Floortime/creative/social play resources?

lite-bright

I'm pretty much on my own right now with working with DD1 on her speech and social/play issues (lots of repeating/scripting, very little imaginative play, etc.).

The group speech therapy recommended by her SLP doesn't start until March -- IF we can get in. And God only knows how long it'll take to get a developmental evaluation; I talked with my pedi and she's checking into things, but said some places would be a year-long wait just to get in for an evaluation. 

So while we're in limbo ... some of the strategies for dealing with echolalia are working with her, and I'm hopeful that if we get a little more strategic about play, that we can make progress there, too. I had no idea I'd have to teach my child how to play. 

I've got the Floortime book in my B&N cart ready to go. Are there other books, web sites, or other resources that any of you can recommend?

  

Sobachka

You might also want to check out Youtube to see how some folks do Floortime. Until I saw how ESDM is done I did not really do it right (and I have read the book). YOu might also want to google a certified Floortime therapist in your area and try to go every so often to learn how to best implement.

GL!!

lite-bright

-auntie-:

A number of Greenspan's books discuss Floortime, so one book should be enough.

If this is you almost 3 year old, the local school district can give you an evaluation while you wait for a privately obtained one. Wrightslaw's website can explain how to go about initiating that process if the people from your EI team haven't already started this.

While waiting for a dev pedi opening, a clinical psychologist could be an option for a dx and therapies as well.

I'm not sure I would buy into a social skills/speech group at age 3. What benefit are they suggesting over more traditional one to one therapy? My DS has done both, and there are terrific benefits to small group sessions assuming that small group is carefully vetted. But for someone who is three?

The usual approach to echolalia is to identify it as such and redirect something like this "Those are Sponge Bob's words, I want to hear what Sophia wants to tell me using Sophia's words."

 

The group they're recommending is called It Takes Two to Talk (Hanen) through our local Children's Hospital. I've been googling it, and I get the impression that it's designed as much to educate parents as to help the kids. I need to ask specifically about this, but I think it's more for teaching parent-child interaction that supports speech development than child-child interaction with kids who are also there.

But that's just my impression from what our SLP said; I may give her a call to clarify. I'm also playing phone tag with the insurance coordinator who will get us on the wait list for the group, who might be able to tell us more about it.

I am reading between the lines here on the evaluation and between the time frame (March) and the type of therapy (group vs. one-on-one), my impression is that they don't think her expressive delay is that serious. She was a few points off the low end of normal on the eval form the SLP showed me, but we haven't gotten the full report yet. 

Honestly, if it was strictly a speech thing, I would question whether she really needs therapy or if we could work with her on our own. It's more the developmental/emotional/social question marks (which are reflected in her speech) that I'm worried about and that I think need to be evaluated/addressed ASAP.

For the echolalia, our SLP recommended modeling the correct phrases (which I'd already been doing). So when she says "Do want some of my bagel," I say what she actually means: "I want some of your bagel." Then when she repeats it, she's at least repeating what she should be saying. She seems to be picking up on this, and I've noticed somewhat less pronoun reversal overall.

I'll try the redirect you suggested as well. My worry is that she just won't differentiate between "her" words and someone else's. As I've thought about this, I keep coming back to the idea that a lot of this boils down to a weak sense of self. She'll express wants (food, water, a particular toy) but rarely ever emotions ("I'm happy/sad/I love you" etc. Last week she actually said she was angry and I was completely floored -- but I had no idea if she understood what it meant, since it came out of the blue and she wasn't "acting" angry). She'll mimic words precisely, but is uncomfortable with things that require physical mimicry on her part -- a game of making faces, teaching her to blow a whistle or kazoo, etc.  

We don't have an EI team; she's never been in any kind of therapy. Her three-year appointment is in a couple of weeks and I've already talked to my pedi about my concerns, so I'll see what she has to say then. Whatever she suggests, we'll probably be pursuing multiple avenues -- the schools, private developmental pedi, multi-disciplinary eval, etc. I'll add clinical psychologist to the list of possibilities -- thanks!