Speech and Language Therapy Plan for Child with Dyspraxia

This report details a speech and language therapy plan for a 4-year-old boy named Kayden, who exhibits communication problems stemming from verbal dyspraxia. The report outlines the background of the case, including the client's strengths, weaknesses, and the involvement of a speech-language therapist. The aims of the intervention focus on enhancing the child's communication skills, academic performance, and behavioral adaptation. SMART objectives are established to improve understanding, communication quality, and pronunciation. The intervention involves direct involvement from the SLT, pictorial learning materials, and collaboration with the child's teacher, parents, and a Language Support Assistant. The report describes the roles of each stakeholder in the intervention and how they will collaborate to achieve the objectives. The approaches include regular training on pronunciation, conversations, and consistent use of words. Outcome measures involve observation of behavior and speech development by parents and teachers, and experiments and interviews by the SLT and LSA. The plan aims to generalize skills such as understanding, communication, and pronunciation to improve the child's overall development and interaction with peers.

Management Plan
Student:
Setting:
Date:
Client:
Form of intervention:
(e.g. 1:1/ group, direct/ consultative,
frequency of input)
Introduction
Human beings are usually interactive more so in the development of their social life
where they intermingle with others and interact on various topics of interest. In the
interaction process, communication plays a significant role in enhancing understanding
between the parties involved. As a result, communication is a vital aspect of a human
being. However there exist individuals who have developed language challenges, and as a
result, they cannot communicate effectively. The communication inefficiency hinders them
from developing interactive sessions with their colleagues since the conversation lacks a
shared understanding based on the poor speech produced by the language inefficiency with
one of the participants. To curb the problem and enhance effective communication,
development professionals have developed speech and language therapy sessions. Speech
and language therapy are sessions which are usually designed to help to improve the
conditions of persons with communication challenges (Nicoll, 2017). The therapy session
is designed based on research on the client’s weakness form which the speech and language
therapist can develop the objectives for the therapy sessions, that is, improvement of the
client condition more so in language development. The paper develops a study on the
development of speech and language therapy sessions concerning Kayden who developed
communication problems.

Background information regarding the client
The client focus is developed upon a young boy known as Kayden who developed
communication problems at the age of 4. The boy has been placed under the care of a
professional therapist due to his motor disorders. Following the difficulties in the Kayden
speech, the family has been liaising with a speech-language therapist and the school where
the boy learns to get the necessary support for the boy to develop effective communication
skills. The boy has several strengths which include keen communication skills, humorous
and proper use of gestures. However, the boy has several weaknesses mostly related to his
disorder. His teacher highlights the challenges to include the behaviour challenges resulting
from his defiance character, lack of instruction understanding and struggles in academic
performance. Also, Kayden has speech difficulties owed to infection form Verbal
Dyspraxia.

Aims of intervention
The aims of a speech and language therapy session are developed based on the
improvement of the client lives by improving their conditions. As a result, there is need to
monitor the effects resulting from inefficient communication more so inability to express
oneself and failure to read and also inability to develop the correct pronunciation of words
which are among the main challenges associated with communication development
(Palmer, et al, 2018). Among the communication challenges where children develop more
adverse effect which include defiance, that is, development of behavior adaptation
difficulties, academic struggles since the children find it difficult to understand and read,
poor interaction with others owing to the misunderstanding developed and poor adaptation
to following the given instruction. In relation, the therapy sessions can be aimed at
improving the lifestyles of the kids, that is, enhancing their interaction ability, enhancing
their performance and improving their behavior adaptation process.

SMART objectives
The therapy sessions should be developed with an aim to improve the condition of the child
more so in improving their language development. Following the weak areas established by
the child, the various objectives for intervention include expansion of the child
understanding capability to enhance quick understanding of instructions and improve the
use of critical thinking in his academics. Improvement of the communication quality serves
as another objective, that is, to improve the child communication skills thus enhancing self-
expression and good relationship with his peers.

The rationale for selection of SMART objectives
Following the adverse effects of the communication challenge on children, there is a need
to develop the speech and therapy sessions. The various areas of improvement form the
basis for therapy sessions objectives development. Among the key fields that require
improvement in a therapy session include understanding ability where most children find it
challenging to understand whatever is being taught (Tiny Eye Therapy Services, 2019).
Also, the pronunciation of the child having communication challenges develops wanting
needs since the child is unable to connect words and develop a sentence. Also, the child
develops difficulties in pronouncing of words which in return affects their studies
performance. Furthermore, the children also develop an irregular speech making it difficult
for one to understand them. In relation to the key challenges, the main objectives for a
therapy session include the development of the child understanding capability to enhance
quick understanding of instructions and improvement of the communication quality to
improve the child's’ communication skills thus enhancing self-expression and good
relationship with their peers.

