Tell me and I will forget.

Tell me and I will forget.

Show me and I will remember.

Involve me and I will understand forever.

                                                                       (Confucius)

Tell me and I will forget. During my 9-week internship at the Tutoris OY I heard a lot of things about patient treatments, therapy methods and process. Things, I have somehow heard about already during my studies in Germany. All of it really interesting and worth knowing! But still it was not accessible until I experienced it myself.

Show me and I will remember. I got the chance to follow two really kind and open-minded speech and language therapists. Be it in Kokkola, Kaustinen, Perho or Pietasaari, I got to know many patients with different impairments and therefore various needs. In every single therapy-session I learned that patients need to be treated individually since all of them have their own wishes and ideas for their therapy. Especially children have a mind of one’s own. Therefore it is vital to bear in mind that every single one needs individual treatment. One needs a lot of variety in exercises meanwhile another one takes everything as it comes patiently.

The patient treatment and also therapy methods became more clear and I understood the idea of learning it at school. Motivation is a great feed in that context. It is important to maintain the patient’s motivation. Speech and language therapists are not some kind of entertainers, but they should be able to show the importance of language in a human beings life and motivate their patients to (re)learn its utilization. For me it is obvious now: Don’t stop to communicate, even though you don’t get any feedback; try to arouse interest in speech and language!

Involve me and I will understand forever. I became aware of this after running therapy sessions on my own. I figured out my own reaction and behavior towards patients with individual needs and wishes. What can I say and do when the patient is not willed to do anything; what is my own personality as a speech and language therapist!? It was definitely not always easy to be convincing and to stay strong in the role of the therapist. But my tutors support and their offer to plan, prepare and run therapy sessions encouraged me to learn about my therapist-personality. I got involved and throughout this I learned the most and I will definitely benefit from it!

Thank you, TUTORIS, for the great support during my internship, your patience and the effort! My time in Finland was an unforgettable life experience!

-Charlotte