Programs for Parents

More Than Words® — The Hanen Program® for Parents of Children With Autism Spectrum Disorder or Social Communication Difficulties

As a parent, you know how challenging it can be for your child with Autism Spectrum Disorder or other social communication difficulties to interact meaningfully with others and connect with the world around him.

The More Than Words Program was designed specifically for parents of children ages 5 and under on the autism spectrum and with other social communication difficulties. Addressing the unique needs of these children, the program provides parents with the tools, strategies and support they need to help their children reach their full communication potential.

More Than Words does this by empowering you to help your child reach the following three goals:

Improved social communication and back-and-forth interactions
Improved play skills
Improved imitation skills

Here are some of the valuable things you’ll learn when you attend the More Than Words Program:

What motivates your child to communicate
How to use your knowledge about your child to set appropriate and realistic goals
How to make interactions with your child last longer
Tips for using pictures and print to help your child’s understanding
Strategies for how to talk so that your child understands you
Strategies for developing your child’s play skills
Ways to help your child make friends

Program Components

The More Than Words parent program includes:

8 training sessions in small, personalized groups
A Hanen Certified speech-language pathologist leading the program
A pre-program consultation for you and your child with your speech-language pathologist
Three individual visits for you and your child with your speech-language pathologist in which you are videotaped while practicing with your child. Then you and your speech-language pathologist watch the videotaped interaction to “see” what’s helping and what you can modify to help even more

It Takes Two to Talk® — The Hanen Program® for Parents of Children with Language Delays

The It Takes Two to Talk Program is designed specifically for parents of young children (birth to 5 years of age) who have been identified as having a language delay. In a small, personalized group setting, parents learn practical strategies to help their children learn language naturally throughout their day together.

The It Takes Two to Talk Program teaches you, step-by-step, how to become your child’s most important language teacher. The program shows you how to:

Recognize your child’s stage and style of communication so that you know which steps to take next
Identify what motivates your child to interact with you so you’ll know how to get conversations started
Adjust everyday routines to help your child take turns and keep interactions going
Follow your child’s lead to build his confidence and encourage him to communicate
Add language to interactions with your child to help him understand language and then use it when he is ready
Tweak the way you play and read books with your child to help him learn language
Change the way you speak to your child so that he’ll understand and learn new words

Program components

6-8 training sessions for parents in small, personalized groups
A Hanen Certified speech-language pathologist leading the program
A pre-program consultation for you and your child with the speech-language pathologist
Three individual visits for you and your child with the speech-language pathologist in which you are videotaped while practicing strategies to help your child achieve specific communication goals. You and the speech-language pathologist then watch the videotaped interaction to “see” what’s helping your child and what you can modify to help even more.