Generalization in ABA Therapy: How Lakeview Kids Learn to Use New Skills in Real Life
Important Note for Families: This information is for educational purposes only and does not constitute medical advice, diagnosis,…
Advice For The Device
Melissa Menendez
Melissa Menendez, M.S., CCC-SLP, CLC, is a licensed speech-language pathologist and Certified Lactation Consultant who brings a unique combination of expertise to Chicago Pediatric Therapy & Wellness Center. As clinical lead for the speech-language pathology team, Melissa ensures high-quality, family-centered care while maintaining an active caseload that spans infancy through early childhood. Her dual credentials in speech pathology and lactation consulting provide a seamless continuum of support for families from a baby's first feeding through their emerging communication skills. Melissa's academic foundation began at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, where she earned a Bachelor of Science in Speech and Hearing Science in 2011. This rigorous program provided early exposure to communication disorders, audiological sciences, and child development. She continued her training at Illinois State University, earning her Master of Science in Speech-Language Pathology in 2016, followed by her Clinical Fellowship Year and ASHA certification. Recognizing the critical intersection of feeding and communication development, Melissa pursued additional training to become a Certified Lactation Consultant (CLC), expanding her ability to support families from birth onward. Since joining Chicago Pediatric Therapy & Wellness Center in 2021, Melissa has developed expertise across multiple specialty areas. Her clinical practice includes early language development, supporting children from babbling and first words through complex sentences and conversational skills; infant feeding and lactation support, addressing breastfeeding challenges, bottle-feeding concerns, and oral motor development from birth; transitioning to solid foods, helping families navigate baby-led weaning, texture progression, and oral sensory exploration; managing picky eating and food refusal, using evidence-based strategies to expand dietary variety; articulation therapy, targeting speech sound production including notoriously difficult sounds like /r/; and augmentative and alternative communication (AAC), supporting children who benefit from communication devices and visual supports to express themselves. In her leadership role as clinical lead, Melissa fosters a culture of continuous learning, facilitates regular case discussions, ensures evidence-based practice standards, promotes collaboration with occupational therapists, physical therapists, and behavior analysts, and provides mentorship to newer clinicians. She is passionate about empowering families through education and partnership, recognizing that parents are their child's most important communication partners. Melissa creates individualized therapy plans that respect each family's values and work across home, school, and community environments.
Read Less →Typical language development consists of parents, family members, and professionals talking to babies for almost a whole year before anyone expects them to produce words. We often put augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) systems and AAC devices in front of a child and expect them to functionally use it right away. We need to use AAC systems and devices alongside our children by learning the language and modeling the language on these systems throughout the day, just as we would with babies.
Initial Steps
Let’s break down initial steps for implementing a new AAC system and AAC device in the home environment!
- Have it out every day and make sure it travels with you from room to room. This is a very simple but meaningful step!
- Let your child explore the words on their device; don’t stop them from doing this! Just as babies explore and experience sounds while learning language, emerging AAC users explore the vocabulary within their devices to learn their new language system.
- Make communication fun and a no pressure situation!
- a) Choose preferred, motivating, and no stress activities to begin. This could be during play, meal times, at the playground, etc.
- b) Do not force your child to use the device right away.
Fun Activities to Begin With!
- Play
- Meal time/cooking
- Playground/backyard
- Reading books
- Watching TV and movies
When modeling language during these activities, it is recommended that you teach by accessing the buttons/language within the systems yourselves, and then pairing the voice output from the device with your voice/production of the target word/phrase.
Words and Phrases to Model
Let’s think of some initial words and phrases to model during the previously mentioned motivating activities! There are great to add to your AAC Device
- Target play activity: Cars
- a) “Play car”
- b) “Go”
- c) “Stop”
- d) “Push car”
- e) “Go fast”
- f) “Go slow”
- Meal time/cooking
- a) “Eat”
- b) “Eat+food”
- c) “Eat more”
- d) “Hungry”
- e) “Drink”
- f) “Drink+specific drink”
- g) “Thirsty”
- h) “I like”
- i) “Don’t Want”
- j) “Help”
- k) “Help Me”
- Playground
- a) “Push”
- b) “Push Me”
- c) “Climb”
- d) “Go up”
- e) “Go down”
- Reading books
- a) “Read book”
- b) “Turn”
- c) “Turn page”
- d) “Look”
- Watching TV/Movies
- a) “Watch”
- b) “Turn on”
- c) “Turn off”
Motivate The Desire To Communicate
It is okay to keep initial target words and phrases simple during the introduction of modeling language on a new system within your home! The goal is to MOTIVATE THE DESIRE TO COMMUNICATE!
Contact the pediatric specialists if you have any questions or to have an assessment with one of our speech and language pathologists at Chicago Pediatric Therapy & Wellness Center. We can be reached at 773-687-9241 today!
Chicago Therapeutic Children’s Academy welcomes students of all different communication levels and has a plethora of different options for AAC devices. Click the link to learn more about our state of the art children’s academy.
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