A speech language pathologist should identify and focus on developing your child’s functional skills. Communication is one of the most basic functional skills; if your child cannot share his needs, there is no next step toward development. However, most speech language pathologists stop only at the communication part of the functional skill. What else should holistic speech therapy focus on?

What is functional skill?

According to Wright’s Law, a functional skill is the set of abilities an individual requires to be independent and co-exist in this society. Communication, social, mobility, daily life, and behaviour skills are common functional skills. Depending upon the purpose of these skills, it is usually categorized as

1. Social skills
2. Communication skills
3. Academic and learning skills
4. Life skills

The areas where a speech therapist can offer value

A speech therapist or speech language pathologist should identify the functional skill gaps and create individualized goals to improve those skills. To do so, the therapist should work with the parents and find the answer to the question, ‘What are the five main things that would make the child more independent in his day-to-day work?’ It could be as simple as taking out the English classwork when an English teacher calls out to take the notebook or as complicated as understanding sarcasm.

Preschool functional skills

Usually, the functional skills required by preschoolers coincide with social and safety skills. Apart from basic communication, the child should learn to co-play with peers or verbally explain that they do not want to play, politely. The child should be independent enough to understand commands given in a group and execute them. When it is impossible to execute it, or the child fails to understand the command, he should be verbal enough to ask the teacher for help.

Elementary functional skills

A child at his elementary level should be able to use communication to share his ideas, explain his needs, and more. In addition, he should be able to follow multiple commands, follow routines or break the routine based on new commands, analyse a problem in hand, and have peer interactions.

Upper elementary functional skills

At this stage, the requirements of the child would be complex. The child should have adequate communication skills to organize his work, navigate through an ever-changing environment, ask for any required accommodations, negotiate/argue in a civilized manner, and explain his train of thoughts or daily events to a parent or teacher.

How can a speech and language pathologist help in these areas?

• The primary part is communication training. Communication is the most valued functional skill for any age group.
• Along with speech, there should be equal attention to auditory processing, listening comprehension, reading comprehension, and related skills.
• The therapist should create scenarios and train the child to communicate accordingly in each scenario. From basic pleasantries like Good Morning or Bye to introductory small talk, the child should be taught in every aspect of communication beyond expressing their wants and needs.
• Training to follow a combination of verbal and visual commands offered simultaneously or during a given work.
• Training essential behavioral elements like proper negotiation, handling conflicts, appropriate escalation of complaints (complaining to a teacher/parent rather than getting into a fight), complimenting others, maintaining and respecting personal space of self and others, and so on.

Please remember that your therapist cannot start with functional skills from day one. The child should be trained with basic communication and comprehension skills before moving on to the functional part.