Virtual 6-Week Speech Development Class Supporting Children with Down Syndrome

It’s often the case that children with Down syndrome need extra support in facilitating proper speech development due to structural differences, muscle weakness, a decreased sensory system and low muscle tone. This class will take a deep dive into understanding those areas, evaluating your own child’s speech development, implementing strategies and tools to improve oral function, and will directly teach how to make a variety of speech sounds.

This live class for parents of children with Down syndrome is taught online for 6 weeks (1 hr per week). In addition, there will be a live online open discussion group per week that parents can attend to ask questions and share videos. Each week we will focus on a different topic. Each topic builds and leads to the next. Classes will be recorded in case you can not attend live. Children need not be present for the class.

Classes include:
Week 1: Taking a deeper look at Oral Structure, Muscle Function and the Sensory System
Week 2: Evaluating My Child’s Speech Production
Week 3: Starting an Oral Sensory-Motor Program at Home
Week 4: Continuing an Oral Sensory-Motor Program at Home
Week 5: Teaching My Child to Produce: Vowels, /p, b, m, h, w/
Week 6: Teaching My Child to Produce: /t, d, n, l, k, g/

Classes start Tuesday October 1, 2024 at 11am PST and will run for 6 weeks, ending on November 12, 2024. (no class on October 22nd)

Weekly open discussion groups will be held on Fridays at 11am PST.

Fee: $400

Who is this for: This class is for parents who are supporting articulation development of children with Down syndrome ages 1 year +.

What is needed: There will be a practicum that will need to be ordered before the class begins. Details to follow.

Prerequisites: It is recommended that participants take the 4 Part Feeding Class (www.happykidstherapy.com/feeding-class) before taking this class, however it is not mandatory. Many of the concepts taught in the feeding course will not be retaught in this class.