partnership with parents, namely professional’s competence - speech and language therapist’s, motivation for cooperation with parents, experiences, expectations, parents’ knowledge, empathy and effective communication of the speech and language therapist. I describe obstacles faced by professionals - speech and language therapists in establishing a partner cooperation with parents. I specifically introduce the dialogue as a means (method) for the creation of a partner relationship.
In the empirical part I use the qualitative research approach. I research what opinion do speech and language therapists have about partnership with parents, what are the differences in views among speech and language therapists on partnership with parents with regard to seniority and workplace (health center, primary school, kindergarten, a specialized institution ...), do they realize the concept of partner cooperation with parents and in what ways do they maintain it. I also check what kind of obstacles in establishing partnership relationship with parents they experience in different contexts (health center, school, kindergarten ...). The sample includes seven speech and language therapists, who vary depending on seniority and workplace. I gather data through semi-structured interview and then qualitative analyse them.
The survey results show that speech and language therapist are familiar with theoretical items of partnership with parents, but they just partially correspond with the practice, which they described. There are differences in views on the partnership with regard to seniority and workplace, but in my opinion they are not so important and relate mainly to the experiences of the individual speech and language therapist.
|
