Social representation of speech therapy in portuguese health professionals and non-health professionals

PURPOSE:to identify and analyse the dimensions of significance (or semantic universes) that organise the ideas, emotions and images of health and non health professionals in relation to speech therapy.METHODS:a qualitative and quantitative study of crossover design, using a sample of 166 individuals of both sexes: 40 (24.1%), speech therapists, 39 (23.5%), other health professionals and 87 (52.4) non-health professionals. (M= 36 years; ageRange =18-75 years). We used a visual analogue scale, a socio-demographic questionnaire and a structured interview script, based on free recall technique, order of recall and axiom of importance. The Theory of Social Representations and Central Nucleus Theory were used for the qualitative data analysis; the quantitative data analysis employed a Microsoft Excel database, SPSS 19.0 software for Windows: profile analysis using simple frequencies, averages and standard deviations, and organisation structures analysed by the four-house framework technique.RESULTS:830 recalls were obtained by the cue "speech therapy", which reproduced 495 registry units after the homogenisation and analysis of the terms recalled, and a 13-category representational system. The core representation is centred on communication skills, well-being, diagnosis and treatment of people with disease.CONCLUSION:communication was the most consensual semantic cognition for the social representation of speech therapy among professionals.