Agata Mitek: What is the exact program of the event? What lectures, workshops and seminars are planned? Will there be an opportunity to talk to students and teaching staff of logopaedics at the University of Wrocław?

Prof. Anna Majewska-Tworek: Our event refers directly to the European Day of Speech Therapists. It is a celebration of speech therapists celebrated in all European Union countries on March 6 since 2004. It was established by the Standing Liaison Committee of Speech and Language Therapists / Speech Therapists in the European Union (CPLOL). This organization gives rise to the modern European Speech and Language Therapy Association (ESLA), which unites and represents speech therapists in Europe. In Poland, the holiday has been celebrated since 2007, and it will be celebrated for the first time at the University of Wrocław. It is worth noting that it is a very lively holiday, liked and celebrated by speech therapists. In the first week of March, they not only exchange wishes, but also organize many charity actions or popular science events to disseminate knowledge about the proper development of speech and the need for early recognition of any abnormalities that may accompany the acquisition of speech and language.

The originators of the Speech Therapist’s Day at the Institute of Polish Studies are dr Lucyna Kościelniak and dr Gabriela Dragun. The ladies are speech therapists with a neurologopedic specialization, both in the scientific, didactic and practical dimensions, which means that they conduct scientific observations and write articles on a daily basis, as well as practice their profession in private speech therapy offices or medical facilities. They proposed a fascinating conference program, in which everyone interested in speech therapy and neurospeech therapy problems will find something for themselves.

The Speech Therapist’s Day at the Institute of Polish Studies of the University of Wrocław will begin with the lecture What does the heart have to do with the language? Interesting facts not only speech therapy. Although dr Gabriela Dragun once devoted her doctoral dissertation to issues in the field of the history of Polish literature, she devoted most of her professional life to neurospeech therapy and education in this field. She has a deep knowledge of the biological basis of speech and language, as well as the borderline of neurospeech therapy and physiotherapy thanks to many certified trainings in which she constantly participates. She is a lecturer and therapist of many talents and skills. Thanks to her gentle disposition, she has a gift for uniting outstanding specialists around her, who want to work with her and create a team with her.

11:30-12:30 What does the heart have to do with language? Interesting facts not only speech therapy – lecture by dr Gabriela Dragun

Dr Gabriela Dragun proposed an interesting and original program of neurologopedic studies, in which she refers to problems related to the functioning and integration of such human senses as touch, smell, taste, sight and hearing. Such a program may be of particular interest to speech therapists working on a daily basis in kindergartens, schools and other educational institutions, where children are much older than those traditionally covered by neurologopedic care (by specialists in the field of the so-called early intervention). She will devote the last half hour of her speech to presenting the new specialization.

12.30-13.00 information meeting about postgraduate studies CLINICAL NEUROLOGOPAEDICS WITH SENSORIMOTOR INTEGRATION

After a short break, workshop meetings will be held in 4 groups. They take place at the same time, so each participant of our conference will choose one of the four proposed ones (registration via the link/QR code on the poster is already open). Each of the meetings will be led by a neurospeech therapist, a specialist in her field recognized in the speech therapist community. The speakers are lecturers associated with the Qualifying Postgraduate Studies in Logopaedics: with a specialization in general and clinical speech therapy and/or clinical neurospeech therapy with sensorimotor integration (the latter specialization is addressed only to speech therapy graduates).

Some of the speakers also form a team of lecturers of the full-time, five-year field of speech therapy. Dr Katarzyna Kokot is employed at the Institute of Pedagogy of the University of Wrocław and is particularly interested in orthodontic speech therapy. In the coming semester, she will conduct classes in this field for our full-time speech therapy students. We are very much looking forward to working with dr Katarzyna Kokot and her wonderful Scientific Association of the (Un)Counseling Centre. We are counting on its constant expansion. Mgr Jolanta Skowronek started her work at the Institute of Polish Studies of the University of Wrocław this academic year, continuing to write her doctoral dissertation on phonetic difficulties in children with central auditory processing disorder. She is a graduate of a five-year speech therapy course at the University of Warsaw and postgraduate speech therapy at the Maria Curie-Skłodowska University in Lublin.

