"PROMPT" rocks!!!!!!!!!!

At Reaching New Heights, we talk a lot about “PROMPT”.  We feel so passionately about it, it’s even in all caps when we write it out. . .and no, we are not fixated on being on time.  What we are excited about is the specialized training that Donna and I have both received from the PROMPT Institute.  

In order to help kids learn new movement patterns, we touch our clients’ faces, giving support to their jaws and cuing their lips to close.  It’s one of the things that makes therapy at RNH look different than what you may be used to seeing with other speech-language pathologists.  These are our PROMPT cues.  Donna and I have learned a series of touch cues that we use on kiddos’ faces, neck and chest that help kids with motor speech problems.  We use these cues with supportive words to help little ones learn how to produce voicing.  “Turn on your voice.” We help kids tune into their lips, jaws and tongues and to move them more precisely.  “I like the way you closed your lips for that mmmmm sound.”  I tease that PROMPT makes me feel like I have “magic hands”.

PROMPT is more than just the cues to the clients’ faces.  The PROMPT philosophy of treatment helps Donna and I focus on kids whole well-being, beyond their speech.  We are always thinking about how their emotional, physical and language systems are developing and being challenged.  The PROMPT method prioritizes communication within positive, meaningful interactions.

Becoming PROMPT trained last month was invigorating!  It changed the way that I interact with kids and the way I think about their communication skills and differences.  I’m excited to put my new skills into practice. PROMPT has made me a therapist who is more connected with my clients!  

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Author

Sara Wagner is an experienced SLP who researches everything she does!  She loves her dog and her family!