Speech and Language Therapy MMedSci

Program Overview

This three-year program qualifies graduates to register as speech and language therapists. It provides a comprehensive education in anatomy, language cognition, speech development, and clinical assessment and intervention techniques. Students gain practical experience through clinical placements in various healthcare and educational settings. Graduates are in high demand for roles in the NHS, schools, and private practices, among others.

Program Outline

Degree Overview:

This course qualifies you to practise as a speech and language therapist. When you graduate, you’ll be able to work in a range of settings including schools, hospitals, care homes, nurseries, clinics and clients’ homes. You will study a wide variety of difficulties that adults and children can have with communicating and/or eating, drinking and swallowing. Topics range from anatomy and physiology, and their relationship with speech and language pathology, to the psychological and sociological factors that can affect communication. The course also gives you practical knowledge of how to assess communication or eating, drinking and swallowing difficulty, identify suitable interventions and manage an individual's case. You will also complete pre-registration eating, drinking and swallowing competencies. This training will be put into practice and developed through a series of clinical placements, both within the University of Sheffield’s in-house speech and language therapy clinic and in a variety of health and education settings. This will include the respiratory, cardiovascular and nervous systems, the development, structure and function of head, and neck, and the auditory system.

• Speech, language, communication and literacy development in children: This module will cover children's development of speech, language, communication and literacy.
The lectures will cover developmental norms and trajectories. It will also cover factors which influence typical development. The theoretical basis of the topic will be considered from a multidisciplinary perspective, covering psychology, education, sociolinguistics, and linguistics.
• Introduction to practical Linguistics: This module will introduce students to the scientific study of the structure and function of language.
Students will learn basic linguistic concepts and theoretical constructs with special application to how these ideas help us understand speech in both typically and atypically developing populations.
• Language cognition and communication in adults 1: This unit aims to introduce students to features of language, cognition and communication in adults which are relevant to the understanding of how normal ageing and neurological damage impacts on adult language, cognition and communication.
It aims to equip students with conceptual and terminological framework which underpin research in these areas. Content includes: theoretical models of disability; psychosocial impact of disability across the lifespan; concepts of self and identity; concepts of attitudes and their measurement; health beliefs and behaviours and the role of gender, socioeconomic and cultural factors in healthcare and education. Students will be encouraged to reflect on their own experiences, attitudes and interpersonal skills in the context of their impact on interactions with clients, their families and other professionals.
• Professional Practice 1: This module aims to introduce the student to their first experience of clinical placements across paediatric and adult clients across the calendar year.
Students learn the clinical methods and skills required for these placements as well as developing their inter-personal and professional competencies. Students then complete a series of placements with paediatric and adult clients with communication and or eating, drinking and swallowing difficulties across a range of settings..

Year Two:

• Speech and Hearing Science: This module covers key concepts related to the scientific study of speech and hearing.
There will be three broad areas covered within the module: articulatory phonetics, acoustic phonetics, and hearing science. The module will teach concepts relevant to the study of speech and hearing in both healthy and clinical populations. The module will be delivered using a combination of lectures and problem solving classes and will be assessed via two 1500 word assignments. The module profiles these developmental differences in children and adolescents, and includes learning difficulties, autism spectrum conditions and other neurodevelopmental differences. The module examines these developmental differences in the context of the diverse environments children grow up in. The impact of these developmental differences on children's lives as they grow older (eg. educational experiences, learning and well-being) are highlighted. Other perspectives are explored such as those of the parent/carer.
• Language cognition and communication in adults 2: This module builds on material covered in Language cognition and communication in adults 1 at level 1 which students will cover via online learning and which is not directly assessed..
• Research Methods and Statistics: This module is designed to introduce students to research methods and data analysis techniques through a series of lectures and small-group workshops.
Topics covered will include (1) an introduction to research methods and the research process (2) formulating research questions and hypotheses (3) descriptive statistics and presenting data (4) samples and population distributions and (5) statistical tests (e.g., parametric and nonparametric tests; correlational analyses) (6) qualitative methods (7) principles of psychometrics (8) reliability, validity and effect sizes.
• Key Clinical Topics 1: This module aims to equip students with the theoretical knowledge of a range of specific clinical topics in speech and language therapy.
These topics include dysphagia, motor speech disorders, voice and neurology across child and adult populations. The themes of assessment, intervention, evidence based practice, standards of practice and clinical ethics and inter-disciplinary working will underpin these topics and enable integration across the topics.
• Professional Practice 2: This module aims to consolidate students' clinical skills through two long supervised block placements across children and adult clients in semesters 1 and 2.
Through these supervised placements, student will develop their professional skills and practice to become more independent practitioners. Students complete a pre-school/schools based placement working with children with communication impairments in Sheffield and a motor speech disorders group placement working with adults with acquired communication impairments in the HCS clinic. The placements are supported by lectures and seminars to prepare students for these placements.