The next speaker is optometrist and vision therapist mgr inż. Anna Jarosz, who has been conducting therapy and diagnosing infants, children, adolescents and adults for 11 years. She is a lecturer in clinical neurologopedics with sensorimotor integration within the Qualifying Postgraduate Studies in Logopaedics at the UWr. We are glad that it will be part of the Speech Therapist’s Day, because it will talk about how the sense of sight affects the development of human communication. The topic of vision is still rarely discussed in speech therapy, so we encourage you to sign up for this meeting. Anna Jarosz is also a great enthusiast of alternative and supportive communication in the active model, thanks to which her pattern therapy for people with severe and multiple disabilities is more effective.

Mgr Ilona Brzozowska-Misiewicz is a lecturer in the Qualifying Postgraduate Studies in Logopaedics at the UWr and a nationally known specialist in the field of early intervention and early development support. She is a neurologist and teacher with over 20 years of professional experience. She works with children with neurodevelopmental disorders and intellectual disabilities. During the COVID pandemic, she conducted stationary workshops at the Institute of Polish studies using special dolls purchased by us, whose body resembles the body of a living newborn. It was the so-called “workshops for internships”. The lecturer devoted them to the work of a speech therapist – a specialist in the field of early intervention. The postgraduate students were delighted, and I will always be grateful to mgr Ilona Brzozowska-Misiewicz for her openness and help in a difficult time. She is appreciated by students and specialists, but above all, she is adored by her patients, for whom she is kind and understanding.

It should be added that the main initiator of our event, dr Lucyna Kościelniak, is a neurospeech therapist and specializes in, m.in others, oncological speech therapy, working in Wrocław hospitals with people after radical cancer surgeries in the craniofacial area or after laryngectomy. We are glad that at our University we are slowly building a team of speech therapists with various specializations, including the latest ones.

13:15-14:45 meetings in groups according to registration

• dr Katarzyna Kokot – Logopedia i ortodoncja – przenikające się światy (eng. Speech therapy and orthodontics – intertwining worlds)
• mgr Anna Jarosz – Wzrok a widzenie – wpływ wzroku na rozwój kompetencji komunikacyjnych (eng. Sight and vision – the impact of vision on the development of communication competences)
• mgr Jolanta Skowronek – Brak potencjału czy zaburzenia uwagi słuchowej? O trudnościach w nauce z perspektywy zaburzeń uwagi słuchowej (eng. Lack of potential or auditory attention disorders? On learning difficulties from the perspective of auditory attention disorders)
• mgr Ilona Misiewicz – O terapeutycznym dotyku w logopedii (eng. On therapeutic touch in speech therapy)

A very important part of our meeting will be a break for refreshments, which – we hope – will have an integrating power. We are counting on a meeting with our graduates, students, speech therapists from Wrocław and Lower Silesia, who will want to honour us with their presence.

14:45-15.30 coffee break

The last part of the Speech Therapist’s Day at the Institute will have a unique dimension. It will be a screening of a moving documentary about the experience of living with stuttering. This part of our meeting will be led by mgr Aleksandra Boroń, who specializes in the therapy of children with speech disfluency. An important part of her professional work is the popularization of knowledge about stuttering and gluttoning. For this reason, after the screening of the film, he will conduct a conversation with the guests he invites – adults with stuttering experience and balbutologopedists. She revealed to us that she also invited parents with children who are under her speech therapy care to watch the film with us.

15:30 – 17:45 screening of the film “When I Stutter” by John Gomez and discussion with invited guests – moderated by mgr Aleksandra Boroń.

AM: Who is the event addressed to and where will it take place? Is the event aimed only at future students or also at parents, teachers and people interested in speech therapy?

Prof. Anna Majewska-Tworek: The event is addressed to all those who are close to speech therapy. We invite our students and graduates, including those from years ago, because the education of speech therapists at the Institute of Speech Therapy of the University of Wrocław has been going on since 1994. We also hope for a nice meeting and conversation over coffee with speech therapists who provide internships to our students on a daily basis. Usually there is no time for this throughout the year. We also cordially invite people who are wondering whether to study speech therapy or neurologopedics at the Institute of Polish Studies of the University of Wrocław. They will have the opportunity to talk or ask questions, as well as to feel the atmosphere of the university and studying.

AM: Logopaedics – why is it worth studying? What are the career prospects after graduating from such studies? Do students/learners have a chance to take both theoretical and practical classes in logopaedics? Is there cooperation with practitioners? Does the University of Wrocław provide internships or apprenticeships? Teaching facilities.

Prof. Anna Majewska-Tworek: Speech therapy is a fascinating field of study about language, its acquisition, speech learning by a child, possible difficulties accompanying it, as well as disorders in this area. Speech and language disorders can occur at any stage of a person’s life: from early childhood to late adulthood. Each time, of course, they have a different character. There are many methods of speech rehabilitation, restoration of the disintegrated language system (e.g. after brain injuries), methods of slowing down the effects of neurodegenerative diseases, for example, Parkinson’s disease, in the field of communication skills. Getting to know them and then using them is very intriguing and inspiring to your own research in this area.

Work in this profession can be very diverse. A speech therapist specializing in the so-called artistic speech therapy will strive for perfection in their work, while a speech therapist specializing in working with people with severe disabilities will teach various forms of communication, which can be acquired in each individual case. Speech therapy is a beautiful profession, very diverse, dynamically developing and giving opportunities for development.

We know that the possibility of individual work with the patient is attractive for people undertaking speech therapy studies (although group speech therapy classes also have their power). Speech therapists find employment in the educational sector (kindergartens, schools, psychological and pedagogical clinics), medical (hospitals, primary care and specialist clinics), private (speech therapy offices run as part of independent business), and social (nurseries, retirement homes, foundations). Usually, speech therapists combine many opportunities to practice the profession in their work and engage in many different projects that are also financially attractive to them.

An obligatory part of the study is speech therapy internship. They are an integral part of the study program. As the head of the Qualifying Postgraduate Studies in Logopaedics, I created the concept of speech therapy practices from scratch, among others. It was difficult because of the pandemic. However, thanks to the kindness of the Wrocław speech therapists, it was possible, for example, to organize online observations of classes conducted live! The children did not know that as many as 50 people were watching them through the eye of the camera. Speech therapists from the Day Center for Psychiatry and Speech Disorders for Children and Adolescents in Wrocław showed great courage and mental resilience. I am very grateful to them for that. Then the Vratislavia Medica hospital in Wrocław agreed to accept us – in person, although of course in gowns and masks – for an internship devoted to aphasia. We have been cooperating with this institution to this day. The cooperation is developing great, because we also have great lecturers from there – mgr E. Skarbek-Oćwieja and mgr K. Wnukowska.

Very carefully prepared and conducted practices in the field of speech therapy diagnosis are provided by mgr Aldona Kozłowska, who is the director of the Psychological and Pedagogical Counseling Center No. 2 in Wrocław. The internship is preceded by classes devoted to diagnostic tools in modern speech therapy. We also cooperate, m.in others, with the Medical Center of the Polish Association of the Deaf, where mgr Alina Butkiewicz, a recognized speech therapist in the Wrocław community, works. At the university, she conducts classes in surdologopedics and at the same time provides us with internships in this field. A speech therapist in his work is very often part of a team of specialists. For this reason, we also offer internships in the School Complex No. 16 for children with autism and severe intellectual deficits. In such a facility, a speech therapist works in a team, which is certainly made up of a pedagogue and a psychologist, but also by any subject teacher (e.g., art, physical education, music) or a teacher of rehabilitation classes. We are also trying to show this. In addition, our students have internships in private speech therapy offices – here the circle of speech therapists willing to cooperate with us is constantly expanding. This is our concept of practices: diversity, representativeness, openness.

