The word stays stuck behind the teeth: the card slipped into the assessment folder teaches the speech therapist to show first and wait afterwards
A card slipped into the assessment folder, read by the speech therapist before the first session, and "so, tell me what's wrong?" becomes a picture set down on the table, with all the time in the world to answer.
This case is about a 7-year-old child with DLD (developmental language disorder). The profile is written by a parent. It is addressed to the private-practice speech therapist taking over after a move, who has only forty-five minutes to understand a child who says little and understands less than he seems to.
Wednesday at 4:15 pm, rue des Tilleuls
Wednesday, 4:15 pm, a first-floor practice, a waiting room with two picture books and a plant. Malo, 7, sits on the edge of the chair, his feet not touching the floor. Céline, the speech therapist, has taken out the usual set of cards. She says: first put the cat card down, then the ball, and after that tell me what you see. Malo picks up the ball. He looks at the table. There is no sentence left.
His mother had slipped a card into the green assessment folder, along with the reports from the previous speech therapist. Céline scanned it the evening before, lukewarm tea beside the keyboard. She read that Malo takes in one instruction at a time, that the word escapes him when he is rushed, and that he withdraws if questions come one after another. He understands more than he says.
So Céline puts the cat and the ball away. She sets down a single card. She waits. Ten seconds, fifteen. Malo says "ball", then "round". At 5 pm, she notes in the notebook: session one, he spoke without being rushed. His mother did not have to go back over everything since preschool, between two doors.
- You write it
- The QR is in place
- The reader scans
- Understood, without explaining again
Where to place the QR for this case
A private-practice speech therapist sees one child every forty-five minutes, with reports to write between sessions and a secretary who is not always there. The QR has to be in what she opens before receiving the child, not in what she sees go by.
- Card slipped into the assessment folder, with the previous speech therapist's reports and the doctor's prescription, handed over at the very first appointment.
- Link added to the appointment-booking email or to the message left on the answering machine, so she finds it again before preparing the session.
- Copy pasted into the liaison notebook the child brings to every session, in case the speech therapist changes slot or a replacement takes over.
Best avoided: the practice door or the waiting room, where other families pass, and the child health record booklet, which the speech therapist does not consult. The sheet is addressed to the person leading the session, not to the whole landing.
Ready-made text templates
The outlines below are a starting point for filling in the three sections of the profile. Rewrite them in your own words: the way your child freezes, the time he needs, the support that helps are what a speech therapist remembers.
For the "Introduction" section
"My name is Malo, I'm 7, and I have DLD. I understand more than I say. When the word won't come, I go quiet or say something else. I like animals, trucks and puzzles."
For the "How to help" section
"Show me the picture before naming it. Give me one instruction at a time, then wait fifteen seconds. If I'm looking for my word, give me the start of the syllable, without finishing my sentence."
For the "What to avoid" section
"Please don't repeat the question louder. Don't give three instructions in a row. Don't correct every mistake in front of my mother. And don't tell me say it properly, I know I said it wrong."
Disabilities covered by this case
DLD is at the heart of this case. The sheet also works for a dyslexic child, or for one who goes silent from anxiety or selective mutism: a visual aid, one instruction at a time, time to answer.
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Three texts (introduction, how to help, what to avoid), one shared QR code. When they scan it, the person reads what they need to know, in their own language.