The Dialogical Approach in Speech and Language Therapy

The objective of this paper is to propose an alternative approach to language delay in speech and language therapy that differs from those defended by traditional speech and language therapy with respect to the following points. First of all, the therapist is seen as a practitioner whose own language in therapy will structure the language of the client – the subject of therapy. Second, language therapy focuses its investigation on the dyadic interaction caused by the therapy and conceived as the privileged place for (re) constructing oral and written language. Third, therapy attempts to understand language deviations – the “pathology” – by means of language itself, without resorting to other domains which end up by removing the specificity of the object of therapy. The dialogical approach in speech and language therapy allows the constitution of a new dimension of the therapy, of the speech and language therapist and of the “patient”, granting speech and language therapy the constitution of its own object of study.