What is PROMPT?

The earliest kind of speech therapy we did was the PROMPT method, and it was this type of speech therapy that gave Chelsea her basis of sounds before we started on actual words. I learned about PROMPT from attending one of the CASANA, now Apraxia Kids, national conferences and going to a lecture about it (which I HIGHLY recommend- those conferences are incredible)!

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What is PROMPT?
PROMPT stands for Prompts for Restructuring Oral Muscular Phonetic Targets. It uses touch cues on the child's mouth, lips, and tongue to guide them through a target sound or word. The PROMPT Institute is the organization that trains all the speech therapists in this method. 

  

What was my experience with PROMPT like?

I really liked this method, and highly recommend it as a starting point for kids with few sounds. When Chelsea started official speech therapy just before she was 2 years old, she had a grand total of 2 sounds. A high-pitched squealing "Iiieeeee" noise, and a repetitive "da-da-da-da" sound, neither of which she used for any functional communication. 

Despite my very best efforts, she couldn't say "mama" or "ball" or any 'normal' words or sounds you would expect from a 1 or 2 year old. We started PROMPT, and it took a long time- about 9 months of 3-5x/ week speech therapy, but she started saying words after that point! For all of the first 9 months, it was just building sounds with repetition, repetition, repetition! 

Once Chelsea was 3 and a half, we started transitioning away from PROMPT, because she had a lot of sounds at that point and had outgrown PROMPT. In the video below, you can see Chelsea at about 4, still cueing herself for the "ee" sound at the beginning of the word "Yes"

How is PROMPT different than other speech therapy?

PROMPT mainly relies on touch cues, which is different than the visual cues more commonly found in speech therapy. The speech therapist (SLP) will touch your child's mouth in different spots to try and "wake up" those muscles and help the child's brain remember which muscles to use for which sounds. 

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How do I find a trained SLP?

There are trained PROMPT SLPs all over the world! Go to their SLP Finder link HERE to find it. 

Sometimes, it is hard to find a trained SLP in your area! When I was in that situation, I contacted the PROMPT Institute, and set up a training in my area. The early intervention center hosted it for free, and I passed the word around to several SLPs, and Chelsea's therapist got training for free in return for me setting it up!

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What does PROMPT look like in therapy?

HERE is a link to a youtube video that shows what PROMPT looks like in a typical speech therapy session. The therapist will touch different parts of the mouth to cue the proper sounds. Chelsea started with the bilabial sounds (meaning "both lips")  like "muh" and "buh" and "puh" where the lips come together and open again. 

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Where can I find more information about this?

The PROMPT Institute website has some fantastic information all about PROMPT, for clinicians and families alike. Go check out their website if you want to learn more and see if this is a method that would help your child.