We’re changing the format for the next event, so therapists can discuss their ideas and share their experiences. I’m excited to announce the next Therapy Ideas Live event will be a debate – Redesigning Service Delivery for a Changing World: Taking Responsibility for the Future of Speech & Language Therapy.

The debate will feature Kate Malcomess, Sally Shaw, and Kim Lewis, and is taking place as part of the RCSLT’s Giving Voice Campaign. It’s on 26 June 2012, at The Mermaid Conference Centre, London, 6.00 – 9.30 pm.

Changing Landscape

New commissioning regimes, reduced budgets, and growing caseloads: like it or not, Speech and Language Therapy is changing, and there’s no going back. Let’s tackle this challenge together, by learning from each other, listening to contrasting expert perspectives, and taking an active role in redesigning service delivery for the future of our profession.

We’ll hear from three featured speakers, debate what we’ve heard, and discuss experiences and challenges in small groups. Come along, and meet other therapists who are trying to make positive changes.

Get Your Ticket Now

Tickets are £10 and limited so get yours now. Check out all the details and buy your ticket!

The affection goes both ways: we grow attached to our clients. We notice progress, point it out to families, and celebrate with them. When we work with families for long enough, we meet new siblings, hear about first days at school, and get invited home to birthday parties and for tea!

Clouding my judgement

But is it possible for therapists to get too attached? I’m trying to make a tricky differential diagnosis and reflecting on whether my affection for this little chap is muddling me up. Am I observing his skills through rose tinted glasses? Placing more of an emphasis on things he can do while skimming over things he can’t?

I’m trying to clarify my thinking by making objective observations: noting down what I see without interpretation. I’m comparing these observations to what I expect from a child his age, as well as his clinical presentation from a year ago. I’m reviewing how he responded to different types of therapy and attempting Dynamic Assessment. I’m also planning to observe him at nursery, to see how he responds to other adults. I’ll figure it out!

Do you form close bonds with particular clients? Do you think it supports therapy outcomes? Or do you have to focus on being impartial?

The events were featured in the RCSLT bulletin: I was interviewed for My Working Life (page 34) in September and Janice Tucker wrote a lovely letter about the events in the November issue (page 4).

We’ve drunk wine together, socialised with our SLT colleagues, and recorded all the talks on video! It’s completely exceeded my expectations.

What’s next for 2012?

The first Therapy Ideas Live of 2012 is on March 14th, when we’ll be returning to City University. We’re keen to mix things up, Therapy Ideas Live with a twist: added speed dating! Okay, not the dating part so much — watch this space.

We’re publishing all the videos from the last three events and integrating them with some new features on the website. And I’m starting a podcast, so get in touch if you fancy being interviewed. It’s exciting stuff!

Thanks for all your support this year, hope to share ideas with you in 2012!

Watch the first ever talk

Watch the talk that started it all: Gina Davies at the RCSLT in July, which has been viewed more than 870 times by therapists all over the world!

Watch these videos of Gina Davies and Louise Coigley giving their stunning 5-minute lightning talks:

We’ll be publishing more videos of the presentations over the next few weeks, so stay tuned to the blog, or follow us on twitter.

Next Therapy Ideas Live: City University London, 20 Sept. 2011

The second Therapy Ideas Live event takes place on 20 September, hosted by City University, London. Sign up to our email list to be the first to know when we release the tickets. And if you fancy getting up on stage and sharing your experience, send us your talk idea by 23 August 2011. See you there!

With some friends and colleagues I’m trying something new: an evening of informal and informative lightning-style talks presented by ten SLTs from a range of backgrounds. Broaden your perspective, learn from others, share your own experiences, and socialise over a glass of wine—it’s a more inspiring version of CPD!

The first Therapy Ideas Live is happening on the evening of 5th July 2011, hosted at the Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists in London. Ten amazing speakers–including Gina Davies, Marie Gascoigne, and Stephen Parsons–will each present for 5 minutes, with slides that advance automatically. Find out more on the event page.

Amazingly, all 50 free tickets for this event sold out within 24 hours, and we closed the waiting list when 50 more people had signed up. Thanks for your support! We plan to film the presentations and share them on this website.

We’re also planning another event at City University in the autumn. Register your interest and be the first to hear when tickets are released. And if you fancy sharing your experience, perspective, case study, or challenge, send us your talk idea using this form. You don’t need experience of public speaking: anyone can give a lightning talk (read this post for some handy tips), and we’ll give you plenty of help.

You can follow the event live on twitter, using the hashtag #therapyideas.

See you there!

For speech sound therapy, children need to have at least 3 processes and reduced intelligibility, as well as age appropriate language and attention skills to qualify. So we give children with lisps, or difficulties with /th/, activities to practise at home, and discharge them. In some cases that’s easier said than done …

I can understand why parents are anxious about lisps; they worry about teasing and bullying. Sometimes I find it hard to reason with them; they’re trying to do the best for their child and I’m trying to manage the needs of a large caseload. We’re in conflict.

