I see working with adults as urgently needed.
Clinical speech therapist David Konopáč takes care of patients at the Adult Hospital. He considers his work to be both highly creative and extremely urgent. He is still amazed by how the brain communicates the world to us and what happens when one of its functions fails.
David Konopac (42 years old)
He has been working in Janské Lázně for seventeen years. He graduated from the Higher Vocational School of Pedagogy with a high school diploma, then joined the Special Pedagogical Center. After completing his concurrent studies in speech therapy, he moved to the spa as a speech therapist.
Michaela Sedlackova (28 years old)
She graduated from the Faculty of Education, Charles University in Prague, with a master's degree in Special Education. She is currently continuing her education in pre-certification preparation for clinical speech therapy. She worked in a special education center. She has been working in Janské Lázně for the third year.
Katerina Dankova (28 years old)
She came to the spa four years ago. She graduated with a master's degree
Special education - speech therapy at the Faculty of Education, University of Hradec Králové, recently completed pre-certification training in clinical speech therapy.
What difficulties do patients usually come to you with?
I usually treat patients after strokes or other brain injuries, who tend to have three of the most common disorders. Aphasia, which is a sudden loss of the ability to either understand and comprehend speech, or to express oneself fluently and meaningfully through speech. Dysarthria, which is a disorder of the movement of the speech organs that causes labored and unclear speech. And dysphagia, which is a swallowing disorder. I also deal with stuttering, voice disorders, facial nerve palsies and others. Pronunciation disorders are quite exceptional.
When an adult loses their speech, they are certainly in a difficult situation...
Not just adults, of course. Speech, and therefore communication, is what makes a person human. Sharing thoughts and emotions is the most important human ability. When I encounter cases where spoken communication is no longer possible, we look for alternative ways to convey information. Communication must never be given up.
How do you motivate and encourage your clients?
I don't theorize about it, I don't use tactics and strategies. I am natural, normal, relaxed, which I consider the best way to establish a confidential collaboration with the client.
Have you never wanted to do speech therapy for children?
You know, working with adults who have suddenly lost their speech seemed more urgently needed, more urgent, than working with children. And in order to make enough effort, I need to have a constant feeling that my work is necessary and useful. It is a diverse, varied job. And creative, which is what I enjoy about it.
But you are in contact with children professionally.
Yes, I am a professional guarantor for the Vesna Children's Hospital and it is a great pleasure for me. I have excellent and capable colleagues there. We exchange experiences, consult unusual clients. We manage to maintain close and mutually beneficial cooperation.
Let's go back to your field of work. In which fields does a clinical speech therapist need to have expertise?
It depends on where he works. If he works in a similar place as me, he should be familiar with special pedagogy: surdopedia, somatopedia, etopedia, psychopedia. He should have a general understanding of neurology, neuropsychology, phoniatrics and ENT. Ideally, he should also know something about psychology, physiotherapy, occupational therapy. Adults have a multitude of speech disorders and not only speech disorders, a large part of my work is, for example, swallowing disorders.
Is there anything else that surprises you after such a long practice?
I am amazed by the way the brain works and the way it conveys the world to us, how it makes us think and how it allows us to control our bodies. If there is a failure somewhere in this perfect system, it reveals bizarre insights behind the scenes, changes that are hard to believe. States of different perception, neglect, non-recognition and the like. Loss of abilities that are usually considered completely self-evident, fixed and unchangeable.
I can't help but ask: Do you suffer from professional deformation?
Strangely enough, I forgive adults for their speech impediments. In fact, my favorite singers include a number of slurred speech: Robert Křesťan, Vladimír Merta, Petr Linhart.
