Speech and Language Therapy

UCAS code: SL22

Here's what Wrexham University says about its Speech and Language Therapy course.

Why choose this course? A degree in Speech and Language Therapy is brand new to North Wales. This course at Wrexham University is the first to be designed in the wake of the pandemic, making it not only specialised in its content but also unique in its locality.

This course:

• Will integrate new technological and stimulatory advances to the profession into teaching and learning practices.

• Means graduates will be eligible for certification by the Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists and Health Care Professions Council, allowing them practice as a certified SALT.

• Maintains a close working relationship with therapists in providing a professional education that is attuned to the needs of health and care provision in Wales.

• Be one of the first to ensure learners graduate with international parity among SALT graduates around the world.

• Gives graduates the ability to uphold a paediatric and/or adult caseload and can assess and treat patients with dysphagia as well as speech, language and communication needs, under supervision as a newly qualified therapist.

Key Course Features:

• Graduates are eligible for certification by the Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists upon successful completion of their Newly Qualified Practitioner year.

• The first course designed in the wake of the pandemic and therefore, has a large focus on technological and simulation enhances to the profession.

• Developed alongside service users and carers to ensure that it provides you with the qualities, skills and knowledge that matter most.

• A strong collaborative and inter-professional ethos that reflects the nature of the profession in a rapidly changing health, social and education context and the unique skill set the SLT brings to multi-agency teams.

• A balanced mix across the lifespan of paediatric and adults equips you with the clinical and professional competencies for eligible registration as a Speech and Language Therapist.

• Acknowledges contemporary issues in the workforce, enabling you to develop transferable skills for reflective practise and lifelong learning as leaders of frontline healthcare.

• The main delivery site for this course is our Wrexham campus. Occasional interprofessional education sessions may be delivered from our St Asaph campus with students from various nursing and allied health courses.

What you will study

The Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists outline five core capabilities of the SLT profession. They provide a focus for learning activities, the development of curricula and shared resources and delivery of the outcomes inherent in the vision for the workforce.

Communication Partnerships Leadership and Lifelong learning Research and Evidence based practice Professional autonomy and accountability

These will be embedded throughout the course to shape teaching and learning of the graduate.

Shared modules will have key themes such as leadership and research, motivational interviewing, professional practice and anatomy and physiology.

This is a three-year, full-time course that requires attendance at lectures, seminars, and workshops as well as engagement in asynchronous content. There is at least one clinical placement each year of study, which requires full attendance.

Welsh-speaking students have the opportunity to complete up to 40 credits each academic year through Welsh, as well as carrying out clinical placements through the medium of Welsh.

Year 1 (Level 4) In year one, you will study a range of subjects that are core to Speech and Language Therapy.

You will gain a foundation of phonetics, linguistics, research methods, theories of development, and psychology. You will also start to explore how communication skills, and eating, drinking, and swallowing skills develop across the lifespan. This includes typical language delays, cerebral palsy, and autism. You will start developing your reflection and professional skills through your experience on a pre-clinical placement in your first semester.

This is an opportunity to become familiar with communication across the lifespan and you will carry out observations and develop your interaction skills in an early years and a care home setting. In your second semester, you will embark on your first clinical placement, applying the knowledge and skills you have acquired in your first year to authentic clinical experiences.

Year 2 (Level 5) In the second year of the course, you will build on the knowledge and skills you gained in year one.

Your anatomy, physiology, and psychology teaching will be applied to clinical contexts, and you will further develop your skills in phonetic transcription. You will build on your understanding of eating drinking and swallowing from Year 1 by starting to consider developmental and acquired disorders. You will have the chance to apply these skills in your clinical placement in semester 1. You will learn about the core capabilities of the profession such as communication, partnership, and evidence-based practise.

You will explore clinical presentations of language and cognition difficulties, as well as a module dedicated to sound, hearing and audiology. You will have a further clinical placement in semester 2, where you will have the opportunity to immerse yourself in a local Speech and Language Therapy team, as well as experiencing on campus simulation days to practise your clinical and professional skills.

Year 3 (Level 6): In your final year of study, you will carry out your own research project in which you will collect and analyse unique data.

In the Speech and Language Therapy Specialisms module, you will study specialised areas of the profession, including palliative care, psychiatry, and youth justice. You will carry out two further clinical placements, consolidating your professional skills and applying your clinical knowledge and skills to paediatric and adult caseloads. You will learn about the evolving profession through considering your role in health promotion, applications of social and cultural factors to practise, and the neurodiversity movement.

Teaching & Assessment

You will be assessed by a variety of methods including:

Practice Assessment and clinical portfolio Written assignments Presentations Examinations

Teaching and learning Wrexham University is committed to supporting our students to maximise their academic potential.

We offer workshops and support sessions in areas such as academic writing, effective note-making and preparing for assignments. Students can book appointments with academic skills tutors dedicated to helping deal with the practicalities of university work. Our Student Support section has more information on the help available.

In terms of particular needs, the University’s Inclusion Services can provide appropriate guidance and support should any students require reasonable adjustments to be made because of a recognised prevailing disability, medical condition, or specific learning difference.