Julia Gerger
My intership in Johannesburg.
Name: Julia Gerger, BSc
Job description: Speech theramist
Company: Heila Jordaan, freelance speech therapist
Place: Johannesburg, South Africa
My contact: j.gerger@gmx.at
I did my internship from March to April 2010.
What I did
I observed Heila Jordaan, a freelance speech therapist, during her treatment sessions. This allowed me to get to know a different culture and logopedic approach. I also attended lectures at WITS University in Johannesburg.
Why I enjoyed my internship
I was able to get to know a South African speech therapist in person and exchange ideas with her. I also wrote my Bachelor’s thesis with the aid of WITS University online library and that was very helpful.
What I learned
- Group therapy for neurological speech problems
- Multilingualism in the treatment of neurological speech problems
My biggest success
During my internship, I wrote a Bachelor’s thesis I am really proud of.
How I secured the internship
I searched the internet for international speech therapy associations. As part of that, I came across the speech therapist Heila Jordaan, based in Johannesburg in South Africa, who is a member of the International Association of Logopedics and Phoniatrics (IALP). Thanks to the excellent international links of our programme head, Angelika Rother, I quickly established contact with Johannesburg. Professor Heila Jordaan is a speech therapist and Associate Professor at the University of Witwatersrand’s Department of Speech Pathology and Audiology in Johannesburg.
What I want to do in the future
I was really impressed by my internship and it expanded my horizons for my future in speech therapy work. The English-speaking world has different forms of treatment to here in Austria. It was an interesting and exciting time and has shaped my subsequent work.