What will you learn?

Speech Therapy is a practice that assists people with speech and language disorders or who have trouble swallowing. This course takes you through the role of a speech therapist, the anatomical structures and physiological functions of speech and hearing, phonetics, language development and speech disorders, the structure of language, and career paths in this field.

The Speech Therapy Course introduces the subject by outlining the basics. It provides an overview of speech disorders and the therapeutic practices used to treat them. You’ll learn about the role of a speech therapist and the conditions and areas of communication that they focus on. You will be provided with in-depth listing of pathological terms that are used amongst speech and language professionals.

To understand speech you need a good level of knowledge about the anatomical structures and physiological functions of the speech organs. This course will talk you through these and the respiratory, laryngeal, and articulatory systems, which all have a bearing on speech.

Similarly, you will learn about audiology. The course talks you through the structures and functions belonging to the auditory system and explains the physiology of hearing. There are numerous tests and screening protocols in the UK used to screen and assess children with suspected hearing disorders. You will learn about these and the signs that could indicate hearing loss, which would require an audiology assessment referral.

How we develop speech and the different stages we go through to learn and process language is a fascinating topic. You will discover the various stages that exist within linguistic advancement in monolingual and bilingual children.

Equally as interesting is Phonetics (the study of human speech sounds). The Speech Therapy Course breaks the topic down into its three branches and explains each fully:

• Articulatory Phonetics: The study of the way in which speech sounds are produced
• Acoustic Phonetics: Analyses the physical properties of speech
• Auditory Phonetics: Illustrates the ways in which sound is perceived

Speech Perception, which deals with one’s comprehension of what is being said, is also covered.

The course considers the structure of language, described through morphology, syntax and semantics. In addition to looking at each of these areas you’ll see how children apply the rules that determine speech and language, the common errors they may make and the errors that are symptomatic of speech and communication disorders.

The Speech Therapy Course provides a deep exploration into various conditions that can affect the development of speech and language and how this manifests itself in each case. The conditions covered include neurological disorders, brain injury, drug abuse, intellectual disabilities, vocal abuse, autism and apraxia, plus physical impairments. The course also explains how the Picture Exchange Communication System (PECS) uses pictorials as a form of treatment of autistic children experiencing speech impairment issues.

For those considering a career as a speech therapist, the course provides information on, and examples of, the various positions and working environments that speech and language therapists may practice in. In each example, duties and responsibilities that occur within these departments are described.

This course, although comprehensive, does not qualify you as a Speech and Language Therapist or to use that protected title. To qualify as such students would be expected to complete a HCPC approved postgraduate course.