The Hanen parent program ‘It takes two to talk’ is an (evidence-based) therapy program for parents of young children, aged 1.5 to 4 years, with a delay in their language development. This parent program was developed in Canada in the 1970s by speech and language therapist Ayala Hanen Manolson and is now offered worldwide by trained Hanen® therapists. In the Hanen parent program, you will learn how to stimulate your child's language, just throughout the day. Within the program, we look at your specific needs and preferences to help your child. We do this together with other parents.

• Your child has developmental communication problems;

• Your child has a calendar age between 1.5 and 4 years old;

• Your child hardly speaks (sentences of max. 3 words);

• You are willing to make an effort for your child's language development.

Contents of the programme

The therapy program consists of 7 group sessions and 4 home visits, 1 of which takes place prior to the 1st group meeting (an intake), and covers about 4 months. The use of film material is essential. 

Prior to the 1st group session, we will discuss goals with regards to your child's language ability and how to approach these. A first video recording will also be made of the interaction between you and your child. Every home visit, a new video recording is made and immediately reviewed and discussed together. The video focuses on the interaction and application of communication strategies in the communication with your child. Reviewing and discussing one's own video recording is experienced as very instructive. Moments from these video recordings will be shown during the group sessions. In this way, the group sessions also provide an opportunity to exchange experiences and provide mutual support.

The therapy program is rounded off with a group meeting in which the first video recording is compared to the last. It looks back on the program and on what the parents have learned. 

What will you learn?

• You will learn more about your child's needs, interests and emotions, and what motivates them to communicate.
• You will learn to observe your child better and see what they are interested in. You will learn to wait for your child to communicate with you (with or without words) and listen to what your child is trying to say to you.
• You will learn to respond in a way which your child needs in order to be able to communicate. You will see that your child's self-confidence grows from this and they feel encouraged to take more initiative in the communication.
• You will learn more about 'turn-taking', with the aim of keeping the contact and interaction going. 
• You will learn to add language during daily activities or routines to help your child express themselves and better understand the world around them.
• You will learn about the power of play, reading and music, to increase your child's communicative development and language skills.

For more information see: www.hanen.org