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Hanen Parent Training Programs
The Texas State University Speech-Language and Hearing Clinic is staffed with three Hanen Level 0ne certified Speech-Language Pathologists, one of which is also level two certified. Specific information about the Hanen parent training programs It Takes Two to Talk and More Than Words is located below. This information is included on the Hanen website at the link below.
Program Benefits and Cost
Benefits
- parents gain skills to help children develop better communication skills and allows them to assume a primary role in their child’s intervention
- parents learn from other parents and feel supported
- by minimizing severity of delay, children may need less intensive speech and language services
- 20 hours of group and individualized instruction from a trained speech language pathologist
Programs offered and cost
- It Takes Two™ to Talk for families of children with language disorders
- More Than Words™ for families of children with an autism spectrum disorder
- Tuition: $350 for the entire program per family. Spaces are filled on a first-come, first-serve basis. A $100 deposit is required to reserve space in a scheduled workshop.
A Description of the Hanen Programs
It Takes Two to Talk Overview
It Takes Two to Talk™ — The Hanen Program® for Parents is a well-known model of family-focused early language intervention for young children with expressive and/or receptive language delays. The goal of It Takes Two to Talk is to enable parents to become their child’s primary language facilitator, thereby maximizing the child’s opportunities for communication development in everyday situations. It Takes Two to Talk is designed for toddlers and preschool-age children with specific language impairment, as well as to children with cognitive and developmental delays under age five. The program has three objectives: parent education; early language intervention and social support.
Parent Education
Parents learn basic concepts about communication and language that are essential in helping their child’s communication develop. They learn about:
- the development of communication (with an emphasis on nonverbal communication)
- the differences between expressive and receptive language
- the importance of a child’s active participation in frequent, extended turn-taking interactions in order to set the stage for language learning
- how and why their child communicates
- their child’s stage of communication development which facilitates the setting of realistic communication goals.
- also enhances parents’ responsiveness to their children’s communicative attempts.
Early Language Intervention
Parents learn to apply language facilitation strategies flexibly across contexts so that intervention becomes a natural part of their daily interactions with their child. Strategies highlighted by the SLP for individual parents are specific to supporting their child’s communication goals. These goals are developed collaboratively with the parents and modified over the course of the program. Since effective and consistent strategy use by parents is critical to the child’s progress, video feedback sessions play a major role in helping parents see and modify their interactive behaviour with their child.
Social Support
In It Takes Two to Talk, parents gain both formal and informal social support. The SLP, whose multi-faceted role includes that of group leader, interventionist, coach and counselor provides more formal support. The parent group itself provides informal support through the sharing of experiences with individuals in similar situations. Parents report that this constitutes a vitally important component of the program.
More Than Words Overview
More Than Words™ is a family-focused Hanen Program® that gives parents of children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) and related social communication difficulties, practical tools to help their children communicate.
More Than Words derives its theoretical basis from the same social interactionist perspective as It Takes Two to Talk, Hanen’s program for parents of pre-school children with language delays. Like this program, More Than Words emphasizes the child’s everyday activities as the context for learning to communicate. In addition, More Than Words incorporates current best practice guidelines, highlighting the importance of affect, predictability, structure and the use of visual supports to enhance learning in children with ASD.
The Program is organized around four major goals:
- Improved two-way interaction
- More mature and conventional ways of communicating
- Better skills in communicating for social purposes
- An improved understanding of language
For additional information, please contact the Speech-Language-Hearing Clinic at 512-245-8241, or e-mail:
Mailing Address:
Texas State University-San Marcos
The Department of Communication Disorders
Speech-Language-Hearing Clinic, HPB 101
601 University Drive
San Marcos, Texas 78666