a pinch of SaLT

A Pinch Of SaLT aks the questions we wanted the answers to during our University years. If you have anymore questions then please tweet @APinchofSaLTs

This week A Pinch of SaLT presents to you an interview with our very own TMB.

1. First things first, why do you work where you work? What are the pros and cons, if that’s not going to get you in trouble?

TMB: Haha, I work fulltime in a secondary school for pupils with moderate learning disabilities. I work here for many many reasons: firstly the clients. It’s always about the clients, I enjoy working with teenagers and my specialism is in special educational needs; particularly learning disabilities and Autism. I enjoy supporting my clients to navigate the world around them and be able to communicate with those around them and live life on their terms. Secondly my employers have given me a huge amount of flexibility and trust the develop our service, in my work ALL students have access to speech and language therapy, not just those who have statemented provision. This is a model that my employers support and is my driving force at work everyday: making speech therapy accessible to all who need it. Finally, the staff I work with make my job worth coming into school every day. I work with incredibly talented people and people passionate about supporting the development of students with special educational needs. There are very few cons: probably my commute (75 minutes on a good day) and the expectations I set for myself... they are very high and I can get bogged down when I feel like I am not fulfilling them to the best of my ability.

2. What is your caseload like? Is it manageable?

TMB: My caseload is around 90 pupils. This sounds really unmanageable, but by using a 3 tiered model of therapy (See law et. al 2012). This makes it much easier to manage. My year is split into 3, sometimes 4 blocks and all students will receive at minimum a block per year from myself or the Speech and Language tHerapy Assistant. This can be within class, in a group or individual depending on student need. Some students are seen throughout the year, again it all depends on pupil need.

3. When you’re stuck, where do you go for help?

TMB: I always chat to different people at work, different disciplines always have something to contribute and may know the client better than I, plus some of their history that isn’t in my file. I also bring cases to my clinical supervisor, who always has great advice and helps me think things through rather than spoon feed me answers. I am also extremely lucky to be friends with some of my previous co-workers who are exceptional professionals. I sometimes chat through issues from caseload to difficulties at work with them.

4. Describe the best day you’ve ever had at work.

TMB: Can I combine some of the best things to happen to me at work and combine into one best day?

when a student has reached a goal and they feel confident in their new skills; the past year my favourite were a student learning to tie their shoelaces independently and a student learning to read.

school assembly: this year I ran a makaton sign competition and we shared everyone’s work in assembly and gave out prizes. That was brilliant celebrating the student and staff’s hard work.

liasing with parents to support the carry over of work and it working! Hearing that a parent has felty supported and been able to make changes at home!

Finishing the day by leading a training session with staff and being able to see them benefit from the session and most of all enjoy it! The best training i’ve done in the past year was on literacy, staff were very engaged and lots stayed behind to chat to me afterwards!

Ok I lied, I enjoy finishing the day by reading a journal article that I can apply to my work; recently I’ve been reading a lot about dosage and relational frame theory.

5. Now describe the worst.

TMB: This day wasn’t in my current job: but a previous one. I witnessed a client be arrested by the police while I was supposed to be seeing them for intervention and was chastised by senior management for trying to uphold the dignity of my client and requesting that they receive specialist support while at the police station in order to advise the police on their needs and enable to navigate the criminal justice system fairly. I was told that I did not have a duty of care towards the client and to mind my own business. 60% of young offenders have undiagnosed speech and language communication disorders (The Communication Trust) and I do not regret taking a stand for my client’s rights.

6. Is there anything you do now, regularly, that you never heard of at university?

TMB: Read research?haha only joking. Supervision and the importance of it wasn’t covered enough I would say, I didn’t know what to expect from supervision and i think the line can be blurred between line management and clinical supervision sometimes. I spend a lot of time in supervision, supervising, thinking about supervision and planning peer supervision with others. It really contributes to your growth as a clinician I would say; nobody knows it all.

7. If you were to give yourself any advice for newly qualified you, what would it be?

TMB: Honestly? My advice would be to go on exactly as I did. Trust myself and be myself and my commitment to becoming a better clinician will hold me in good stead.

8. Which resource or assessment do you use the most

TMB: I love the idea of premade resources but find they are never adapted well enough for my client group. Same issue with assessments, I use the CELF-4, DLS, RAPT, RWFVT, TROG-2 and EVT-2 the most to inform my assessments. Interventions/Teaching procedures I use the most are behaviour analytic in nature such as TAG Teach, Precision Teaching, Direct Instruction, PECs, Skillstreaming. I use these quite a lot.

9. When working with other staff, teachers, SLTs, ToD, what do you think is your most helpful strategy or approach?

TMB: Applying the same principles of behaviour change I apply to my clients. I spend a lot of time building rapport with people I work with. I always approach things from the perspective that we all need to problem solve together rather than anyone is more important. All this said, while I am very collaborative and always bring it back to the client and what’s best for them, I have very clear boundaries for professional conduct. I make sure other professionals know that because I am flexible doesn’t mean I am a pushover and I present my clinical reasoning (backed up with literature) at all professional meetings.