skip to Main Content

PROMPT: The Solution to Your Child’s Speech Difficulty?

When it is determined that a child has a speech delay, speech impairment, developmental delay, or other disorder, it is highly recommended to have them begin receiving therapy as soon as possible. However, there are so many considerations and options for therapy, it may seem overwhelming to decide what is best for your child. With that being said, I am a firm believer that PROMPT can benefit almost anyone with varying disorders or delays that require speech-language treatment.


PROMPT is a method that was designed to fit an individual’s specific needs and to be modified continuously as necessary to promote growth and change for each client.

Why is Bridging Important to the PROMPT Process?

Having the initial PROMPT training was empowering. Through the course, I gained specific skills to treat almost anything that could possibly occur as a disorder of motor speech. In order to use the tactile, hands on, skills the most effectively – especially with clients that are not simply “articulation” clients – I attended the second part of the PROMPT coursework, titled Bridging. This course provides training and education on how to evaluate an individual based on all of their systems (cognitive-linguistic, social-emotional, and sensory-motor) and how they work together and impact the child’s overall communication. It also provides strategies to most effectively use PROMPT for varying cases while using the tactile-motor input (learned in the first training) to improve a client’s motor speech.
From the milder cases of speech sound disorders, to the more severe and involved speech sound disorders, PROMPT has proven to make a positive impact in the short time that I have been using this method of therapy. As a speech therapist, I have experienced many cases of children who “have some trouble with their ‘s’ sounds and/or their ‘r’ sounds” after being in therapy for years, but have everything else resolved. I have also experienced clients who “seem to jumble their words together when they talk in longer sentences.” Motor input provided through PROMPT will not only help these children, but help quickly. Some children I have used PROMPT with are almost finished with therapy in a matter of months (between four and five months).


So what happens when there is “more” going on?

What if there has been limited signs of speech at all around age one, two, or later?

 

What if the child will only grunt, gesture, vocalize (non-sense sounds), and/or cry to communicate?

 

What if the child only has 1-5 words, but only on their own terms in certain situations?

 

What if other approaches of speech therapy have been unsuccessful or have shown limited progress?
What if all of the child’s speech sounds have been corrected, but there is “an ‘r’ sound problem” hanging around?

 

What if the child has other diagnoses that make his or her attention to therapy and ability to follow directives more difficult? (e.g., autism, seizure disorders, cerebral palsy, sensory processing disorders, other motor planning disorders, etc.)

With more involved cases that have difficulty with motor-speech, it can be tough to determine the most effective route for treatment. How do we positively affect the speech sound productions of clients when it may not simply be “articulation” issues?
The Bridging course of PROMPT gives direction and answers to this question.  This course teaches trained clinicians to focus on the child as a whole and approach therapy in a way that targets all of the child’s needs (social-emotional, cognitive-linguistic, and physical-sensory) – not just their speech sound production. This ensures that they are prepared to receive and will be positively impacted by motor speech input.
From a PROMPT perspective, therapy is a fluid and ever-adjusting method that allows constant change within the therapy focus (where does the child need the most help at that particular time within therapy?) and encourages demands for the child to be changed based on what his or her whole set of systems is capable of handling at any given time within therapy (e.g., maybe the child has a really hard time with turn taking one day – the session will spotlight that area of a challenge rather than the motor speech sounds).

How Bridging Improved the Use of Motor Input:

With PROMPT, I have seen drastic changes, very quickly, in some of my clients. In other clients, that I may have once thought would make minimal or no changes at all with oral speech, I see progression at varying rates and skills being generalized for functional verbalization. Bridging was the next step to learn the most effective ways to use the PROMPT method and the motor speech input I had learned in the initial training. Especially when considering more severe and involved cases that are less clear cut than simply “articulation” issues.
PROMPT uses a tactile method where the speech therapist physically manipulates and places the client’s articulators exactly where they need to be to make a speech sound, or group of speech sounds. Along with this method of motor input, PROMPT utilizes a systematic and methodological strategy to determine what specific areas of a person’s motor system should be targeted or addressed. It also allows a therapist to effectively move through targets at various levels of the motor system to address the client’s specific needs as they fluctuate. The Bridging course teaches PROMPT trained clinicians to become efficient and effective evaluators of a client’s systems and to quickly determine which prompts would best support their motor speech at any given time within therapy.
Many therapy strategies begin speech treatment by targeting specific sounds in different positions in words based on the order of development for a child with typical speech development. PROMPT approaches therapy to support the undeveloped or slowly developing motor system for speech. PROMPT helps a clinician decide where, within a child’s motor system (e.g., voice, jaw, lips, cheeks, tongue, etc.), they would benefit from tactile motor input at any given time to be the most effective to improve speech sounds for functional communication. It has been an amazing experience to watch my clients change and grow through the use of PROMPT. I look forward to continuing the many journeys to better communication with all of my clients!

