Ruth Jones Speech and Language Therapy

29/01/2026

SEN EYFS Teacher job from Silverwood School. Apply by 2 Mar 2026.

29/01/2026

29/01/2026

21/01/2026

I am one of the speakers at the National Autistic Society Annual Professionals’ Conference – which is being held live online on 12th March 2026.

The theme of the conference is rethinking support through neuroinclusive practice.

I am going to be doing an on-demand recorded talk on neurodiversity affirming practice for speech, language and communication needs.

The line up of speakers looks fab!

Tickets and information available at www.autism.org.uk/conference

18/01/2026

Anyone who is interested in reflecting on their practice, when supporting communication, behaviour, social interactions and how to consider neurodiversity affirming practice - my books in the sale!

https://www.routledge.com/Neurodiversity-Affirming-Practice-for-Speech-and-Language-Therapists-Supporting-Curiosity-Compassion-and-Conversation/Jones/p/book/9781032689326

16/01/2026

This week I have been speaking with a parent who had a hypothesis about something causing their child upset, changes to their communication and responses and a teacher who agreed the child’s presentation had changed and they felt anxiety was driving it.

So we did a visual, kind of social story, come validating their experiences, come coaching for future experiences kind of thing..!

But it got me thinking about underlying my practice has always been the concept of the positive risk - if we weigh up making the visual, offering opportunity to explore the anxiety or the shift in a child’s presentation we could do something really powerful and meaningful.

We can worry about harm, or making things worse so it has to be weighed up. But I spend so much of my time talking to parents where we wonder ‘it could be this…’ or ‘maybe that’s what it was…’ and why don’t we test it?

To honour their communication style, appeal to their strengths in visual processing, to validate their lived experiences (or at least those who know them well and have a blooming good guess) is all affirming practice.

And sometimes, you even hit the nail on the head and have a really incredible impact.

Do you have any experiences of using visuals to ‘test the hypothesis?’

15/01/2026

Off to a school contract this morning and meeting a teacher to plan a group, I’m not sure what we will call it but it’s an exciting one!

The groups going to focus on exploring and informing the students on difference and diversity. While they are all neurodivergent we are going to offer space to just explore the concepts.

No pressure to talk or share their personal experiences, it might not feel safe for them.

But activities and content that can inform, with space to reflect. The team will attend so they can support conversations that might crop up outside of the group and feed into each weeks plan.

This kind of practice I’d have done years ago would have been called a social skills group, and we would have been talking about neurotypical skills as the ones to learn and use. It’s so nice to have space to reflect on growth and learning.

Have a good day!