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- Alonna
- Bondar
- 1539 East 37th Street
Brooklyn
New York
11234
United States - A Bondar Speech and Language
Brooklyn
New York
11234
United States
I am big advocate of play based therapy. I find a way to work my targets into a fun, motivating, interactive play activity. I will describe my session with a child with suspected CAS. He is 3.5 with a very limited phonetic inventory and syllable production. We have an overall target word list of 10 words, which is maintained by myself and the parent. This session we targeted his name, out, hi, bye, help, up. I chose two activities that we could practice those words in blocked practice (several times in a row). I use a combination of PROMPT and DTTC to facilitate imitation of the target words. The cueing for each word varies depending on his level of imitation. If he is able to directly imitate, I ask him to repeat the word and allow him to do action or have that item. If he needs cueing, I start with visual cues and simultaneous productions (have his say the word with me as I stretch out the sounds and word on the movement from one sound to the other). If he demonstrates need for tactile cueing (touch), I utilize PROMPT to map in the sounds in the word and try to have him say the word along with me as I provide the tactile cueing. I always go with the flow and determine what level of cueing is needed to facilitate production and back off of cueing when I can. One of the toys for this session was wind up toys. OUT was elicited to take out each wind up, "Help" was elicited to wind it and "bye" was elicited as the wind up toy walked, jumped or flew away. Every child, and adult, loves wind up toys and I use them frequently in my sessions.
The parent is present in the therapy session. The target syllables and / or words, are chosen together with the parents input. They observe all the treatment techniques that I use. I often narrate or point out specific details of the treatment to the parent, in real time. It is especially important for the parent to understand the principles of motor learning and the foundation of the therapy. I train the parent in simultaneous productions, visual cues, feedback such as the importance of knowledge of performance and if necessary, tactile cueing. We discuss activities that the parent can do at home to carryover the target vocabulary and how to incorporate them into the daily routines. Sometimes I create resources that the parent can use to directly address specific target words. Some parents like to have a structured activity that they can engage the child in to practice their targets.
I worked as a supervisor in a school for special needs children. Many children in the school use AAC and I learned to work with the child using the device as we worked on developing the child's verbal communication. I saw tremendous growth in these children. I have a friend who specializes in AAC. I refer my clients to her to determine what device is appropriate and to set up the device.
