The WHSPS Program

WHSPS – The Why, How, See, Practice, Share program for educating and encouraging participation from caregivers, is something we strongly believe in. Therapy is considered effective when a client can carryover targeted skills to settings outside the therapy room. We are pretty confident that we are not the only SLPs who are often frustrated with the lack of follow through from some of our families. But, through lots of brainstorming, we have discussed whether this lack of follow through is an “us” problem and how much of it is a “them” problem. Our conclusion…it is a little bit of both! The “us” problem is really about the following:

1. Doing a better job of educating caregivers;

2. Being specific in our expectations;

3. Holding caregivers accountable for follow through.

WHY, HOW, SEE: Educating caregivers should include sharing the importance of WHY we are targeting specific skills. It should also involve specifically describing the HOW. Finally, caregivers benefit from SEEing models. A description of what we are doing while we model the behavior is crucial! Many times caregivers have commented that “no one ever told me”, “I wish someone would have explained that to me”. Caregivers often want to be given specific instructions on the skills we are trying to teach, elicit and prompt.

PRACTICE: Providing caregivers specific activities will allow them the opportunity to PRACTICE with their child. And, the more specific and functional, the better! We need to remember that this is our job and we have had years of training. We also have experience thinking of and implementing activities that elicit target skills… caregivers have not. Therefore, explicit instructions are necessary for them to practice using their new skills on their own! The PRACTICE part of our education is what makes parents recognize the importance of using skills outside of our therapy room and give them opportunities to see how to incorporate skills into their lives. Parents have commented, “thank you for providing individualized activities for us to practice”, “thank you for making this homework something that we will actually use in our home routine. “

SHARE: Holding caregivers accountable is essential! We know there is more follow through when we have a specific goal or task, an accountability partner, and a deadline. Therefore, caregivers need that too! The SHARE part of WHSPS holds caregivers accountable for reporting their experiences, providing feedback, and sharing their child’s progress.

Check out our TPT store to find WHSPS that can help you help your client’s caregivers!