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Working with Allied Health Professionals
The role of the early years speech and language therapist
The focus of this week is for you to hear from Joanne Gibson, an early years speech and language therapist (SALT) who works in Lanarkshire.
In Joanne’s presentation she will be discussing how ELC practitioners and SALTs can work together to support children with speech, language and communication needs. She will highlight some of the ways that ELC practitioners and SALTs can work collaboratively to improve this aspect of development to meet the aims of GIRFEC. This is an example of how ELC practitioners can work with other professionals not to ‘pass on’ the issue, but to ‘hold on’ and gain advice from experts on what ELC practitioners can do to meet additional support needs in the child’s setting.
Besides SALTs there are other professionals who ELC practitioners can work with to help maximise children’s potential – dietitians, occupational therapists, educational psychologists, health visitors and physiotherapists can all make a vital contribution to supporting children. Such roles are referred to as Allied Health Professionals (AHPs). In Scotland there are several initiatives that are aimed at bringing ELC practitioners and AHPs together with the aim that AHPs can pass on the specific knowledge and expertise that is required to support children with additional needs.
One example of an initiative where AHPs and educators have come together is the Highland Literacy Early Level Progression Tool. This is an online resource that has been developed to collaboratively support early literacy:
Perhaps you could locate similar initiatives in your area and reach out to access resources where you can work with AHPs to support children who have additional needs?
But before that, please join us as Joanne talks about how you can work with a SALT in your area to support children’s speech, communication and language skills.
Continue to the Webinar presentation details.
Webinar presentation
Joanne’s presentation will be delivered via a webinar. Below you will see further information about what to expect from this week’s study, as well as how to access the webinar.
When is the webinar happening?
The webinar will be held on Monday 27 July at 7 p.m. and will be one hour in duration. The link to the webinar is provided below this introductory information. The room will be open from 6 p.m. to give you time to come in and check you have everything set up and working properly.
What will be included in the webinar?
This collaborative learning opportunity will focus on building confidence in supporting children with speech, language and communication needs (SLCN).
The webinar will be hosted by Jackie Musgrave, Programme Lead for Early Childhood at The Open University and Sarah Burton, Associate Lecturer at The Open University and early learning and childcare practitioner.
Jackie and Sarah will be joined by guest speaker Joanne Gibson, who is an early years speech and language therapist (SALT) working in Lanarkshire.
A PowerPoint presentation will accompany the session and is available to view.
The session will start with Joanne giving some facts and figures about children’s speech, language and communication needs, as well as the role of the speech and language therapist.
The content includes some case studies that are drawn from Joanne’s practice and are designed to help you to consider how they were supported. There are opportunities for you to exchange ideas with other practitioners and to ask questions.
Towards the end of the session there will be a plenary summarising the main learning points and implications for improving practice in supporting children with additional speech, language and communication needs.
The webinar will be recorded and made available for you to listen to again if you wish to do so.
What happens after the webinar?
After the webinar has finished you are encouraged to look at the resources that Joanne has included at the end of the PowerPoint presentation.
Collaboration has a positive impact on learning, so it will be beneficial for you to go on to the forum and discuss what you have learned from taking in part in the webinar. Use the following to guide your thinking:
- Share your thoughts about how the content can help you to improve your practice when working with children who require additional support with speech, communication and language.
- Discuss ways that you can work with AHPs to support children with additional needs.
A member of the teaching team will be looking at the forum to answer any queries about your discussion
For the remaining study time this week you are encouraged to use your learner journal to note learning points taken from the webinar and identify the ways that you can contribute to supporting children with additional speech, language and communication needs.
Accessing the webinar
We encourage everyone to participate in the webinar. We also understand that this may not be possible, so it will be recorded so it can be viewed after the event.
The webinar recording will only be used for the purpose of this pilot and will not be shared more widely.
Browsers supporting WebRTC technology
You can currently use WebRTC with the latest versions of web browsers like Google Chrome, Opera, Safari, Mozilla Firefox and Edge. Those browsers support the new audiovisual technology entirely.
We strongly recommend choosing Google Chrome because this browser is the most advanced in terms of integrating with WebRTC.
Link to the webinar room
Here is the link to the webinar:
Once accessed, you will be admitted to the virtual waiting room until the webinar is ready to start.
Some helpful hints
- Copy the link into your Google Chrome browser to access the webinar room.
- On entry to the room you can enable your microphone and your video camera if you wish. The organiser of the webinar will explain how to do this if you are unsure.
- Raise a hand if you want to ask a question.
- You do not have to speak or enable your video camera if you aren’t comfortable to.
- A chat box will be available for you to type in any questions or observations.
- Make sure you access using one of the browsers listed above. Chrome is the best to use.