Working as a Speech Therapist
Profession
Organisation
Action scale of the organisation (European, national, local), if relevant
What does your profession involve?
- Early intervention for children with hearing or associated disabilities;
- Family support;
- Specific and compensatory therapies for children with hearing and associated disabilities;
- Individualised auditory-verbal (re)habilitation programmes.
Are you familiar with AAC methods? Since when?
AAC methods are familiar to me since 2013, when I followed the Master’s program – Speech Therapy and Educational Audiology – at the University “Babeș-Bolyai” in Cluj-Napoca, where I studied the discipline Alternative and Augmentative Communication Systems.
In which situations do you use AAC methods?
I use AAC methods in Language and Hearing Therapy because most of the children I work with, at the beginning of therapy, are non-verbal or have major gaps in the development of verbal language and communication in general.
Which are the benefits of using AAC methods?
The use of AAC methods facilitates the grounding and development of communication when the child is non-verbal and no alternative communication system (such as sign language) is in place.
In which situation have you seen these benefits?
In the Centre for Family Support and Early Recovery of Children with Hearing Impairment and Related Disabilities we have the SymWriter Widget, a program that enables ” writing with symbols”.
Personally, I use this program both to make vocabulary lists, write words and sentences and to write documents with the verbal material I have worked with in an auditory-verbal therapy session. The document can be saved in PDF format and sent to parents who will then have a “record” of what we worked on. Symbolic writing supports children’s understanding and memorisation of new words. It also facilitates the learning of writing and reading. Quick symbolisation of the written word gives the child immediate feedback on the correctness of what is written.
Do you think AAC methods are well known in the educational field in your country?
I believe that the specialists in the field of special education in Romania know that AAC methods exist, but their use involves some costs related to the purchase of programs, training, etc.
Do you think that AAC-related practices should be improved? Why?
I think that practices related to the use of AAC should be improved because the number of children who could benefit from AAC methods has increased, while traditional teaching methods do not work.
Do you have any resources to share (websites, portals, books…)?
- Widgit Symwriter
- Widgit Inprint
Advices to implement AAC methods at school?
The implementation of AAC methods in therapy activities is beneficial, especially at the onset of therapy, for children who are non-verbal or have major gaps in the development of verbal language and communication in general.