MOSAIC MOMENTS

On Monday I told you about two programs that I knew to be very beneficial for families of children with speech and language delays.

The Hanen Centre has a great program that I used when Tim was young. Over the years, I discovered Communicating Partners and could clearly see the similarities of the two programs.

This week, I have learned many new things! I didn’t realize that Dr. James MacDonald of Communicating Partners helped with the initial development of The Hanen Centre’s “It Takes Two to Talk”.

When I first wrote this article, Dr. MacDonald wrote a response concerning the article and The Hanen Centre. In response to his message, Elaine Weitzman from The Hanen Centre wrote the following message.(below)

I would like to thank Dr. MacDonald and Elaine Weitzman for their comments. I always try to learn something new each day, and this week I have learned a lot about both of these WONDERFUL programs!

Please visit both of their sites. These programs will truly help you with your child’s speech and communication!

The Hanen Centre’s Response to Jim MacDonald -

July 9, 2008-07-09 

From: Elaine Weitzman, M.EdExecutive Director,
The Hanen CentreAssistant Professor,
Department of Speech-Language Pathology,
University of Toronto 

I would like to take the opportunity to respond to Dr Jim MacDonald’s message about the relationship between Communicating Partners and The Hanen Program®. Ayala Manolson, my predecessor and founder of The Hanen Centre, has always credited Dr MacDonald’s work as the catalyst for her efforts to involve parents in their children’s early language intervention. He was indeed very generous in sharing information about parent involvement with her, and our trainers always acknowledge this important contribution when training speech-language pathologists. However, I would like to correct some inaccuracies in his summary for readers who may be unfamiliar with The Hanen Centre, its mission and activities.

First of all, Dr. MacDonald refers to The Hanen Centre as a corporation and a business. The Hanen Centre is and always has been a not-for-profit charitable organization. All proceeds from sales of resources and workshop fees go back into supporting operations, research and development.

Dr. MacDonald appears to be unaware of The Hanen Centre’s significant growth over the 33 years since he was involved. We currently have six Hanen Programs: It Takes Two to Talk – for parents of children with language delay; More Than Words – for parents of children with autism spectrum disorder; TalkAbility – for parents of children with high-functioning autism; Target Word – for parents of children who are Late Talkers; Learning Language and Loving It – for educators of children in early childhood settings; and You Make the Difference for parents of children at risk.

Hanen Programs provide training to parents and caregivers in a group setting, which we believe is ideal both in terms of efficiency, as well as in terms of the support and motivation it provides to adult learners.  In Hanen Programs, our sole focus is to empower the parent or caregiver to become the child’s primary language facilitator. The program is designed to help parents create an ideal language learning environment for their child, so that every interaction, conversation and activity becomes a language-learning opportunity. This is an approach which, once learned by parents, is integrated into a family’s very lifestyle.

A hallmark of our programs is that each one has a set of supporting, user-friendly resources which translate the research into simplified, practical information, with beautiful, clear illustrations so that the materials are accessible to all levels of readers. Our experience is that resources need to be grounded in research and extremely user-friendly to be useful to both parents and professionals, and we maintain our commitment to that high standard.  Contrary to what Dr. MacDonald stated, our guidebooks and other resources are not the same as those used in 1980. For example, the 1980 version of It Takes Two to Talk he mentioned has been revised three times, most recently in 2004 and, as with all our resources, reflects the most current research in the field of early language intervention.

We often hear from parents around the world that a Hanen Program has changed their and their child’s lives for the better. We also know that not every parent has access to it. For this reason, our resources are available to the public for purchase. In addition, recent DVDs have been developed with parents in mind – designed to be used as a companion to a guidebook either as a self-teaching tool or mediated by a professional. I refer specifically to the It Takes Two to Talk Companion DVD, which can be used together with the It Takes Two to Talk guidebook. A More Than WordsCompanion DVD will also soon be released. More information on these resources can be found on the Hanen website.

