Trends in Speech and Language Rehabilitation in Iran

This paper is a short review on the Jann and content of speech and language rehabilitation services and the trend of their institutionalization in Iran. A summary of formal education in speech and language therapy in Iran as originated by establishing a 4 year BS rehabilitation program in the College of Rehabilitation Sciences in Tehran in 1974 is given. Since then, speech and language Rehabilitation programs have been expanding both in size and quality, resulting in about 1200 speech therapists practicing in hospitals and rehabilitation centers throughout the counfly. The expansion of the first BS program, into 5 different graduate prgranis at MS Level in different universitties and a prospective PhD Program starting as of next year are also adding to the quality of these services. A summary of the content of the theory courses and clinical practice courses as well as research on assessment and diagnostic tools of specific Speech and language impairments and cross linguistic studies are briefly described.