My first step of therapy with a child with CAS is to establish a meaningful connection, and really get to know each child as an individual. It's important to me that my clients feel safe and secure being vulnerable and trying hard things, while knowing they are not being judged or doing anything "wrong" when things feel extra tricky. I like to call our activities "structured fun" so that the child is engaged and wanting to participate, while tolerating guidance towards expanding skills and complexity of targets. I spend a lot of time talking with families as a whole to understand their priorities and what will make the most meaningful difference to them. We work together to pick functional words/phrases/targets that children use a lot in their daily environment or will have the biggest impact on their intelligibility. Parents often have many questions at this point, so we spend a lot of time making sure parents understand the process and have realistic expectations for each session.