The Engine of The New New Zealand

Speech & language therapy

Think how amazing and interesting your life is because you can sit around a table, eat and communicate your thoughts and ideas with friends.

How relaxing is it to read a magazine or book. Think how different your life would be if you couldn’t do these things.

The ability to comprehend language and communicate is unique to humans. So, disorders affecting this can be life changing.

Speech and Language therapy examines the underlying causes behind disorders that effect communication, cognition and swallowing.

Speech and language therapists work with people from birth to old age diagnosing, assessing and treating communication impairments that result from developmental problems, congenital problems, traumatic brain injury, stroke or neurological damage. They work with people to restore language and speech, helping them to communicate and connect with others.

Find out more about how you can do it too.

History of speech and language therapy

The stigma surrounding issues with speech has been around for a long time.

But it was only in the 19th century, that the first physicians and anatomists identified frontal brain regions responsible for speech production – people like Paul Broca.

Carl Wernicke, working around the same time then found that not all language disturbances were caused by damage to frontal brain regions. His research identified regions in the brain that were related instead to language comprehension.

Since these pioneers, speech and language therapy has continued to benefit from the wealth of research and knowledge that informs assessment and intervention for all people who have communication and/or swallowing disorders.

How can I do it too?

If you are interested in health, science and language and working with people of any age, speech and language therapy could be a good career choice.

Massey has had a Speech and Language Therapy Programme since 2003, and we’re already already doing ground-breaking work in aphasia (impairment of language ability – at the extreme being completely unable to speak) and in feeding issues affecting young children and babies.

If you are interested in this qualification, you’ll need to work hard at your science subjects at school.

You’ll need to pass: 14 credits or more at Level 3 or higher on the National Qualifications Framework in three approved subjects including: 14 credits at Level 3 or higher in English and a minimum of 16 credits or more at NCEA Level 3 in one of the following subjects: Biology, Chemistry, Mathematics with Calculus, Physics, Science or Statistics with Modelling.

The Bachelor of Speech and Language Therapy at Massey a four-year degree. You will study language disorders, speech sound disorders, fluency, voice, alternative methods of communication, and swallowing (dysphagia) disorders, at the same time learning how to work with clients of different cultural or linguistic backgrounds. You will receive an in-depth insight into theoretical and clinical issues and learn how to work collaboratively with others.

As an important part of your training you will engage in clinical practica, or placements, providing you with hands on experience in different settings and with different types of clients and disorders. Your clinical training will begin at our Campus Clinic in Year 2 and will then include workplace experience in subsequent years.

After graduation you will be skilled to work as a speech and language therapist in education (mainstream or Special Schools), health and rehabilitation and private practice. You will assess, diagnose and treat individuals with communication problems improving their quality of life.

Download Your 2013 Guide to Speech and Language Therapy or get in touch with us if you have more questions.