Sirpa Tarvainen is a speech and language therapist and a PhD candidate at the University of Helsinki. Her research focuses on the best ways to support children and adolescents with difficulties comprehending spoken language. She has worked as a speech and language therapist in the public and private sectors. In 2018–2020, Tarvainen was the chair of the Finnish Association of Speech and Language Therapists. Her company Taking Turns organises workshops for speech and language therapists based on her own and other recent studies to implement research results into practice.