Prior to falling in love with Speech Pathology, I had plans to be an early childhood educator. I have roots in literacy and play-based interventions. My style is very child led, modeling much of my approach with a Floortime Model. There is nothing more powerful than play to not only develop trust, but also to keep them engaged in the therapy process. One of the most powerful tools to move a child from motor performance to motor learning is DTTC. I love that the approach, in my mind, is based like a pyramid. You must create the strong foundation to build upon when it comes to mastery of speech movement. I first assist the child in understanding the parameters of movement, or the vocabulary that we will use in which to describe movement of speech, like big/little, fast/slow, or tight/loose. Also when building the base of the pyramid, it's important to develop eye contact to provide the visual and temporal cues necessary to learn movement across syllables and words. In the beginning maximum cues are provided to provide support as they learn the target, and then are faded over time to give the speaker more responsibility for the target words or phrases. The delicate dance between support and independence is evaluated and reevaluated each session in order to to continue moving forward without overloading the motoric system.