By Chloe Keech
Magic Words Speech and Language Therapist
As a Speech & Language Therapist, I spend a large part of my day working with other professionals and adults who provide support and input for the children I see. Whether that's teachers, TAs, family members or carers. I spend my days collaborating with others to support the children I see in more than just a 1:1 capacity. Recently I've been reflecting on our work as Speech and Language Therapists collaborating with teachers in schools. In particular, when it works, and when it breaks down. As with any working relationship, things are continually shifting changing and adapting. What I want to make sure in my work with teachers is that they're changing and adapting for the better.
In society as a whole, interactions can so often become 'what I need vs what you need' or equally 'what I need vs what you will give'. How many times have you left an interaction feeling frustrated that the other person didn't seem to get it, was in the way of what you needed to do, or simply didn't help you get there? Sometimes this can be due to personality clashes, but other times it's due to people having differing agendas. What I want from the exchange differs from what you want. When working in schools, the thing that sometimes slips my mind but that helps to bring me back in is reminding myself that our goals are the same. Whenever I am working alongside a teacher, I know that my goal of supporting the child to progress is their goal too. Yes, it sits on a backdrop of a range of other responsibilities, roles to fill and of course never-ending paperwork, but in amongst all those other factors that sometimes muscle into the interaction, I can always come back to that...we want the same thing.
So, with that in mind, and with a range of experiences of these situations, I have vowed to bear these three things in mind to continue to progress in what we can achieve when working with teachers.
The first one is communication. Yep, that thing we do day in and day out, the thing we support other to do, the thing that feels second nature. The thing that sometimes we can overlook. When I approach a discussion with another professional, if I don't share my reason for choosing an approach, you won't know what the importance of it is. Equally, if there's a reason that you can't do it or don't understand what I'm asking, we'll end up going around in circles. But if we take time to share what we want doing, why, any obstacles there might be, we end up having so much more success. So often it can seem like what needs time, but so often I need more because I need you to believe and invest in what I'm
working towards.
The second point is compassion. As teachers and Speech & Language Therapists, we end up with so many things that we have to check off our to do lists. Outside of the time with the young people, we also have notes, planning, liaising, marking...the list is endless. We often aren't compassionate towards ourselves (though that's a separate topic) and so often though we're thoughtful and compassionate and kind, we don't always have the time to stop and think. We power on through because we want to check things off our lists, but sometimes when we stop and put ourselves in the other person's shoes, the time we do put in goes so much further, because we can check our expectations, and share them in a more considerate way.
The final point is compromise. A little compromise can get us a long way. If we've taken the time to be compassionate and think about the other person's point of view,
things really fall into place. I know what I want to happen, but when people are stretched and busy, sometimes we get so much more when we give a little (on both sides).
I genuinely feel with these three things in mind, the only way for collaborative working to go is up. How do you feel about working with others? When does it work and when doesn't it? We're always open to feedback and reflections, so please share with us if any of this strikes a chord with you!
