Background
My son Wesley completed the 4 week long LSVT BIG and LSVT LOUD program this summer. Wes was 4 years 2 months old at the time. He has Down syndrome, is nonverbal, wears AFO leg braces and has glasses. He participates in weekly outpatient OT and PT at the Aurora 84 South Clinic. He gets speech services only at school, when school is in session. He uses about 5 American Sign Language (ASL) signs regularly. Sounds Wes made before LSVT are “GU” (good), “mama” (mom), “Ah” (on).
Treatment
When we started the BIG and LOUD program, I was hesitant and nervous, but hopeful that he would come out with new skills. After our first session, I was wondering what we had signed ourselves up for. Wes made no attempts at making sounds during the speech part. He had a hard time following along the OT session and his attention was all over the place.
Over the course of the 4 weeks, we (and others who are around Wes a lot) noticed him being louder in his sounds and attempting to make more sounds. After the 4 weeks he came out of speech with “B” sounds, such as “Ba” and “Bo”, the “P” (pop) sound, plus attempting to mimic sounds much more often. He is now attempting to say “hot” (ott), “scar” (ga) (our dog’s name), and imitates blowing, the noise the car blinker makes, and beep beep sounds.
Results
We have also noticed Wesley’s stamina has improved. He concentrates on activities with more attention for longer periods of time. His core strength is much more stable and stronger (per his regular PT and through our own observations). He went swimming and was able to hold himself upright, floating in water with a puddle jumper on for 20 minutes. Previously he would fall forwards or backwards and needed a lot of assistance with this.
He can now kick a ball consistently, is attempting to run, and walks up the stairs mostly independently when he was not doing that before starting. He WANTS to walk down the steps without help now. One HUGE thing for us is that Wes can, and will, reach all kinds of things on the counter at our house that he could not reach before. He will often stand on one foot to help him reach things he would not be able to reach standing on 2 feet.
“In the beginning of the program, I was really worried this program was not for Wes. I was worried that he was too young, had too hard of a time following directions, and generally too low cognitively to participate. Wes, Erica, and Jodi worked so hard together to show that kids Wesley’s age can do better with this type of intervention. Wesley learned the routine, the exercises, and eventually expected what was coming.”
He came out with more speech sounds, plus really trying to communicate with us. Wesley has improved core strength, improved movements, and physical ability from this program. We were so happy with the outcome we asked if he could participate again next summer.
LSVT Global recently released the Online LSVT LOUD for KIDS® Training and Certification Course for speech therapists who are interested in the pediatric application of the LSVT LOUD treatment. LSVT BIG has not yet expanded to a pediatric course, however, clinically physical and occupational therapists have been trying the treatment with some of their pediatric clients. This is one example of those success stories.
To learn more about application of LSVT LOUD to pediatrics, visit our Pediatric Resource page!