Which way now with speech therapy for 4 year old with asd

[Catsdontcare]

Been having private 30 minute weekly sessions for a year. Lots of progress made but tbh the 30 minutes is just too intense for ds, he doesn't have the attention skills and a considerable amount of time is spent trying to gain his cooperation.

I'm happy to keep paying but feel that maybe now I need to be looking in a different direction just not sure what tbh?

Most of the activities he does in speech therapy are ones I could do at home so is it worth asking for a schedule of activities I could do for his speech and language and then direct funds toward addressing his other issues?

I've never really examined aba and if I'm honest I don't really seem to be able to get a grasp of what it actually is .

Ds's biggest issues are his speech and language (about 18 months behind), poor attention and listening issues and all the associated social and communication issues that go with that!

yy, completely agree with zzzz, if you are confident in doing the activities at home then that is better anyway, as you can work things into his day more, be more flexible than a weekly 1/2 session. the whole hanen approach is based around the parent doing most of the work.

Yes I'm perfectly happy to do the work myself, the salt has always set weekly "homework" for us to do so I think if she was happy to set monthly tasks and activities we could work them into our day.

Zzzz have you found riding beneficial?

I think some new activities would be good for ds, particularly as I have pulled him out of pre school early. (tough term here too!)
Never considered riding but will look into it.

How does the SALT motivate him? Does he have a reward system? Are the rewards the right ones e.g. is he motivated to pay attention to get the reward? Does she break the 1/2 hour up with free choice / play?

The problem with a lot of SALTs is they don't know how to motivate children with asd so they can't build up the attention. The activities may also not be engaging / fun enough for him to bother paying attention

You could look at aba - or find a salt who has more of an aba background.

It sounds like whatever system she has to motivate him isn't working. It took a while to build up but my DS will now sit down straight away when asked. He has a token board and earns points and knows he will have to engage with the activity until he gets all his points - then he gets a reward which is his choice of activity. He does that for a few minutes and then comes back and starts a new token board.

The aba therapist also know him really well and are lots of fun so often when its his choice he will choose to stay with the therapist and play - but sometimes he will go off and pay a quick game on the computer - which is fine because he has earnt it. But it is only a few minutes then back to work. And the sessions are broken up that way. He was able to manage 2.5 hour sessions broken up in this way at 4 - with most of the time being actual therapy - but it took time and expertise to build up to that situation.

Once he actually does the activities he enjoys them - but he needs that incentive to get him over that hurdle of getting started

If it is taking all session to get him to comply and thats being going on for a year then you need to ditch this person and find someone who can motivate and engage your child - or teach you how to do it. As you say the actual activities are not hard to do yourself.

As lightpassenger said, I find that the Hanen appraoch is recommended by SALT here. I did a parents course with accompanying support from SaLT and a book .

So while we dont attend SaLT regularly, all our interactions at home are more or less (when I am full of patience) 'therapy' IYSWIM

I would also recommend activities...I have found swimming fab, though he is often overwhelmed because of his sensory issues. I also find Scouts great (though you may be too young yet). Horse-riding was difficult (smells) but he loved it once he got going.
HTH

I think I may have accidentally painted a bleak picture of his salt, she is very good and his attention and cooperation has improved massively over the year but he is easily distracted and when something is difficult his cooperation goes out the window. He isn't motivated by stickers or tokens or charts in any form so she has a little basket of toys and he gets to pick one after each activity and play for a few minutes between activities which he likes.

The activities themselves aren't an issue I just think rather than an intense 30 minutes of 3 or 4 different activities it would be better to do them spread out over the day. I have now spoken to the salt we are going to meet monthly and she will set a program of work for him at home.

Am going to use money saved to look into swimming not sure if he will go anywhere near a horse but maybe we'll give it a whirl!! I think maybe just some nice days out would be great for him.