Women delivering speech and language therapy
Therapists in Greece and South Africa who help people with speech and swallowing issues.
It's been said that the Covid-19 lockdown had a devastating impact on children's speech development. But it also affected the support that older patients can get for their speech and swallowing problems. Beatriz de la Pava talks to speech therapists from Greece and South Africa about the work they do.
Emilia Michou is a speech and language therapist from Greece. She鈥檚 a clinical academic, spending half of her time with patients and half teaching at Patras University. Inspired to take up SLT because of the struggles she and her brother had communicating when they were children. She specialises in supporting people with degenerative conditions or after stroke and says there are an increasing number of ways in which speech therapists help people of all ages.
Dr Sadna Balton heads up the speech and audiology department at the Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital in Johannesburg, the largest hospital in Africa and third largest in the world. She鈥檚 a paediatric therapist working with babies to teenagers helping children with autism, down鈥檚 syndrome, cleft palate 鈥� and also training care-givers and parents in how to communicate with their child.
