Bachelor of Speech and Language Therapy

The Degree Programme sets out to train speech therapists with knowledge, competencies and relational skills in the following fields:

PROFESSIONAL RESPONSIBILITY: starting from an awareness of their role, this field translates into the assumption of professional responsibility in all their activities towards individuals and the community, with a cultural sensitivity and respect for personal autonomy. It therefore translates into the professional practice deriving from the code of ethics and the laws in force. Skills and attitudes are developed to achieve the specific professional competencies, including the ability to independently manage documents, technologies and procedures. The learning path therefore passes from the theoretical dimension to that of real ethical and responsible behaviour.

PREVENTION: Speech therapists promote health, identify preventive needs of the disability, promote the actions necessary to overcome the disability and prevent it from worsening

ASSESSMENT: this field refers to the competencies the students will acquire in order to obtain objective and subjective information through the use of standardised tools, interviews and observations to identify the speech therapy needs of the person and the community; to formulate the related therapeutic objectives through specific procedures for functional evaluation; to identify physical, psychological and social needs to assist functional recovery.

TREATMENT AND REHABILITATION: this area concerns the planning of treatment and speech rehabilitation, defining rehabilitation programmes, cooperating in the drafting of the rehabilitation programme, identifying the most suitable therapeutic methods, and implementing the rehabilitation process according to the programme. They assess the outcome and response to the rehabilitation programme and introduce modifications where required, preventing and managing critical situations, implementing targeted projects to handle critical situations, according to scientific evidence.

USE OF AIDS: this field concerns the ability to recognise the patient's communication resources, identify and select the aids suited to overcome the disability aiming to improve the quality of life, train users and their families in the best use, verify their impact and use in ADL, programme the outcome and responses to the intervention.

THERAPEUTIC EDUCATION: speech therapists must be able to implement therapeutic education programmes, establishing a support relationship to assist the patient, define an efficient and effective educational programme, educate the patients and their families to learn self-care and functional recovery skills, assess the educational needs of the patients and their families and monitor the effectiveness of the educational project.

MANAGEMENT: this includes the management of all (human and material) resources, information (general information on the users, cultural data) as well as the economic part. They require knowledge and skills in ethical conduct, legislation, management, social skills, interpersonal cooperation, networking, planning, organisation and definition of therapy programmes. The field focuses on all procedures and tools that allow future professional physiotherapists to organise their work as a whole, through the following actions: identifying the nature of the problem, analysing, choosing, interpreting and identifying the solution to problems, seeking external collaboration where necessary, recognising and respecting other roles and competencies, and interacting and collaborating within a multi-professional team, using general guidelines and protocols to standardise operating methods. In the management of clinical risk, they identify and underline difficulties. They are able to use information and computer systems to analyse data.

TRAINING/SELF-LEARNING: this is the context in which speech therapists learn, develop and consolidate their own cultural bases. This field includes the assessment of individual knowledge and competencies, referring to recognised and appropriate cultural, ethical and professional standards, in order to identify any training needs and contribute to the education of the healthcare staff. These professionals therefore hold responsibility for their own professional training and development, assessing their own level of professional competence in order to understand their own learning needs, planning and implementing self-learning initiatives.

COMMUNICATION AND PERSONAL RELATIONS: This area defines the relational basis on which the speech therapist practices professionally within rehabilitation, social and institutional spheres, using communication and relational skills with patients and families, through active listening and management and relational dynamics. This field also concerns the interaction with other professionals, coordinators and tutors and with other healthcare workers.

This programme is available in Italian.