is your 3 year old in speech therapy

longhorngal

if so...what kinds of things does the therapist do...are you able to observe through a mirror.....are there manipulatives or just looking at pictures and saying/echo-ing the names of the pictures....i am just wondering how interactive a session is/should be when working with a 3 year old.... 

how was the evaluation procedure...was it strictly therapist and child...or was there some interaction on your part.....

thanks! 

 

hlsgrad

I have always been right in the room with my DD. it is very play based, and they want DD as comfortable as possible. She's pretty shy, so sessions are better when I'm there helping the therapist. She started when she was 2 and my understanding is it is definitely the norm to have the parent in the room at that age. 3 y/o it may depend on the kid, if yours is very outgoing it could probably go either way. But i learned a lot frmo watching the therapist, things to work on at home, etc. so i would definitely want to be able to see/hear even if i wasn't in the room.

GinandTonic

Mine was...

I never watched a session, but got reports - and eventually,  he could tell me.  

They played a lot of games that incorporated the sounds he needed into them.  I can't tell you anything specifically - it was awhile ago.  But, it definitely wasn't just echoing back sounds. It was kind of fun for him.

The evaluation - it was mostly therapist and child - I was sitting right there, though (I remember it was really hard not to clarify - he was in for articulation and I understood so much more than anyone else did).  They asked a lot of questions with pictures - "What is this?  What is that?" to get him to say certain words.   And questions about himself - I'll never forget this one - they asked if he was a boy or a girl and he said "I'm a boy because I have a penis!"

At the end, they did ask me some questions - about if his peers noticed, his teacher, other family members.  I don't remember entirely.  But, since he was cooperative, it was mostly him (oh - I filled out a huge developmental questionairre before the evaluation as well - and later, he had a hearing test...).

 

VTbride05

I was there through the whole evaluation and I am welcome to sit in on their sessions now if I want to. Usually I sit in the room next door so I can hear what they do (to later work on at home) but I am not in the room distracting DS. Our sessions are very play based, very hands on, there are lots of fun things to do. For example they play a pirate (board) game where DS says a word, gets a piece to the game, and after a few times the pirate jumps out at them. Very rarely is he just looking at words and saying them. DS is also working on the phrase "I want" so they play with little plastic animals and DS keeps telling his SLP what animal he wants.

fjaril

This is something that varies greatly btwn therapy practices. The first place we were at, we were in the room. The next, we were in until he was comfy and then left. The third place there was no eval, just took him back and sorta did an informal one since we had one at the beginning of the year at another place.

Some places let you back and some don't unless you want/need to. My kiddo isn't shy, so it's never been a problem with him just walking off to play.

At 3, I've found most places are play based, with cards and books and toys etc. 

The place earlier this year had him sit in a desk and do most of the work there. The current place, he sits for some, but they do a lot of playing on the floor. 

It all depends on the child's needs.