The Contribution of School Counseling as a Language Therapy

Abstract

Counseling being a process with a programed, goal oriented discussion helps the client to empower his life. Currently School Counseling has become an integral part of the education system in many countries. School Counselors being sensitive to individual differences attempt to make learning a positive experience for every student and further to facilitate the communication among teachers, parents, administrators, and the students. Thus this research mainly focuses on exploring the role played by the School Counselor as a Language Therapist in uplifting the student education. Further, the study attempts to identify the School Counselor‟s contribution in improving the mental well-being of the student which has a direct impact on their education. Conducting this study the researcher has mainly focused on symbolic interactionism perspective to understand this complex situation and Sigmund Freud's iceberg theory model has been used to identify the state of mind. The data necessary were gathered through semi-structured interviews where three samples including three School Counselors, thirty teachers, the students and professional counselors were interviewed. The findings of this research reveal that there are no qualified School Counselors in government schools but just the teachers with diplomas in counseling or the teachers with no good awareness on School Counseling and a proper training or evaluation etc. Further it was revealed that the majority of the School Counselors who serve the primary schools as well as the secondary schools have to work with the students who are incompetent in their language skills; reading, writing, speaking and hearing. However the professional counselors shared the view point that a School Counselor is committed to be an aid to the students with language difficulties in enhancing their language skills.