Description
Sensory Integration within Speech and Language Therapy Practice
Communication is never only about words. Eating is never just about the mouth.
How a person notices, organises and responds to sensory information can shape how they listen, move, speak, use AAC, eat, drink and participate in everyday life.
Join this fully asynchronous online workshop exploring sensory integration through a Speech and Language Therapy lens.
Work through the learning at your own pace using guided teaching, reflective activities, practical examples and case based clinical reasoning. A live discussion space is available for questions, shared reflection and connection with other participants as you progress through the course.
All learning materials are provided through our bespoke learning management platform. Participants will also be able to access relevant peer support groups, creating opportunities to continue discussions, reflect on practice and connect with colleagues beyond the course.
The focus is not on labels, checklists or quick solutions. Instead, the workshop supports thoughtful clinical curiosity, more precise observation and needs led practice that respects autonomy, safety, communication and the person’s own experience.
Who is this workshop for?
This workshop is suitable for Speech and Language Therapists, assistants and other relevant professionals working with people across the lifespan and with a wide range of cognitive and communication abilities.
This may include autistic people, people with Developmental Language Disorder, ADHD, Dyspraxia or Developmental Coordination Disorder, sensory integration and processing differences affecting communication, feeding and swallowing presentations, trauma, mental health needs, cerebral palsy, Down syndrome and other complex presentations.
For those working in schools, the learning also considers universal, targeted and specialist approaches. It explores when environmental and communication adjustments may support participation, when collaborative planning may be needed, and when referral to other members of the multidisciplinary team may be helpful, including Allied Health Professionals with advanced postgraduate education in Ayres Sensory Integration®.
The workshop provides an introduction to sensory integration and its relevance to Speech and Language Therapy. It does not provide competence in specialist sensory integration assessment or Ayres Sensory Integration® intervention.
Prerequisite
All participants must complete the free Sensory Ladders® training before beginning the workshop.
This provides a shared foundation and allows the course to focus on sensory integration and its relevance to Speech and Language Therapy, rather than repeating introductory learning about changing states, communication and supportive action.
Learning outcomes
By the end of the workshop, participants will be able to:
- Outline the foundations of sensory integration; a foundational neurological process, define sensory processing and Ayres’ theory of Sensory Integration, considering the relevance to Speech and Language Therapy practice.
- Describe, at an introductory level, the differences between sensory registration, perception/discrimination, praxis and responsivity/modulation.
- Recognise how sensory integration and processing differences may influence communication, interaction, praxis, eating, drinking and participation.
- Explore introductory links between tactile, proprioceptive, vestibular, auditory, visual, olfactory, gustatory and interoceptive information and speech, language and communication.
- Consider how body awareness, postural control, bilateral integration, motor planning and praxis may contribute to communication access and oral-motor organisation.
- Describe how universal, targeted and specialist approaches can be used within school practice, and recognise when environmental and communication adjustments, collaborative planning or referral for more specialist assessment may be appropriate.
- Use a sensory lens carefully when reflecting on selected case examples across clinic, school, home and everyday settings.
- Identify simple, respectful and neuroaffirming environmental and communication adjustments that may support access and participation.
- Explain the distinction between sensory-informed Speech and Language Therapy, Occupational Therapy and Physiotherapy practice, sensory integration assessment and Ayres Sensory Integration® – the intervention.
- Recognise when collaborative working with, or referral to, other members of the multidisciplinary team may be helpful, including Allied Health Professionals with advanced postgraduate education in Ayres Sensory Integration®.
