I have a client who is 7 and I have only been with him for about a month. He has previously had ABA and has made minimal progress in past speech according to his parents. He has LAMP but parents aren’t very familiar with it and it isn’t really used at home. He has some scripts probably 5-10 things he consistently says and he adds “I want” to everything. Overall, his spoken language is pretty limited. “I want turn it on” and “I want pick me up” are ones he uses a lot.
Our goal in starting has been to model mitigable flexible stage 1 gestalts to expand. I model both verbally and on LAMP. He has started to use more immediate echolalia and spontaneously use modeled gestalts during sensory activities which is great!
Today, he started adding “I want” to the gestalts I modeled. We were playing with a toy where you put gears on a board and can spin them. I fwas focusing on models “do it again” “help me” and “it’s spinning!!” He started saying on his own “I want do it again” and “I want help me” and “I want spin” I acknowledged his language and honored his requests. I personally have not modeled I want phrases and I don’t think his parents still do.
I’m wondering if anyone has experienced this and any tips. I know “I want” is taught language from ABA approaches. It’s interesting that he was in a way mitigating with it… do mitigations with taught gestalts count as stage 2?
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Marge BlancAdminTop contributor(Name not included), I think Ereeni may be able to chime in this morning, but I thought I would just get us started. What many of us have found is that getting out from under the taught “I want” is hard. It is a ‘default,’ of course, and proves that ABA works (to the detriment of language development). It is insidious, plus it turns requesting into compliance- training. Here is a preliminary plan: (1) refrain from using any language that hints at requesting (including ‘do it again’ and ‘help me.’ So-called ‘replacement language’ doesn’t work (2) Talk naturally and don’t even worry about ‘modeling’ per se. We have over-taught ourselves that modeling is good. It sometimes is, but it’s a bit ableist in-and-of-itself and ends up making us sound like a shrunken version of natural communicators. (3) make sure everything in your environment is freely available and that you play with child-like abandon, laughing, jumping, having the best fun ever, and *that* will be your modeling!! (4) take good advantage of the immediate echoing during sensory activities (5) take a good language sample during that time (which would be a good ‘excuse’ to do that for three sessions in a row) until you can help him basically start over again!! All the best, and please share your progress!! We will all learn from it.(Name not included)
Marge Blanc would you suggest doing more commenting or recasting of his utterances during sessions if not modeling requests? I have a similar case and am just trying to learn!Ereeni RoulakisTop contributor(Name not included) In a situation like this (where there has been a history of specific language expectations and demands), I’d probably avoid recasts for now! I recast when I know that a student or client is ready to hear variations for their input and understanding but the rapport and them understanding that I’m *not* correcting, just modeling additional options and variationsMarge BlancAdminTop contributor(Name not included)
AuthorMarge Blanc thank you for this great advice and plan! I will definitely try working on engaging in very natural fun language during sensory activities and build on our relationship!! Thanks!Marge BlancAdminTop contributor(Name not included) The thing is, you already did that; but you didn’t know it was part of *true* language development!!Ereeni RoulakisTop contributorYour starting point may have to further back than modeling new gestalts. This client knows that so many people “want” and demand things from him and building a partnership based on trust, regulation, enjoyment, safety may take a while for you two to build.Do you suspect he has more gestalts that he is hiding or have not been safe to reveal?I wonder if he started adding “I want” to things because while it started to seem there was trust and you and your models were resonating with him (him acquiring your language models as gestalts)…he started to wonder when you were going to start placing the demands (that’s a thing in aba right? Pairing then Manding?).(Name not included)
Top contributorEreeni Roulakis this is such a good point and great advice. He is expecting that this clinician will eventually start placing demands after pairing. It’s so heartbreaking.(Name not included)
AuthorEreeni Roulakis this makes a lot of sense! He has been “trained” that to get something he has to add “I want” to the beginning. I totally agree with everything else you said.I am not sure if he has more hidden gestalts. He is quieter than a lot of GLPs I’ve worked with. He makes a lot of vocalizations when he’s excited but they don’t seem to have a clear intonation that is repeated like an unintelligible gestalt. He’s very active and a sensory seeker and is more interested in sensory experiences than media related activities like videos so he doesn’t have any gestalts from songs or videos. He was very drawn to my intonation when we were spinning the toys, so I’ll keep working on building our relationship while using natural, intonation rich language and see if something is intriguing and meaningful to him!(Name not included)
My son still defaults to “I want” phrases when he’s anxious/in a new situation… It’s fading away slowly but surely in the last few months after switching to an NLA approach! Now he’s doing lots of “Let’s….” And “how about…” instead!(Name not included)
I want is totally an ABA thing. Keep kidding gestalts. I would be they’ll eventually fade and talk to parents about it too(Name not included)
I have a student like this, but he adds “please” to the end of everything “iPad please” “bathroom please” “no please” etc..he was in ABA before so I’m almost positive it’s an ABA/parent taught thing..it’s been really tough to break. Learning from the comments!(Name not included)
Talk naturally and tell parents to eliminate questions at home! Tell them to use declarative language. Example: It’s mealtime. Let’s wash up. We are having pizza. I am going to give you 2 slices to start. You can have more if you are still hungry. We…See more(Name not included)
Top contributorAs a parent, I’ve always been perplexed by the “I want…” taught language. Our first experience with OT, when my son was four and in stages 4-5, was with a therapist who would correct his natural language like, “I choose the blue car,” with, “Say, ‘I want blue.’” She did this frequently, rejecting perfectly grammatically correct language he used and instructing him instead to use “I want” and similar. It drove me crazy. I was new to the world of OT and was way too passive watching it happen. My best guess is that she sensed his grammar was “too advanced” for a four-year-old because it had initially derived from “echolalia” (he is a dual processor and always had some self-generated language, and definitely was communicating in all or nearly-all self-generated language by this age). Around the same time we began speech therapy at the same clinic even though his speech tested in normal range by ALP standards, to work on pragmatic language, something his teacher flagged as delayed. We mostly spun our wheels because I didn’t know to look for an NLA therapist who would understand the help GLPs can use in later stages. Once, we had a substitute SLP for his session who kept pointing to this “I want…” flash card for him when she asked him questions because he was answering more naturally. “Which toy do you want?” “The dinosaur.” “Ooooh! (Points to the sentence strip) I want…dinosaur.” I actually stopped her and told her my son had been capable of answering questions like those for as long as I could remember. “Well, does he know how to say, ‘I want…’?” she asked. I reassured him he had for years. Now being a part of this group, I see more of the origins of teaching this phrase, but it’s still strange to me how insistent therapists were in therapies that aren’t supposed to be ABA. In general, I found that my kiddo was routinely underestimated, they didn’t quite know what to do with him, ignored the information I gave them about therapy that works for hyperlexic kids (in general, everything written out, but I gave them booklets about it!), and definitely demanded compliance over connection. It was a hot mess. In the end, I wasn’t able to find therapists who were good for him and because his delays and challenges aren’t especially pronounced, I though therapy was doing more harm than good and we pulled the plug. I really wish every SLP and OT knew just a tiny fraction of what the therapists in this group do!
