Selection of Materials for Pediatric Speech Therapy Level 1

Let's briefly discuss the purpose of this course so there's no ambiguity about the contents as well as expectations from this course. Let's break down the title first: Selection of Therapy Materials for Pediatric Speech Therapy.

We will be working in detail towards how we go about selection, the criteria and which specific item to select. Types of materials are indeed the first chapter. We are streamlining our talk to the pediatric population, very specifically between 0-7years of age. When we combine these two terminologies: pediatric and intervention, we can break it down in 3 parts for better understanding:

1. The really early intervened are the ones flagged in the NICU as high risk babies and require physical and communication interventions from the beginning of their lives.

2. The early intervened are the ones whose parents noticed something amiss and upon assessment came across significant gaps, delays and deviances.

3. The late intervened are those to seek out intervention later despite there being issues early on.

So, while working with the really early intervened and early intervened the goal is to cross reference with the occupational therapy goals to align the intervention to spot and work at the developmental gaps.

And while working with children who were intervened later, we cross reference our goals with the desirable ADLs, i.e., activities of daily living.

We are essentially focussing on neuro developmental disorders  are multifaceted conditions characterized by impairments in cognition, communication, behavior and/or motor skills resulting from abnormal brain development. Intellectual disability, communication disorders, autism spectrum disorder (ASD), attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and schizophrenia fall under the umbrella of NDD.

The making of the goals, and how to go about achieving them requires selection of appropriate materials. So, these materials are the catalyst to the output we are looking at. And the out can be communication, language, behavior, self regulation and even over all adaptation. So, the materials for speech and language intervention are a means to achieve the end, hence the importance of being able to select appropriate ones.

Habilitation vs rehabilitation: Where are we?

Cost of early intervention: the earlier we intervene, the less the parents spend later for the child's independence and inclusion. We take better advantage of neuroplasticity when mylenation, dendritic growth and specialization of areas are still underway.

Exclusion list: we are not looking at children in middle school or school, who with support are able to continue in mainstream. They may still be working at their conversation, and self regulation at large, but the speech therapist is not working at plugging the early developmental gaps,

Encourage you to participate in early intervention and work with parents accordingly.