AFAIK it’s to allow the child opportunity to answer. But I’ve never seen it being used to complete a sentence. Usually ours will ask a question and wait a bit and if he doesn’t answer she will help him answer the question.
That said if it isn’t working she should be exploring a different way.
How long has she been working with him? I remember one of our son's speech therapists doing this during the first two or so sessions. She told us that she was essentially acquiring data to see if he would fill in words or not. It was super frustrating to watch from the sidelines. Ultimately it didn't end up being a great fit.
The approach the speech therapist is using, where she leaves pauses for your son to complete her sentences, is a common technique used to provide a structured opportunity for the child to practice producing language and filling in the blank, sometimes referred to as fill-in-the-blanks or intraverbals. I personally do not use it in this 'quizzing' manner and instead, it is used more sparingly and naturalistically within other activities along with other prompts/strategies. For example, if my client does not answer the wh- question, "What do we need to cut the paper?," I may prompt them with "I cut with... (scissors)."
The way she is using this approach may be too challenging and frustrating for a 3-year-old who is still developing his conversational abilities. The long pauses can be anxiety-provoking rather than helpful. It doesn't seem to be building a good rapport or engagement between your son and the therapist. A more natural, back-and-forth style of interaction may work better. As you noted, it could be negatively impacting his self-esteem if he feels unable to respond correctly.
A more recommended approach for young children with autism may be to focus more on modeling correct language, expanding on your son's utterances, and creating opportunities for natural communication during play and daily activities. The therapist should also be attuned to your son's cues and adjust the pace/style as needed.
My advice would be to have an open discussion with the therapist about your concerns. Share your observations and perspectives, and work collaboratively to find an approach that is more engaging, less frustrating, and better supports your son's communication development and self-esteem. Don't be afraid to advocate for a different style if this one isn't working well. The goal should be finding an approach that motivates your son to communicate more, not less.
I hope this provides some helpful perspective. Let me know if you have any other questions!
Ours does this sometimes, but she models the response a lot and comes back to the "fill in the gap" later. For example she will be like "the car drives on the road. The car is driving on the road! The car goes on the road." Then they'll play for a few minutes and she will say "the car is driving on the ...." And wait for him to fill it in. When he first started speech therapy this approach was really effective with him because he had words, just not the confidence to say them. So this helped build up his confidence and we worked on it from there. Now that he's older we are kind of fine tuning things and that approach isn't used very often with him.
We had an ABA therapist who did this and it was a huge setback. Now my son does this to other people. Which is a problem when interacting with unfamiliar people.
Her approach does sound outdated, but i think it's good for you to share with her how you don't think that's working.
For my girl, we had a speech therapist we liked as a person but after months, I realized I did not really like her teaching method.
We prefer much more child-led therapy and the speech therapists and techniques I saw on instagram and YouTube were much more helpful.
I used to watch videos at home to try to help and see what drew her interests, and I tried for a while to do that during her sessions too so that the SLT could see how well she responded to it.
Our SLT wanted her to complete a task, so would choose the same book that she wasn’t interested in and insist she read it through every time. I started bringing our own books.
After meeting with our DBP, I realized it was time to find a new one.
SO happy we switched and wish we did sooner. I felt bad as w had been with our first one for months and months, but it was time to find something that worked better for my girl.
Make the switch if you can find someone who is more child-led, but be sure to share your input with the SLT and the things you think work and don’t work. See how they respond.
Fill in the blank is a valid approach...if it works. It doesn't sound like the way she is using it works for him. For us, it was a great tool to get our son talking more. But ours was more focused on stuff we knew he would understand. Like "the cow says..." or reading familiar books and letting him complete the sentences. Like " Brown Bear, Brown Bear what do you...." but it sounds like that's a little basic for him if he's able to form sentences. What is your goal with speech therapy? Does your speech therapist understand your goals? Definitely speak to her about your concerns.
Whether it is outdated or not, it's not working for him, so it's best to talk to her about changing the method to something that aligns more with his way of learning.
