Sezim Namazbekova, a practicing speech therapist and defectologist, shared her observations on working with children who have speech development disorders and the interaction between logopedics and ABA therapy.
In her opinion, she works with different children, but mainly with those who suffer from autism. Such children often have the ability to imitate and understand speech; however, they may not produce sounds and syllables even at the age of 5-6 years. This is when active work with them begins.
Namazbekova explained how logopedics and ABA therapy can effectively combine. During ABA therapy, a child's stable learning behavior and motivation for communication are formed, while the speech therapist helps activate speech, starting with the pronunciation of sounds and syllables, and then further develops speech in a functional sense.
She emphasized that motivation plays a key role in the learning process. It is important to determine what the child likes, whether it be toys, actions, or other activities.
“For example, I had a case with a child who adored stickers of various sizes and colors. Currently, I have a girl who is fascinated by fairies — I constantly print bright pictures for her, mainly in yellow-green shades. This helps her to be more interested and active in the lessons. Gradually, she begins to engage not only for the stickers but because she is genuinely interested,” the specialist shared.
According to Namazbekova, the main task of the specialist is to awaken the child's interest so that the lessons bring them joy and contribute to improving their quality of life.
