About my Role

When I’m not studying, I spend most of my time working with adults with learning disabilities, their families and carers to best understand an individuals level of comprehension, and support their expression. The people who are referred to us often will benefit from AAC (Alternative Augmentative Communication) and so we spend lots of time designing and modelling many approaches including the use of symbols, photos, objects of reference and Makaton to name a few. 
I really enjoy the opportunity to be creative in my role. People referred to our team often require adapted assessment so we often have to think of alternative ways to assess an individual’s comprehension and ways to engage them in assessment. I also love the satisfaction of making communication resources!
I am very fortunate to work in a multidisciplinary team, so we do a lot of joined up working which I really enjoy and most importantly is beneficial to the people we see. 

How did I become a Speech and Language Therapist?

I have taken a long and patient route to eventually becoming an apprentice.

I have a younger brother with learning disabilities which I think drove a passion in me to want to help others with learning disabilities. When I finished school, I did a degree in Creative Expressive Therapies and then did my first job leaving University as a 1:1 TA for a little boy with Down Syndrome in a mainstream school. It was during that job that I got to support him to his weekly SLT sessions, and they quickly became my favourite part of the week and I knew that I wanted to be involved in SLT! I then moved location and got a job as a support worker in a Day Service for adults with learning disabilities before eventually securing a job as an SLT Assistant in the team I now work in.

I have been an assistant 10 years and the apprenticeship finally became an opportunity for me in 2024, and I am absolutely thrilled to now be an Apprentice. 

Despite the long wait, I do feel that these years have prepared me well and have given me a wealth of experience that I bring to the Apprentice role. 

I feel really proud and privileged to work in a specialist service where we are able to deliver on and promote individuals’ rights to reasonable adjustments and accessible information. We are able to give specialist support to individuals with a learning disability, as well as advise other services involved in their care.