Our Stories

Javier is a 4 year old boy who began receiving speech therapy when he was younger through Early Intervention. When he was 3 years old, PROMPT therapy was introduced as he began to increase his verbalizations and respond to PROMPTs on his face and mouth.

Before PROMPT therapy started, Javier imitated the sounds of /t/ and /d/ but had a difficult time closing his lips to imitate the sounds /p, b, m/ and was not able to round his lips for the production of /w/. He struggled to produce these sounds in simple combinations such as “ma.” Javier was not highly engaged in attempting to imitate words or sounds, and did not respond to a variety of questions presented to him. In addition, he only used single words to indicate his needs. His mother reported that she understood him less than 50% of the time.

PROMPT was added to Javier’s program to help him imitate more sounds and put them together to produce words. In Javier’s case, PROMPT was added in addition to traditional speech therapy held in the classroom setting. A year after he began PROMPT, he was able to complete single words using a variety of sounds such as “boat, hat, house, and mouse” and increased his sound repertoire to produce /p,b,m,w,n,t,d,k,f,s,sh,ch/ with moderate PROMPTs applied to his face.

Javier is now able to independently produce the sounds /p,b,m,f,t,d/ in single words and most phrases. He uses 3-5 word sentences to communicate his wants and needs and takes several conversational turns with peers and adults in his environment. He responds accurately to a variety of questions and is beginning to ask several of his own. Although he is talking more, Javier is difficult to understand at times by other people in his environment. His mother understands him the majority of the time in a known context. Javier continues to gain new sounds and words and is very happy when he talks with his friends and family.