Let's Get Related!

Posted by Dani, Speech-Language Pathologist


Hello everyone and thanks for reading my second blog post! The goal of my blogs is to inform the reader but keep it social so that everyone can enjoy it :)  A significant number of kiddos that I work with are missing the pre-linguistic skills of communication (pre-linguistic = before speaking).  Relatedness is a prerequisite to functional communication. What is relatedness?


Relatedness: social awareness. If I could, I would interview each of my kids on their first day. It would go a little something like this..


Dear my Precious Little Dookie Boo,

Hello! I am Dani, your new Speech-Language Pathologist! No no no, not PALEONTOLOGIST!!! I don't know anything about dinosaurs silly!

 I am here to help you communicate and right now you are probably wayyy more interested in yourself, the way you view the world, and are less than impressed that I went to school for 7 grueling years learning how to break into your world.

 But before we begin I would like you to fill out this little questionnaire: Please draw a circle around the following skills that are currently in your communicative profile


* awareness of me as a person (I am not just a robot connected to 2 hands which help you activate pop up toys, I have a face, and eyes and a mouth from which I produce ridiculously random sounds that you will hopefully one day imitate)
*awareness of familiar people (Mom/Dad/Grandma/Grandpa/Nanny/Babysitter/doorman/)
*awareness of environment (do you know your favorite spot to sit on the couch at home? did you notice when mommy changed the toy box to the other side of the room? Right now, do you realize that you are in a new place and want to explore and check it out?)
*awareness of object function (Here's a fork, show me what you got! That's a brush, do you know what to do? how about a crayon? Would you rather move it around on some paper or stick it in your mouth or ear?)
* awareness of the actions I am performing with the objects I am playing with (Are you looking at me stack these rings? Are you tracking me as I fly my airplane from the sky into your belly where it crashes with a tickle?)
*awareness of my singing , my crying, my screaming, any noise I am producing? (You would let me know this by covering your ears (my singing...sorry!), looking at me, or maybe even just crying)
*awareness of my saying hello...( you would recognize this word, or maybe even recognize your name, and that would lead you to look at me, or at the very least copy that movement I'm making with my hand (it's called waving)

Basically my little peanut-butt, do you even care that I am sitting across from you with horrible posture, acting like a clown to get any sort of reaction from you?

If you have answered no to any or all of the above, you are in the right place!  

I am so glad we've had this talk. Now I know where to begin! I am going to make you like me first by finding out what you like. Maybe you really like when I start at your fingers and tickle my way up your arms! Maybe you like when I throw a scarf up in the air and it falls lightly on your face! Maybe you really like watching a ball go down a maze.

Once I figure out what you like, then my job becomes ALOT easier...because I can work on you requesting things from me. What's that? You're worried that you don't speak yet? Well that's okay! Speaking isn't the ONLY way of asking for things! You can also reach your hands towards my hands and bring them to the activity (tickling your tummy, or pushing keys on a piano). If that sounds like too much work, you can even simply LOOK at me.

If you look at me once, I'm going to expect you to look at me EVERY time you want me to do that silly thing again (Maybe it's making an animal sound while we read brown bear)...Maybe you love when I make the HIIIIYA! sound (think karate chop) but you can't quite copy the WHOLE word so you tell me "iiiiiiiii" to let me know you want me to make that sound again...any of these are all great places to start!

Does this sound like something we can work on? Gestures, eye contact and vocal approximations are all forms of initiations and that's where we're gonna start with you!!! Why? Because Dr. Rossetti  (Early Intervention GOD) told me to! It's also  going to help you become RELATED to me!

Next time maybe I can explain how I'm going to teach you to comment, take turns and imitate me more functionally..

Hang in there, you are still young and your brain is still VERY malleable...just like the play-doh that you may or may not try to eat next session..

xoxox
Dani