Abstract
This study examined the nature of the undergraduate curricula for Auditory Processing Disorders (APD) for communication pathologists (speech-language therapists and audiologists) within the South African context. An exploratory descriptive survey design was utilised. The respondents (N=9) were the authoritative voices in the area of APD, i.e. academics based at training institutions involved in the training of Speech-Language Therapists and Audiologists in the field of APD. They represented the five institutions providing training in APD at the time of data collection. A specifically designed questionnaire and the course descriptors and/or study guides were used to obtain information on the APD training programmes at each institution. A curriculum analysis framework was utilised to analyse the curricula (Jansen & Reddy, 1998). The study found no standard with regard to lecture and clinical time allocation. The time allocated to the theoretical training in APD across the training institutions varied significantly from 4 hours 30 minutes to 53 hours and that for clinical training varied from 7 to 48 hours. However, the results showed that the curricula offered in APD at all training institutions compared favourably with international trends. Information was not forthcoming on how the South African social and contextual issues were incorporated into training in APD.
Highlights
There has been rapid transformation in the education and train ing of speech-language therapists and audiologists in the past nine years
The main aim of the study was to investigate the nature of the undergraduate curriculum for Auditory Processing Disorders (APD) for Communication pathologists (Speech-language Therapists and Audiologists) within the South African con text.The following sub aims delineate the means by which the primary aim of the study was realised
Nature of undergraduate APD curricula offered at South African Training institutions The results that follow answer the first sub aim of the study, i.e. to determine the nature o f existing undergraduate APD cur ricula offered by tertiary institutions training communication pathologists in South Africa
Summary
There has been rapid transformation in the education and train ing of speech-language therapists and audiologists in the past nine years. This commenced in 1996, when representatives from the universities training programmes met to discuss the development of Speech-language Therapy and Audiology training programmes (Hugo, 1998). Linked to transformation in higher education was the reality that as health care professionals, speech-language therapists and audiologists had to accept and acknowledge that they, too, had to be accountable to the post-apartheid society that they served, especially in terms of the country’s constitutional and legislative health aims in addressing demographic inequal ity (Kathard, 1999)
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