Care Specialties & Departments
Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation

PROMPTs for Restructuring Oral Muscular Phonetic Target

What is PROMPT?
PROMPT stands for PROMPTs for Restructuring Oral Muscular Phonetic Targets.  The technique is a tactile-kinesthetic approach that uses touch cues to a patient’s articulators (jaw, tongue, lips) to manually guide them through a targeted word, phrase or sentence. The technique develops motor control and the development of proper oral muscular movements, while eliminating unnecessary muscle movements, such as jaw sliding and inadequate lip rounding.

When is a PROMPT evaluation recommended?
Individuals suspected of having motor speech disorders such as childhood apraxia of speech, dysarthria, and/or speech that is difficult to understand should be referred to a speech-language pathologist.  It is important to know that a motor speech disorder may be a distinct diagnosis, but it may also occur as a component other conditions including expressive/receptive language disorder, autism spectrum disorder (ASD), intellectual disabilities, learning disabilities, attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), traumatic brain injury (TBI) and various psychological and emotional disorders.

What to expect during a PROMPT evaluation:
This type of evaluation will often be done in conjunction with an assessment of articulation as well as expressive and receptive language skills.  A speech-language pathologist may assess:

  • Articulation skills
  • Oral structure examination
  • Spontaneous speech production skills
  • Ability to produce and use language
  • Jaw, lip and tongue movements during speech production
  • Ability to imitate movements with model and with tactile-kinesthetic support

What to expect from PROMPT therapy:
Based on evaluation results , specific goals to address deficits in the cognitive-linguistic, physical-sensory, or social-emotional domain may be added to your child’s care plan. Therapy activities may include improving a child’s turn-taking, speech production, understanding of cognitive-linguistic concepts, and social use of language through functional communication routines as well as play.

For additional information regarding PROMPT, please see:

http://www.promptinstitute.com/
American Speech-Language Hearing Association (ASHA)