Revista de Saúde Pública (Jun 1992)
Fonoaudiologia em saúde pública Phonoaudiology (speech therapy) in public health
Abstract
Objetivou-se obter o entendimento das funções do fonoaudiólogo enquanto profissional da saúde. Discutem-se as dificuldades ligadas à implantação de um serviço novo, estranho às Unidades Básicas de Saúde. A seguir, analisa-se a demanda pelo serviço de Fonoaudiologia em postos de saúde, e verifica-se que 32% da população que busca esse serviço está em idade escolar e vem encaminhada pelas escolas, com queixa de problemas de aprendizagem. Uma aproximação maior dessas crianças, através do atendimento fonoaudiológico, delineia uma outra realidade: a de que não se pode considerar como distúrbio/desvio/problema/patologia marcas gráficas que se constituem como indícios do choque entre o processo de letramento e o de alfabetização. Entendendo a problemática do ponto de vista da saúde pública, propõe-se um programa de atendimento ao professor, cujo objetivo é o esclarecimento da escola com relação ao seu papel de co-construtora do processo de letramento da criança, devolvendo-lhe a responsabilidade pelo sucesso e/ou fracasso da alfabetização.An undestanding of the activities and functions of a speech therapist within the specific context of the Basic Health Units (Unidades Básicas de Saúde) is sought. Difficulties relating to the introduction of a new service on the basis of one of the health professions that has not hitherto belonged to the group of categories which are traditionally incorporated in these same Basic Units. When the statistical data on the demand for speech therapy services by the population who attend health centres were considered, it was discovered that 32% were of schooling age and had been referred by schools, allegedly due to "learning problems". Closer contact with these children, through speech therapy, has brought a different aspect to light i.e. that one cannot consider as disturbance/deviation/problem/pathology written signs which constitute indications of the shock between the process of literacy and that of learning how to read and write. To understand the problem from the point of view of public health, a programme of teacher counselling is proposed, with the purpose of helping the school to clarify its role as co-constructor of the child's literacy process and of returning to the teacher the responsibility for the success and/or failure of teaching how to read and write. A similar programme is proposed for creches where coincidently, a greter proportion (44%) of the younger children (2 to 5 years of age) are seen to have difficulties in oral language development. Both programmes are based on the view of language as a constructor of processes of subjetivism and objectivism, and therefore the oral (and written) discoursive practices are the privileged "locus" for interpreting oral and graphic signs and their transformation into the symbolic realm.
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