Training project for therapists working with under-11s
Presenters: Kirsten Liddle, Pat Brookes, Kath Frazer, Sharon Barker, Melanie Wade, Lucy Paterson, Sarah Talbot, Claire Eltringham, Elizabeth Hack
By Lucy Paterson, North-Tyneside Trust

An innovative training module was piloted last year for 22 therapists who had limited experience or who wished to update and enhance existing skills.

Nine specialist therapists from the north east regional dysfluency special interest group developed and delivered a continuing professional development module in response to the lack of equity in dysfluency training and service provision in the region.

The module consisted of six bi-monthly half-day sessions during a year, a full day follow-up session, and follow-up meetings for participants with their managers and course mentors. There was no cost to individual participants.

The content included child assessment, a child's awareness of dysfluency, case-history taking, risk factors and decision-making, working with parents, families, nurseries and schools, and direct therapy.

The emphasis was on developing participants' confidence, knowledge and skills with dysfluent children up to age eleven, using practical activities in the sessions and personalised targets for completion between sessions. Participants were asked to plan how they would achieve this target, consider possible obstacles to completing it and how these obstacles could be overcome. An example of a target which participants were expected to personalise and complete before the next session was:

'Using a case history you have taken,
1. Evaluate the risk factors for stammering for this child.
2. Identify the demands and capacities issues for this child.
3. Jointly with parents/carers, set some appropriate targets.'

Evaluation of the module using pre and post-course questionnaires indicated an increase in participants' confidence, knowledge and skills with this client group. Facilitators felt that the essential aspects of the module in achieving this were:
the facilitative (rather than 'teaching') style of the training
the emphasis on practical activities
the use of personalised targets and shared responsibility for learning
the inclusion of post-course meetings with course mentors and managers to agree specific action plans and future training and supervision needs.

A full write-up of the presentation and the background to the module will be available in the conference proceedings. Any queries may be emailed to me at Lucy.Paterson@nuth.nhs.uk

From the Autumn 2005 edition of Speaking Out