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- Emily
- Hathaway
- No
- 8007 NW 122nd Street
Oklahoma City
Oklahoma
73142
United States - Speech Pathway
Oklahoma City
Oklahoma
73142
United States
We use a variety of treatment approaches when treating Childhood Apraxia of Speech (CAS) as no one treatment is a "one size fits all" for all children. We focus on motor planning and increasing accuracy of approximation of words to immediately increase the child's feelings of success in therapy and at home. Our goal is for the child to feel confident in their speech efforts and to love coming to speech! We incorporate toys and/or games that the child will enjoy and choose target words that have a specific motor plan that can be produced multiple times within that session as we play with the toy/game. Research indicates that multiple repetitions of the target motor plan lead to the best results, so we incorporate that into our sessions. We also teach families how to do this at home. Families are encouraged to participate in sessions and we collaborate with them on how the child learns best while sharing what we know based on the current research for CAS. We teach families the power of word approximations (sometimes we call these "first forms" of words) so that the child's efforts can be immediately affirmed. This is an important part of our approach. Once families understand how approximations work, and how motor planning is targeted, it is amazing to see the progress kids can make with early/frequent/intense intervention! We will also educate parents on the use of AAC to facilitate effective/successful communication. We will often incorporate that into our sessions. We don't always recommend AAC devices for children with CAS, but the use of them simultaneously with speech production has proven to be very effective. And, we encourage families to download low cost and simple AAC softwares if they are helpful in their child's progress. We also offer parent support groups to connect families with others who have a child with CAS so that they can access additional resources and network with them. Our clinic additionally offers an intense summer camp for children with CAS that is research-based and offers 30 hours of intense motor planning and social language over a 1 or 2 week camp to give children a dramatic boost in motor speech planning, providing an overall increase in therapy progress in the year(s) following the camp. We love seeing the progress that kids can make with a collaborative treatment model.
We have been involved in the Apraxia Kids local Walk for Apraxia event for the past 5+ years. We also host an intense camp every summer (this will be our 6th year) focusing on intense treatment for CAS. We participate in CAS awareness activities and share resources from Apraxia Kids with our clients and families. Our clinic sees many children with CAS and our staff is highly trained. We continue to improve our training and knowledge by attending Apraxia Kids and other conferences learning more about CAS. We look forward to this year's conference and are having a "watch party" at our clinic since it is virtual this year. We also look forward to involving more of our families in the local Apraxia Walk this year since there is no cost for registration (this was a hinderance to families before)!
Parents are encouraged to participate in therapy sessions and are coached throughout the session and asked to participate so that they feel confident in what to do at home. If parents are unable to participate, they are offered observation of the session either outside of the observation window or via teletherapy so that they can still listen in on the session and even speak with the clinician throughout. Parents are provided with education and training regarding CAS and how our treatment will proceed and how they can be involved. We also offer specific parent training sessions live or via webinar at our intense apraxia camps in the summer.
We have used AAC during therapy sessions for a variety of reasons. Low or high tech AAC will assist with patient success...if the child is unable to produce certain words/phrases...instead of getting frustrated and not attempting to communicate, the child is able to point to what they want or create a phrase for what they want. AAC is also excellent at providing an auditory model of a word/phrase...so when the child selects the word, a high tech AAC device will say the word, and the child can imitate. We also encourage parents not to be nervous about AAC...we provide the research that it has been shown to increase the likelihood of speech production and not hinder it.