Finally, I’d like to highlight the extensive research that has been conducted on Hanen Programs and published widely in peer-reviewed journals. Hanen Programs, such as It Takes Two to Talk and Learning Language and Loving It are considered evidence-based and I suggest that anyone who is interested should review Dr. Laura Justice’s e-brief on exactly this topic at http://www.speechandlanguage.com/ebp/pdfs/2-1-mar-2007.pdf. In addition, detailed research summaries with references on each Hanen Program are available for download at no charge on the Hanen website at www.hanen.org

Dr. MacDonald has expressed the need for a “radical change in the role of the professional from a therapist to a parent educator and long-term coach”. This change in role has been The Hanen Centre’s focus and is something for which we are well-known. We know that learning a new skill like driving or playing golf requires much guided practice and support from a coach. In this respect, learning to follow the child’s lead, imitate, interpret, use appropriate questions and comments etc. is no different. These are skills that parents need to learn to apply flexibly in everyday activities and routines – and that may involve parents’ changing longstanding ways of communicating with a child. 

In all Hanen workshops, speech-language pathologists (SLPs) learn best practices for teaching adults. They learn to help parents apply program strategies by increasing their awareness of their own and their child’s interactive behaviour and by coaching parents so they learn to monitor their behaviour and adjust it as necessary. SLPs also learn to provide parents with effective and constructive feedback on videotaped parent-child interactions, a cornerstone of all Hanen programs. Each Hanen training workshop includes a set of comprehensive program materials for the professional, as well as for parents and caregivers. We offer this training worldwide (not just in
Canada) so clinicians can take Hanen training and then offer the program in their local communities.

This training appears to have filled a need. To date, we have trained over 20,000 speech-language pathologists around the world. The intensive training and extensive support we provide to Hanen Certified SLPs allows us to ensure that Hanen Programs of similar quality are offered worldwide. In addition, due to the increasing international demand for Hanen resources, we have undertaken numerous translations to make our approach available in other languages.

To address the issue regarding the cost of the training, clearly speech-language pathologists pay a registration fee for Hanen workshops. Fees are frequently covered by employers, who consider this professional development critical to the quality of their clinical services.  Parents, on the other hand, often attend Hanen Programs in their local communities at little or no charge since these may be funded through various funding bodies and charitable initiatives. Many of our members, particularly in the United States, have been very enterprising about obtaining funding for their Hanen Programs and we are currently summarizing this information so other speech-language pathologist can make use of it.

While Dr MacDonald states that Hanen Programs provide the “basics” on matched turn-taking and play or an “introduction to playing with a child” within “occasional play-times”, a quick look at our guidebooks and DVDs or at our website will clarify that our approach extends far beyond this and always has. The implication that Hanen Programs provide “basic ideas in a short period” and that parents “will come to experience failure if they are not supported . . .” is simply not borne out by fact or by the research.  As an example, the 12 week It Takes Two to Talkprogram consists of eight 2.5 hr group training sessions and three individual video feedback consultations, which is considered quite intensive by any standards. The amount of service parents and children receive in a Hanen Program, when compared with traditional, individual therapy once a week, is significantly greater and more intensive. In addition, in individual therapy, it is often the therapist who directs and leads the therapy, leaving the parent to observe and then attempt to imitate what she has observed.

Finally, I consider it important to address the notion that Hanen Programs provide short-term training that is akin to taking an antibiotic, but not completing the course of treatment - an interesting analogy. We consider Hanen Programs to be a critical foundation for parents – a best first step to early language intervention. We expect that further support and services will likely be needed after a family has participated in a Hanen Program. However, once a parent understands the child’s needs, has become more responsive and is able to create a language learning environment which is fine-tuned to the child’s needs, interests and developmental level, then any further speech and language services the family receives is based on an excellent foundation.

I believe that Hanen Programs and Dr. MacDonald’s program Communicating Partners have similar goals and theoretical underpinnings. I commend Dr. MacDonald on his lifelong commitment to supporting parents and clinicians. His work has been widely recognized as groundbreaking. I encourage him to re-acquaint himself with the work of The Hanen Centre so that he does not run the risk of providing inaccurate information about a program which has been rigorously researched, is constantly updated and highly regarded in the field of early language intervention.

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