Senior Speech and Language Therapist – Paediatrics
Senior Speech and Language Therapist – Paediatrics
The Senior Speech and Language Therapist will provide specialist, evidence-based assessment and intervention for children with speech, language, communication, eating, drinking and swallowing difficulties.
The role will have a particular focus on paediatric feeding and swallowing, alongside clinical leadership, supervision and multidisciplinary working.
Key Clinical Responsibilities of Senior Speech and Language Therapist
- Specialist assessment and management of paediatric feeding, eating and drinking difficulties.
- Assessment of oral motor, oral sensory and functional feeding skills, including chewing, biting, tongue movements and bolus management.
- Supporting development of age-appropriate feeding skills, including bottle, cup and straw drinking and progression through textures and consistencies.
- Assessment and management of children with oropharyngeal dysphagia, including identification of aspiration risk and appropriate onward referral.
- Development of individualised, safe and practical feeding and swallowing management plans.
- Supporting children with food refusal, restricted diets, sensory-based feeding difficulties and complex mealtime presentations.
- Working collaboratively with families to develop practical strategies that can be implemented at home and in everyday mealtimes.
- Contributing to multidisciplinary management of children who are tube-fed or transitioning towards oral feeding.
- Providing assessment and intervention for speech, language, communication and AAC needs as appropriate.
Clinical Leadership
- Provide clinical leadership within the paediatric SLT service.
- Manage and prioritise a specialist caseload according to clinical need and risk.
- Provide supervision, mentoring and support to junior therapists and students.
- Contribute to clinical guidelines, feeding pathways, audit and quality improvement.
- Promote evidence-based practice and continuing professional development.
Essential Experience of Senior Speech and Language Therapist
- Significant post-qualification Speech and Language Therapy experience.
- Substantial paediatric clinical experience.
- Strong specialist experience in paediatric feeding, eating, drinking and swallowing.
- Experience working within neonatal settings, supporting the assessment and management of infants with feeding, swallowing and communication needs, while collaborating closely with families and the multidisciplinary team.
- Experience assessing and managing children with dysphagia and complex feeding presentations.
- Experience developing individualised feeding plans and supporting families.
- Excellent clinical reasoning, communication and multidisciplinary working skills.
- Experience providing supervision or mentoring to less experienced clinicians.
Desirable Experience
- Paediatric hospital experience.
- Complex paediatric dysphagia and tube feeding.
- Sensory-based feeding difficulties and food selectivity.
- Instrumental swallowing assessment.
- AAC and complex communication needs.
- Clinical audit, research or service development experience.
About the author
