Category Archives: Executive Functioning

What is Lego based Therapy?

Lego based therapy is a collaborative play based therapy approach in which children with high functioning ASD work together to build LEGO models by working in pairs of 2 or more.

LEGO therapy encourages both nonverbal and verbal communication skills including: collaboration, joint attention, joint accomplishment, division of labor, sharing, turn taking, eye contact, gaze following, learning to be flexible thinkers, problem solving skills, and conflict resolution skills.

The communication and social bonding occurs as a result of the joint focus on a common goal: LEGO building!.

Ages for Lego groups: Groups can start as early as preschool age to adolescent years.

Criterion for Lego group:

  1. The child must be able to sit in a chair at the table and not attempt to escape, etc.
  1. The child should be able to respond to verbal instructions and nonverbal prompts, including pointing and gaze direction,  imitating LEGO-building basic activities as demonstrated, with or without verbal prompting.
  1. Follow simple visual instructions
  1. Have the fine and gross motor skills to combine pieces/build structures.
  1. The child should be able to receptively and expressively communicate with peers effectively, either verbally or nonverbally.
  1. Does not does aggressive/disruptive behaviors

Lego Group size:

There is a minimum of 2 children per group. Group sizes can range up to 6 children, however, we prefer a maximum of 3-4 children per group to ensure highly individualized care.

* Please Note: Children with severe ASD would not be a good fit for these groups. Lego groups seem to work best with children with PDD/Aspergers/high functioning autism that can already demonstrate the skills mentioned above.

Group Mechanics: How does it work?

Group of 2 children: One child is the “engineer” who gives verbal instructions of the pieces needed and directions for assembling them. The “builder” follow his/her directions, and collects and puts pieces together. The roles are then switched.

Groups of 3: Each child has a role. The “engineer” describes instructions, “supplier” finds the correct pieces, and the “builder” puts the pieces and then they switch roles.

SLP’s role:

The Speech Pathologist is focused on highlighting the presence of particular issues or problems as they arise. The Speech Pathologist works to facilitate ho  the children themselves can brainstorm their own solutions and resolve issues. The SLP focuses on positive behaviors rather than negative.

Interested in enrolling or learning if your child is a candidate for Lego Therapy?

Contact Us at 617-969-8255 or megan@teamchatterboxes.com

Chatterboxes Private Speech Therapy Services

 

Better Speech Therapy

No, We don’t Accept Insurance Directly for Speech Therapy:

See Why Parents & Kids Love It

Prior to her work at Chatterboxes, our founder, Megan Rozantes., M.S., CCC-SLP used to provide insurance-based speech therapy services.

She knows first hand the differences between Insurance-Based and Out-of-Network Speech Therapy. Based on her previous insurance-based experience as a speech therapist, Megan learned everything she didn’t want in a private speech therapy practice, and everything she did want!

Our practice’s mission is to shine the therapy spotlight directly on each child, every time. We’ve alleviated administrative duties, external challenges, red tape and time constraints for our therapists, so our therapists have the ability to focus intensely on each child’s needs and abilities. This is truly the cornerstone of Chatterboxes. Our support staff ensures that each speech-language-pathologist has the administrative support, time and resources she needs in order to maximize her clinical impact, allowing therapists to work smarter, not harder.

Now, more families are choosing the Out-of-Network and Private Pay model for Speech Therapy. Here’s Why:

Speech Therapy Low Caseloads

Low Caseloads

Speech therapy services are in demand! The average Speech Therapist is helping so many more kids than is reasonable for her schedule. At Chatterboxes, our caseloads are 50% lower than industry average so that we are able to devote more time to each child’s therapy session each and every time.

What do lower caseloads mean? Plan, Prepare, Plan: We can provide twice the planning time and premium resources for rapid progress. It’s not uncommon for a Speech Therapist at Chatterboxes to plan for a 1-2 hours for a single 45 minute therapy session.

