From speech and communication issues to swallowing and feeding problems, speech and language therapy can help both children and adults overcome disorders. This specialty plays a significant and crucial role in providing care, support, and necessary treatment for people with language and communication problems. It works to improve their ability to speak and understand others, and enables them to use various linguistic skills to express their thoughts. Additionally, it tries to improve essential skills such as problem-solving abilities and memory activation.
What is Speech and Language Therapy Specialty?
It is a health science specialty that involves diagnosing and treating individuals of all ages who suffer from speech, communication, swallowing, and feeding difficulties due to psychological or physical reasons. It assesses these issues and develops appropriate treatment plans.
Students in this specialty study everything related to developmental and acquired speech and language disorders, psychology, phonetics, and neuroscience.
Importance of Speech and Language Therapy Specialty
Speech and language therapy is an important health specialty for improving people’s quality of life. It helps patients overcome speech and communication problems, from children with delayed speech development to older adults with speaking or swallowing difficulties due to illness or injury.
The type of therapy used depends on the patient’s age, health condition, psychological state, and the challenges they face. In children, speech and language therapy addresses a variety of conditions such as:
- Learning disabilities
- Speech sound disorders
- Hearing impairments
- Treatment of cleft lip and palate effects
- Stuttering
- Voice disorders
- Selective mutism
For adults, it addresses various conditions related to speaking, communicating, eating, and swallowing problems that arise from psychological issues or physical and neurological disorders like strokes or head injuries. These include:
- Difficulty producing sounds
- Treatment of effects from psychological disorders
- Learning and memory difficulties
- Treatment of effects from physical disabilities
- Stuttering
Using different therapy techniques tailored to the case, such as language intervention activities, breathing exercises, and strengthening oral muscles, speech and language therapy improves:
- Language skills and communication
- The ability to use voice and speak
- Comprehension and understanding of what others say
- Fluency, clarity, and ease of expression
Curriculum for Speech and Language Therapy
Turkish universities offer specialized programs in speech and language therapy, which typically last four years at the bachelor’s level. The subjects studied over these four years include:
First Academic Year
- Speech and Language Disorders
- Linguistic Aspects of Communication
- Anatomy
- Physiology
- Phonetics
- Principles of Atatürk and History of the Turkish Republic
- Linguistics
- Clinical Phonetics
- Neuroanatomy and Neurophysiology of Speech and Language
- Audiology
- Speech and Phonetics Sciences
- Health-related Psychology
Second Academic Year
- Language Acquisition and Theories of Language Acquisition
- Cognitive Neuroscience
- ENT Diseases – Oral and Facial Malformations
- Audiology
- Speech and Voice Disorders
- Clinical Assessment Methods
- Childhood Language Disorders and Early Intervention
- Neurolinguistics
- Fluency Disorders
- Voice Disorders: Assessment and Treatment
- Elective Courses
Third Academic Year
- Clinical Practice
- School-Age Language Disorders: Assessment and Treatment
- Fluency Disorders
- Acquired Language Disorders
- Scientific, Medical, and Professional Ethics
- Biostatistics
- Approaches to Motor Speech Disorders: Dysarthria and Performance
- Speech and Language Therapy in Cleft Lip and Palate and Craniofacial Anomalies
- Assessment and Treatment Methods in Swallowing Disorders
- Research Methods in Speech and Language Therapy
- Elective Courses
Fourth Academic Year
- Clinical Practice
- Elective Courses
Note: The academic content may vary from one university to another. To find out the details of the study subjects at each university, you should visit the official university website.
Job Opportunities for Graduates
The field of speech and language therapy offers diverse job opportunities, allowing you to work with doctors, psychologists, and teachers in:
- Hospitals
- Clinics and Centers
- Schools
- Patients’ Homes
