Clinical Speech and Language Studies (M.Sc.)

Overview

Course Overview

The aims of the course are to provide qualified Speech and Language Therapists with opportunities to advance their academic knowledge and professional practice skills within specific clinical specialisms: Dysphagia, Voice, or Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC).

Graduates will demonstrate excellence in clinical practice through extending and enhancing their existing theoretical knowledge base with a critical awareness of new insights and developments within their chosen clinical specialist area. Students will also be able to design and implement, with a degree of autonomy, and with due regard to ethical considerations, small-scale research studies in their chosen area.

Is This Course For Me?

The course provides additional specialist qualifications to already qualified Speech and Language Therapists and does not serve as initial qualification to practice as a Speech and Language Therapist.  Those without an existing qualification in Speech and Language Therapy/Speech-Language Pathology should therefore not apply.

Career Opportunities

Graduates have gone on to become expert clinicians in their field and to administer clinical practices. Other graduates have also continued to run research studies in their chosen clinical specialist area and pursued further education and academic research, such as a Ph.D.

Course Structure

Applicants wishing to pursue Dysphagia or Voice may do so on full-time basis, with core modules and a dissertation completed in one year.

Modules take place over 12 weeks within the academic year.  Each week consists of five full days of teaching. Students must attend Trinity College Dublin for these teaching weeks. Additional assignment work, self-directed learning, and clinical work must be conducted outside of these weeks.

Course Content

Students will take the following modules: Advanced Clinical Skills (AAC, Dysphagia or Voice); Dissertation; Evidence Based Practice; Research Methods 1 (quantitative focus); Research Methods 2 (qualitative focus); Research Methods 3 (research design and research ethics focus).

The Dissertation module is associated with the research project that must be completed by the student. This module is taken in first year by full-time students and second year by part-time students. All other modules are in first year.

During the programme, students must also complete a minimum of 80 hours clinical work in their chosen specialist area. Students who take the Dysphagia specialism and who have not completed a qualifying course in dysphagia will have to complete additional preparatory work. These students must have at least 40 of the required 80 clinical hours supervised by Speech and Language Therapists recognised by the Department of Clinical Speech and Language Studies at Trinity.

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