The life of a fully qualified SLT

The life of a fully qualified SLT

Sunday 23 June 2013

Inspiring the young

Recently the SLT Society were asked to host a stall at "Children's University Family Learning Festival".  It was intended for Children between 7-14 years of age and their parents to learn about the University, what courses it offers and inspire career choices.  In fact, the turn out for the day even included much younger children and it was an opportunity to talk to both children and their parents.
 
 
 The SLT Society hosted a big stall, containing both communication and dysphagia aspects of the vocation.  For the Communication aspect, we had AAC - including Go Talk's, Big Buttons, Symbols and PECS.  We also had many posters about the impact of communication difficulties and the range of which SLTs work in, and many leaflets from the HELLO campaign.  Then there was a communication game for children and their parents to get involved in, the children were asked to say a sentence to their sibling, parent, or friend without speaking.  This brought on some giggles.  Some children even got involved in filling in a speech bubble with what they thought communication was and some extremely pictorial images of communication difficulties and how people communicate were drawn!
 
"What Is Communication?" A 6 year old's definition.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 




However, the dysphagia aspect of the stall got the most attention - though what 7 year old isn't tempted by chocolate mouse or digestive biscuits! We had a taste test, "which is the easiest to eat" game, and put out sliced banana, chocolate mouse and digestive biscuits.  Nearly all of the children were able to identify that the mouse was easiest! Then we discussed with them why we as SLTs were interested in eating, drinking and swallowing, and had lots of plastic models to demonstrate swallowing techniques.  We even had Videofluroscopy videos to teach the children and their parents how we investigate swallowing and show them where their food and drink goes! Then we had thickener, and created thickened water to stages 1, 2 and 3 consistency.  Many of the children wanted to try the thickened fluids, and big spoonful's of stage 3 were spooned into their mouths before contorted faces were pulled!

 
Overall, the children and their parents learnt a lot, many were intrigued in the job role and stated that they didn't know what SLTs did until the day, and many parents even recalled their children having SLT input.  It was also a great learning experience for us SLT Students, who developed our ability to talk about communication and dysphagia completely jargon free, a lesson in how to train people in our complex role in a simpler fashion.  We all learnt lots, enjoyed our time, and promoted the wonderful profession!
 
The highlight of the day was when one mother stated "I hope one of my children becomes a speech therapist after today" - Mission Complete!

Friday 14 June 2013

PODD: An Update!

Recently I was contacted and asked to distribute information about an upcoming PODD training session.  I have had some interest from viewers of my blog re:PODD since I wrote a blog post on my experience of it at the London Autism SIG, so I thought I would share the information about the next training day.
 
If anyone does go on the course, or if anyone reads this that is already booked on the course, I would love to hear about it, receive a review of the training, and hear the stories of you all implementing it across SLT.
 
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For all Speech & Language Therapists and those working with children/young people with Autisitc Spectrum Disorder:
 
Eagle House School, Mitcham, is running an Introductory Workshop to the PODD Communication System; 20-21st June (£250 for 2 days, includes lunch).  It is being run by Haylee Parfett, who is visiting from Australia.  (she was at Eagle House school for about 2 years, then she left, but she is coming back to do this training)As you know - PODD is a fantastic system being used across Eagle House Primary and Secondary schools with some amazing results - non verbal children learning to communicate using full length autonomous and functional sentences using the PODD (picture symbol) books.

There are still some spaces left - contact the Charlotte or Noora in the School Business Office on 084555 074 2972 if you or anyone you know would be interested! We have a flier with further details which we could send you by email. contact
admin@eaglehousegroup.co.uk

We appreciate that this is very short notice - but we wanted to let people know about the last few spaces left.
 

Tuesday 11 June 2013

How do we keep on top of it all?!

Lately I've been distant from the blogging scene and the Twitter scene, and I wish I could say it was through no fault of my own, but things have just gotten very hectic!
 
Any qualified SLT knows what the last few months of their degree are like.. Writing the research proposal, being on a block placement, applying for jobs and then preparing for interviews offered (not that I am complaining about the interview part!) and keeping on top of other coursework/timetable demands.  Turns out my quote that I wrote in my guest blog on Smart Talkers for Libby was true... I am well and truly a Swan. So calm and graceful in the face of it all, yet paddling like mad underneath. Whilst I am able to keep a balance of all my coursework, research proposal, placement and job applications... I am disappointed that my blog and twitter have come 2nd best to all of this, and the reason why I'm disappointed is that it is my contact with other SLTs for some much needed empathy, and also my wide source of evidence base.  I recently looked through past tweets from some of my favourite SLT tweeters, and found I had missed so many news articles and recent research. 
 
This has really changed my view on how I promote Twitter and Blogging to SLTs, as many of you know that I like to promote SLTs using it.  However, when demands are high on a daily basis I wonder how easy it is.  Even I who love Twitter and Blogging have neglected it. 
 
So I have decided that at least once a week during this busy time I will log on to twitter, for 30 minutes maximum and search #slpeeps and #slt2b and #slp2b hashtags, identify any key links to news, blogs, or research. That will be my put-a-side dedicated online CPD time and I will make sure I squeeze this in, even if it's whilst I eat breakfast...
 
Keeping on top of your CPD in the face of life's demands.
How do you keep up with your CPD? How do you keep up with your online CPD networks? I would love to hear how others do it! Because in this busy climate, how do you really keep on top of it all?