SALT Module

Year 1

• Professional Practice Education 1: this foundation module underpins clinical practice in levels 5 and 6 by providing related experience placements within relevant contexts such for developing professional skills and applying theory to practice. Lectures, seminars and tutorials and an interprofessional learning experience event are designed to support placement learning and will enable students to begin developing  personal and professional knowledge, skills and attitudes for effective working in health, education and social care contexts. Students will be supported to develop reflective practice by drawing on personal experiences and placements when they will work with a diverse range of adults and children many of whom will have some communication difficulties. The module will cover themes derived from current legislation, policy and standards including RCSLT and HPC.
  
  
• Introduction to Linguistics and Language Acquisition: Linguistics - basic principles, concepts and theory in linguistics and its related fields of neurolinguistics, psycholinguistics and sociolinguistics. Students learn to analyse and describe English utterances at grammatical, semantic, pragmatic and discourse levels. Applications to the field of speech and language therapy are considered in every topic. Linguistics and language Acquisition: an opportunity to learn the basic developmental theories, the properties and uses of human language and the importance of linguistic communication for understanding human behaviour, culture and society.
  
  
• Introduction to Phonetics and Phonology: introduces the articulatory and acoustic aspects of speech production and the analysis of speech sounds using both the symbols and diacritics of the International Phonetic Alphabet and instrumental methods. Aspects of phonology will include the nature of syllables, consonants vowels and their allophonic variants. Suprasegmental phonology will explore the prosodic elements of connected speech.
  
  
• Medical Sciences: introducing general and specialised human anatomy, physiology and genetics, embryology and paediatrics  This knowledge underpins the more specialised teaching in levels two and three.  A detailed knowledge of relevant anatomy and physiology is needed to understand communication problems with organic aetiologies.
  
  
• Communication Disability and Psychology: introducing the study of communication disorders and the use of objective and reliable measurement and assessment techniques in speech and language therapy. An opportunity to learn to use statistical software and to build your ability to evaluate and critically assess research design.

Year 2

• Professional Practice 2: builds upon the development of the professional skills developed in Professional Practice 1. You will undertake a five week block placement in practice with individuals with communication difficulties and some additional experiential days during the year. You will undertake a short dysphagia placement as part of your clinical practice placement. The professional practice module is assessed both by a practice educator in placement and by the university.
  
  
• Clinical Linguistic Assessments: introducing linguistic frameworks for the analysis and evaluation of disordered speech and language. Developing skills in syntactic, phonological and phonetic analysis and assessment.
  
  
• Intervention 1: Language and Cognition: learn about children and adults with cognitive communication and language difficulties. The communication difficulty pathways presented in this are associated with: phonology, learning disabilities, autistic spectrum conditions, attention deficit conditions, dementia, mental health, aphasia, language delay and language disorder.
  
  

• Intervention 2: Speech and Swallowing: study children and adults with communication  and swallowing disorders associated with motor impairments. The communication difficulties and needs presented in this module areas are associated with: developmental and acquired apraxia of speech, dysarthria, dysfluency, dysphagia. In the communication science syllabus students will study acquired neurological disorders, audiology, cancer, genetics, neuropathology .
  
  
• Cognitive Psychology and Research Methods: study a range of theoretical issues in cognitive science relevant to clinical practice drawing on  neuroscience, cognitive psychology, neuropsychology and computational modelling - to elucidate human cognition in children and adults.

Year 3

• Professional Practice 3: undertake a 10 week block clinical practice placement with individuals with communication difficulties. You will have the opportunities to develop as a reflective learner and practitioner. The practice module is assessed by both the practice educator in placement and  the university.
  
  
• Transition to the Workplace: this module provides the final preparation towards for the roles and responsibilities of speech and language therapists in practice within the modernised NHS and other social, educational and healthcare settings.
  
  
• Intervention 3: Specialist Settings: learn about children and adults with a range of communication difficulties likely to be encountered in more specialist settings. In this module the communication difficulty pathway for each profile of need will include: aetiology, typical presenting features, concomitant difficulties, assessment, differential diagnosis, impact, multidisciplinary team working, outcome measurement, evidence based practice, policies and legal frameworks and different types of service delivery. The communication difficulties and needs presented in this module areas are associated with specialist settings: learning disabilities, Autistic Spectrum Disorder, augmentative and alternative communication, specialist mental health, hearing impairment, traumatic brain injury, right hemisphere language difficulties, cleft lip and palate, dysfuency, dysphagia, voice and gender issues, visual and sensory impairment and head and neck cancer.
  
  
• Speech and Language Therapy Project: this module is primarily conducted via student directed learning as you carry out a research project that you design for yourself. You are supported in this by one-to-one project tutorials with a supervisor, small group tutorials and student led seminars. The module builds on learning from the entire course allowing you to demonstrate your knowledge of research practice through writing a dissertation.
  
  
• Language, Interaction and Society: Developing an understanding of the relationships between language variation and social, professional and cultural contexts. Exploring communication issues involving language use in social contexts, social factors which influence communication disorder and approaches to understanding interaction, taking account of cultural diversity, models of society and sociological approaches to communication disorder.