Speech and language therapy as a career?

[Tokelau]

Are there any speech and language therapists here? Would you recommend it as a career? Are there jobs available?

I have done some research, but would like to hear from someone who actually does it.

This isn’t quite what you are looking for by way of response.

But DD1 (age 17) and I saw a speech therapist today for a problem she has swallowing water (she has a history of severe anorexia and it’s linked to that).

We met the the speech therapist today for the first time. Spent 40 minutes with her. She was incredibly focused, helpful, insightful, attuned and an excellent communicator. She explained the root of the problem with clarity and gave helpful practical advice in dealing with it. We came away reassured and optimistic.

I have nothing to offer by way of careers advice I’m afraid, but I should imagine that it’s rewarding work with lots of potential to make a huge difference to people.

I've worked with lots of SALT employees and it looks like such a varied and awesome job.

It seems like a very interesting job and you can specialise. I think it might be quite hard to get on to the course though.
If I didn't have to do another dissertation I would apply lol

I am one and have had a good 20+ year career from it (so far). I work with adults and specialise in swallowing disorders, which not everyone knows we deal with. It’s a great career and there are definitely jobs, we often struggle to recruit. Courses are highly competitive to get on to though. The NHS is not an easy place to work these days and there are lots of pressures in the job. I’d say that as well as a great communicator you need to be very organised and able to juggle work and priorities. It is never boring and frequently very satisfying.

We have a specialist centre at the school I work in, for children with speech, language and communications needs. We have a SALT on site and two SALT assistants.

I was chatting to our SALT about how she chose that career. She studied Paychology at uni and thought about being an Ed Psych but chose SALT because you spend more time with children and you feel that you’re really making an impact.

Some of our children come to us not able to talk (though we are a mainstream achool, just with a specialist centre) and leave us with amazing communication skills. It’s an incredibly worthwhile career.

Thank you for all the information. It sounds a very interesting career, and I would like to apply. I have been to an open day, and have checked with the admission's officer, and I have the right qualifications already. Of course, that doesn't mean I will be offered a place!

One problem is that I work full time and don't see how I can volunteer or observe a SALT at work. It's not easy for me to get time off work. I think if I was able to volunteer or observe it would help my application.

The other problem is that the course is a long way away - about 45 miles away, and the traffic would be awful. I would be driving into a large city in rush hour, so I think the journey would take about 2 hours each way.

However, if I did do it, and got a job, my starting salary would be a lot more than I'm on now, and my work would be so much more interesting.

I am a bit wary, as I have already retrained once. I did a post graduate qualification, and after I qualified, things changed, funding was cut, and there are now very few jobs in that area. I really don't want this to happen twice.

2 of my friends are SALTs and have been for 20 years. They love it. Varied, interesting, rewarding and good job conditions.

I wish I'd done it, as I studied linguistics which overlaps. It's a very competitive course to get on and long hours though. It would be more difficult as a mature student especially if you have a commute - I guess you would need the specifics of the course.

It sounds like you really want this, and are willing to face some hurdles to get there. That’s a good start!

Our SALT team offer observations to students; usually a week of travelling to different schools to spend time watching different therapists at work. If you can take a week off as annual leave to do something like that, it would be really worthwhile.

We see a SALT, she's incredible. Her best assets are that she's really encouraging and likeable and gets kids to open up to her. It's a huge part of her role.

Wish the one my child saw was lovely and helpful. She just snarls that she sees no need for her to be there (like hello - she's got speech sounds missing all over the place) and tries to finish appointments early as fuck (you only get 6 sessions round here - every second bloody counts for pity's sake).

We're having to go private.

I imagine it's hard working in the NHS but once you've a bit of experience you can go private, I tried to find a private SALT for DD and all but one of them was fully booked for months. The one I found had one slot at 9am on a Wednesday, termtime only. (She's fabulous, btw). So there seems to be a LOT of work out there.

Please do - there's a huge demand for SALT around here. & not enough staff!

Tokelau you didn't retrain in librarianship or archives work did you? Lovely work but nobody wants to pay you for it - half the work where I am is done by retired volunteers who used to get paid for their niche skills.

I really want to retrain as a SALT. My son has dyspraxia and ASD. He could talk but all his sounds were mixed up, making him unintelligible. He had a lot of SALT input and could finally talk properly at 5 and a half. His speech therapy gave him a voice.

I wouldn't worry too much about the distance to uni as you should be able to arrange your training placements nearer to where you live.

@5000KallaxHoles

That's awful. Of all the therapists DC1 sees (it's a long list), the SALT is my favourite.

I qualified as a SaLT more than 30 years ago and it was great career decision. There is an incredible diversity of roles for a SaLT and it is a fascinating field to study and work in.

I added a PGCE later and have worked in a really wide range of roles with children with sp / lang and communication difficulties. It's led me to a really interesting and diverse working life. I've worked in a large general hospital with adults, a children's hospital, a paediatric assessment centre, community clinics, units for children with ASD within mainstream schools and then I've used the same skills in different roles - advisory roles and training, specialist teacher and as a Portage visitor. There have been no negatives for me

I'm a speech and language therapist and I can't recommend it enough as a career. I work with adults in a community neurological rehabilitation team, covering stroke, Parkinson's disease, MND, MS, brain injury etc. No day is ever the same, I'm never bored, and my colleagues, from a range of professions, are all wonderful!I initially graduated with a languages degree in 2008 but, after finding out about SLT I went back to uni in 2011. I did the undergrad course because, working full time, I wasn't able to get the necessary level of experience to be accepted quickly onto the post-grad course. I took some annual leave and attended some shadowing days at a couple of hospitals, and did some volunteering with the Stroke Association. I also had previous volunteering experience with children with learning difficulties and taught English in France as part of my first degree, which helped my application.

I'd be happy to answer any questions you have

@MorningsEleven I'd love to wrap our OT up and keep her with us as she's bloody amazing - but the speech therapist we've been lumped with is absolutely appalling. My experience of our area's SALT altogether is pretty crap - jaded even more by the fact they raised the treatment criteria to take kids onto their books the week before DD2's assessment appointment anyway!

My pensioner mother is raiding her savings to help us go down the private route.

Gallico no, I did a PGCE but funding has been cut in my subject. I was offered a job in a local college, but then the course was cancelled.

You can do a 3 year BSc with student loan funding now. No NHS bursaries available any more.

Pina I also did a languages degree, I have a PGCE and work part time on top of my full time job as a piano teacher. While in university, I spent a year teaching English in Germany. Our experience sounds similar!

I don’t have many holidays left from work, so I’m struggling to work out how I can shadow a SALT. I need to sort it out somehow.

I will come up with some questions to ask you - thanks for the offer.