Becky Baxter

BSc (Hons) Speech Sciences, Stage 2 British Sign Language

Becky studied Speech Sciences at University College London and qualified as a Speech and Language Therapist in June 2007. She is currently studying for a Masters degree in Language and Communication Impairments in Children. Becky has also completed her British Sign Language level 2 and received training in MAKATON.

Roles

• Speech and Language Therapist

Responsibilities

Becky is involved in the Early Development Groups held at Down Syndrome Education International. She provides individual sessions during these groups which focus on demonstrating early intervention and specific speech and language activities and provide some ideas and activities for practice at home.  Becky also takes part in the Open / Advice Days, in house workshops and training days around the country.  She is also involved in several of the research projects that the charity is currently running.

Current Project Involvement

• Early Development Groups
• Research
  • Early speech and language development
  • Speech fluency
  • Early reading intervention
• See and Learn
• Training and workshops

Background

Becky has worked with children with Down syndrome since 1999. Initially she worked as a Nursery Nurse before becoming a support assistant in a mainstream infant school supporting a child with Down syndrome. Becky then decided to pursue a career in the profession by studying a degree course at UCL in Speech Sciences. This four year course has enabled Becky to supplement the practical working knowledge and experience she initially gained with a strong academic and more theoretically based understanding. The degree course also included long term work placements working with children at Great Ormond Street Hospital and a Speech and Language Impairment (SLI) unit attached to a mainstream school. For her final year at UCL she commenced a longitudinal research project on speech and language development in children with Down syndrome here at the charity. With the support of the charity and the Psychology Department at UCL, Becky is continuing this research as part of her role at the charity.