Talk:The Hanen Centre

As a practicing speech language pathologist and associate professor at the UofT Graduate dept. of Speech/Language Pathology, I can say that the final section ("Speech Therapy"), is inaccurate. No wonder it lacks references. You'd have a very hard time finding any academic reference which could be used to support the claims made in that paragraph.

For starters, ABA therapy is used almost exclusively with children on the autism spectrum - it does not apply to language delayed children. Considering that only 1 Hanen Program is meant for children on the spectrum, while 4 or 5 others are meant for language-delayed or at-risk kids, you're comparing apples to oranges here.

The essential theory surrounding the Hanen method, which is best implemented by parents and Hanen trained therapists is that children will organically absorb information and learn to vocalize at their own pace if their environment is comfortable and fun.

This statement is not accurate, objective or supported by the research literature. A statement which claims to be able to sum up the entire "Hanen Method" would have to be referenced and it is not. I suggest it be deleted immediately.

The Hanen method claims more success than other programs but generally studies have shown equivalent amounts of success in different programs, the common factor being 1 on 1 attention.

I have not seen nor heard of a single study which directly compared the efficacy of a Hanen Program to ABA (for the reasons stated above - they're completely different and meant for different populations) nor to any other program for that matter. A statement like this MUST be referenced and it is not, so I have deleted it.

This does not mean that one approach is not preferable to another for a specific child, parents should experiment with different forms of intervention.

Is Wikipedia giving out medical advice now? At best, it should say something to the effect of "treatment options should be discussed with a child's pediatrician and/or speech pathologist".