I almost want to play them video clips of my pre-verbal child with autism, my dyspraxic child, or my child with a severe stammer and explain that these children are my priority. Not great for confidentiality and probably not effective either!

Empowering parents to support their own child seems like the best strategy. If I can elicit an accurate /s/ in isolation during the session, I can usually convince the parents to agree to discharge. I explain the hierarchy for generalising the sound into conversation and give them written instructions for home practice.

If I can’t prompt the child to produce the correct sound in isolation (I find those lateral lisps tricky!) I tend to go down the ‘your child is not stimulable / ready’ route. I ask the parents to practise discrimination tasks with their child, talk about how the sound is produced and come back in 6 months to a year if the child hasn’t made progress and they’re still concerned.

How do you deal with parents who won’t accept that their child doesn’t meet the criteria for intervention?

SLTs, clients, students, etc. can have an entirely positive video experience with no tears and nasty surprises using Video Interaction Guidance (VIG) – also knows as SPIN and VEROC (Video Enhanced Reflection on Communication).

There is evidence that the VIG approach, focussing on strengths in interaction, is a very effective way to use video to improve communication.

I have tried it with clients with severe communication problems, eg. no speech at all many years post-stroke, with other health professionals and SLT students. Even the most video-phobic have enjoyed the experience and have improved in confidence as well as communicative competence.

I would recommend the VIG approach to anyone interested in using video as a clinical or reflective practice tool.

Liz Panton MRCSLT
Gateshead PCT (South of Tyne and Wear)

Thanks Liz! That website looks like a really useful resource.

A recent experience gave me a powerful reminder that the children we work with need to feel calm in order to learn and develop their communication skills.

We were about to fly to South America on an evening flight. I’d planned to come home from work and travel to the airport with my partner. But for some technical reason, we couldn’t check in online. Panic! Suddenly the plan needed to change.

When my partner suggested a new plan—going directly from work to the airport—I started mumbling incomprehensibly about not having the right shoes on and my ID badge. I said it was impossible and insisted that the original plan was better. The more anxious and angry I got, the harder it was to think rationally.

Looking back, I realise I needed a visual timetable! If my partner had used symbols to talk me through the sequence of events, it would have reduced both my anxiety and my difficult behaviour. I would have been able to think more clearly, see that the steps were logical, and realise they allowed me to reach my goal: getting to the airport on time.

The same principle applies to the children we work with: they need to feel calm in order to learn and develop their communication skills. We should take the time to prepare a visual timetable for each session, to minimise anxiety and create the right conditions for learning.

In one of her workshops, Gina Davies reminded me that visual support can be quick to produce and low-tech. She demonstrated using an A4 sized whiteboard to produce a “now” and “next” style timetable in front of the children. This can also support the development of early literacy skills if you hold the board so the children can see you drawing and writing.

At the other end of the technology scale there must be visual timetable style apps on the iPhone or iPad. Have you used any? I’d love some recommendations.

She talked about what speech therapy was like when she started out:

• Makaton was just being developed. She got involved with the charity and ensured the signing system was widely used in our area. Recently she taught the team to sign, “I’m dreaming of a white Christmas!”
• The Derbyshire Language Scheme didn’t exist.
• Some children were considered “ineducable.” This changed with the 1970 Education Act, after which all school age children were entitled to an education.

I might have 30+ years ahead of me as a Speech and Language Therapist. When it’s time for me to retire, what will I tell colleagues about starting out? They may be astonished to hear that we write clinical case notes on paper by hand. We consider assessments standardised if data has been collected from 1000 children. And in this era of “inclusion” hundreds of special schools still exist.

Maybe I’ll tell them I was one of the first UK therapists to start a blog! Times are changing; what will the therapy world look like in 30 years time? (I see iPads, lots and lots of iPads!)

Speechies: get with the times

Okay, so it was a content strategy conference for web people, but I think therapists need to try new ways of interacting with each other too. There’s a small community of us using Twitter. You should join us.

Share information

Therapists post links to interesting content, like this information sheet about creating social stories (PDF link) which was shared by several people I follow (e.g. @specialquest).

We also ask questions and share resources. For example @speechreka asked:

Anyone has access to this?: Quick Screen for Voice and Supplementary Documents for Identifying Pediatric Voice Disorders- LSHSS vol 35:308

And then:

I’d really appreciate it if someone can share that article. And anything dealing with paediatric voice disorders. Have an ax tomorrow…lost

Shareka got several responses from around the world, and later on shared what she’d found. Excellent timing. I was expecting a voice client for an initial assessment the next day!

Join the community

Twitter is a place to have an SLT-related chat, to share struggles and successes like this one from @speechbob:

just had the school psych tell me that one of my fluency students was talking up a storm with his strategies, made me smile.

We’re a friendly bunch, so what are you waiting for? Start tweeting and pick the brains of colleagues from all over the world. I’m @RhiannanW. See you there!