KEY POINTS:
Name: Anita Hurburun
Age: 43
Role: Speech language and hearing therapist at Sir Keith Park School in Mangere.
Working hours: 40-hour week plus Saturday 9am to 1pm.
Average salary: $40,000-$80,000 pa, dependent on skill, experience and region. Full-time private practice earnings will be higher.
Qualifications and institution: Bachelor of Speech and Hearing Therapy and Bachelor of Social Science (South Africa). Studying towards Master of Philosophy, AUT.
Describe what you do.
Sir Keith Park School is a school of around 100 children with special needs. I am the only speech language therapist and work alongside teachers, physiotherapists and occupational therapists.
I work with children aged 5 to 21 years with articulation, phonological, autism, delayed language, auditory processing difficulties and swallowing difficulties.
At school I do assessments, intervention and therapy programmes, such as intensive interactive story telling and mouth gym for smell and taste. In addition I refer to hospitals for swallow studies (videoflorescopic studies), contact dietitians particularly for children who are PEG-fed (percutaneous endoscopic gastrostomy) and have contact with other health professionals. I organise family meetings, teacher training, collaborative team meetings and case discussions. I also arrange annual audiology assessments and supervise students doing clinical training blocks at school.
And in your private practice?
At the Speech Language Centre, I do a range of work with adults and children including helping with autism and Asperger's, delayed language and auditory processing.
I work with a lot of foreign adults and children helping with accent reduction and articulation.
I also run social skills groups for children with autism and Asperger's.
Your history?
The degree I did in South Africa prepared me for speech therapy and audiology. After graduating, I worked for nine years in a hospital, spending half the day in speech therapy and half in an audiology clinic. Work ranged from screening a newborn child's hearing to working with an elderly client with Parkinson's disease.
When we came to New Zealand in 2000, I concentrated on speech-language therapy. I worked in health, education, ACC and as a clinical tutor at Auckland University.
Four years ago, I started at Sir Keith Park School and I love it. I have also established a private practice called The Speech Language Centre, and run a social skills group at Autism House. I've been a speech-language therapist for 16 years.
What sort of training do you need?
New Zealand requires speech-language therapists to have a four-year degree. Massey University and Canterbury University offer four-year professional bachelor degrees in speech and language therapy with Master's options. Auckland University has two Master's programmes.
You must have a desire to keep learning to stay up to date. I've also done training in PECS (Picture Exchange Communication System), MOVE (Mobility Opportunities Via Education) and Tomatis Listening Therapy.
What skills or qualities do you need?
Patience, tolerance, motivation, creativity, playfulness and empathy. You need to be a team player with good time management and good listening and communication skills. You have to be able to empower your clients. In my private practice, my motto is "helping you to help yourself".
Best part of the job?
It still gives me immense satisfaction when I manage to make a small difference in a person's life, especially a child's. For example, a little non-verbal child I'm working with spontaneously uttered the word "up" in context after three sessions. That was a huge breakthrough for him and his parents.
Most challenging part?
Children who are unable to communicate display their frustration through adverse behaviours. You need to be skilled to address this.
Overall the hardest part is if a child I am working with dies. It is something you can never prepare yourself for.
Interesting projects?
In my Master's research, I'm looking at the best way to examine the acquisition of English in refugee and migrant children within New Zealand schools. I'm currently writing my study up.
Advice to others interested in this field?
There is a shortage the world over for speech language therapists. In New Zealand, there is one speech language therapist for every 953 New Zealanders with a communication or swallowing disorder.#But before entering study, I believe it is vital to organise an observation visit to a speech language therapist and to ask yourself: "Do I want to be doing this every day?"
Where would you like to be in five years?
I love school so I'll probably still be here but, hopefully, doing more private work. I want to complete my PhD and I definitely want to explore listening therapy more, particularly the effect it may have on children learning English as a second language.
It also helps adults fight depression, learn languages faster, develop communication skills and improve creativity.
