This paper explores current thinking on adult learning and discusses its application to the clinical education of speech and language therapy students. It is based on evidence from a two-year project funded by the Trent Regional Consortium, which is trialling an innovative means of providing paediatric placements. The educational literature has recognised for some time the importance of student-centred teaching and learning and has encouraged movement away from a didactic teacher-student model to one where students are seen as active in the learning process. This paper offers a model as to how these principles may be applied to clinical placements to promote self-directed lifelong learning and to prepare speech and language therapists to meet the challenges of continuing professional development and the ever-changing working environment.

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The provision of a speech and language therapy service to a school-age child with little home support and no identified provision for extra help in school has always proved challenging to service providers and causes many services to make hard choices in terms of best use of limited resources. These children commonly at stage three of the Code of Practice (Department for Education 1994) fall between two stools: a school which cannot provide extra help in order to carry out a speech and language therapy programme; and a speech and language therapy service which cannot effect change without back up in the home or school. In this paper a project which provides therapy programmes to this group of children via a student clinical placements initiative is reported. The project is discussed in terms of client outcomes data and offers suggestions as to how findings may be interpreted.