PROMPT Therapy – Session 1

Yesterday was Noah’s first PROMPT therapy session with Marcus.

He says I have to stop EVERYTHING as far as working with Noah on articulation.

At this point, Noah can’t even say ah without putting a T on the end of it – it’s the only way he knows how to make his jaw come back up.

Marcus is all about going back and training and retraining Noah’s oral motor patterns so that he can form sounds correctly rather than using the compensatory movements so common for kids with Down syndrome.

In traditional speech therapy, we look for Noah to make sounds any way he can.

In PROMPT, it’s the correct formation or none at all. And at this point, it seems it would be better for Noah to not make the sound at all rather than making it incorrectly, since we’re all about creating correct motor patterns.

This is totally against my nature – I’m a go getter and I like attacking projects head on when it comes to helping my courageous kiddo speak. It just feels wrong not to capitalize on each and every noise Noah is able to make.

But I have to be honest and say that going the traditional route has not produced the progress towards speech that I had hoped to see.

So Marcus says I need to focus my energies on language, not speech, for now at home. I’m allowed to put pressure on Noah’s jaw and try to get ahhhh sounds from him without letting him jut his jaw forward (jaw sliding is the “technical term.” The jaw slide is a developmental delay that is interfering with Noah’s ability to coordinate the correct movements with his mouth. Our job (mostly Marcus’) is to train Noah’s mouth to make the correct movements to provide the framework for the sounds.

All I get to do is the ahhhhh?

Talk about backtracking!

AHHHHHHHHHHHHH! (As in AGHHHHHH - this is going to be torture.)

So we track the progress, and I give it at least three months before I re-evaluate.

Looks like we’ll be working on a lot of receptive language concepts, and doing a LOT of praying!

Anybody have any experience with PROMPT therapy? Give me a little hope to hold on to. I am quite convinced, if PROMPT therapy is going to work at all, we are with the right guy for the job.

Free Printable PEC Minimal Pairs Targeting Final Consonant Deletion

Minimal Pairs – Final Consonant Deletion – T(V)T and T(V)P

Here are some more free printable PECs-type cards targeting Final Consonant Deletion.  These are words that start with T and end with a long vowel paired with the same T and long vowel but ending with a T or a P.

Use these cards as flash cards, playing cards, a memory/concentration game or print them and make a lotto game out of them.

Members can access an editable version of these cards at www.mrsriley.com here:  http://mrsriley.com/app/#fileID=57668.

Minimal Pairs – Targeting Final Consonant Deletion

With as much success as Noah has had since his speech therapist introduced him to minimal pairs, I wanted to share some materials with you to try with your kiddos.  This is a set of 10 PEC-style cards, that’s 5 minimal pairs.  These are words that start with b and end with a long vowel or long vowel and then t:  boo and boot, bay and bait, bee and beet, bow and boat and buy and bite.

Minimal Pairs – b- and b-t

A few suggestions on how to use them -

1.  Keep the boards intact and point to each picture as your child says it.  Ideally, try to get 3 word productions for each picture.  The next best thing would be to get one word production on the first word in the pair and three on the second.

2.  Cut the cards into sets keeping each pair intact.  Place the cards face down in front of your child in a stack, have him turn over a card and say the words (see #1 for procedure).  Offer a motivator such as a whistle to blow or a bell to ring for every set completed.

3.  Cut the cards apart and use them to make a memory (concentration) – type game.

These are just very basic ideas on how to use these.  I’d love to hear from the speech therapists out there and mommys too who have some more creative ways to use cards like these.

Blessings,

Alyson