Guest guest Posted February 19, 2008 Report Share Posted February 19, 2008 Hey all, In looking into all the therapy methods used for children with apraxia, Kaufman seems like it makes a lot of sense. I've also read the archives on this topic. Those of you that have used it, how early (age) did you start? Did you have an SLP using them or did you just use them at home yourself? If you order the kit, does it come with an explanation of how best to use the cards? And do the cards mostly contain words that are best suited for a toddler's vocab? Anyone know where the best deal for the kit can be found? Or if you can buy them used somewhere? I keep looking for them on Ebay daily - but no luck so far! I'm a single mom in grad school, and the pocketbook is definitely being stretched even just with the cost of the supplements. Is this a method you would definitely recommend? Or are there others I should try first? I'm really trying to find things that I can do with him at home. We do have an eval with a private SLP coming up, after which I may revise our EI IFSP, but at this point, I want to make sure he's getting the amount and quality of therapy he deserves. He also takes a long time to warm up to people, and is still getting to know our EI case worker. I imagine the same will happen with the private SLP. So all these new things, I feel, will be most successful coming from me, at least in the next few months. I don't want to waste any precious time, so short of going out and getting a degree in Speech and Language, I want to learn as much as I can about the methods and approaches that have met the most success in this field. Sorry, that's a lot of questions! (and !) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted February 19, 2008 Report Share Posted February 19, 2008 Hi, I ve been in this group for a while but i rarely post anything. ahout and year and a half ago we looked at purchasing the kaufman cards. I called mrs kaufmann and she said the best way to use the program is through a trained slp. At the time we were changing from a state run program to private therapy and luckily the new therapist uses the cards. After seeing the cards used by a trained professional we realized that we would not have been able to get the desired results on our own. We do get instruction from the slp and take cards home to work with. had made exceptional progress in his speech and I dont think he would have had this success without the cards. > > Hey all, > In looking into all the therapy methods used for children with apraxia, Kaufman seems like > it makes a lot of sense. I've also read the archives on this topic. > > Those of you that have used it, how early (age) did you start? Did you have an SLP using > them or did you just use them at home yourself? > > If you order the kit, does it come with an explanation of how best to use the cards? And > do the cards mostly contain words that are best suited for a toddler's vocab? > > Anyone know where the best deal for the kit can be found? Or if you can buy them used > somewhere? I keep looking for them on Ebay daily - but no luck so far! I'm a single mom > in grad school, and the pocketbook is definitely being stretched even just with the cost of > the supplements. > > Is this a method you would definitely recommend? Or are there others I should try first? > > I'm really trying to find things that I can do with him at home. We do have an eval with a > private SLP coming up, after which I may revise our EI IFSP, but at this point, I want to > make sure he's getting the amount and quality of therapy he deserves. He also takes a > long time to warm up to people, and is still getting to know our EI case worker. I imagine > the same will happen with the private SLP. So all these new things, I feel, will be most > successful coming from me, at least in the next few months. I don't want to waste any > precious time, so short of going out and getting a degree in Speech and Language, I want > to learn as much as I can about the methods and approaches that have met the most > success in this field. > > Sorry, that's a lot of questions! > > (and !) > Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted February 19, 2008 Report Share Posted February 19, 2008 I purchased the cards, read all the info that came with them and asked for a bit of direction from our slp. She answered the few questions I had and I handled it from there. Grace's therapy center had never heard of the Kaufman method (it is not commonly used on the west coast) but instead tried to create the series of approximations themselves. They were unaware that such a method had already been developed and that they could just use the cards. I began using the cards immediately when we purchased them. I had the few questions but for the most part, they were easy peasy to figure out. We still use them today, we're on the second box but we don't use them as often as we used to. The Kaufman cards really pushed Grace to the next level. Between these cards and the ProEFA/Vitamin E, Grace went from being evaluated for an AC device in July of 2006 to scoring within 1 standard deviation from the mean (i.e. being at age level) for expressive language in March of 2007. If the Kaufman Kit had been left out of the equation, I do not believe Grace would have made the same level of progress. The best way to use the cards is to have the child attempt the approximation that is at the bottom of the list. As he/she masters this, move on to the next level up. The book gives a sequence regarding an order that you can use but the box is pretty much set up that if you go through the sections, moving front to back, you'll progress in a developmental manner. Grace would work on the first 2 sections. When she mastered those or got close to mastering them, we'd add another section, etc. Regarding the cost, I calculated that the cost of the kit was 2 therapy sessions for us. (We and/or our insurance were paying 100 to 120 bucks an hour). I used the cards daily, 5 days a week for 15 minutes at a time. I did this so that Grace could, to an extent, actually be receiving the 5 days a week of therapy that you often see recommended. Even if we paid for every session ourselves, we couldn't even find a therapist willing to schedule us for that many slots. I had to make a decision between being thwarted by this or not allowing this to stand in my way. The Kaufman Kit was a spring board for me. It gave us some initial structure for articulation practice and it also helped to build Grace's vocabulary