Families
PROMPT is most known for being a tactile-kinesthetic (touch and feel) approach where a speech therapist places their hands on the client’s face to guide their jaw, lips, and tongue to move correctly to form words.
What is PROMPT?
PROMPT - Unique Approach to Speech Therapy
Welcome to the PROMPT Institute! We hope in the following pages you will learn more about the PROMPT method, how to find a PROMPT Trained Speech Language Pathologist (SLP), and other helpful resources for you and your family.
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PROMPT Therapy is a unique philosophy and approach to assessment and treatment of speech delays or disorders. We understand that being a caregiver for someone with a speech disorder can at times be difficult and frustrating. It is often difficult to know whom to contact and which evaluation results really reflect the challenges your family member is facing. Read on to learn more about our unique approach to speech therapy or watch this two minute video that explains what we do in a straight-forward and non-technical way.
What is PROMPT Therapy Video:
PROMPT is most known for being a tactile-kinesthetic (touch and feel) approach where an SLP places his/her hands on the client’s face to guide his/her jaw, lips, and tongue to move correctly to form words.
A Holistic Approach:
What sets us apart at PROMPT is our holistic approach to therapy. We systematically determine where motor breakdowns occur using our special (unique only to us) assessment tools and something we call the Conceptual Framework which helps us determine priorities in treatment.
Communication is an interaction between the Social-Emotional ability to connect with others, Cognitive-Linguistic understanding of language, and Physical-Sensory ability to produce certain words. If any of these areas are disordered or delayed the client’s ability to communicate is impacted. Learn more about How PROMPT Prompt works here.
The Importance of Functional Speech:
We focus on word targets that are relevant and have meaning to the client so s/he is connected and motivated to what s/he is learning. Your PROMPT clinician will come up with a motivating activity or game where the word can be repeated. Then the clinician will use his or her hands to support the motor movements as the client practices saying those words. Learning new motor skills takes a lot of practice and family members are essential for providing support.
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The PROMPT Trained SLP will choose specific words (lexicon) to target the motor patterns a client needs experience in when using functional speech interactions. For instance, if a client tends to speak with a clenched jaw or restricted jaw opening, the SLP will choose words containing sounds such as, ‘ah’. Some target words and phrases might be ‘on’, ‘mama’, ‘pop’, or ‘all gone’.
Is PROMPT Therapy for You?
An evaluation by a PROMPT Trained clinician is the only way to find out if a client is appropriate for PROMPT therapy. PROMPT therapy is used with a wide range of children and adults who have motor speech difficulties. The most common clients have motor speech disorders, articulation problems or are non-verbal children. Many clients with aphasia, apraxia/dyspraxia, dysarthria, pervasive developmental disorders, cerebral palsy, acquired brain injuries and autism spectrum disorders have benefitted from PROMPT therapy. Click here to find a PROMPT-trained SLP near you.
How PROMPT Works
PROMPT Therapy is guided by the PROMPT Conceptual Framework. This video explains what that framework is and how it sets PROMPT apart from other approaches to speech therapy. Understanding the guiding principles of PROMPT contributes to a successful relationship with your SLP and supports you in taking an active role in the client’s treatment
After you watch the above video, you will be familiar with the three domains (Social-Emotional, Cognitive-Linguistic, and Physical-Sensory) that PROMPT works within. We’ve included more information about the domains below because each plays a crucial role in the client’s treatment and PROMPT therapy is dedicated to facilitating success across all three domains.
The Social-Emotional domain is comprised of skills related to interacting with and learning from others in the environment. Addressing this domain builds the client’s ability to participate in useful and functional communication with others.
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Interpersonal interaction - How responsible is the client in a conversation? Can they start/continue a conversation? Do they look at the person they’re communicating with?
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Trust - Does the client trust the person they are communicating with? Do they seek someone out when they need help?
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Communicative functions - such as protesting, affirmation, continuation, cessation, requesting, and questioning. Examples could include communication like: no, yes, more, all done, ball, why?
The Cognitive-Linguistic domain is comprised of skills related to understanding and using language. Within this domain PROMPT aims to strengthen the client’s knowledge and accurate use of communication.
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Concept formation - Does the client understand when someone talks to them? Can they follow directions? Can they use words to tell someone what they want?
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Perception, sensation - Can the client see, feel, hear things in their environment?
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Discrimination, recognition - Can the client sort through what is important in what they see, feel, and hear in the environment?
The Physical-Sensory domain is comprised of skeletal structure, muscular tone and motor skills. Treatment within this domain focuses on improving the client’s ability to be understood by others by refining how the client uses their jaw, lips, and tongue to produce sounds, words, and phrases.
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Skeletal structure - Are the jaw, lips, tongue, palate, and larynx intact?
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Neuromuscular integrity - Can the client walk (gross motor skills)? Is their speech understood by others (fine motor skills)?
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Sensation - Can the client use sight, sound, taste, and touch for learning?
PROMPT assessment and treatment integrates all three domains to improve the client’s ability to communicate as a whole.
PROMPT Assessment
PROMPT assessment evaluates how the client functions across the three domains (Social-Emotional, Cognitive-Linguistic, and Physical-Sensory). Your concerns as a caregiver are important and will provide valuable input to the treatment your family member will receive.
Evaluations usually take 1-2 hours and are followed by a discussion of the results and recommendations.
PROMPT Systematic Motor Speech Assessment
PROMPT assessment begins with a tool called the Systems Analysis Observation (SAO) to understand where motor breakdowns occur. A motor breakdown is the client’s difficulty moving their jaw, lips, and tongue that results in challenges being understood. Motor breakdowns aren’t always from the Physical-Sensory domain but can also come from the Cognitive-Linguistic and Social-Emotional domains.
Your PROMPT Trained SLP will observe the client and then transfer the SAO results to a unique tool called the Motos Speech Hierarchy (MSH) to help determine which stages to prioritize in treatment.
Watch this video to learn more about the MSH and how it works.
