Overview

Healthcare professionals play a key role in promoting communication development

Professionals such as Pediatricians, Nurses and Psychologists who work with young children and their families have a significant impact on these children’s communication development. Regardless of whether a child has a specific diagnosis such as autism or Down syndrome or is identified as being language delayed, the Hanen approach provides an effective way for you to promote a child’s language development. This approach is also very helpful when working with children who are at risk for language delays due to environmental disadvantage.

Using the Hanen Approach

The Hanen approach involves becoming more responsive to children and providing appropriate language input from which they can learn. As a professional, you can both apply responsive language strategies in your daily practice during your own interactions with children, as well as supporting the child’s parents to do so.

Understanding the impact of a child’s language delay on his ability and motivation to communicate is important. Adults tend to naturally compensate for the child’s difficulties by talking more, expecting less and providing a great deal of direction to the child. While this is a natural response, if this is the adult’s primary style of interaction, it can result in a child who is less motivated to communicate and has fewer opportunities to learn to do so.

Hanen strategies such as: Observe, Wait and Listen; Follow the Child’s Lead (imitate, interpret, comment); Join In The Play; Ask Questions That Help The Child Continue The Conversation; and Expand The Child’s Message have two important effects:

• they encourage the child to communicate more; and
• they make language easier to process and learn

These effects create the ideal language learning environment. The more a child communicates about the things of interest to him, the more responsive language input he gains from his caregivers. When this input is adapted to his language level, the more he learns, thereby encouraging him to communicate even more. It’s that simple.