The more time our team puts in behind the scenes to prepare for each child’s visit, the better the therapy results. Why? because kids are engaged and it matches their needs. Know a lover of Paw Patrol or Red Matchbox Cars? We guarantee that our kids are super-motivated to participate, as we’ve thoughtfully crafted up a personalized session based on their interests every time.

Speech Therapy Fresh Top Talent

Fresh, Top Talent

We provide speech therapy with a personal connection and friendship, creating trust from which progress is built. We are not a factory. We do not churn out visits. That means, our talented private speech therapists are bright-eyed and are honored to be providing services to each child! Our Speech-Therapists are eager to share their clinical knowledge via in-person conferences, phone talks, countless emails and text messages,  highly customized home programs and family training to make a difference in each child’s abilities! 

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The Child’s Ecosystem & Skill Progression

In order for Speech Therapy to be effective, each child must be able to demonstrate skills outside of the therapy environment. Each child is surrounded by their own ecosystem. If the important adults in each child’s life are not trained in targeting speech therapy goals, progress will be affected. We train parents, teachers, grandparents, nannies, babysitters, etc in our vivid and clear home programs. Each adult has access to specific instructions and understands how to offer support to the child toward speech therapy goals. To keep everyone updated, we offer free speech therapy progress reports and phone conferences.

The Bottom Line

In Conclusion, at Chatterboxes, our team feels that Highly-Individualized speech therapy is not possible in an Insurance-accepted paradigm due to limitations on time and resources driven by financial constraints

Our mission at Chatterboxes is to increase each child’s ability to succeed with better speech therapy services and transform the process of speech therapy to be a highly-customized, delightful and effective experience for kids and parents.

Eager to learn more? Contact Heather for your Complimentary Initial Consultation at 617-969-8255, or visit us at www.TeamChatterboxes.com

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Proudly Serving Massachusetts via our two easy access locations:

35 Bedford Street Lexington MA 02420

 10 Langley Road, Newton Centre 02459

 

 

 

Executive Function: Skills for Life and Learning

Did you know that your child’s early experiences build the foundation for a responsible community, a skilled workforce and a thriving economy?

Executive functioning, or self-regulation, is a set of skills that rely on three types of brain function: working memory, mental flexibility, and self-control. Children are not born with these skills, however, they are born with the potential to develop them. The full range of abilities continues to grow and mature as they the child enters their teenage years and early adulthood.

In order to ensure that your child develops these capacities, it is important to understand how the quality of the child’s interactions and experiences that our communities provide for them either strengthen or undermine their emerging skills.

School Achievement:
Executive function skills help the child:

  1. Remember and follow multi-step instructions
  2. Avoid distractions
  3. Control rash responses
  4. Adjust when rules change
  5. Persist at problem solving
  6. Manage long-term assignments

Positive Behaviors:
Executive Functions help the child develop skills of:

  1. Teamwork
  2. Leadership
  3. Decision-making
  4. Working toward goals
  5. Critical thinking
  6. Adaptability
  7. Being aware of our own emotions as well as other’s emotions

Executive Function skills help People:

  1. Make more positive choices about nutrition and exercise
  2. Engage in activities in which they practice skills
  3. Provide a consistent, reliable presence that young children can trust
  4. Guide them from complete dependence on adults to gradual independence
  5. Protect them from chaos, violence and chronic adversity because toxis stress stimulated by these environments disrupts the brain circuits that are required for executive functioning and triggers impulsive behavior
Building these abilities in young children requires caregivers and communities to provide and support the child’s experiences that promote emotional, social, cognitive and physical development broadly, including a range of strategies that:
  • Reduce stress
  • Foster social connection
  • Incorporate vigorous physical exercise
  • Increase  complexity of skills
  • Successful work
Executive function skills increase our potential for economic success because we are better organized, able to solve problems that require planning, and prepared to adjust to changing circumstances
For more information on our Evaluations & Therapy, or to schedule a visit for your child, visit  www.TeamChatterboxes.com