Brief History of SLP development
From the late 1960s, medical professionals in South Korea increased their awareness of assessment and treatment needs for individuals with speech and language problems in university hospitals. Speech therapy training began in 1969 at the Speech and Hearing Research Institute of the Department of Otolaryngology, Yonsei University Medical Center. Gloria Levin, a speech therapist and member of the U.S. Peace Corps, provided speech therapy and trained therapists at Severance Hospital and Seoul National University Hospital. Several speech and hearing clinics were opened including Seoul National University Hospital in 1971, Samyuk Rehabilitation Centre in 1974, St. Mary’s Hospital Rehabilitation Department in 1976, and Gwangju Christian Hospital in 1976. The Korean Red Cross also provided surgical repairs to children with cleft palate and set up speech therapy rooms for post-operative speech rehabilitation in the Seoul branch in 1979, Busan branch in 1981, and Gwangju branch in 1981. Until the mid-1980s, speech therapy courses were mainly offered within special education majors. Besides the Korean Red Cross, the Seoul Welfare Center for the Disabled provided monthly training for SLPs and caregiver education (KASA, 2016).
Education
The first official undergraduate program for speech therapy in Korea was established in 1988 at the Department of Speech Therapy at Daegu University in Daegu, Korea. Another concurrent training program was offered by Yonsei Medical Center beginning 1994. Soon after, in 1995, a third training program was established at the Department of Communication Disorders in the Graduate School of Ewha Woman’s University. Since 2000, the number of speech-language therapy programs has rapidly increased in South Korea with a total of 87 associate degrees, bachelor’s, master’s, and doctoral programs in SLP in more than 50 types of schools, including three-year community colleges, four-year universities, and graduate schools to date (Park et al., 2018). Out of the 87 programs, 75 offer speech-language therapy, 11 offer audiology, and one offers both majors.
In 2006, the Korean Council of Academic Programs on Communication Disorders (KoCAPCD) was established for speech and language rehabilitation-related departments specified in Article 72(2) of the Disability Welfare Act and Article 57(4) of the Enforcement Decree of the Disability Welfare Act. KoCAPCD aims to contribute to the development of speech and language therapy departments nationwide and train speech and language therapy professionals by improving research and teaching environments within speech and language therapy departments.
Licensure system
Until 2010, private or organization level certificates were issued in Korea until a desire to transition from private certificates to national certificates emerged (Kim, 2007). The Korean Speech-Language Pathology Association was launched to oversee national certification. In 2012 the National Qualification Law for Speech-Language Pathologists offered first- and second-level speech-language pathologist licenses through the national examination once a year. To obtain a second-level national certification for speech-language pathologists, applicants must complete 19 major subjects, conduct at least 30 hours of clinical observation, complete 90 hours of clinical diagnosis and speech rehabilitation practice at either community colleges, universities, or graduate schools with more than half of the total time spent on campus (Kim et al., 2018). To achieve the first-level national certification, three years of clinical experience for bachelor’s degree holders or one year of clinical experience for master’s degree holders is required. To maintain their speech therapist certification, professionals are required to complete eight hours of continuing education each year offered by the Korean Speech-Language Pathology Association (Park et al., 2018). This process has produced more than 1,000 speech-language pathologists annually and approximately more than 15,000 speech-language pathologists to date. In audiology, a private certificate is issued by the Korean Society of Audiologists. Undergraduate students majoring in audiology can take the audiologist certification examination if they have completed their third year or if they have completed their third semester of a master’s program. Individuals with a bachelor’s degree in audiology and at least six years of continuing education and 120 hours of continuing education, or a master’s or doctoral degree in audiology and at least three years of continuing education, are eligible to take the professional audiologist certification exam (Lee et al., 2017).