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- Amanda
- Zito Griffin
- 5825 Glenridge Drive, Suite 1-133
Atlanta
Georgia
30328
United States - A to Z Pediatric Therapy / ABA to Z / Teletherapy
Atlanta
Georgia
30328
United States
I believe in individualizing therapy for each to meet their unique needs. I have completed over 100 hours of training in CAS and have experience with many motor-based approaches including Dynamic Temporal and Tactile Cueing (DTTC), PROMPT: Introduction and PROMPT: Bridging; the Kaufman Speech to Language Protocol (K-SPT). Depending on a child’s age and skill level, I may initially utilize one specific approach. More frequently, though, I take aspects of various approaches, incorporating the principles of motor learning and multisensory cueing throughout, as well as things I have learned from the experts in CAS. My approach to treatment is dynamic and changing to the needs of the child as they begin therapy and/or as they progress.
One of my immediate focuses in therapy is to immediately begin building rapport and trust. I am going to be guiding and asking each child to do things that are challenging, so they need to be sure that I will mean what I say (and say what I mean!). For younger children, if building pre-requisite skills, this is especially important that therapy be fun and engaging. For other kids - sometimes slightly older or much older, it’s important to gain their trust and build their confidence, based on what therapy experiences they have had in the past.
Therapy is a mix of structure and fun and we work together to figure out a “just right balance” where we can get as many motor speech trials as possible, while giving the child a chance to engage in activities that are motivating and fun. We immediately incorporate prosody and coarticulation from the start of therapy. For children who are younger or minimally verbal, we focus early on development of power words and phrases to quickly give a child a chance to functionally communicate and reinforce their efforts. We investigate the use of AAC if indicated. For older children, we engage in blocks of practice with breaks for games/fun activities to reinforce their hard work.
Parent involvement is an essential part of therapy - specifically for children with motor speech disorders - and you are the experts on your child. Parents are invited and encouraged to attend, observe, and participate in the initial evaluation and therapy sessions whenever possible. During an initial evaluation, parents and caregivers are key to providing information about a child’s history, what motivates and is important to a child, and what the family’s priorities are. I have also found that helping parents to understand what Childhood Apraxia of Speech is, what a dynamic motor speech assessment consists of, and how motor speech therapy words (and what it looks like) helps you to understand your child’s CAS journey. As treatment continues, having parents as a team member and part of the therapy process is critical for progress. Parents and caregivers provide feedback on what is and isn’t working outside of the therapy session, they learn what specific multisensory cues are being utilized by their child’s SLP, and familiarize themselves with targets (including power words and phrases that can be used for generalization). Video recordings of therapy are regularly taken and shared with parents. For those that are unable to attend or cannot regularly attend, this provides a great deal of information. For those parents and caregivers who are able to attend on a consistent basis, this serves as a support outside of therapy to remind them of what they can work on; the multisensory cues used and how to use it; and they often use it to motivate their child (some even have the child watch it and quickly the child is imitating what they see - inviting more practice!).
I have frequently used both low-tech and high-tech AAC in treatment with children with CAS. I have utilized simple communication pages and/or books with symbols to build a child’s confidence with communication, to build reciprocity, and to allow a child to communicate their wants and needs. These symbols/visuals are also used to support verbal productions (serving as a multisensory cue), and to facilitate spontaneous use of nonverbal and verbal communication, reducing the need for verbal prompts and cues. I have used sign language to facilitate and support a child’s expressive language, and to enhance their receptive understanding. Sign language has also been used as a multisensory cue for a child during therapy (e.g. signing BALL and the child verbally produces “ball”). Sign language has also been used to pair and facilitate motor movements. For example, producing the sign for MOTHER with either one movement (for “MOM”) or two movements (“MAMA”) helps the child to produce the appropriate number of syllables in the target I have also used high-tech AAC with many clients. These are used to facilitate age-appropriate expressive language skills, including using a wide variety of vocabulary; modeling and using appropriate sentence structure; increasing a child’s mean length of utterance; and allowing them to clarify their speech. High tech AAC also helps to support a child’s pragmatic skills, allowing them opportunities to ask and answer questions, to comment, to greet, to request, and to reject.
