What Exactly is Therapy for Speech Delayed Children?
Ming explains how speech therapy works: therapists shape communication by controlling the setting, prompts, and rewards. They break skills into tiny pieces, use objects that make responses necessary (like stacking LEGOs), then gradually remove the help until a child uses the skill in real life without prompts.
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Hello, this is ming here from agentsofspeech.com today we're talking about what exactly is therapy for speech delayed children? So I think no one has actually distilled it to the granular level of what it is and what you need to look for. And when you're doing it at home or when you see someone doing it, what do you have to think about? To the core, the first principles of what therapy is about are these. We're manipulating the setting, the prompts and the cues that we give, and also the feedback, the rewards that we give. Okay, so the first step is always to find the setting, and I'll define it later on the cues and the prompts and also the rewards that work. That teaches the child to get the desired outcome of behavior, most of which is to communicate and use words. Right? So finding a setting, meaning that K can we teach the child on the carpet? If not, if he's running around too much, the setting isn't working. So then we have to put them on the table with chairs and so on. So maybe that would work. Usually it would. And then you start to have to think about what rewards will get the deed done. So you cannot always just lean towards letting the child do whatever they want. Okay, we'll talk about this in a video later on this month. But basically, finding the cues and prompts are the highest level things we can do as therapists. And that's why we earn money and we provide value. Because if a child doesn't learn one way, we find another way. Okay, there's a cute quote about that. Okay. But anyways, the whole thing about therapy is to break down the tasks, break down something, a skill, and then into small parts, and those become cue and the prompts. Right? So for instance, if we are teaching something very, very simple, like for instance, matching, right. How do we find the setting and the queuing and the prompts that will work? So if you see a therapist working with a kid, you'll see that matching is like using like puzzles or whatnot. But that's not really the best idea, Right? The best idea is to make it as simple as possible for the kid, drilling down into cues, prompt settings, and reward schedules that will make the child do it easily without much thought. Okay. That's the main thing. And slowly you get rid of those. I'll talk about getting rid of cues and prompts later. But you like, let's go back to the example of matching. So if you have matching different things, right. What you need to do actually is to put Those things into different, like identical buckets or plates that are identical visually. Therefore, it becomes fields for the child to know where to put things for intuitively. Okay, that's first of all. Second of all is the quantity and how it's laid out. So a lot of the therapists outside they will do is to put one thing in each of the plate or the container, whatever. But the problem is that it's not obligatory. So for instance, for me, when I do do matching, which I do, what I do is like, I put the Lego, use LEGO bricks because they stack up together. And it's obligatory that by the context they can put it on, right? And then the other one that maybe is not stackable, not buildable, you have a bunch of quantity. So if I have a bunch of, let's say, small pieces of stars or whatever, okay, it's just a whole bowl of stars. It's obligatory, and it makes sense context wise to throw that into a bunch of stuff. So you have quantity. And also you have functional cues visually to teach a child to match, right? So getting rid of those cues and prompts, right? Getting rid of it. So when you have a cue and a prompt that works, you have to stick to it. Okay? Too many times I've made that mistake when I was younger is that I got asked by a supervisor, so he's like, what? What's your cue? What's your prompt? What's the level? And I say it. And then she asked them, why aren't you using it? And I said, well, I want to try to do something else. And then she's like, well, did you get paid to do something different? Are you getting paid to teach a child this thing? And I'm like, yes. And then she's like, so you found the way that's working. Why aren't you using it? And I was dumbfounded because she's right and I was wrong. And I love being wrong, because when I'm wrong, I'm learning. And I want you to think the same way as I am as well. All right? So when someone who has done it tells you that, yo, this is not right, what are you doing? Stop doing something new. Stick to the things that's been working. You have to listen, because a lot of times I see parents, they purchase courses from us, they ask me things. And coaching, they ask all the people in the world, and they start doing their own thing. What's the point? Like, someone has gone through the stuff that you're facing and you ask for advice and you don't Take it. That's ignorance, right? So don't be ignorant. Listen up. Okay, so once you find the cues and prompts that are working already, you. You try to get rid of it. And how you get rid of it is systematic. So the easiest way is, for instance, if we're teaching a nonverbal child to use gestures, we get rid of physical prompts all the time. So if we're trying to teach some sort of, like, clap hands is very hard because you need two hands. So let's say you're tapping your shoulder. So the first step is to totally do it for them. The second step is to, like, just like this, push them here and let them finish. Right. The third step is just to initiate for them. Just to, like, just hit their head, not hit, okay? Just slowly tap, tap their hands so that you do that. The last step is just to just a gentle reminder that they have to do this right. So you see very quickly that it's been reduced. And the last reduction is it becomes a gesture to tell them to initiate the action. And the action becomes so, so small that it's gone, you know, and then the skill has been acquired. All right? And I want you to think about teaching a child this way. Right. For instance, if it's a written cue, meaning if a child needs to read something in order to say a sentence, how can you reduce it? Cover the words, make the words, you know, like, take away some letters, make it underscored, use less words, maybe only the first letter. All these things you have to be in your mind about thinking how to reduce the cues and the prompts. Okay, so all these things you've done now, so what's the next step? The very next step for therapy is to move skills to real life. And that's what we call generalization. So this is a more technical video here, but I think this is best to parents who really care. And I hope that if you really care, you will watch this and you'll watch it to the end. So moving skills to real life is the most important step. So whenever we talk about a goal or whatever, we always need to talk about what setting we're doing it at. For instance, if it's during a structured task, it's going to be a lot easier. So, and then if it's during structured play, it's going to be a little bit harder. If it's going to be during, like a group play, it's going to be super hard. And if it's during of which just everyday communication, that's the hardest okay, so why is it hard? And it's because of how we learn skills. Anyways, so if you've learned any skill in your life, at least from my experience, right? So if you're learning to play like piano. Okay. Sitting in the house with a teacher drilling it out, the song should be easy, right? That's the setting, right? That's a cue. And playing it with the background music together, that's. That should be easy. The next step is to remove the teacher and to play at home. Right? And after you can play at home, can you play at school with a practice piano? If you can, then great. The next step is to play in front of the class. That's harder because there's more like social pressure and so on. It's the same for communication, right? Imagine yourself talking about something that you did practice before, but there's more people now and you don't know what to say and you're stuttering, right? So moving skills from a structured environment to real life is one of the most important things you can do for your kid and one of the hardest things you can do. Right? So that's why therapy centers are still needed for this very matter. Okay, so hopefully you have understood what I'm trying to say here. And if this makes sense to you, do comment below about all your questions and so on. I know this is a very high level video and I hope that you understand what I'm trying to say. The bottom line is this, if you found something that works for your kid, stick to it. Don't change. Right? And if it's working already, you got the desired outcome. Let's say you want your child to speak sentences, but you got a bunch of cues and prompts. Think about how to get rid of it. Okay, Even those questions are cues and prompts. Like what's happening? Or okay, wait, what's happening isn't a cue because it's a prompting question to start the response. Right? But what I mean is if you're asking question, who is this? What's happening here? What happened after? Whatever. And then you ask them to say the whole sentence afterwards, then that's upon heavy Q. So you have to get rid of those. Maybe you should change those into visual cues instead of verbal. Okay, so anyways, that's all for today. I hope I haven't scared you off. And if you haven't, please go to agents of Speech.com checklist to grab a free list of tools and toys we recommend you to get. Okay, so that's all I'll see you guys next time. Bye. Bye.
