BSc Speech and Language Therapy

This course unit occurs across the first and second semesters of the third and final year of study and forms the second part of the Developmental Speech and Language Disorders strand. In previous learning, students will have had the opportunity to develop knowledge and understanding of typical and disordered development of speech and language, and underlying language processing. Students will have had the opportunity to develop a range of broad clinical/professional knowledge and skills and may have had clinical experiences with clients who have complex and persistent developmental speech and language disorders.

In this year three module, students will develop further knowledge and skills in this area through access to lectures and engagement with problem-based learning tasks and patient-based materials. Content comprises:  

• Consideration of developmental language disorder in school-age children and adolescents where complex presentation may exist due to overlapping diagnoses (e.g., with social communication disorders) and complicating sequelae (e.g., mental health & maladaptive strategies)  
• Speech Sound Disorder: Inconsistent Phonological Disorder (IPD), and Childhood Apraxia of Speech (CAS, previously known as Developmental Verbal Dyspraxia in the UK); Phonological Awareness, Speech Sound disorder  
• Typical features of core and differential diagnoses and functional implications on social communication and interaction, education and literacy skills, health and emotional wellbeing and vulnerability across lifespan.
• Related theoretical issues, such as, aetiology and underpinning mechanisms
• The client journey from referral to leaving therapy/ discharge and current approaches to assessment, differential diagnosis and intervention.
• Educational and bilingual/multilingual contexts and the role of children, parents and multi-professional colleagues in management, with a focus on school based working  
• Evidence base for assessment, intervention and general management practices including outcome measurement. 

The unit aims to:

• Provide students with a variety of opportunities to gain knowledge and understanding of the nature of complex and persistent developmental speech and language disorders.
• Provide students with a variety of opportunities to gain requisite knowledge and understanding of diagnosis, assessment and management, in educational and bilingual/multilingual contexts, for school-aged children and adolescents who have complex and persistent developmental speech and language disorders.
• Provide students with a variety of opportunities to gain knowledge and understanding of the lived experience of complex and persistent developmental speech and language disorders.
• Provide students with opportunities to integrate and critique knowledge and understanding and to reflect upon all aspects of education, professional practice, and the therapeutic process.
• Provide students with opportunities to apply theory and evidence to clinical decision making and to the critical evaluation of practice, processes and outcomes.
• Provide students with opportunities to practice relevant clinical skills, including working in schools and taking in to account priorities for the older child.
• Provide students with opportunities to demonstrate their knowledge and understanding, to self and peer evaluate and to receive feedback from tutors.  

Learning and teaching processes will involve tutor-led learning with face-to-face teaching (tutorial, seminar, workshop), online lectures, with individual independent learning tasks, and group learning.  

Processes will utilise interactive on-line learning, case based learning, quizzes, peer presentations and peer learning resources, discussion/seminars and directed reading.

Students will also have the opportunity to provide peer mentoring to lower year students completing DSLD A, to learn from service users, to watch and learn from an expert clinician model, to prepare and make presentations, to complete written work, and to practise with assessment and intervention tools.

To support independent study, learning materials including e-presentations, lecture slides and recommended reading will be provided on a weekly basis on the unit’s online learning environment. 

• Demonstrate a coherent and detailed knowledge and systematic understanding of complex and persistent developmental speech and language disorders, their diagnosis, assessment and management.  
• Understand the role and responsibilities of the SLT working with school age children and adolescents who have persistent or complex speech sound disorder (SSD) and/or language disorders, including demonstrating awareness of multi-disciplinary working in this area.  
• Describe and comment upon particular aspects of current research in the field and to demonstrate an appreciation of the uncertainty, ambiguity and scope of knowledge. 

• Demonstrate a conceptual understanding of current research that enables the student to devise and sustain arguments, and/or to solve problems regarding clinical decisions and management, to assure quality of practice
• Manage their own learning, and critically evaluate scholarly reviews and primary sources appropriate to the field.
• Apply the methods and techniques that they have learned to review, consolidate, extend and apply their knowledge and understanding. 

• Perform structured observation and accurate recording of speech, language and other information relevant to this client group, and report these using appropriate record-keeping methods.
• Administer and score relevant assessments and interpret standardised scores. 

• Communicate complex information, arguments and clinical findings/processes to both specialist and non-specialist audiences.
• Exercise personal responsibility and show decision-making capacity appropriate for a complex clinical client group  
• Reflect and comment on the student’s own performance or work and that of a peer, identifying strengths and areas of improvement where appropriate.  
• Examine their own values and attitudes to service users and exercise a compassionate and respectful approach, in line with inclusive practice. 

A summative mark and detailed, individual tutor-written feedback will be provided following the examination.

Feedback on the assignment will be provided individually to students through TurnitIn.

Throughout the unit, students will have the opportunity to self-evaluate their work and understanding against shared peer work, class discussion and model answers for case study activities.

• Bauman-Waengler, J. (2016). Articulation and phonology in speech sound disorders: A clinical focus (5th Edition).  Pearson.
• Paul, R., Norbury, C., & Gosse, C. (2016). Language disorders from infancy through adolescence: listening, speaking, reading, writing, and communicating (5th Edition). London, UK: Elsevier Mosby.