SMILE

For Infants and Toddlers

Who uses the SMILE program?

	Speech-Language Pathologists : Each session is designed to increase the speech and language abilities of children up to three-years old. The entire program is based on research on child development, was field-tested by four bilingual SLPs, and is set up for easy data collection.
	Interventionists : No photocopying, no extra paperwork, 12 sessions to use across 24 months, both Spanish and English. Interventionists were specific in what they wanted to see in new intervention materials. The SMILE program has delivered.
	Parents : Parents have reported a great increase in their ability to work with their child when using the SMILE program. The book is easy to follow and contains developmental milestones for every age.

What is the SMILE program?

The SMILE program is a series of 12 sessions. Each program comes with the SMILE book and five, 48-page parent handbooks that contain all of the parents’ resources. Each session includes:

	Session Focus : A communication focus (e.g. requesting) is included with each session as well as ways to increase the child’s ability to communicate better.
	SMILE Pages : Signing, cueing, and gesturing techniques accompany important vocabulary for each activity.
	Session Activity : Each session includes an activity for the parent to practice new communication skills in an interactive, fun way. Signing Pages: Important signs and instructions accompany every lesion.

What research is the SMILE program based on?

The content of the SMILE program was driven by theory and research in the fields of child development, communication development, and early intervention. The lessons and activities in this book are based on Vygotsky’s social learning theories. Social learning theories view social interaction as critical to development. Therefore, the families involved in early childhood intervention programs are seen as the child’s guide and the child is the apprentice who learns from the adult models (Rogoff, 1995). Every strategy and every activity in this book incorporate the family as important social interactionists and as key models of communicative behaviors.

A recent study of Mexican immigrant mother’s perceptions of their children’s intervention (Kummerer, Lopez-Deyna & Hughes, 2007) found that most of the mothers in the study felt that therapists were just playing with their children. By helping families recognize the important role of play in cognitive and motor development, they can better contribute to their child’s speech and language growth by increasing their involvement in play. Additionally, teaching how individual cognitive skills contribute to language development, such as understanding that objects still exist when they are out of sight, will encourage families to work on those cognitive skills in play.

How was the SMILE program developed and tested?

The SMILE program grew out of the experiences of four bilingual speech-language pathologists who have provided services in home-based early childhood intervention programs. The 12-concise sessions are the result of field testing with a variety of families in the early childhood program. Session content and design were influenced by interviews with parents, speech-language pathologists, and early childhood interventionists.