Speech and Language Therapy Placement

Hey there! 

I’m Esther, and I’m just finishing my third year at the University of Chester studying Single Honours English Language. For one of my modules at the end of my second year, I was given the opportunity to complete a 5-week placement offered by the Work-Based Learning (WBL) team. Although working full-time and writing an assignment at the same time was quite challenging, getting hands-on experience in a workplace was very beneficial (and experience is always great for the CV, too!). I was also able to develop my transferable skills, explore a possible future career, and enhance my employment prospects.

On the surface, my ongoing experience on this module presented quite a few challenges…throughout the year, I needed to attend online lectures, submit documents, and consider which placement opportunity I wanted to pursue before completing both the placement and the assignment simultaneously. Although the process was not always easy, I can now confidently say that the experience was worth all that time and hard work!

The WBL pathway I chose gave me the opportunity to source the placement myself, so I reached out to a family friend who used to work as a speech and language therapist (SaLT). It’s also important to mention here that I had absolutely no previous experience in speech and language therapy…I hadn’t even considered the field more generally before I started my placement, let alone as a potential career for myself! Because of my lack of experience and understanding, I learned a lot very quickly, discovering that speech and language therapy is a much more inspiring, creative, and diverse field than I realised!

The RCSLT (Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists) website summarises it in this way: “Speech and language therapy provides treatment, support and care for children and adults who have difficulties with communication, or with eating, drinking, and swallowing.” SaLTs can operate in a variety of different settings, including schools, communities, hospitals, nursing homes, and prisons. As a result, they often work in close partnership with parents, carers, and other professionals such as teachers, hospital staff, and other therapists.

Before I share more about my experience, I wanted to briefly introduce the wonderful company I completed my placement with! Liverpool Speech Therapy, which was started in 2017, is an independent speech and language therapy company working with children and young people from one to eighteen years of age. The company’s website states: “We are passionate about changing children’s lives and helping them to build communication skills to last a lifetime.” Although the team is small, the staff are skilled and extremely dedicated to their clients. During my time there, they also demonstrated passion for their work and for the company’s values, which was so inspiring to see!

Throughout my placement, I enjoyed a varied experience by getting involved with sessions for children and young people of different ages, primarily in various educational settings. I was also able to work with each member of the team individually, and they were just fantastic! They were so encouraging, supportive, and helpful, providing lots of opportunities for me to develop my knowledge of the field and learn more about the role of a SaLT. I can’t speak highly enough of how amazing they were in showing me their work and supporting me along the way.

Although my placement only lasted for a few weeks, I was able to witness many incredible achievements made by the children and young people…the sessions were highly rewarding, and I will not forget the wonderful memories I now have from seeing their progress and development during my placement.

Placement Highlights

Here are two of my most treasured moments from the experience…

My first special memory was from School B, with a pupil which I will call B. The school itself is a mainstream school, but it also offers specialised provision for children with Special Educational Needs (SEN). Throughout my placement, I visited School B on three occasions, and B was involved with several of the sessions I participated in, including a Phonological Awareness Group (PAG) and an Attention Autism group alongside individual sessions. B is seven years of age and has Down Syndrome, which has impacted significantly on her speech and language skills. As a result, she is largely non-verbal, and her limited speech can be difficult to understand at times. To help and support her development both at home and in school, B often uses a visual aid representing specific key words, such as “more”, “finish”, “again”, and “go” (shown below).

During the first PAG session, I was asked to support B with writing the letter ‘y’ in her exercise book. Initially, B seemed to find this quite difficult, so I used hand-over-hand prompting to support her with the task. I offered praise and encouragement to B with a thumbs up several times throughout the task, to which B would respond with a lovely big smile each time! While we were tracing one of the letter outlines, B held eye contact with me before leaning down and kissing my hand. As her speech skills still require further support and improvement, I interpreted this very sweet gesture as her way of showing her affection and appreciation. Such a precious moment, and a memory I will treasure forever!

My second special memory was also from School B, with a pupil which I will call H. She also has SEN, including learning disabilities and a severe visual impairment, and therefore requires specialised educational provision. Alongside B, H was also involved with several of the sessions I participated in, including the PAG and the Attention Autism group. H is five years of age and has significant speech and language needs. She is largely non-verbal and relies heavily on jargon (sounds made with intention) to express her feelings and needs to those around her.

Due to unforeseen circumstances, H was the only pupil who was able to attend our third and final PAG session. As this took place towards the end of my placement, I was given the opportunity to lead the first half of the session with support from a SaLT, including leading an introductory song, conducting a phonics sound bag activity illustrating different sounds and varying numbers of syllables using toys and everyday objects (e.g., “duck” = one syllable and the sound /d/), and reading a rhyming storybook. While I was reading the story to H, she suddenly became very still, sitting with her arms raised. I hesitated for a moment, but the SaLT quickly reassured me that she was really enjoying the book and encouraged me to continue reading. I felt incredibly privileged to have spent some one-on-one time with H, and to see her enjoying the story so much was very moving. Again, such a precious moment, and a memory I will treasure forever!

Unfortunately, I can’t share all my special moments here (as much as I wish I could!), but hopefully they offer a glimpse into the wonderful and rewarding experience I had on placement. Although it was completely new to me, the combination of learning about the field, seeing the amazing team in action, and meeting the wonderful children and seeing their incredible progress has led me to consider speech and language therapy as a potential career for the future. By stepping out of my comfort zone and trying something new, I have discovered a deeply rewarding and inspiring profession and seen it demonstrated in a dynamic and supportive working environment.

I am so grateful to Liverpool Speech Therapy and to the WBL team for giving me this amazing opportunity, and I would encourage anyone who is considering speech and language therapy to try gaining some experience and see where it takes you!

If you want to find out more about our BA in English Language course, which can be studied as a single honours degree or combined with a number of other subjects, why not attend one of our autumn Open Days? You can find out more about upcoming events here.