Abstract:

This article presents the problems of developmental dyslexia from the perspective of logopedic education in Poland. In our country, logopedics has been developing dynamically and according to the European rules, the range of professional competences of the speech therapist has been determined as well as vocational specialities have been established (apart from specialising studies in logopedics, that is neurologopedics and surdologopedics, speech therapists and also other professionals interested in reading and writing problems have access to the studies in the area of reading and writing disorders for years.) At the time of changes, the subjects of the research have become: the problems of developmental dyslexia in teaching contents of logopedic education; students’ perception about the logopedics and the profession of a speech therapist also connected to the actions taken on persons suffering from reading and writing disorders; understanding the problems of developmental dyslexia on the basis of knowledge and experience of prospective speech therapists.

In order to recognize the problem, the following research methods were employed:
1/ the analysis of the documentation – the curriculum of the studies, teaching content and higher education outcomes of postgraduate studies in general logopedics at the Department of Logopedics and Applied Linguistics with the Logopedic Laboratory of Maria Curie-Skłodowska University in Lublin, which is the oldest centre for speech therapists’ education in Poland and currently the biggest research and educational institution;
2/ the survey about the needs and preferences of postgraduate students in general logopedics at Maria Curie-Skłodowska University in Lublin, conducted in the group of 50 students, considering the issues such as motivation to study logopedics, preferences of educational model, programme, place of employment, vocational speciality and projections of the possibility of being employed as a speech therapist;
3/ the survey about specific reading and writing disorders, conducted in the group of 25 students of the first year of postgraduate studies in general logopedics at Maria Curie-Skłodowska University in Lublin, in order to establish the level of knowledge about developmental dyslexia possessed by prospective speech therapists and their awareness of the problems facing children and adults suffering from dyslexia as well as of the needs of children with the risk of dyslexia.

The empirical studies that were conducted highlighted that the developmental dyslexia should be perceived in logopedic perspective as one of the linguistic communication disorders – written communication disorder that is frequently connected with speaking disorder. In terms of education, the interest in problems of written communication and its relationship with speaking disorders shall be increased among speech therapists.

Keywords:

Developmental dyslexia, logopedic education, speech therapists.