Anyone know what happens in an Attention and Listening Group? (SALT)

[Sahkoora]

DS2 has been put in an Attention and Listening group by his SALT, which he is starting on Tuesday morning. It runs for six weeks and I have to leave him there for an hour ... which means I don't get to beak at the proceedings!

Anyone know what will happen? Will he just be observed playing in a free for all environment or will it be a bit more structured? They have asked for a donation towards a snack (which I can't see him eating tbh!) but that's all I know!

Oh wow, I've never been offered that with DS. We just had regular group therapy, but parents had to be present.

Judging from my experience, it usually involves singing songs, nursery rhymes, short stories. All this helps with their attention and listening skills.

I guess the eating activity gives more opportunities to increase communication/ language.

They children are informally observed, but the day is usually structured. But again, this is just knowing from personal experience.

The usual mantra is that you need good liaison with home so that the techniques that work can be replicated at home.

Some ASD kids can learn something well in one place but not realise that it can be generalised ie be used in another place. And often more can be got from an intervention if parents can reinforce it at home.

Also if you know that there is something specific in DC;s day which may impact the class, then it is generally better that there is a chance for you to let them know that.

Each child is individual, so you will know if any of might be relevant to your DC. And the therapy is new on me too, but it seems it would be fair to ask the providers what they are doing, and what you should be doing at home to support it

Yes it should be structured. The children will sit in a small group and each child will take it in turns to do something e.g. pin a picture on the board, put a piece of jigsaw in the puzzle, build a stack of blocks, shake an instrument et c... These are just general examples but hopefully give you an idea of what to expect. Dd attended a similar group a few years back - I'm guessing the format is still similar.

Thanks everyone, that's very interesting. DS is very focused on his own agenda and I can't see him sitting in a group or taking turns to do anything - I don't think he will understand the instruction for starters!

I hope we will get some feedback on it all, we could do with a few pointers for home.

I can't see him sitting in a group or taking turns to do anything - I don't think he will understand the instruction for starters!

You may be surprised… when my DS went to his first SALT social and communication skills group aged six, before the session there were six kids waiting in the hallway, two of them had to be first in the queue, two had to be last, and the other two didn’t want to be there at all. Within five minutes the SALT had them lined up quietly on the stairs, a few steps apart, a hand on the banister, ready to go up to the classroom. And six pairs of parents standing in the hallway open-mouthed “how did she do that???” Mind you I don’t want to give you unreasonable expectations – kids will vary in each group and it took a long time for my DS to “get” some of the basics.

The sessions were structured, but they were also adapted to how the children reacted and to what they seem to need. When my DS was older they had a session on the difference between “I don’t need any help thanks” and “GO AWAY!!!” after one of the girls had yelled at the therapist.

We didn’t get much feedback though. We sometimes talked briefly to the therapist afterwards but our kids were desperate to decompress after they’d been focussing so hard and we mostly had to get them away home quickly. The therapist wrote a report a few weeks after each set of sessions and that was about it. The sessions did help DS a lot though not an immediate difference.