Teal Simmons M.A., CCC-SLP
LLA Therapy’s resident PROMPT expert

 

Feedback

Teal has found wonderful success utilizing the PROMPT program with her clients. We have received amazing feedback on behalf of her families:

“It’s cool to watch therapy and have the SLP explain everything that is done and why she is doing it. And it makes sense, especially for carryover at home. One of the biggest things, to me, is that his confidence continues to grow every week as he continues to make progress with his talking.”

– Mother of a 2.5 year old with motor speech disorder sounding like “jibberish” when he talked upon entering therapy.

 “For my son with severe autism, PROMPT has been the only thing that has truly been able to address his motor speech issues stemming from severe apraxia. He figured out that PROMPT is helping him talk and he actually likes being prompted. He will often request to be prompted if there is something he wants to say.”

– Mother of a 10-year-old child with Autism Spectrum Disorder and severe apraxia of speech

 “In just five months of using prompt therapy, my daughter has gone from grunting and pointing to being able to say most, if not all, consonants. And she is now attempting multi-syllable words and sentences.”

– Mother of a 2-year-old child with moderate apraxia of speech


Interested in learning more about PROMPT treatment? Click here to schedule an appointment today! 

Back To Top

Patient Reviews

LLA Therapy

Patient Reviews

Crystal Scheibe

Facebook
Great place, glad we found them. Been going to Medina over 2 months now and he loves Lauryn and Kyler. Wish they had more ABA therapy places available... live in Wooster and long drive everyday.

Karrie Swan LaRock

Facebook
My 11 year old son has dyslexia and has made noticeable gains in working At LLA THERAPY. Katie is strong in her approach toward him and also keeps him comfortable enough to perform well. We will continue visiting both the Fairlawn and Hudson offices and recommend them highly.

Ron Monroe

Facebook
My 9 year old just completed about 9 months of weekly speech sessions (due to his stuttering) with Matt Hagge at LLA and we are thrilled with the experience and results. What I thought might be a negative (what kid really wants to go to speech class?) was made very positive by Matt, and my son never hesitated or complained when we talked about class. He really enjoyed it and really took what Matt taught him to heart. His speech has been greatly improved and we definitely recommend LLA. Thank you so much!

Heather Dougherty-Pantoja

Facebook
My son’s Occupational Therapist, Jess, is an amazing OT! She gives practical tips on working with my son at home and school!

Terri Apgar

Facebook
I cannot say enough good things about LLA Therapy. My daughter was a client of Teal Simmons’ for approximately 2 years and was just released from speech therapy! She was diagnosed with Apraxia in 2015 and worked with Teal twice a week. Through Teal’s application of PROMPT therapy, my daughter had age-appropriate speech after one year. All of the staff we interacted with at LLA were absolutely wonderful. They really care about what they do and making sure your child achieves their goals.

Kelli Geisler Davisson

Facebook
LLA Therapy has been an excellent experience for my son as well as my family! My son always asks, "When can I go see Ms. Jeannine again, is it Monday??" He has also made huge gains in only 5 months! I would highly recommend LLA and have already shared my experience with friends looking for services!

Victoria Hansford-Price

Facebook
We are so grateful for our Speech Therapist Ms.Teal. We have seen a great improvement with our sons confidence and communication abilities since we have started "Prompt" therapy. What we love the most about LLA and Ms. Teal is that Kohl feels comfortable and relaxed which has played a critical role in his progress. Thank you Ms. Teal for all you have done.

Laura Lee Hogsett

Facebook
They have helped in numerous ways. Speech, OT and behavioral. I've had numerous compliments on my son's progress thanks in very large part to LLA. I would recommend LLA before I recommend our local children's hospitals, though they are good, they don't have the staff that LLA does.

Amy Furukawa

Facebook
We had a great experience with Matt Hagge at LLA! Our Middle School age son was becoming very conscious of his voice, which is nasal due to a cleft palate. Matt helped him to better form his sounds and project his voice in a way that makes the unavoidable nasality less noticeable.Our son is more confident and outgoing & even took on a speaking role in the church play. Matt has the perfect personality to relate with our son, and we would recommend him to anyone needing speech therapy services!

Jessica Havalotti

Facebook
LLA Therapy has been an excellent experience for our daughter. I would highly recommend LLA. Miss Grace was so amazing and I can't believe how quickly our daughter showed improvement. Thank you!
Read More