Category Archives: Social Pragmatics

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

Summer Speech & Language Sessions!

 

Avoid the Summer Slump and enroll in Chatterboxes Summer Speech & Language Therapy Program!

Our Sessions are designed to encourage pragmatic & social skills, language learning, and basic concepts via visual supports, music, gestures, and other multi-sensory based activities in a peer driven environment.

Schedules are flexible: Your child may attend 1-5 sessions a week based on your preference. Each session is 45 minutes; Contact us below for more schedule details.

Each session focuses on your child’s individual goals, new vocabulary, sounds & words, and language concepts. Our play-based space presents an ideal environment for children to be exposed to opportunities to use their newly acquired and emerging speech & language skills.

All sessions are lead by top-rated ASHA Certified Speech Language Pathologists.

Ready to Learn More? Click Here

All About Preschool: Enrolling, Adjusting, and Choosing

Is your kiddo entering preschool this school year? Are you on the fence about enrolling your child? Don’t know which preschool to choose? We’ve found some great websites and articles to prep you and answer your preschool questions! 

To preschool or not preschool?

Not sure if you should enroll in preschool? Think about potty training, promoting independence, and getting your kiddos ready for school in the future! Parents.com has a great article by Anne Zachry about why preschool is a great choice for kids! She expresses that it teaches new skills and prepares them for the coming school years. We love that Zachry also talks about how preschool is beneficial for communication and developing social skills!

Growth, growth, growth!  GreatSchools.org is another awesome article that will give you some important reasons why you should enroll your kiddo in preschool! They make some great points regarding the focus of bettering skills and promoting social and emotional development. They also discuss that preschool is an excellent way to give your child more independence by giving them the opportunity to make their own choices!     

How do we adjust to preschool?

Nervous about the transition? KidsHealth.org offers a great perspective on adjusting to preschool. They understand that preschool is a big change, and can be scary or confusing for some kiddos. Get your child used to the idea of going to preschool! Ease them into it so they know what to expect, and turn the unfamiliar into familiar! Your kiddo’s teacher is a big resource that you shouldn’t overlook – they’re used to it, and will be happy to help! This article offers up some tips on how to ease the transition and make their first day count!   

ZerotoThree.org is also all about preparing for preschool, and has awesome tips and tricks to get your little one ready! We love that they suggest using books and play to get toddlers ready for the transition. Using play and other resources to get your little one familiar with the idea of preschool will be a powerful tool in making the transition into preschool fun and natural. This article even offers a super helpful timeline for you to try out!    

How do I choose the right one?

 GreatSchools.org wants to make sure you pick the right fit for you and your child! Want to know what’s important when looking for a great preschool? Look no further than this smart list that provides questions to consider and why they’re important. They talk teachers, making smart choices for your family, meeting the needs of your child, parental involvement, and more! 

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! 

576504

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

cb-logo

Proudly Serving Massachusetts via our two easy access locations:

35 Bedford Street Lexington MA 02420

 10 Langley Road, Newton Centre 02459

 

 

 

Social Thinking & Learning

 

friends

Social thinking happens every time we share space with others.

We consider the context, the thoughts, the emotions, and the intentions of the other person with whom we are interacting. This information informs how we respond and behave with another. Michelle Garcia Winner, the founder of Social Thinking, explains, “How we think about people affects how we behave, which in turn affects how others respond to us, which in turn affects our own emotional internal and external responses.”

This process is one that most of us take for granted; it happens naturally and is intuitive for most of us. Yet for children with social learning challenges, the process of thinking about what others are thinking or feeling is incredibly difficult. Without this information of another’s thoughts, emotions, or intentions, it is difficult to know what response or behavior is appropriate in the social interaction.

The Social Thinking treatment framework targets how to enhance and improve social thinking abilities to facilitate more natural and comfortable social interactions.

social thinking 1

 

Children with social learning challenges do not intuitively or naturally learn social information the same way other children do. They have to be cognitively taught how to think socially and understand the use of related social skills. By learning how other people think, children can understand others points of view and why specific social and communication skills are required in different situations.

social thinking

Social Thinking teaches us that how we think affects how we feel, and how we behave affects how others think and feel. We learn to make people comfortable around us by using our actions and our language.

 

What to Do When You Loose a Game- Social Story

It can be tough to teach kids how to loose gracefully.

Talking openly about thoughts and emotions involved in the competitive nature of playing a game can help.

Explain to your child that sometimes we loose because our skills are not a strong as our opponent’s skills, or sometimes its just bad luck, or bad timing.

Giving your child specific ideas on what to say and do when they loose can help him or her learn how to be a good sport.

For more information on our Evaluations & Therapy, or to schedule a visit for your child, visit  www.TeamChatterboxes.com