MAP Questions

The MAP’s Questions section allows you to post questions and have a
speech/ language pathologist respond to your questions.   Remember, they
can not answer questions specific to your child or diagnose your child.  
However, they can answer more general questions, and make suggestions
for treatment and therapy options.   If you would like to post a question,
please click here.

How do I know if I am prompting my child too much?

One common mistake many parents have is to cue their children to the answer of a
question by a gesture, a glance or other body language. If, for instance, you place a
variety of objects in front of your child and you are asking him to "Touch pen," you may
be giving the placement away by glancing over at it inadvertently. To see how a therapist
reacts when she is asking a child to identify certain objects, return to your video guide.

Why is it that one day my child seems to know a concept and the
next day he no longer knows it?

Children often appear to understand concepts when, in reality, they may not. Consider
the following: You just asked your child to do something and he did it! Terrific! You
probably assume that he understood what you asked him to do because he complied
with your request. Perhaps it was something as simple as "get cup." However, when you
ask your child to get the cup later that day, he doesn't do it. That makes you mad
because you feel that if he knows how to "get cup" he should do it!

The question now becomes: Does your child really know what you asked? Maybe he
understood to "get cup" last time you asked because you asked while you were setting
the table, (which, incidentally, gave him a visual cue). Or, maybe the second time you
asked, he did not "process,"or understand your question because he wasn't really
listening, focusing instead on the noise coming from the next room.

My daughter loves candy for rewards.  Is it ok for me to give her
some every time she responds correctly to what I ask?

All of us like to be rewarded for what we do well. Children with special needs are no
exception. Behavior that is praised or rewarded in some way is repeated, according to
behavioral theory.

Rewards can consist of anything your child really likes--gummy bears, hugs, toys, high
five's, food treats, games-and they should be graded according to difficulty. But if you are
like most parents, you are always saying, "good job," no matter what your child does. Or
offering Fruit Loops all the time whenever she does something right. It's important to vary
the rewards you use so that they remain appealing to your child. If an item is over used
(e.g., if you gave it for every  correct response), it will fail to be motivating and your
child's performance will drop.

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