and. more important, her confidence. I then made up games, books, songs, rhymes, anything to help to increase vocabulary, encourage vocalization/approximations, etc. Grace thought we were playing a game but each day had a plan. I used her speech therapy goals for direction and only focused on a few goals in a given month. We still do kinda the same thing although we no longer sit at the table and have the same structure. I use the Kaufman Kit now for things like working on our " s " sounds and such. We still take the speech therapy goals and focus on a few a month. When she meets them I go in prepared with my notes and discuss it with our therapist so that we get the old goals off of the list and create new goals. No need to keep working on things she has already mastered. Kris The Knitting Wannabe http://www.knittingwannabe.com Sonny & Shear: The I’ve Got Ewe, Babe Yarn Shop http://www.sonnyandshear.com On Feb 19, 2008, at 1:07 PM, Herrald wrote: > Hi, I ve been in this group for a while but i rarely post anything. > ahout and year and a half ago we looked at purchasing the kaufman > cards. I called mrs kaufmann and she said the best way to use the > program is through a trained slp. At the time we were changing from > a state run program to private therapy and luckily the new therapist > uses the cards. After seeing the cards used by a trained > professional we realized that we would not have been able to get the > desired results on our own. We do get instruction from the slp and > take cards home to work with. had made exceptional progress > in his speech and I dont think he would have had this success without > the cards. > > > > > Hey all, > > In looking into all the therapy methods used for children with > apraxia, Kaufman seems like > > it makes a lot of sense. I've also read the archives on this topic. > > > > Those of you that have used it, how early (age) did you start? Did > you have an SLP using > > them or did you just use them at home yourself? > > > > If you order the kit, does it come with an explanation of how best > to use the cards? And > > do the cards mostly contain words that are best suited for a > toddler's vocab? > > > > Anyone know where the best deal for the kit can be found? Or if > you can buy them used > > somewhere? I keep looking for them on Ebay daily - but no luck so > far! I'm a single mom > > in grad school, and the pocketbook is definitely being stretched > even just with the cost of > > the supplements. > > > > Is this a method you would definitely recommend? Or are there > others I should try first? > > > > I'm really trying to find things that I can do with him at home. > We do have an eval with a > > private SLP coming up, after which I may revise our EI IFSP, but at > this point, I want to > > make sure he's getting the amount and quality of therapy he > deserves. He also takes a > > long time to warm up to people, and is still getting to know our EI > case worker. I imagine > > the same will happen with the private SLP. So all these new > things, I feel, will be most > > successful coming from me, at least in the next few months. I > don't want to waste any > > precious time, so short of going out and getting a degree in Speech > and Language, I want > > to learn as much as I can about the methods and approaches that > have met the most > > success in this field. > > > > Sorry, that's a lot of questions! > > > > (and !) > > > > > Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted February 19, 2008 Report Share Posted February 19, 2008 The Kaufman Kit works wonders. My son's SLP used these cards with him shortly after we started therapy last year. Connor has major some major progress in his speech and I agree with the person who said we wouldn't be where we are now if it wasn't for these cards. I purchased the kit on the NRS-NSS website. I looked on e-bay for the longest time as well and I didn't have any luck so I decided to just go ahead and buy them. These cards are suited for children's vocabulary. A few other therapists use these cards for children even w/o apraxia. They just use them in a different way. I also bought the Sign & Say kit. The kit states they are for children within the autism spectrum, but only because they are pictures of realistic things. The words are broke down the same way in the Kaufman Kit. They also have different words and have the sign for the word on the back. If I was you, I would go ahead and use this method. It works wonders for a lot of different children. The words are broken down from the easiest way of saying the word up to the full word itself. I would also request that you state in your IEP that you want a therapist trained in the Kaufman method. Hope this helps. Steph <hilarym99@...> wrote: Hey all, In looking into all the therapy methods used for children with apraxia, Kaufman seems like it makes a lot of sense. I've also read the archives on this topic. Those of you that have used it, how early (age) did you start? Did you have an SLP using them or did you just use them at home yourself? If you order the kit, does it come with an explanation of how best to use the cards? And do the cards mostly contain words that are best suited for a toddler's vocab? Anyone know where the best deal for the kit can be found? Or if you can buy them used somewhere? I keep looking for them on Ebay daily - but no luck so far! I'm a single mom in grad school, and the pocketbook is definitely being stretched even just with the cost of the supplements. Is this a method you would definitely recommend? Or are there others I should try first? I'm really trying to find things that I can do with him at home. We do have an eval with a private SLP coming up, after which I may revise our EI IFSP, but at this point, I want to make sure he's getting the amount and quality of therapy he deserves. He also takes a long time to warm up to people, and is still getting to know our EI case worker. I imagine the same will happen with the private SLP. So all these new things, I feel, will be most successful coming from me, at least in the next few months. I don't want to waste any precious time, so short of going out and getting a degree in Speech and Language, I want to learn as much as I can about the methods and approaches that have met the most success in this field. Sorry, that's a lot of questions! (and !) --------------------------------- Never miss a thing. Make your homepage. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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