Yvonne Edwardson – Down Syndrome Cheshire’s Education Advocate Manager

“We’ve now completed the three ‘The Basics of Speech & Language’ training sessions funded by Saluto, and we would like to thank you for the additional support that this will give for the 200 children we support across Cheshire, Warrington and Halton.

Over the course of the sessions, we covered AAC devices, speech sounds, stammering, and strategies such as Colourful Semantics. The training has been extremely valuable for our team; they were a great opportunity to ask questions and posed some useful discussion points.

The knowledge gained will directly benefit the younger children we support through our ‘Cheeky Monkey’ sessions. We now feel better equipped to offer practical strategies for parents to support their child’s speech development at home, and more confident in recognising when a referral to SALT is needed.

The AAC training was particularly useful. We’ve already identified several children in schools who could benefit from using a device, and we now feel much more confident in knowing when to escalate for further support.

The session on Colourful Semantics reinforced our existing understanding that will help us guide staff in using the approach more effectively.

Overall, the sessions have significantly increased our confidence in identifying speech and language needs and making appropriate referrals. We will be able to cascade this learning through our training courses and advice to parents and professionals supporting the children at home and in schools. The additional knowledge will also strengthen our contributions to EHCPs and SALT targets, enabling us to explain targets and how to implement them, as well as judging if a child has achieved the targets and if they need further input from a SALT.

Thank you again for the opportunity, it’s been incredibly beneficial.”