Speech and Language Therapy Provision in a Social Education Centre: The Value of a ‘First Step’ Assessment

This paper follows up a group of 84 students in a social education centre (SEC) who had been screened and allocated to groups according to their communication needs. Each student was allocated to one of seven clinical groups as follows: preverbal; low comprehension/low expression; social skills; low comprehension/high expression; intelligibility; unplaced; no involvement. It proved possible to review 74 out of the 84 students. Of these 58 (78.3%) were considered to be correctly placed in the first instance. The communication needs of those felt to be incorrectly placed are discussed and alternative suggestions made. The results indicate that a simple question and answer screening schedule completed by key workers and where appropriate, students, can prove an efficient point of departure when introducing a service to a SEC. Such a clearly defined approach was felt to have positive implications both for the care staff and for the service as a whole.