a pinch of SaLT

I’m a Speech Therapy Student, Get Me Out Of Here!

In today’s blog post, Tara tries to demystify the difficulties of being a speech and language therapy student. Sharing some reflections from her degree, lessons learnt and some all important advice for future SLTs.

There is so much information online for new students; undergrad, postgrad, living at home, moving out… Information on how to get along with your housemates, how to manage your money and even on where to find the best nightlife. What information is a bit more scarce however, is subject specific advice. Speech and Language Therapy is an intense degree, trying to juggle a professional qualification, studying, clinical skills as well as having a personal life can be difficult at times. The following is a comprehensive list, of information and advice we wished we had access to whilst studying our SLT undergraduate degree:

Study Tips

• Leaving things to the last minute is very difficult to do when you have 3 essays and practical due the same week: make sure you plan for this and try to leave enough time to finish things and be able to proof read them before submitting. This greatly reduces stress and means you’ll submit better quality work.
• Get to know your tutor. Tutors are there for a reason: to support you, academically and pastorally. Most tutors will have bookable slots to speak to them, make sure you do this: tutors that know you better will be able to give you better references: and you will need these references eventually.
• Form a study group. Studying is always easier when you have people to bounce off and to motivate each other. Different people will have different strengths and be able to help you, and you them. Even having a chilled night in with pizza talking through your essays or lectures that week is good practise!
• Find a space to study that works for you! The library isn’t suited for everyone! Maybe you’d prefer a chilled cafe, your room or kitchen table! Find a space, make it your own and use it for structured study!
• You can consolidate what you’ve learned through reading Speech and Language Therapy newsletters or the RCSLT’s Bulletin, being a part of Speech Therapy Facebook groups and listening to podcasts on the bus! Not all studying has to be reading books!
• Join a student Speech Therapy facebook group! Great for peer support, make sure you reply to people’s posts as well as read them!
• Take advantage of some of things you are learning about: evidenced based teaching methods in therapy can be used by you in your studying! Examples of this are using precision teaching methods such as SAFMEDs to help you learn and memorise information. Graphing your progress in mock exams can help you monitor your progress!
• Create your own mock exams! Ask for peer feedback (or even tutor feedback if you are brave enough!). In your study group, swap your own mock exams and see how you do!

Organisation Tips

• Get a diary. Fill it out. Use it. Put personal dates as well as important university dates in it.
• Having a light compact laptop that you can carry around without straining your back so you can whip it out whenever you need! There are lots of note taking apps you can use, or better yet google docs that you share with your peers!
• Excel spreadsheet is your friend! Don’t be scared by this mathematical bamboozle! Use spreadsheets to plan dates and deadlines (Like this hand one we made here).
• Routine is a great thing, if you’re in a sports team and you have matches then a night out every Wednesday; Thursday’s are no use trying to schedule in (well the mornings at least), timetable your week to have Thursdays off and do some work on Wednesday mornings, predictable routines also help your body clock and general health.
• Have a filing system: on your computer, for paper. Don’t think you’ll find it again once you’ve thrown it on top of a pile or named it ‘dfvbsdkjbfuksf’ on the computer.

Placement Tips

• Get plenty of sleep: when you are sitting in hour long meetings about clients you’ve never met and don’t know anything about or about general office politics, your eyes might drift and no amount of star jumps in the toilet will wake you up (Take my word for it).
• You cannot be too enthusiastic (with your placement supervisor), make sure you offer to do things like make hot drinks, write down minutes of meetings ect. These will hold you in good stead.
• Ask about the dress code before you start: some placements you might be on the floor along (paediatrics) and so appropriate clothing is necessary. In other placements you might need to look smart/smart casual and certain things that you might think look smart won’t be allowed (e.g. jeans, even black ones!, clothing with logos, trainers).
• Email your supervisor before you start and ask if there is anyway you can prepare (e.g. pre-reading). This gives you a good chance to introduce yourself and make sure you arrive prepared.
• Take a small notebook and pen and don’t leave them lying around: patient confidentiality!
• Be honest about what you do and don’t know. Don’t nod your head and go along with it, if you are with a client or another situation you can’t ask straight away, make sure you ask to clarify what it was you didn’t understand as soon as you can afterwards.
• Be sure to thank your supervisor (even if you didn’t enjoy the placement!). Money can be tight as a student so you don’t have to buy every person flowers, chocolates and a card! Even sending a professional email the day after, reiterating your gratitude is important for professional relationships.
• If you have any issues, contact your university placement coordinator ASAP. If you feel uncomfortable by anything, are struggling in the placement or have any concerns about your placement supervisor, speak to the university as soon as possible: don’t wait till the end and complain: lots of things can be solved during placement and can be a learning opportunity for your and your supervisor.
• Get experience of even the ‘boring’ things: yes that means casenote systems, GDPR, filing systems, marking assessments and converting the standard score into a percentile ranking. These are just as important as seeing clients directly.

General Life Hacks

• It can seem like you eat, sleep and breathe studying sometimes: make sure you take you-time, whatever makes you happy: being alone, socialising, joining a club!

• Having friends outside of the course will make your life significantly better.

• While you had to work very hard to earn your place on the course: the competition ends there: don’t see your peers as competition and support each other to be the best professionals you can be.  

• If your year group doesn’t have a facebook group, be proactive and create one!

Whether you are an undergraduate, masters student, first time student, 100th time student, being a Speech and Language Therapy student gives you the chance to develop into the professional you’ve dreamed of becoming, this is influenced both inside and outside of lecture halls. Remember this is only the first step: there is still much learning to be done once you graduate, so don’t burn yourself out before you’ve had a chance to light the flames of your career!