Speech Therapy Course To Be Extended

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31260, 5 January 1967, Page 7

Speech Therapy Course To Be Extended

From the beginning of 1967 the course in speech therapy at Christchurch Teachers’ College will be extended from one year to two, thus making the total training period for speech therapists three periods at Christchurch. This extension of the section of the course recognises the desirability of providing a more thorough professional training for speech therapists, and allowance has been made for students to work with older persons with speech defects, some of whom will be in hospital. Students for the new course will be chosen from those who have completed their first year of study at any of the eight primary teachers’ colleges. They will transfer to Christchurch Teachers’ College where during their second year they will be given a full training in the development and education of ordinary children and will commence their specialist studies in

speech therapy. It is proposed that they will participate in the primary teacher training (Division A) programme, including its periods of classroom practice, but that their optional studies will be related to speech therapy. The third year will be devoted to specialist study and training. Students will be appointed to speech clinics in the year immediately following the completion of the course, and will receive full teacher’s salary. They will be certificated at the end of this period with an endorsement in speech therapy. To ensure that a reasonable proportion of the more

academically-able students are attracted to speech therapy, students who complete a year in Division A and are selected for speech therapy training will be eligible for consideration for selection for a year’s full-time university study before com-

mencing the speech therapy course itself. It may also be possible for selected graduates to obtain direct entry to the course.

All students will spend two consecutive years on the Christchurch section of the speech therapy course, and this period and the first year of work in a speech clinic will not be interrupted for university work. Certificated therapists will be eligible to compete later for selection for the existing scheme of full-time study awards which enables experienced teachers to complete their degrees. Spech therapists trained in this new two-year course will receive certification as trained teachers and will be bonded on the same basis as other students in primary teachers’ colleges.

The establishment of an additional lecturer’s position and a new draft syllabus have been approved.