Form of intervention
The kind of intervention f is developed based on the objectives of the therapy session
where the SLT develops the most effective method to achieve the given objectives. Among
the key goals include direct involvement of SLT in the transition development program of
the child since direct SLT involvement has proven to be more effective in improving
communication cases related to children. In the development program, SLT can develop
pictorial learning materials which are easy for the child to understand and use them to train
the child. The use of a diagram for learning improves the understanding capability of the
child since he or she can critique whatever he saw and its description as illustrated in
training. The process forms the essential step for the improvement program since after the
child has attained the target of the stage, the SLT moves to the next level of enhancing the
child pronunciation and communication.
Furthermore, the process enhances the understanding of different words used in the
communication process since most children with communication challenges also develop
word identification problems (Min & Wah, 2011). In this step SLT calls for support from
other key individuals in the child development, that is the teacher to the child, the parents
and other communication rehabilitating agents to help achieve the objectives of the step. In
the strategy development, each invited stakeholder is assigned a responsibility to play in
the development of the child communication skills and to conduct an evaluation of the
continued performance of the child in the given area.

The way through which SLT will collaborate with other significant stakeholders
Strategic collaboration is developed between SLT and other critical stakeholders in the
child development process. Among the key stakeholders includes the teacher to the child,
the parents of the child and other related language development, for example, Language
Support Assistant (LSA). In a bid to ensure effective strategy implementation, the team
meets together to discuss on the development of various activities to enhance child
communication development and the roles to be played by each party in the development
process. The SLT serves as the director of the program and guides the other parties on what
to do in the process development since he knows the process development. The learning
support assistant is mostly liaised to support the teachers in the program development as
well as offer direct training to the child on a given time basis (Essex County Council,
2016). The parties are also bestowed with the responsibility of monitoring the effect of the
program on the child in their respective roles. The team conducts a frequent meeting within
the term to discuss the changes developed by the strategy application. The updates help to
determine the effect of the program and the possibility of program change in cases where
the strategy does not deliver the intended outcomes.

Approaches and/ or techniques and rationale for their selection
The development of the strategy is developed in various ways by the various parties
involved in the program development. In the development process, SLT acts as the primary
strategy developer. The SLT also offers the overall training to the child though on specified
few times in a week to help develop the objected skills at the end of the program. Similarly,
the teacher generates a series of words through which the child will improve his or her
language and communication skills. The development is attained through regular training
on pronouncing the words which help develop the understanding of the word. The parents,
on the other hand, are assigned the responsibility to ensure consistent use of the words
within the home setting to develop familiarity of the words among the child. Also, parents
are to develop conversations with their children to enhance the development of their
communication skills. Lastly, the LSA serves to improve on the learning skills developed
from the training developed by the teacher and the parents.

Plan for generalization
The development of the various activities is aimed at developing vital skills within the
child which he or she is to apply for self-development. Among the critical skills developed
include understanding skills. The skill will be acquired from the continued training by all
stakeholders since they all create a sense of language understanding to the child. The skills
will help the child to understand instruction designed by the teacher more so respect to his
peers and his fellows. The understanding nature will help the child to adjust his behaviors
especially in refraining from defiant behavior.
Furthermore, understanding will help the student to improve in his class work performance
since he will be able to develop logic on solving class work problems. The program will
also help the child to develop proper communication skills through which he will be able to
express himself. The skill development is aided by the teacher and LSA who continually
help the child develop effective communication and language skills. Proper communication
will also help the child to develop a good relationship and interaction with his peers
following effective communication development and a clear understanding of one another.
In addition, the development of good pronunciation enhances proper reading which in
return promotes understanding of academic language content resulting in improved
academic performance (Velea & Purcarea, 2014).

Outcome Measures
The various stakeholders are developing a study on the changes being produced by the
child following the development of the therapy program. Parents and teachers study the
child changes through observation of the child behavior change and speech development.
However, SLT and LSA develop a more detailed study based on experiments measuring
the results generated by the child in relation to the expected outcomes. SLT also conduct
several interviews on the child to determine the effectiveness of the therapy and the
realization of the set objectives. Besides, SLT analyses the information obtained from other
stakeholders to help develop the overall performance of the activity.

References
Essex County Council. (2016). Develop the workforce-developing the school’s provision
for pupils with speech, language and communication needs (SLCN). Special
teaching and preschool service. Retrieved from https://www.essexlocaloffer.org.uk
Min, H. & Wah, L. (2011). The teaching of speech, language and communication skills for
young children with severe autism spectrum disorders: What do educators need to
know? A newhorizon in education, 59(3), 16-27
Nicoll, A. (2017). Speech and language therapy: a critical realistic account of how and why
speech and language therapists in community setting in Scotland have changed their
intervention for children with speech sound disorders. A thesis for a degree of
doctor of philosophy, University of Stirling.
Palmer, R., Witts, H. & Chater, T. (2018). What speech and language therapy do
community-dwelling stroke survivors with aphasia receive in the UK? PloS ONE
13(7), 1-20
Tiny eye therapy service. (2019). Why might my child receive speech or occupational
therapy? Retrieved from infor.tinyeye.com/
Velea, P. & Purcarea, V. (2014). Issues of therapeutic communication relevant for
improving quality of care. Journal of medicine and life, spec (4), 39-45
Date for review of this plan: