Welcome to the third edition of The Parents’ Place sponsored by
The Therapy Place staff. This newsletter is intended to provide
parents and caregivers with some helpful information on various
topics regarding their children. In this issue topics covered will
include: transitions, the ILAUGH program, some helpful at home ideas
for speech/language intervention and
The Wilbarger protocol.
Editor: Noelle Everts, MA CCC/SLP
ILAUGH Social Thinking Program
The Therapy Place is offering social cognitive assessments and intervention
for children who demonstrate social cognitive deficits. Social cognition
is our innate ability to think through and apply information to
succeed in situations that require social knowledge. Social cognition
is a form of intelligence that is key to learning concepts and integrating
information across the entire day: in school, at home and in the
community. Limited abilities for learning and/or applying socially
relevant information can be considered a social cognitive deficit.
What is the ILAUGH approach?
The ILAUGH approach, which was developed by Michelle Garcia Winner,
explores a variety of areas that contribute to social thinking and
related skills. The ILAUGH acronym represents elements of disability
that contribute to social interaction skills, personal problem solving
skills and organizational skills.
Deficits in social cognition are difficult to reveal through traditional
standardized assessment tools as many children with social cognitive
deficits fall in the “average range” on standardized measures
of expressive and receptive language. Yet, there’s “still something…”.
These children tend to have difficulty initiating (I), listening
with their eyes and brain (L), thinking abstractly and making inferences
(A), understanding other’s perspective (U), getting the big picture
(G) and understanding humor in terms of the subtleties and timing
(H). An ILAUGH assessment is designed to assess a child’s individual
strength and weaknesses in these areas. The ILAUGH approach provides
an innovative framework to examine a child’s social cognition through
formal and informal testing procedures and provides intervention
designed to address a child’s social cognitive deficits in a group
format.
The ILAUGH approach is appropriate for children who are at least
7 years old and have demonstrated average to above average cognitive
skills. Those who may benefit from this approach may include, but
are not limited to, persons diagnosed with Asperger’s Syndrome,
Non-Verbal Learning Disability, High-Functioning Autism, Pervasive
Developmental Disorder-Not Otherwise Specified and attention Deficit
Hyperactivity Disorder.
If you are interested in pursuing a social thinking assessment
for your child or if you have any questions, please contact The
Therapy Place at (952) 885-0418. link: www.socialthinking.com