Assessment and management of eating drinking and swallowing difficulties in Adults with a Learning Disability and Children
Working with eating, drinking and swallowing (EDS) difficulties is both challenging and deeply rewarding. With the right training, your team can provide safe, skilled, and confident care. This 4-day course equips SLTs to assess and manage EDS difficulties in children (12+ months) and adults with learning disabilities, supporting them to meet the 2025 RCSLT competency framework and make a lasting difference in your service.
4 Day Paediatric and ALD Eating, Drinking and Swallowing Course.
23rd – 26th March 2026 £830 Booking open
Our 4-day taught course is designed to equip speech and language therapists with the skills to assess and manage eating, drinking, and swallowing difficulties in adults with learning disabilities and children over 12 months of age.
Please note: this course does not cover the assessment or management of dysphagia in neonates.
Course Structure
DAY 1
- Normal development of eating and drinking
- Oro-motor assessment (including cranial nerves)
- Conducting dysphagia assessments (including anatomy and physiology of both the normal swallowing process and dysphagia)
DAY 2
- Generating risk of aspiration and hypothesis based on clinical findings
- Case Presentations
DAY 3
- Management of Respiratory, Sensory and Motor based dysphagia.
DAY 4
- Role of the MDT in assessment and management of dysphagia
- Specific Assessments (including introductions to Pulse Oximetry, Cervical Auscultation and Videofluoroscopy)
- Professional and Ethical issues in dysphagia management (including Mental Capacity, Best Interests and Feeding at Risk)
- Professional skills (including prioritisation, report writing and guideline writing)
The course combines lectures, case presentations, demonstrations, and hands-on activities, providing a rich learning environment to develop both knowledge and practical skills. It supports delegates in working through the RCSLT Eating, Drinking and Swallowing Competency Framework (2025).
What Delegates Learn
Delegates will build a strong foundation in assessment, diagnosis, report writing, and hypothesis-driven management planning. They’ll gain insight into therapy techniques and evidence-based practice, all delivered in a supportive, small-group environment. The course reflects the RCSLT EDS competency framework 2025, ensuring alignment with current professional standards.
Who Should Attend?
Delegates must:
- Have completed pre-registration EDS competencies where appropriate
- Have EDS responsibilities in their job description
- Have an identified Supervisor
Supervisors must:
- Be familiar with the RCSLT EDS competencies
- Be working in dysphagia at a proficient level
- Be able to support clinical skill development in practice and sign the framework
Delivery and Format
The course runs annually with limited places to allow for small group work, individual attention, and supported skills development. Delegates benefit from learning alongside peers and from the extensive experience of two senior clinicians. There is no longer an assessed element to this course.
FAQ’s
Do I need to attend an external course?
No. It is not necessary for you to have attended an external course to meet your dysphagia competencies. Some teams can provide EDS teaching internally. However, where local resources or time are limited, an external course like this one offers a cost-effective, comprehensive and clinically rich learning experience.
“It helped having very knowledgeable presenters and the opportunity to just focus on dysphagia for a week”
Do I need to complete a case study?
No. The course is no longer assessed. Delegates complete their competencies at a pace that suits them and their service.
How do I ensure I am a competent dysphagia practitioner?
You’ll need to demonstrate foundation-level competence across areas outlined in the RCSLT 2025 framework. Your workplace supervisor must observe and sign off each skill as you achieve it. We support you with the knowledge and practical skills to get there confidently.
You can access the RCSLT eating drinking and swallowing competency document here.
“The way of the teaching/training is very effective with a good balance to support understanding and learning”
Why should I attend the taught days?
Attending an intensive course like ours means that you will become fully immersed within the field of dysphagia, you will have the opportunity to hear from two experienced clinicians and learn the core components necessary to support your journey to an independent dysphagia clinician.
They will provide you with a range of opportunities to develop skills in assessment, diagnosis, report writing, creating hypothesis driven management plans, using therapy techniques. You will be taken through an extensive knowledge base in the areas of eating drinking and swallowing to allow you to further develop towards becoming and independent practitioner and you will learn in a supportive environment with other therapists.
“I believe that this is an amazing course to enrol in especially since its lens is focused on LD and yet, provides a review on basic concepts that an SLT needs as building blocks on Dysphagia. Jenni and Sarah also provided valuable input and scenarios that are applicable when practicing in the community.”
Why have you removed the assessed element?
Service delivery has changed. Not all delegates can access suitable cases or resources within a course timeline. By removing the formal assessment, we offer a more adaptable model aligned to current realities and the 2025 competency framework.
“The most positive aspect of this training has been the immense level of detail provided, along with the valuable resources made available. The comprehensive information has deepened my understanding, and the supporting materials have been incredibly useful for reinforcing learning and applying it in practice.”
Course content and learning outcomes are directly aligned with the RCSLT framework, enabling delegates to practice safely and confidently within an evidence-based, critically appraised model of care.
Attendance on the course also supports continued professional development (CPD), helping delegates to manage their own learning and confidently share new knowledge and skills with colleagues in their workplace.
“One of the most important parts of the course was building the theory basis and carrying out some practice with support”