Guest Posted May 22, 2008 Posted May 22, 2008 Hi. I have just received a very unhelpful Speech & Language Treatment Plan for a child in our pre-school. The SPL Therapist has not provided me with any additional information other than the targets for the child who she describes as having 'decreased joint attention skills'. As this expression is new to me I did a quick google search and frightened myself as it frequently appears alongside ASD which I had not considered for this child. He is 2 years old............ If you can give me a summary of decreased join attention skills I would be grateful!! Goodness knows what the mum has made of it too.......
Guest Posted May 22, 2008 Posted May 22, 2008 PLEASE, SOMEONE? Hoping to talk to the parent tomorrow and they're only in Thurs/Fri?
Rea Posted May 23, 2008 Posted May 23, 2008 Sorry LJW I cant help. I personally would wait for clarification from the SPL before saying too much to mom. You could just talk to her about the things on the treatmant plan, how you are going to implement them and how you can work together. The sites I've looked at are very upbeat about being able to help children so I'd go with the positive 'we can do this' rather than dwell on the autisum aspect, at least until you've had a chance to talk to the SPL, presumably there will be a statement to follow which you can work to. Good luck
Beau Posted May 23, 2008 Posted May 23, 2008 A bit late I know but I found a link to this book in google. There is a bit in it about premature babies and studies that have shown problems in this area - could your little boy fall into this catergory?
Guest lesboyle Posted May 23, 2008 Posted May 23, 2008 This is a bit late in the day, but I would recommend not mentioning ASD to parents. I have a child who has speech difficulties and was given a tentative diagnosis of Autism at 2 and a half. However, the speech therapist has since told me that children with language disorders present in a very similar way to children with speech disorders (often not very communicative with peer groups and follow own agenda due to lack of language comprehension). We have spent an anguishing year not really knowing one way or the other. The good news is that you can use similar strategies for both. Makaton signs work well as does photos of activities/friends etc. I do think you need more support from your speech therapist! Hope the meeting was okay! Lesley
HappyMaz Posted May 23, 2008 Posted May 23, 2008 Hi LJW Sorry I was too busy yesterday - but here's a definition I found:- "Joint attention episodes are those situations in which an adult and a child simultaneously focus upon some object and together carry out actions upon it". Schaffer, H. R. (2004) Introducing Child Psychology, Oxford: Blackwell Publishing Here's the link to page 299 on Google Books where you can read a summary of reports and studies. Maz
Recommended Posts