Speech And Language

[Guest]

Hi All

 

I'm new to this website, but its fantastic. I'm working with a statemented child 15 hours a week for speech and language. I have just been offered another 10 hours with another child. I am about to come to the end of my NVQ 3 in Early years and just wondered if anybody could tell me of how to progress to specialise in speech and language therapy. I'm based in staffordhire and the only courses I can find are london. any help or advice would be gratefully appreciated..

 

mand

[AnonyMouse_3139]

Hi mandi, presumably you've tried the local early years partnership for courses? How about your area SENCO? It's not an area I'm familiar with though as a specialist training programme.

I can point you to a site for ideas to use but thats as far as I can help I'm afraid.

speech teach

[AnonyMouse_79]

Hi Mandi and welcome!

Sorry I cant help you with your request, I guess you need to express an interest in your school and watch out for INSET.

www.talkingpoint.org.uk might be of interest.

[AnonyMouse_64]

Hi Mandi,

I'm afraid I can't help with this query either but just wanted to welcome you to the site.

[Guest]

welocome and likewise i am unable to help other than what the others have suggested. I do know however that there always seems to be a shortage of speech and language therapists so it would be a good route to go down although i think the training is fairly long but obviously worthwhile - so good luck.

Nikki

[Guest]

Hi Mandi - I do know there ARE places other than London, one of the speech therapists who worked at our nursery trained somewhere in the north of England, - infact if you use Google there are 16 universities around the country. Good Luck, I do know the course is very intensive.

[AnonyMouse_73]

Hi mandi and welcome

I see you are Staffs somewhere so it may not be a too far for you but Bimringham University do a range of modules on speacial needs including speech and language. These can be used to count towards a degree if that is the way you want to go. It may also be possible to do the coruse by distance. You can have a read of teh info

here

 

then go to programme and courses

[Guest]

Hi mandi,

I also support a child with speech and language. it is difficult to find further training .

although i'm starting a course on Tuesday which is a foundation speech and language course which is free , will let you know what it's like.

I also recomend learning makaton i really enjoy that.

There is a shortage of speech therapist,l find ours not much help at all although a nice person!

I would be really intrested to hear of any excersises eg Mr tongue that you use or any games ,stratergies etc that you have found helpful.

maddy.

[Guest]

Hello Mandi (and welcome)

 

SPEECH and LANGUAGE - very close to my heart (more about that later).

 

I've just (a month ago) completed a short course in S&L. Some bits were useful. My setting has just started using a simple form of pecs with an ASD child - so it was a useful revision exercise.

 

S&L therapists seem to be a bit thin on the ground - except for children with defined (and statemented!) SEN. There are some useful websites for parents and professionals. For example, take a look at:

 

http://www.talkingpoint.org.uk/info

 

http://www.ican.org.uk

 

 

Sorry, I can't seem to put these in as links!

 

Although "speech and language" is always generic - please try to separate them. Not all children with language problems have speech problems (ASD children are a prime example). Similarly, children with speech problems do not always have language difficulties. As an example, a child with an uncorrected physical defect that impairs his/her speech does not require the same level of help with language. That having been said, we all know that speech and language go hand-in-hand - some children may need help to progress in both (even if verbal speech is impossible).

 

I have first-hand experience of speech problems with no associated language difficulties (my youngest child, now about to be 11). When she was 18 months old, I knew she had problems vocalising. HV was first port of call, then GP, then referrals (S&LT, CDC, plastic surgeon). And, ultimately, when the was 3 yrs old, back to the CDC who told me I was the "over-anxious-mother". But I knew otherwise. Everyone (S&LT, pre-school, relatives) was happy. But not me and my GP. After almost two "wasted" years, my GP pulled strings and S&L therapy restarted. A year later, the therapist left post. My child saw a couple of locums! Then - the new permanent S&L therapist saw her (aged 6) and said: "she needs more than I can give". Re-referral ensued. My child was seen by specialist speech therapists (CDC and "cleft palate"). Within a couple of weeks, she saw the plastic surgeon, and she was booked for re-constructive surgery (a "pharyngoplasty") a month later. All well and good. She had it done. It had made a huge difference - she no longer "winced" everytime she spoke - her self-confidence grew immensely! Six months later, she had a "cursory" follow-up at plastics clinic and was "discharged" (we didn't see the surgeon). I pushed for speech therapy to restart (remember - I'm the over-anxious mother). The therapist persisted for 18 months, with all three of us rejoicing in snippets of progress! Then ...... therapist moved on ..... nothing more. A series of locums, nothing consistent. My child was nearly 10, not confident that she could be understood by anyone who didn't know her well. And then, another gem of a S&L therapist was appointed. She saw my daughter. She promised ....... that she could solve all the problems. Two weeks' later, she changed her mind. No - I'm not rgretting that - I thank her! Back into re-re-re-referrals! Specialist speech therapists! Plastic surgeon! Why such a wait again? Because no child (with or without problems) fits the template!

 

She is due to have more surgery in July! Before secondary school, thank heavens!

 

Just, please, everyone, learn from this! My daughter was "no problem" when she was aged 2-5yrs. She was complaint. She understood everything that was said to her. She did talk - but only if she was fairly certain that she would be understood. I did tell everyone "it's not shyness - it's more than that". The lessons I learnt were: parents know most (and it wasn't instant learning on that one) and, if in doubt, be persistent (outside agencies are there to support parents and professionals, even if we feel we could be "time-wasters").