Year Three:

• Language Analysis: Sound and Structure: This module builds on the linguistic knowledge gained in Introduction to Practical Linguistics, applying and honing students' phonetic observation skills using clinical data.
Training will focus on the use of extIPA Symbols for Disordered Speech and VoQS (Voice Quality Symbols), as well as introduce phonological concepts relevant to clinicians such as syllable structure, prosodic structure, and dialectal differences within a language.
• Transition to Professional Autonomy: This module will address issues relevant to work in modern healthcare and education contexts.
It addresses the following issues: Employment (job hunting, CV writing and interview skills, support mechanisms, first posts, independent practice); The healthcare context (Ethics in clinical practice, Caseload management, Clinical governance, professional competencies and professional guidelines).
• Evaluating the evidence base in speech and language therapy 1: Principles and methods: Evidence-based practice is the integration of best research evidence with clinical expertise and patient experience in making decisions about the care of individual patients in speech and language therapy.
This module introduces the principles and methods of evidence-based clinical practice. Students will (1) critically evaluate the methodological quality of the research using evidence-based practice and (2) apply these conclusions to clinical practice.
• Evaluating the evidence base in speech and language therapy II: Clinical dissertation: Evidence-based practice is the integration of high quality research evidence with clinical expertise and service users experience in making decisions about the care of individual patients in speech and language therapy.
Building on the skills and knowledge acquired in Evaluating the evidence base in speech and language therapy I: Principles and Methods, this module will enable students to further develop and apply their knowledge of research methodology appropriate to the study of language and communication. Students will also gain an enhanced understanding of appropriate approaches to research design for evidence based practice.
• Key Clinical Topics 2: This module aims to equip students with the theoretical knowledge of a range of specific clinical topics in speech and language therapy.
These topics include a range of client groups and communication difficulties across child and adult populations. The themes of assessment, intervention, evidence based practice, standards of practice and clinical ethics and multi-disciplinary working will underpin these topics and enable integration across the topics.
• Professional Practice 3: This module aims to prepare students for independent practice as a speech and language therapist.
Students complete two placements as follows: 1) a summer block placement with adult clients; and 2) a summer block placement with paediatric clients. Placements take place across the NHS, education and independent sector. Students are assessed at the end of the placements to determine their ability to graduate as independent practitioners and work as newly qualified practitioners. Note: some placements may be mixed across paediatric and adult clients

Assessment:

You will be assessed through exams, coursework, evaluation of your clinical practice and, in your final year, a dissertation.

Teaching:

You will learn through lectures, workshops, tutorials, supervised clinical placements and self-directed learning. We use a case-based and inquiry-based approach, as well as small-group teaching, to give you an interactive learning experience. Placements Placements start in semester one and carry on throughout the programme. During semesters one and two, placements run alongside teaching, so that you can link the topics you are studying to clinical practice. You will then spend part of the summer each year on clinical placements. Full-time students also spend four weeks (20 days) on clinical placement over the summer at the end of level one and five weeks (25 days) in the summer of level two. Part-time students also spend 20 days on clinical placement over the summer at the end of level one, then 15 days in the summer of level two and 15 days in the summer of level three. Usually, summer placements also take place over three days a week, on the same days of the week as semester two of that year – so you would complete 20 days on placement in the summer of level one over seven weeks, for example. However, these dates can be more flexible over the summer, if a different schedule would be more suitable and this can be arranged with your placement provider.

Careers:

Graduates from this course are able to register with the Health and Care Professions Council and practise as speech and language therapists. Speech and language therapists are in high demand, and there are plenty of opportunities to specialise in areas such as mental health, stammering, hearing impairment, learning difficulties, eating, drinking and swallowing difficulties, or neurological impairments. Many of our graduates have gone on to successful careers within NHS trusts, schools, charities, private practices or the justice system. Individual modules are occasionally updated or withdrawn. This is in response to discoveries through our world-leading research; funding changes; professional accreditation requirements; student or employer feedback; outcomes of reviews; and variations in staff or student numbers. In the event of any change we'll consult and inform students in good time and take reasonable steps to minimise disruption.

Fees for 2 years, full-time route Home (2024 annual fee) : £9,250 Overseas (2024 annual fee) : £29,700 Fees for 3 years, part-time route Home (2024 annual fee) : £6,166 Part-time study is only available for those who do not require a visa to study in the UK.