Silicon Valley Down Syndrome Network Membership

Feedback on the Hanen Workshop by Janette Najar

14 Nov 2014 2:08 PM | Anonymous

The Hanen class was AMAZING and I would thoroughly recommend it for parents as well as speech therapists as well as any caretakers. There is a book which I bought to go with the class “It takes Two to Talk”. The instructor gave us a workbook as well to do weekly assignments and the more you put into the class the more you get out. The instructor came to our home twice and video taped us interacting with our daughter and showed us ways to improve. We dissected it piece by piece and it was so helpful. I leaned never to say to my daughter “Say blah blah blah.”

I learned what communication style my child likes and what stage she is at so I can tailor the way I talk with her. She can only communicate with one word at a time so using anymore than 2-3 words at a time is too much for her. I learned to OWL (observe, wait and listen). It takes Sarah about 5-7 seconds sometimes to understand what we are saying and then another 5-7 seconds to respond; so OWLing is so important.

I couldn’t believe by just waiting how much my daughter was telling me with looks, pointing, etc…; which I didn’t pick up on before doing this workshop. Before, I would just talk, talk, talk and she couldn’t get a word in edge wise. I learned to follow my daughter’s lead, instead of leading her. I learned how to play, read books, and interact with music in ways I hadn’t before.

Yes, I would definitely recommend the class.

Janette Najar


Silicon Valley Down Syndrome Network

 SVDSN is a program of Valley Medical Center Foundation who is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization

 2400 Clove Drive, San Jose CA 95128

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