The perception of kindergarten teachers about the speech therapist work at school

Abstract

Purpose: To analyze the perception of kindergarten teachers on the performance of the speech therapist professional in the school. Method: Transversal study using qualitative analysis. Six teachers of child education and one teacher of special education participated in the study. Semi structuralized interviews have been carried through and all the collected data were transcribed and analyzed using for the Analysis of Content. Results: Our findings suggest that this group of teachers presents a restricted knowledge on who is the speech therapist professional and which is his/her area of performance. The speech therapist is still seen as a specialist, a professional of the health area that can assist the work of the teacher, who should proceed with the pupils who have some speech difficulties. The teachers see the speech therapist performance as beneficial with positive consequences for the pupil development. Conclusion: It has been observed that the speech therapist performance in the school has much to contribute and the search for a partnership with the teachers is the way to reach qualitative changes in the school team as in the children.