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From: Lynne Shields
Date: 18 Oct 2010
Time: 09:25:41 -0500
Remote Name: 68.188.68.2
Jennifer, I'm glad that this little 'nugget' is helpful to you. Regarding young children, while they may not be able to articulate goals and steps to achieve goals, I think they can participate in treatment. For example, a good friend of mine uses a rating scale using a horizontal line drawn on a piece of paper with the ends showing a smiley and frowning face, with a neutral face in the middle. Young children can rate how they think they did on a task, if they are aware of the methods, or just rate how they liked the session at the end, "show me what you thought about our time together today". If they point to the smiley face, you can comment, "I enjoyed it, too. I like spending time together" or "you told me so much today". This end-of-session rating can tell you quite a lot about how the child perceived what went on, even when they are too young to articulate that in words. I believe very strongly that it is vital to begin giving them specific feedback, even at a young age. So, while you may be teaching them skills through modeling, when you see the behavior, you can comment directly on it as a way to affirm their developing skills. Some examples, "I like the way you told me exactly what you wanted", "You took your time to think about your answer", "I noticed you waited for me to take my turn", "I heard an easy start to that word", "I like talking with you"--these are all positive comments about the child's communication skills, and these give the child much more concrete understanding about communication that telling them, "that was great" or "good". Regards, Lynne