Perceptions of parents/guardians of children with phonological disorders about the phonological disorders and the speech therapy

ABSTRACT:

Purpose:

investigating the perceptions of parents/guardians of children with phonological disorder in relation to the own disorder and the applied speech therapy.

Methods:

the sample consisted of 23 parents/guardians of children with speech disorder, who were taken care in a speech therapy ambulatory. For the analysis of the collected interviews, it was used the Content Analysis.

Results:

in summary, some points deserve attention: (a) the acceptability of the speech therapy services, including, in many cases being the demand for speech therapy an initiative of the own parents/guardians; (b) these ones perceive the linguistic difficulty of their children, as well the developments in his speech; (c) they list, with higher occurrence, school problems and bullying as difficulties related to phonological disorder and also their concern regarding it, (d) they often suggest more searches for speech therapy services to other parents, (e) they say they contribute in the family atmosphere with the speech therapy, and (f) even not so frequent, they mention to have some doubt in relation to the time of therapy.

Conclusion:

this way, parents/guardians exposed their views about their experience related to the difficulty of speech and language therapy. So, we believe in a contribution to the reflection of the therapeutic procedures adopted in speech therapy, as well as to the maturing of the therapist-patient relationship and therapist-parents. Therefore, it encourages the inclusion and closeness to caregivers in therapy.

KEYWORDS:
Speech, Language and Hearing Sciences; Speech Therapy; Speech Disorders; Parents; Qualitative Analysis