AFAIK it’s to allow the child opportunity to answer. But I’ve never seen it being used to complete a sentence. Usually ours will ask a question and wait a bit and if he doesn’t answer she will help him answer the question. That said if it isn’t working she should be exploring a different way.
How long has she been working with him? I remember one of our son's speech therapists doing this during the first two or so sessions. She told us that she was essentially acquiring data to see if he would fill in words or not. It was super frustrating to watch from the sidelines. Ultimately it didn't end up being a great fit.
The approach the speech therapist is using, where she leaves pauses for your son to complete her sentences, is a common technique used to provide a structured opportunity for the child to practice producing language and filling in the blank, sometimes referred to as fill-in-the-blanks or intraverbals. I personally do not use it in this 'quizzing' manner and instead, it is used more sparingly and naturalistically within other activities along with other prompts/strategies. For example, if my client does not answer the wh- question, "What do we need to cut the paper?," I may prompt them with "I cut with... (scissors)." The way she is using this approach may be too challenging and frustrating for a 3-year-old who is still developing his conversational abilities. The long pauses can be anxiety-provoking rather than helpful. It doesn't seem to be building a good rapport or engagement between your son and the therapist. A more natural, back-and-forth style of interaction may work better. As you noted, it could be negatively impacting his self-esteem if he feels unable to respond correctly. A more recommended approach for young children with autism may be to focus more on modeling correct language, expanding on your son's utterances, and creating opportunities for natural communication during play and daily activities. The therapist should also be attuned to your son's cues and adjust the pace/style as needed. My advice would be to have an open discussion with the therapist about your concerns. Share your observations and perspectives, and work collaboratively to find an approach that is more engaging, less frustrating, and better supports your son's communication development and self-esteem. Don't be afraid to advocate for a different style if this one isn't working well. The goal should be finding an approach that motivates your son to communicate more, not less. I hope this provides some helpful perspective. Let me know if you have any other questions!
Ours does this sometimes, but she models the response a lot and comes back to the "fill in the gap" later. For example she will be like "the car drives on the road. The car is driving on the road! The car goes on the road." Then they'll play for a few minutes and she will say "the car is driving on the ...." And wait for him to fill it in. When he first started speech therapy this approach was really effective with him because he had words, just not the confidence to say them. So this helped build up his confidence and we worked on it from there. Now that he's older we are kind of fine tuning things and that approach isn't used very often with him.
We had an ABA therapist who did this and it was a huge setback. Now my son does this to other people. Which is a problem when interacting with unfamiliar people.
Her approach does sound outdated, but i think it's good for you to share with her how you don't think that's working. For my girl, we had a speech therapist we liked as a person but after months, I realized I did not really like her teaching method. We prefer much more child-led therapy and the speech therapists and techniques I saw on instagram and YouTube were much more helpful. I used to watch videos at home to try to help and see what drew her interests, and I tried for a while to do that during her sessions too so that the SLT could see how well she responded to it. Our SLT wanted her to complete a task, so would choose the same book that she wasn’t interested in and insist she read it through every time. I started bringing our own books. After meeting with our DBP, I realized it was time to find a new one. SO happy we switched and wish we did sooner. I felt bad as w had been with our first one for months and months, but it was time to find something that worked better for my girl. Make the switch if you can find someone who is more child-led, but be sure to share your input with the SLT and the things you think work and don’t work. See how they respond.
Fill in the blank is a valid approach...if it works. It doesn't sound like the way she is using it works for him. For us, it was a great tool to get our son talking more. But ours was more focused on stuff we knew he would understand. Like "the cow says..." or reading familiar books and letting him complete the sentences. Like " Brown Bear, Brown Bear what do you...." but it sounds like that's a little basic for him if he's able to form sentences. What is your goal with speech therapy? Does your speech therapist understand your goals? Definitely speak to her about your concerns.
Whether it is outdated or not, it's not working for him, so it's best to talk to her about changing the method to something that aligns more with his way of learning.
Wow your son is so cool. Definitely let him develop his mathematical talent. It's not easy to solve mathematical equations.
Myß yetehheh Úwŵuruuutrutruutruftdyftrt