Ruth Jones Speech and Language Therapy

06/12/2025

‘Neurodiversity-Affirming Practice for Speech and Language Therapists’ is an essential guide to understand how to understand, support and meet the needs of neurodivergent people.

End of year sale - cheeky stocking filler for a wonderful colleague? Or a bit of self-indulgence for CPD?

Find it on the end of year sale now 👉https://invt.io/1ixbj5yuo4s

27/11/2025

New resource! I’m loving these myself in a tactile, fidget way, but also so many therapy applications.

They can be a bit tricky to stick together - but that’s my challenges, all the children I’ve seen have found it really easy.



Have you seen these?

22/11/2025

For any parents of neurodivergent teens, a chance to connect with other parents in the community.

📣 Supporting My Neurodivergent Young Person – Teens (Years 7–13) is now open for in-person bookings!

✅ Learn practical strategies to support your teen at home and school
✅ Connect with other parents in a friendly, informal setting

Free for Wiltshire resident families and school staff

6 week course for parents of teens

📍 Melksham ⏰10am–12pm

📆 Dates
• Thursday 8 Jan 2026
• Thursday 15 Jan 2026
• Thursday 22 Jan 2026
• Thursday 29 Jan 2026
• Thursday 5 Feb 2026
• Thursday 12 Feb 2026

Spaces are limited, don’t miss out!

Book your space - https://orlo.uk/OpUv7

22/11/2025

I know lots of Wiltshire individuals and families would have plenty of valuable thoughts to share.

Take your chance.

Would you like to have your say and help us improve the support available for families of children with SEND?

Complete our SEND survey by 15 December and you’ll be entered into a prize draw to win one of three £50 Amazon vouchers!

Complete the survey 👉https://orlo.uk/w9fAs

Your feedback matters, thank you for helping us make a difference.

19/11/2025

I’m not sure this needs a caption.

I like to lead with kindness and curiosity, and on the most part I feel I do this. Then there are other times where I feel my anger and sadness leads.

I’m not sure when honouring an individuals needs and bodies and supporting children to be confident, autonomous and self-advocating adults became complicated.

It’s new - for sure, it can feel radical. But I also know many adults (myself included) who would put in headphones to help productivity, support focus and regulation when working.

I know adults who use movement and fidgets to aid their attention and focus, in say a meeting or training course.

These adjustments, even if for some kids are just joining in for a bit, really don’t seem to me to harm. In fact, if all classes just had them available for children who needed them, and we normalised these things, just as we do for adults, would we promote adults now who are more understanding and accepting?

Positions of power carry just that, power, and these kind of insane comments can use that power to cause divisions and harm. It undoes the hard work educators, parents and advocates do to promote acceptance and adjustment.

14/11/2025

The clinical excellence network was so fabulous - such a joy to be amongst therapists in a space to dive into our work, with those who are open, reflective and honest.

I had such a buzzy head with all the thoughts from listening to the presentations. For me I took away how important the perspective is of readers of our reports, the individuals and their families, the narrative we write matters. To that end how we focus on strengths but offer balance and capture challenges too.

What I also came away thinking was how much we need to dismantle the systems - challenge the expectations of others, such as systems that say ‘we have to’ capture deficits and scores, but says who? Where in clinical guidance does it say that? What is more harmful?

Just a dash of things floating around my mind. Did you go? What did you take away to ponder? Or even immediate shifts you’re going to make?

✨ What a brilliant, thought-provoking day at Friday’s NDA CEN event on neurodivergent-affirming report writing ✨

We heard from four incredible SLT speakers - Beth Featherbe, Fatima Bint-Hanif, Sue Moon, and Ruth Jones - who generously shared their reflections on writing reports that truly honour and support neurodivergent children and young people.

From tensions between the ADOS, DSM and neurodiversity-affirming practice, to reflections on using the MIGDAS, each speaker brought real-world insights and practical food for thought.

This community continues to challenge, inspire and evolve - and if you’re a Speech and Language Therapist, we highly recommend joining the NDA CEN. Their events are consistently insightful, grounded, and affirming. 💬

✨ And exciting news for 2026: NDA CEN will be opening up beyond SLTs - so if you’re a professional working in ND-affirming spaces (or know someone who is), keep an eye out! 👀

Follow .cen to find out more!

Let’s keep learning, unlearning, and growing together ❤️

13/11/2025

Yay! 🙌 Work totally worth mentioning.

09/11/2025

Recently, a professional wrote that presuming competence is dangerous because it leads us to overlook vulnerability. That by presuming competence, we fail to protect, fail to offer help, fail to teach and assume people already know skills they have not yet learned. The professional’s stance confuses competence with current performance and support with correction or training.

This is not presuming competence. This is neglect.

Presuming competence is not an instructional strategy nor a belief about skill level. Presuming competence doesn’t mean assuming the person already has every skill but not demanding of someone to prove their right to access before we are willing to help them learn.

To presume competence is to recognise that a person’s understanding, agency, emotional depth and capacity for meaning-making exist regardless of whether they can demonstrate those things in neuronormative ways.
We do not treat a person as less intelligent because they communicate, learn or express differently.
We should assume cognitive presence, even when expression is delayed, non-linear or happens through non-speech communication.
We must provide access, support, scaffolding and alternative communication methods without requiring someone to prove they deserve them.

Presuming competence is an ethical stance that does not reduce someone to what is observable, nor treat one's humanity as being contingent on performance.

Moreso, vulnerability and competence are not opposites... A person can be deeply vulnerable and competent at the same time. Presuming competence allows us to support that vulnerability with dignity, instead of controlling it through fear of what might happen if we get it wrong.

Bottom line is that we don’t presume finished ability. We presume capacity, presence and potential and we support the person in accessing and expressing it.