 

I have a wealth of information about physical speech problems (I researched all avenues when my daughter was aged 18m to 6yrs: I borrowed text books from special needs teachers, I used all sorts of diagnostic tools). I excluded cognitive problems very early on, but could not define specific physical problems from what I used. But, subsequently, I know a lot about cleft palate and its prognosis (even though my child did not have cleft palate - this was the closest diagnosis to her congenital defect).

 

Diane

[Guest]

hey mandi

Can't offer you any advice about courses but hope you find what your looking for. The educational system is so deperate for ST's. My child has severe speech and language problems and despite the fact that he has had a statement since the end of pre-school doesn't mean he is seen regularly by a ST. In fact it took three terms before he was seen after he had started school, and then it has been a different person each time and a constant battle to get them in at all. Absolutley no continuity whatsoever. He has come a long way since starting school two years ago, but that's mainly becasue of his wonderful teachers and 1:1.

So I say go for it and best of luck!

 

http://www.speech-therapy.org.uk/

http://www.afasic.org.uk/

http://www.hanen.org/

 

Regards

[Guest]

Thinking outside the box for a minute - last week I attended a course in Shropshire LEA with teh backing of the SEN advisory team, for the 'Salley' system - Structured Activities for Language and Literacy in the Early Years'. Its a highly structured but fantastic scheme where you can work with 1-6 children for no more than 20 mins per day and deliver the carefully structured material. It says Early Years but it also works extremely well as an early intervention method in schools and can help in the early diagnosis of dyslexia. I was given a pack (RRP £100) which included photocopiable materials 'Salley' the squirrel handpuppet and the hand book plus video and audio tape and a book full of background info and research. It was very successfully trialed in Sandwell in the W. Mids.

 

Its well worth a look and I know its being adopted by schools and settings around Shropshire. Produced by

The Questions Publishing Company Ltd

321 Bradford St, Birmingham B5 6 ET

0121 666 7878

[AnonyMouse_1208]

I work in Sandwell, and we use SALLEY in our Nursery - it works really well for behaviour too - emphasis on good sitting/listening etc.

[Guest]

Dear Diane

After reading your post I felt really angry. Why is it - we have SEN (although I recognise that it was not specifically a SEN problem) drummed down into us at every opportunity and yet when people are recognised as needing some additional help/care/support they can't b...y well get it. My eldest is highly dyslexic - something I have known about since he was quite young and yet no matter how hard the schools tried, how many ed psychs we saw - the answer was that "he was coping" or more to the point they couldn't cope with him financially as there is just not enough money - children fall through the system constantly and I welcome the initiatives of trying to get the system whereby there is continuity - will it ever happen - I am not so sure. As you probably went through it's hard battling the system when it is so close to home and emotive - I spent much of the time in tears at the various meetings trying to get them to understand how this affects his everyday life and then ended up not getting what i wanted, because they too thought I was an over protective parent and his needs were not that great.

 

One of my staff has an autistic child who spends a lot of time attending meetings where the social worker doesn't bother to turn up - everyone else present - meeting cannot take place without the social worker when decisions have to be made about his future schooling. Everyone in agreement that he now needs a special unit but without everyone attending the same meeting at the sametime - full written agreement cannot be made. I think this has been going on for 7 months now and he has to move from his current unit as it is not secure enough. All that wasted time and money they are always stalling in the hope that the problem might go away inevitably it does not - it just compounds.

 

So Diane I hope that things will go well for you all - it's seems you have had such a long hard battle to get anything done and you have perservered when you shouldn't have had to. Will think of you all in July - all the best

Nikki

[AnonyMouse_2732]

Nikki,

 

Sympathies. My son, despite my protestations, managed to slip through the net till 13 years of age, when a wonderful LSA recognised that this 'behind' child was actually dyslexic. Again, it was finances that stopped appropriate help!

 

He is now 22 and a highly successful Theatrical Technician, specialising in Lighting and Sound, aiming at becoming a Lighting Designer.

 

Not much help, I suppose, just saying what can be achieved even without support!! (Apart from parents!! )

 

Sue

[Guest]

Hi Mandy,

I'm assuming you have already thought about doing SALT training through a university degree, but if you didn't want to do and want to work alongside therapists you might consider becoming a speech and language therapy technician, locally this involves working alongside a therapist until she feels that you are competent enough to work unaided (the therapist plans the programme and the technician implements them). They might work in the clininc setting or visiting homes.

Hope you are successful.

L

[Guest]

Hi there!

I have just completed a course called Elklan

www.elklan.co.uk

 

It is specifically aimed at Early years and I found it really useful. I was doing linguistics as part of my degree with a view to training as a therapist but we decided to move and I then couldn't find further training out of London either!

Due to my linguistics knowledge, I found this Elklan course really easy to do assignmentwise but the suggested activities and so on were very helpful to me as my Uni stuff was more theory than pratical if you see what I mean.

 

Through doing the course I am going for an interview next week as a S+L therpay assistant which I'm hoping (If I get it of course!) might lead to further training and a 'foot in the door'

Good luck to you in finding a suitable course - they do seem to be thin on the ground!

[Guest]

awwwwwwwww I didn't get the job

[AnonyMouse_1999]

Sorry to hear of your disappointment but hey! it's their loss and I am sure the right job for you is waiting just around the corner.

 

Chin up, as they say

[Guest]

Aw thanks Geraldine!

I was disappointed in one way but in another it does free me up to spend more time at the preschool...