09/12/2025
Therapists learn new things every day. Each and every client is part of the so called "Practice based evidence".
We see toddler diagnosed with non verbal ASD starting to develop expressive speech.
Don't take me wrong, I am not speech therapist, but my practice is working with a neurodevelopmental approach. Over time everything just falls into place.
Every time. Just by using child led play as a therapeutic tool. It takes time but the results are great.
To get a deeper insight in this matter, we have to have a closer look at the brain.
The areas for the hands in the Sensomotor Cortex are huge. If we would look like the sizes of body parts in the brain, we would have hands as big as wheel barrows.
We are created to shape our brain by the use of our hands. When implementing play in therapy we give the brain the opportunity to grow healthy brain structure which then presents as function.
The magic is that with the use of the hands the beneighboured areas "Expressive speech" and "Mouth motor" benefit greatly from the input without being specifically targeted.
In daily life these two areas are helping each other out. We see kids biting or moving their tongues when performing finemotor tasks like cutting, Italiens are moving their hands a lot when talking, the late singer Joe Cocker made specific hand movements when singing certain tunes.
Play is the key to connect these areas for high speed connectivity. And the positive by product is that the connectivity between both areas kick start the connection towards the Frontal Lobe where the executive functioning skills are located.
Your child simply improves behaviour and scholastic performance just by letting them play.
more PLAY = more BRAINPLASTICITY = better BEHAVIOUR and FUNCTION
Simple formula. Occupational Therapists, teachers and other professionals are urging the educational system since decades to reverse the curriculum back to neurodevelopmental requirements.
