In this article we are going to talk about our therapeutic tool VICON Method .

We will start with a description of the tool, describing why and how we can use it from home. To move on to a series of strategies to enhance the method and consequently the language development of our children from home. Ready? Go for it!

First, I would like to explain to you why our children with difficulties encounter so many difficulties in language development: be it autism, maturational delays, specific language disorders, both receptive and expressive...etc. We know how difficult it is and how necessary to develop linguistic immersion to acquire a language and in the end that is the process that our children have to go through. So let's imagine, how difficult and sometimes impossible, it is to stop impact and language with just weekly therapeutic sessions once or twice a week. Also adding the difficulty that comes from the disorder, the lack of development and all the symptoms that come behind these children. That is why the issue of time is one of the great difficulties due to which this language and this communication do not develop, which translate into intensity to be able to have a real impact on the lives of children at the language level.

We must not leave aside another very important aspect, which is the motivational aspect in this development process. Many times in therapy we make progress but they may not be significant learning for the child and therefore we lose them as time passes. Another situation that arises is that they only occur in the session and do not spread at home. So finding a treatment methodology that is motivating for children is an essential requirement to be successful in the medium and long term with these significant learning experiences.

Thus, our therapeutic tool VICON Method was born, it is not only a tool that at home and/or in the classroom, the two most important enclaves of the child, we can have an intensive and significant impact on him, on the family and the resources. that it has to help you, as well as the resources that teachers have who are more specialized in natural pedagogy than in therapeutics. VICON method is put online because it is really motivating for the child. Well, it is a program based on music therapy, video modeling and ABA methodology as it is a step-by-step, evolutionary program that awakens the emotion of our little ones, generating transcendent learning in the medium and long term.

Methodological bases on which our therapeutic tool VICON Method is based

It is a structured and intensive learning program for children with a visual and musical profile , to try to enhance early development to more elaborate communication. In this way, it is a therapeutic tool in video support, which is the ideal complementary resource for all our children with special educational needs, whether from home, from or from the session.

It is based on video modeling , that is, it makes us available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, as we said, it is motivating for our little ones, versatile. In other words, it is simple, comfortable and gives us that intensive component so necessary to really have an impact on language.

Music therapy is the preferred medium for our little ones, it is where they do not find that difference that distances them from others. Well, they respond to musical stimulation before any other kind of stimulus , which facilitates all the processes of attention, imitation, memory and concentration... without leaving aside the whole issue of social relationships and the learning that we can develop through music.

How does the brain work when it learns?

I'm not going to go into much detail but it is very important that we have an idea of what the brain's functioning entails when it learns. This is where aspects of brain plasticity come into play and, for example, through music we reach the language area from another hemisphere that is generally not affected. Being a medium that children love when they are watching our videos, it directly affects what mirror neurons are. Which are what makes those automatisms of language move.

That's why our children open their mouths when they open their mouths in the video image. That's why they say words when they say words in the video and do what the video represents for them. Exposure to videos is high because they need many opportunities to learn and let us keep in mind that language begins as a game, an automatism, something spontaneous and once it evolves and develops it ends up being functional and social. This process is not instantaneous but requires time. So the environment in which the VICON Method operates involves curiosity, fun and that brings us the necessary attention to lay the first foundations of learning.

Who is our VICON Method therapeutic tool for?

The method is aimed at families, educational centers and therapeutic care centers, as a tool to provide care, prevention and treatment to these difficulties in learning and specifically in language learning.

If a child does not learn the way we teach him, perhaps we should teach him, the way he learns. How many children have we found to be non-verbal who have learned their words even if they are 4 from YouTube videos, in English, songs, movie dialogues...?

With the Method, we have not only found an intensive tool that provides resources to the family and the teachers and to all the people who care for the child. But it is more effective due to its digital component. We must not forget that many children with communication difficulties, in the interaction between people, is the moment in which they are most uncomfortable and most naked, and learning that language that has to be intentional and social seems like a really difficult task. impossible.

Strategies to enhance language development with the VICON Method at home

Next, we are going to give a series of tips that we can do at home to enhance this language development, always under the prism of motivation, without forgetting the time for all these skills to be developed in depth and step by step so that they say I stumble. .

The first thing we have to do when we have to follow a strategy is to start observing . Observe the child, what his abilities are, what his difficulties are, how much language he has, what things he likes, what things he can't stand, does he have any behavior that he wants to work on... We have to be very clear about all this reality when we start working. Well, we are going to carry out the work on a specific child and we have to be very clear about what the priorities are, in terms of objectives and what we can rescue to help us achieve them.

On the other hand, we will have to observe our environment very well , whether it is the classroom or the home, because simply by making strategies to change the environment we can promote better development, a more orderly, more stimulating and more effective environment for that child.

It helps a lot that you can register it. Everything that can be measured must be written down, to be able to see progress over time.

We have to keep in mind that we are a team with our child, and that we therefore have to be a team. Therefore, we will achieve twice the strength, twice the intensity and we will walk with twice the power, if there are two of us than if there is only one of us.

One of the most important and effective strategies to develop communication is to bring children home . That is, to promote a social environment, as controlled as possible, where we can influence making changes in that communication and be able to put into practice everything we develop on a daily basis with real children.

Then it is also very important to start with what motivates him . If we do not start with what motivates you, it will be very difficult for us to achieve anything, and we also have to take into account what motivates us and what motivates our entire team depending on all the people who are involved in the intervention at that moment. or in the activity we are proposing. Like that list of favorite things, we have to use those capacities that our child has to our advantage, those first words that he already has are our keys to the next one.

Many times we tend to work on the appearance of new words. However, for me the great success is to continue working on what we have been promoting . Giving him more experience and waiting because the new words will come without us realizing it, and above all, without him realizing it.

In this way, it is very important to go step by step , and there are some milestones that we can or cannot skip. Working on eye contact, that fact that when I look at him he looks at me, is the starting point of attention and you should almost dedicate 70% of the time to reinforcing this fact, because that is what is going to bring us tension sustained for early learning.

Another very interesting aspect is that of signaling , where not all children develop signaling but if we achieve it it will not mean a huge leap in communication and it will save us a lot of anxiety and frustration to know what they want, what bothers them, what they don't. wants…

The third vital process in learning is object permanence , that is, being able to hide objects and find them . Try as always to do everything step by step, for example, we go from something partially hidden to something totally hidden because what we are trying to do is guide attention to the skill.

When you have children with learning difficulties, it is very important to measure those intermediate processes that take place as supports to develop the skill, and also have the ability to find them when there is a difficulty in learning.

Finally, and with that concentration that we have gained, in this attention phase, we arrive at the most important part of learning, what is imitation . For us, imitation is essential and in the VICON method, it is of enormous importance to be able to make them autonomous in learning, if we had to teach him everything we would be there forever but if he is capable of having the skills to copy from the environment and learn on his own: a behavior, a skill, a word... the learning process will be real.

We promise you a second entry where we will discuss more important aspects of how to use our VICON Method therapeutic tool at home. In the meantime, we invite you to look for all the information you need on our social networks and on our blog .