It's rare that a family of a child or young person will leave my office without me quickly drawing this pyramid and talking them through it. Why?
This is a brilliant way (and a favourite of SLT's) to explain and show how communication skills develop.
The skills at the bottom of this pyramid come first and need to be in place to develop the higher skills. Just like when building a house, the foundations need to be strong.
Children, young people and adult's can experience difficulties at any level of the pyramid. During assessment, SLT's are noticing the individual's strengths and difficulties in each area to help shape recommendations.
I've had one mum recently say to me "I'll never forget you telling me that we needed to support his interaction and play to develop language. I wasn't sure but now I can see it. Since he has started interacting and playing more, he is also using more words".
Think of your child's development in each area before focusing on their speech sounds.
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