To practice audiology, professionals need to have either Bachelors/Masters
degree in Audiology and be registered with Indian Speech and Hearing Association
(ISHA) or Rehabilitation Council of India (RCI).
For undergraduate courses the applicants should have passed the pre-university
course or 10+2 from a recognised institution with science subjects - Biology,
Physics, Chemistry, Mathematics. The duration for an undergraduate course
is 3 to 4 years. The various universities may grant admissions either
on the basis of marks of the 10+2 course or they may conduct specific
entrance tests to gauge the merit and aptitude of the aspirants.
Admission to the 2 year post graduate courses requires a graduation in
speech language pathology and audiology. Besides the undergraduate/ post
graduate courses, several institutes offer diploma courses of varying
durations.
Course Areas : University courses in speech language
pathology and audiology include acoustics, anatomy, assessment, counseling,
hearing disorders, hearing aids, language development and disorders, linguistics,
neurology and neurophysiology, nonvocal communication, parent training,
psychology, phonetics, speech disorders, statistics, stuttering, voice
and voice disorders, and a variety of specific areas (e.g., autism). The
courses and clinical practice cover the development, disorders, and the
training or retraining of human communication in all its aspects.
Personal Skills: The job is not physically demanding
but is emotionally demanding. The professionals must be able to approach
problems objectively and provide support to patients and their families.
Because a patient’s progress may be slow, patience, compassion, and good
listening skills are necessary. They must have exceptional skills in observation,
concentration, and record keeping. Audiologists should be able to effectively
communicate diagnostic test results, interpretation, and proposed treatment
in a manner easily understood by their patients, relatives and other staff.
