“Speech therapy is not just about rustling and clattering.”
Jozef Baláž
Nowadays, many of us use the well-known slogan “age is just a number,” and in the case of PhDr. Jozef Baláž, this was true at least twice. We met several times, whether our steps led to conferences focusing on the life and work of Viliam Gaň or we arranged a working meeting in his native Potvorice or Trenčín.
Behind the 9 crosses on his back, many would look for an old man dozing in a rocking chair. The opposite was true. Dr. Jozef Baláž still worked several hours a week at the Trenčín Hospital, and from spring to autumn, he reigned over his huge garden, in which I could hardly open my eyes. Raspberries, currants, strawberries, apricots…. just everything. Fragrant, green, fresh, tasty…
I was always amazed by his fresh mind, information with specific years, names, or cities of events that he always talked about. I am not exaggerating. PhDr. Jozef Baláž was a small walking encyclopedia, at least when it came to speech therapy, the activities of the Society for Special and Therapeutic Education, the establishment of our museum in Levoča, or the rescue of documentation, which he managed to load into a truck before being shredded, and took from Bratislava to Potvorice. This was followed by many years of sorting materials and their regular sending to Levoča. In recent years, I have managed to convince Dr. Baláž to make one-off deliveries of documentary materials in my car from Potvorice to Levoča.
He lived an incredible, full 93 years and certainly 60 of them in the closest connection with speech therapy, special pedagogy, and the deaf.
I did not have time to interview Mr. Baláž completely and learn everything about his life stages or vicissitudes, but I got to know a man who saved rare documents, magazines, and books about the activities of some special schools in Slovakia from the 20th century. He donated a huge amount of documentation to the museum, correspondence of famous special educators, school principals communicating with superiors, the Pedagogical Research Institute, the Education and Enlightenment Commission, etc. His collection includes editions of annual reports of provincial associations in Slovakia, professional literature by Viliam Gaň, Vladimír Predmerský, historical editions of periodicals such as Czechoslovak Psychology, Unified School, Issues of Defectology, Special School, Correctional Education, Auxiliary Education, Efeta, and others. This is just a brief mention of the titles that Dr. Jozef Baláž donated to the Museum of Special Education in Levoča. The museum’s special-pedagogical library also contains a title by Jozef Baláž, Interpersonal Communication and Its Disorders, published by the Slovak Pedagogical Publishing House in 1988. In it, the author and his team discuss communication as a life principle, interpersonal communication and its disorders in early childhood, learning disorders and emotional problems, the peculiarities of social communication of delinquents, medical aspects of speech disorders, reflexotherapy (treatment by touch), stuttering, chirography (sign language), speech development, etc.
Jozef Baláž was born on October 8, 1931, in Potvorice near Trenčín, where he spent not only his childhood but also his youth. Since 1960, he has worked as a head speech therapist in the speech therapy section of the ear and throat department of the District Institute of National Health (OÚNZ) in Trenčín. In addition, he taught externally at the Special Boarding School (OŠI) in Trenčín and also at the Faculty of Education of Comenius University in Trnava. He was fully involved in field speech therapy care, when he organized training courses for so-called speech therapy assistants, summer courses for children with speech disorders, as well as speech therapy minimum courses for kindergarten teachers (to prevent speech disorders). As stated in the Yearbook of the scientific and professional journal on the comprehensive rehabilitation of people with disabilities called Efeta – otvor sa from 2006: “In cooperation with the Institute of Further Education of Doctors and Pharmacists in Prague and Bratislava, he developed methodological and time plans for further education of district and regional speech therapists. As part of his publishing activities, he focused on methodological materials and compiling proceedings from speech therapy conferences. He also contributed to professional and popular science journals, lectured at professional conferences and seminars, and developed a concept for cooperation between a speech therapist and a psychologist, a child psychiatrist, a phoniatrist, a school doctor, and a social worker. He was a member of the editorial board of the journal Zdravie. He is the author of several speech therapy aids used in the elimination of speech disorders.
He was the compiler and co-author of the publication Komunikačné problémy deti s s případych chybami (1980), as well as proceedings from conferences, and published in the journal Efeta.
As a co-founder of the SŠLV (May 25, 1969), I made a special contribution to the promotion of this organization not only at home, but also abroad (Hungary, Poland). From its inception until 2006, he was an active member of the society, holding important positions in it, such as a member of the presidency, vice-chairman and honorary chairman, chairman of the historical-documentation commission, and head of the speech therapy section at the Slovak Society of Speech Therapy. He organized 13 national speech therapy conferences with international participation, over 80 speech therapy seminars, general assemblies of the Slovak Society of Speech Therapy, etc. (Efeta – otvor sa, 2006, pp. 8-9).
Dr. Jozef Baláž was instrumental in the founding of other important societies, such as the Czech Speech Therapy Society, the Speech Therapy Section of the Slovak Medical Society, and also in the founding of the Slovak Association of the Hearing Impaired.
In 1987, during the national speech therapy conference in Trnava (October 23-24),
A public vote of thanks and an honorary award were presented to PhDr. Jozef Baláž
for his many years of dedicated work in the field of speech therapy in Slovakia.
Anna Borešová states: “In Dr. Jozef Baláž, we should particularly highlight his immense dedication to the issue of the disabled, his social sensitivity, willingness to help, and ability to empathize with the situation of people in need, which always characterized him as an exceptionally humane person.
Members of the SŠLV also like to remember his dedication to the founder of the Society for Special and Therapeutic Education, doc. Vladimír Predmerský, whom he accompanied with great respect and love at events, visited and informed about the activities and events at the SŠLV until his last days.” (Efeta – otvor sa, 2006, p. 13).
PhDr. Jozef Baláž was married and, together with his wife, raised two children, an older son, Peter, and a younger daughter, Eva.
On September 12, 2024, the heart of PhDr. Jozef Baláž beat, a heart that lived, helping all who needed it, the heart of a dedicated speech therapist. Rest in peace, Mr. Jozef Baláž!
Article from Efety 1992, Comprehensive rehabilitation for speech and hearing disorders:
Article from Efeta 2/1996, Pioneers of care for disabled people: Prof. MUDr. PhDr. Miloš Sovák, DrSc. founder of Czechoslovak speech therapy:
Author: Mgr. Štefania Petreková
Sources:
Borešová, Anna – Hučík, Ján: Personalities of Slovak special and therapeutic pedagogy. In: Efeta – open up. Yearbook of the scientific and professional journal on the comprehensive rehabilitation of people with disabilities. Martin: Osveta, 2007, p.52. ISBN 978-80-8063-246-5.
Borešová, Anna: PhDr. Jozef Baláž, honorary chairman of the Slovak Society of Physical Education – 75 years old. In: Efeta – open up, scientific and professional journal on the comprehensive rehabilitation of people with disabilities, No. 4, 2006, volume XVI., p. 13, ISSN 1335-1397.
Šimončičová, Mária: National logopedic conference in Trnava. In: Efeta – open up, a magazine for disabled people and those who want to help them, No. 2, 1998, volume VIII., p. 28, ISSN 1335-1397.
Photos from the archive of the Museum of Special Education in Levoča.