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- Alexis
- Zinn
- No
- #101 5669 99 Street NW
Edmonton
Alberta
T6E 3N8
Canada - Skyward Speech
Edmonton
Alberta
T6E 3N8
Canada
Therapy for apraxia involves helping children to produce clearer speech, by supporting them to learn accurate movements of their tongue, lips, jaw and palate. Treatment also needs to be fun and motivating – particularly for younger children! In our sessions, we work hard to get in lots of practice, by choosing games and activities that lend themselves to many repetitions of our speech targets. In a typical session, we will often get in more than 100 repetitions of the child’s target words, sounds or phrases!
Depending on the child, we may initially need to work on skills such as watching the SLP’s face during speech tasks, or the ability to copy actions and sounds in play.
Once these prerequisite skills are established, treatment focuses on helping the child to say new sounds, syllable shapes, words and phrases by using a wide range of cues (ex: picture cues, verbal reminders, gestural cues). Over time, this cueing is gradually reduced, to allow the child to become more independent when saying their new words and phrases.
In treatment, we also emphasize the importance of prosody (the "melody" of speech), so that our speech sounds natural and smooth.
I am trained in a wide variety of approaches for apraxia, including DTTC, ReST, PROMPT and the Nuffield (NDP-3). This allows me to tailor my treatment plan according to the needs of each individual child and family.
I always make sure that children feel successful and proud of how hard they work during our sessions together!
Family involvement plays a huge role in my approach to therapy. Parents are the experts on their child; a parent’s insight helps me understand how their child learns best, what motivates them, what words and targets are most meaningful for their family, and what they are most hoping to accomplish through our time together.
Prior to starting any treatment, I like to begin with a discussion with parents about their understanding of CAS, and address any initial questions they have. This ensures that we have a shared understanding of what our sessions will look like, and how we will work towards their child’s goals. I often ask parents to generate a “wish list” of words and/or phrases that are important to their family – this may include family members’ names, their child’s favourite toys/foods/places, etc. I work with families to help them understand both general communication strategies to try at home, as well as giving words and activities for home practice as appropriate.
AAC is a wonderful way to encourage and maximize communication skills. I fully support its use with any child whose speech is not currently meeting their communication needs.
In sessions together and in my recommendations for home, I encourage communication in all of its forms - whether verbal (speaking) or non-verbal (this may include body language, sign language, picture supports and/or high-tech speech-generating devices). I am comfortable using high-tech AAC to model and support communication, and have experience with apps including TouchChat, TD Snap and LAMP. For children who may benefit from having their own dedicated AAC iPad, I encourage families to apply to the Speech Tablets for Apraxia program, offered by Apraxia Kids!
