Typical therapy process

Typical Speech Therapy Process

 

Many students in speech therapy at East Hanover Elementary are seen one to two times per six day cycle.  The majority of those students are seen in a group of two to three children, depending on the type of therapy.

 

Articulation:  Students generally work on their articulation, language, or other topic within the context of an activity.  The procedures change over the course of therapy.  For example, with articulation, the focus of early therapy is to explain and model correct placement.  Once the child achieves the placement, the emphasis is to put that sound into harder and harder contexts.  Usually this is done in words, then sentences and finally conversation.

 

 

Often a parent may not note much change in speech until the child reaches the conversation level.  At this time, the student is asked to use the targeted sound in an accurate way in short, simple conversation.  This is often the hardest step, and may take lots of practice to generalize the earlier skills!

 

 

Practice at home is an important part of therapy.  This helps the child to learn that he/she needs to use his new skills in other locations besides the therapy room!  Please practice the homework worksheets several times a week to help reinforce the work at school.

 

 

Language:  In language therapy, the process is essentially the same.  The student is taught the basics of the language issue.  Then the therapist begins to have the child use those forms in sentences, stories, or while describing pictures.

 

You can help your child in this process.  Practice the grammar or language skills that we are working on at school while you are reading out loud at home, driving in the car, or making dinner.  You can make up stories to use these new language skills in a fun way.  If you hear your child use an incorrect form, repeat the correct form in a relaxed way.  For example, you can say "Oh, you mean, they WERE walking home!".

 

 

 

Pragmatics:  In working with social skills issues, the process can be as varied as the student's needs.  The student is taught about the skill, such as conversational turn-taking.  After the skill is taught, the therapist has the student engage in guided conversation with another student.  Social skills issues can be helped by using social stories, or role play as well.