Empowering Voices (Supporting People with Diverse Communication and Cognitive Needs)

To empower every voice, we must value different communication styles, recognising, respecting and adapting to diversity. While we often listen to understand others’ feelings, views, wishes, and perspectives, some children, young people, or adults may express themselves in ways that aren’t immediately clear to us.

This course is recommended for anyone working with children, young people or adults with neurodiversity, cognitive and communication difficulties in education-, health- and care-based settings.

Empowering Voices Explained

Typically, we listen to others to ascertain their feelings, views, wishes, and perspectives on various topics or situations. However, what if we are unable to comprehend what the other person is conveying? At times, a child, young person, or adult may communicate in a manner that is not immediately clear to us. We must challenge ourselves to understand diverse communication styles. Our Empowering Voices training challenges you to rethink and refine your approach to communication, encouraging greater awareness, flexibility, and respect for the unique ways people express themselves.

Course Content

Upon completion of this training, learners will be able to:

• Understand the relationship between neurodiversity, cognition and communication.
• Recognise the historical context of disabled people's voices.
• Describe key models of disability and their relevance to disability rights.
• Use respectful, inclusive language around disability and demonstrate increased confidence with Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC) tools.
• Identify common communication barriers and apply strategies to overcome them.
• Understand the purpose and practical use of communication passports.
• Recognise when Non-Instructed Advocacy is appropriate.

This Empowering Voices training will be delivered via a live, interactive webinar. The training session will be delivered by a member of our highly experienced training team. 

NYAS is a leading, national rights-based charity who deliver a range of services, including appropriate adults and age assessments, to children across England and Wales. We have practical experience within this training area, and your learning will be supported by our expert guidance and a supporting handbook.

You can find all available training dates below - new dates are added regularly so keep an eye on this page for any updates if the dates below don't work for you. If you're looking to discuss bespoke training dates, please email [email protected] and our team will be happy to help.