Communicate and Connect -supporting staff with communication and self-advocates with speaking out. Some reflections on a placement and the importance of rights and communication.

Hello, my name is Archer Morgan and I am a speech and language therapy student from the University of Manchester on placement with Total Communication Services CIC working with adults with learning disabilities. I had Alison Matthews and Helen Newman as my placement leads, both of which are Speech and Language Therapists (SLTs).

SLTs have a vital role to play in supporting advocacy, providing guidance and support on the most appropriate method or style of communication and sharing theory about communication development.  

This was seen throughout my placement with Total Communication Services CIC, when supporting Alison with this year’s project ‘Communication and Connect’. This was through a multitude of scenarios.

One of these scenarios was when I was supporting Alison with providing training to support staff, where she shared information on the stages of communication development and the stages of symbolic development. Despite the staff having some awareness of these concepts, they had not been exposed to the underpinning theory, they just adjusted their ways of communication, intuitively just knowing it works. Furthermore, the understanding of symbolic development helped staff to understand the best ways to show choices to their service users, such as showing them the actual object instead of a picture as they don’t understand them to be the same thing, promoting improved communication between staff and service users. It also gave them the tools to write in their case notes now best to support their service users, ensuring other professions take it into consideration when caring for them, advocating on behalf of their service users to make sure they are heard. Additionally, giving the staff training allows them to support training the service users and other members of staff at their places of work, making this information more available and normalised.

SLTs would embrace a broad range of communication approaches. However, this doesn’t mean purely teaching positive language. Recently, in teaching practice there has been discussion about idea of using the word naughty and therefore the sign for bad/naughty. People do not want to use negative language when describing someone (e.g, a child is naughty) despite this being very unfair to take a vital word away from people, as the word ‘bad’ has many other meanings than just describing someone, it could describe a behaviour or a food as ‘bad’ both of which it would be used to keep individuals safe as well as giving an understanding about right vs wrong.

I do understand the ideology of not wanting to associate someone with purely negative connotations, however you wouldn’t tell a child they can’t learn the word bad, so why stop someone signing it?

There is also a level of connection that S&LTs can have with service users, since we are there to help them to connect with others, which first potentially requires them to connect with us. We may also be a relief to them, being a way for them to finally be heard and understood without impatience and judgement as well as giving them the tools to interact with others.

This can be seen through the self-advocate group with Rochdale People First, where we were teaching them important signs you may not first think of. These are signs such as advocacy signs and fire safety signs, as well as day-to-day signs such as activities, daily living and food signs, all of which are on the Total Communication YouTube channel (https://m.youtube.com/@TotalCommunicationServicesCIC). This advocacy group was also an important part of the creation process, choosing the sign topics and giving us feedback on the signs we had chosen to make sure they were as clear as they could be. We then also had Gareth Welford who has a learning disability, ADHD and autism and is the non-executive director of Total Communication, to help record some of the signs.

It is important for advocacy to not just have co-production but also co-delivery, since it promotes important topics such as accessibility and inclusion. Inclusion being especially important since it shows that the people they are talking about can and will speak up for themselves, breaking down stereotypes which can prevent them from doing activities that we take for granted such as being able to work. Since people with learning disabilities are less likely to find work, only 53.1% of disabled people were employed compared to 81.6% of non-disabled people in 2024 (GOV.UK, 2025), a significant gap that doesn’t need to be there but is due to discrimination and fear, since only 1 in 5 people with disability, health condition or impairment inform their employers about it (Quinn Roache, 2025).

SLTs will have a role in supporting people in having a voice when starting conversations at work and ensuring they fully understand how the conversation may go, how to best ask for reasonable adjustments and more. This could lead to a role for S&LT in supporting pupil voice enabling them to self-advocate for instance an EHCP plan.

This is not the only place that SLTs can help people find a voice, such as people with dementia, since as they progress they lose their ability to communicate as effectively as they once did. SLTs will find other ways that are easier for them to communicate, such as talking mats to understand what is important to them. SLTs can also help them choose if they like their accommodation or not and which ones may be better for them.

One final way that SLTs can help someone find their voice is through supporting self-advocacy groups, this can be seen again with Rochdale People first and my placement. The group had asked to learn some Signalong vocabulary, and they felt Signalong is very important for them but also for many other people with learning disabilities. It gives them a way to communicate using a  simplified sign support system alongside speech. This is helpful for individuals where they may experience difficulties understanding and where they may struggle to use speech. Furthermore, it is the official signing support system of their area in that there is a policy to use Signalong in Rochdale, Bury and Oldham amongst other areas. Consistency of sign support systems is vital across services.  The decision to opt for Signalong as the preferred method was made initially by self-advocates in Oldham back in the 1990s and ever since then some regions have respected their voice and used a consistent approach in school and in the local community services.

Another issue for support staff we encountered on the placement was that due to austerity cuts there is a lack of access to training and resources, which is similar for other forms of communication aids since most advocacy groups are non-for-profit. This has left the 3rd sector to fill the void left by the public sector. This is seen through the training Total Communication Services CIC provides to support staff, ensuring that none of the service users go through their lives unheard and staff come out more educated on Signalong but other important topics too, such as intensive interaction, communication with parents with learning disabilities and visual support for communication.

Overall, S&LTs play a massive role to play in supporting advocacy. Especially for people with learning disabilities, from supporting the individuals themselves to the staff that support them, leading to better communication between the two. Signing is just one approach and it may not work for everyone so it is important to have an S&LT to support them deciding the best communication approaches which give them the opportunities to speak for themselves.

This has purely positive implications for both, having ideas be effectively explained to their communication partner. This can prevent misconceptions between the staff and service users, which can mean they are more likely to agree to do what is asked of them because they understand as well as prevent panic, it can also prevent frustration from not being understood. We are in desperate need of third sector provisions to fill gaps that were left by the austerity cuts to allow support staff to continue to improve the ways people communicate and connect with their service users.

"We have the right to sign bad"

REFERENCES:

GOV.UK (2025) ‘The employment of disabled people’ Available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/the-employment-of-disabled-people-2024/the-employment-of-disabled-people-2024  (Accessed: 17th December 2025)

Quinn Roache (2025) ‘Bullying, harassment and discrimination of disabled people in the workplace’ Available at: https://www.tuc.org.uk/research-analysis/reports/bullying-harassment-and-discrimination-disabled-people-workplace (Accessed: 17th December 2025)