The teaching facilities are spacious, renovated rooms in the beautiful building of the Faculty of Letters. We took care of acoustic screens to ensure the best possible conditions for lectures and classes. Renovated floors and extendable tables give us the opportunity to easily and quickly free up space to conduct practical classes, e.g. voice emission or logorhythmics. Here, I must emphasize the close cooperation with the lecturers of the Academy of Music (i.a., from the Department of Music Therapy) and the great support for the university’s speech therapy from the Vice-Rector of the Academy of Music for Student Affairs and Didactics, dr Amelia Golema.

The basis of the internship centers are Wrocław centers of various profiles. I am particularly grateful to mgr Magdalena Paszkiewicz – the creator and coordinator of the Municipal Speech Therapy Prevention Program in Wrocław – for indicating educational institutions willing to cooperate with us. We do not forget about kindergartens and schools. We also direct our students to these places. There are many challenges in kindergarten and for this reason you can really learn a lot in a short time. We are very happy to cooperate with mgr Joanna Szymczakowska, who provides us with internships in Kindergarten No. 35 “Rainbow House”, an institution with integration departments. On a daily basis, she also cooperates with prof. Katarzyna Węsierska from the University of Silesia, because she is particularly interested in the issue of stuttering in her work. Therefore, he combines theory with practice, taking great care of his professional development. Therefore, I would like to emphasize that our lecturers combine theoretical knowledge with practical skills, which translates into high quality of teaching. We have a lot of specialists around us who are friendly to us. It is impossible to list them all.

AM: What are the recruitment requirements for logopaedics studies (matura exam, additional exams)? How does the recruitment process work? When does the recruitment start, how to register for studies? Who can I contact if I have questions about logopaedics courses at the University of Wrocław?

Prof. Anna Majewska-Tworek: During the recruitment procedure for full-time studies, a ranking list is created based on the results of the Matura exam. The best are invited to an interview, during which the correctness of pronunciation and motivation to study logopaedics are checked. The recruitment is launched according to the dates set by the Rector of the University of Wrocław.

Recruitment for postgraduate studies in general and clinical logopaedics usually begins in June and lasts until the end of September. However, as early as September, we start interviews, during which we also check the correctness of pronunciation and motivation to take up speech therapy studies. We invite graduates of philology (Polish and foreign), pedagogy, psychology, health sciences.

We accept all willing speech therapists for neurologopedics – without any interviews. We have also abolished the requirement of a two-year internship in the profession of speech therapist. We care about educating our graduates.

AM: Why UWr/why Wrocław?

Prof. Anna Majewska-Tworek: The program of logopaedics within full-time studies appears to be modern and interesting. It’s “three in one”; after obtaining the diploma, the graduate has the right to practice the profession, has pedagogical and psychological preparation to work in educational institutions (the so-called teaching qualifications), has the knowledge and skills to work with a bilingual child, which is unique compared to other speech therapy programs in Poland. The School of Polish Language and Culture for Foreigners at the University of Wrocław has a fantastic team of specialists and didactic facilities to prepare logopaedics students also for glottodidactic work. Intercultural (bilingual) speech therapy is the future and new opportunities for employment also outside our country.

Speech therapy studies at the University of Wrocław are the best choice! The curriculum is modern and adapted to current scientific and professional standards, classes are prepared by practitioners – speech therapists, doctors, psychologists, linguists. Students can do internships and have contact with patients already during their studies. Graduates of speech therapy faculties will be able to work in medical facilities (clinics, hospitals), psychological and pedagogical clinics, nurseries, kindergartens, schools, foundations, private speech therapy offices, foreign language schools, and Polish diaspora schools around the world. You can find out more details about speech therapy majors on our recruitment website www.rekrutacja.uni.wroc.pl. There you will find descriptions of majors, limits of places, recruitment schedules, fees for part-time studies, contacts to people substantively responsible for the recruitment process. Recruitment will start on June 2 – registration via the www.irka.uwr.edu.pl website.

We invite you to study at the University of Wrocław!

Translated by Zuzanna Łakoma (student of English Studies at the University of Wrocław) as part of the translation practice.