Challenges to Logopedics and Speech-Language Therapy in Finland

KAISA LAUNONEN and ANU KLIPPI

Finland: Special Characteristics

Finland is located in the northeast corner of Europe and is a part of the European Union. Culturally, it is situated between the Eastern influence of Russia and the Western influence of Scandinavia, especially of Sweden. Until 1809, Finland was part of Sweden and, after that, part of the Russian Empire for a little more than a hundred years. Therefore, Swedish and later Russian were the languages of administration before Finland gained its independence in 1917. Today, Finland is officially a bilingual country, the official languages being Finnish and Swedish. The population is predominantly Finnish-speaking, with a 6% minority speaking Swedish. The rights of people speaking Sami (a language spoken by some 30,000–50,000 people in Lapland, in the northern parts of Finland, Norway and Sweden), to use and develop their mother tongue, is guaranteed by law. Furthermore, the number of Russian-speaking people in Finland has been growing since the 1990s, as well as other minority language groups, such as Estonian, Somali and English. However, Finland has been, until quite recently, culturally a very homogeneous society and proud of its unique culture and special role at the frontier between Eastern and Western Europe. As part of the European Union, and along with the increasing mobility of people, internationalisation and multiculturalism are now rapidly increasing in Finland. The change from a monocultural to a multicultural and multilingual society is a big challenge in modern Finland (see also Bornman & Launonen, 2005).

Modern Finland can be defined as an education society, and it is well known for its high level of education. In the PISA comparisons (Programme for International Student Assessment) between 28 OECD countries, the skills of Finnish 15-year-old students were ranked highest in literacy (in 2000) and in mathematics (in 2003). The official age to start school is seven years, but all children are entitled to one year of pre-school, which most children also attend. The nine-year comprehensive school is free of charge. Of each cohort, 56% continue to three-year upper secondary school, and 35% to vocational schools. The network of higher education is dense, and 64% of each cohort begin university every year. Men and women receive equal education, and the proportion of women beginning university is higher than men. Furthermore, the principles of the Nordic welfare society ensure that the needs of special groups are met. Children with disabilities start school one year earlier than other children, and they study according to an individual curriculum, planned in collaboration with their parents, teachers and other significant professionals. Most children with special needs are integrated in mainstream schools, either individually with their peers, or as groups in special classes. Some special schools still exist for children with severe motor or sensory impairments.

In addition to the high quality of public education, another characteristic feature of Finnish society is the social and health care system maintained by the government. Finland has municipal public day-care, which most families use, at least during the pre-school year of their children. Finnish maternity and child welfare clinics are highly regarded, and take care of women during their pregnancy and administer children's annual health check-ups before school age (at school age they are administered by school health care, which is also part of municipal health care). As part of the annual health check-ups, the speech and language skills of children are screened by educated nurses, with screening tools developed by speech and language therapists. If needed, the child is referred for a thorough speech and language assessment by a speech and language therapist. Concerns expressed by parents or day care personnel are also sufficient cause for referral to a speech and language therapist for evaluation. These services are free of charge for the families, as is also intervention, when the need is determined by a speech and language therapist and confirmed by a physician. However, there are currently insufficient numbers of speech and language therapists to cover the need in Finland, which means that not all get the intervention they need, at a time when they would benefit from it the most.

The Development of Theory and Practice of Logopedics in Finland

The education of speech and language therapists in Finland was started at the University of Helsinki in the Department of Phonetics (since 2004 the Department of Speech Sciences) in 1947. In the early years, the education led to a Bachelor's degree, and after graduating, students had six months of clinical studies and practical, training mainly in hospitals or rehabilitation centres. During the 1970s, the clinical studies were organised more systematically and graduates in speech and language therapy, with a B.A. degree from the Faculty of Arts, attended a nine-month clinical course organised by the Ministry of Health. In 1980, the education programme was completely reorganised. All the students in speech and language therapy took a Master's degree in logopedics, which included the clinical training (Klippi & Korpijaakko-Huuhka, 1998). This structure is mainly valid still today, even though all the university programmes and degrees were reformed in 2005, as part of the joint European improvement of higher education (Bologna process;...