Motivating Speech In a 3 year old With Significant Delays

This video clip is of a 3 year old who I am seeing for Sensory Processing difficulties and developmental delays. His name is Cody, and we have been working together for a year. When I first started working with Cody, he had significant difficulty with most areas of sensory processing. He is a sensation seeker, always on the move, crashing, jumping, running, spinning, and has very low muscle tone. Children who are sensation seekers tend to need much more sensory input than other children and usually try any means they can to find that input for their central nervous system to function properly. Often, there are emotional and behavioral responses to sensory needs, because the child has difficulty understanding what is happening in his/her body. Acting out and emotional outbursts are not uncommon. Because of these sensory issues, Cody is delayed in many of his motor skills, another thing that is not uncommon for SPD children.

One of the goals for speech therapy is for Cody to say the beginning syllables of words, as well as put 2 words together. Until 3 months ago, Cody was not speaking in more than utterances of "uhhh uhh uhh" or "mmmmm mmmm mmm". This is how he communicated his needs to everyone around him, including pointing and gesturing for what he wants. However, in the last 3 months, a "light bulb" went off in Cody's brain. He's received speech therapy, and they have worked together diligently. He is now saying simple words and the last syllables of most words. It's quite remarkable!!

I invited Chief into our therapy session for a socialization training session. When I introduced Cody to Chief, he immediately went to him (Cody loves dogs) and Cody said "--ief" while petting him on the head. Cody was very interested in doing things with him. He grabbed his dog toy and dangled it in Chief's face for him to take or threw it across the room. Chief mainly wanted to relax and lay in the room (which is also significant telling me he was attempting to help calm Cody.) At one point, during the session, Cody said to Chief..."--ief Up!" trying to get Chief to stand up. Previously, Cody would have given up trying to say words and reverted back to is utterances. However, because he was so motivated by Chief, he was willing to try something very difficult for him.

As mentioned earlier, Cody is a sensation seeker and always moving. He has trouble focusing on table tasks unless his body is "prepped" for such work by providing him with therapeutic techniques to give his body the sensory information it is seeking. However, with Chief, it was quite different. Cody was able to lay on the ground, next to Chief, and relax for several minutes at a time. While Chief was in the therapy room, Cody was able to sit at the table (Chief next to him) and complete a full task for 5 minutes with very little redirection to task. I felt the occasional pat on Chief's head was appropriate and not a diversional tactic. Rather, it was the child seeking out sensory information, receiving it, and returning to work.

Although our session was only 30 min. in length, much was accomplished in that time frame. The wonderful thing...it was a natural interaction that so many parents can utilize at home with their children with sensory needs. Many families don't realize they have a built-in home program just waiting to be utilized. It just has 4 legs and is another member of the family. :) Tammy
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