Tom Speech and Language Therapy Student "As a speech and language therapist I'll be working as part of a multi-disciplinary team with a broad range of clients, assisting in aiding communication. Speech and language therapy is a profession that has a lot of scope and many rewards."

Tom is in his first year of a two year post-graduate diploma. He spends time studying and on placements.

How did you decide to do this course?

I did a first degree in German and linguistics was part of that. I always found linguistics interesting. And I liked the idea of helping people and working with young people. I decided after doing my degree I wanted a year off from studying and during that time I realised that speech and language therapy was for me.

Is linguistics a big part of your course, then?

It's one of the areas we study.

What are the areas?

Anatomy and Physiology: learning about the vocal folds (vocal cords), articulators, lungs and chest (breathing) as well as the brain – which part of it is used for speech. Posture affects breathing.

Then there's Linguistics – how language is put together, communication forms, use of language. We learn Phonetics – sounds and how to write them down.

We follow a course in Development Studies – this covers psychology and speech development.

There's a course in Biomedical Studies in which we look at things like the head and neck, and the workings of the brain and cranial nerves.

It's very intensive.

Is it all lectures and books?

In term one we do 4 days a week at college and 1 study day. In term two, 1 study day, 3 days in college and 1 day on placement. In the summer term we have exams and have to build a portfolio of clinical experience. In Year 2 the emphasis is on practical work with longer placements.

How does your placement work?

My first placement was in a community clinic; one day a week for two months. This was a paediatric clinic (in other words, a clinic that specialises in working with children.) When children are referred by their GP the first thing you do is build up a case history. One of the most important things for us as speech and language therapists is to assess the child's speech and language development.

But we also need to know things like whether the child's had all their hearing tests, is there a family history of speaking problems, is the child an only child, the eldest child, the youngest child? You might ask what their interactions are like at playschool.

What sort of things do you look for?

Well, if their progress through developmental stages is slow, they might need a little push, a bit of help.

What stages?

Sounds begin to appear at 4 – 5 months, babbling at around 6 months with the first words appearing at around 10 – 12 months. The first 50 words are achieved by 18 months.

Sometimes we meet children who articulate sounds wrongly. This might be, for instance, 'fronting' – bish instead of fish; or 'voicing', gill instead of kill. We work with children so they learn the right way of making the sounds (articulating). On the other hand, some speaking problems are due to hearing problems – like glue ear, that's quite common.

We sometimes refer patients to ear, nose and throat specialists (ENT).

Is speech and language therapy mostly about working with children?

Children and young people are an important group but by no means the whole group. There's also a wide range of adults we work with.

What are the best bits about your job?

Helping people, seeing improvements (which might be over weeks or months). The great variety of client groups; this offers exciting opportunities for an SLT.

What are the worst bits about your course?

It's very intense – never enough time. I'd like more time to read more.

Any final thoughts?

I'm aching to get out and do the job!