Goals for treating children in the water

At the ARN office, we are often asked about goals for treating children in the water so, we decided to give you some examples. Here are some goals for Speech, look for past postings for PT and OT goals.

 

Aquatic-based SLP goals

1. Attend to an aquatic activity for eight to 10 minutes or until completion twice per session. (Attending to a task is a foundation for building strong language skills).

2. Play with a novel aquatic toy for five minutes without upset once per session.

3. Produce "K," "G," "W," "F" and "T" in the initial position of words at phrase level with 80 percent accuracy.

4. Produce three-syllable words with 80 percent accuracy while being given multisensory aquatic cues.

5. Produce three- to four-word utterances with 80 percent accuracy with given cues.

6. Perform successful repetitions of shaker head raises (while lying supine in water) to promote strengthening of swallowing muscles.

7. Tolerate hydrostatic pressure against the rib cage while producing sounds and vocalizations without shortness of breath.

8. Perform lip and mouth closure and hold breath to perform immersion for 10 seconds without aspiration.

9. Share an aquatic task with a peer (expanding descriptive language by teaching a game to the peer).

10. Perform forced expiration necessary to project voice over loud atmospheric noises.

11. Perform sustained exhalation necessary to blow pool toy across surface of water for 10 seconds.

12. Articulate names of pool toys without sputtering.

13. Decrease facial sensitivity enough to allow splashing of water around face and neck without avoidance.