Hanen More Than Words

Green Swirl on Green Background with Hanen More Than Words textDFX is offering the More Than Words® — The Hanen Program® for Parents of Children With Autism Spectrum Disorder or Social Communication Difficulties

WHEN: Our Spring 2023 Session will be held from MARCH 7 – MAY 23, 2023
Please read on to learn more about the program – if you want to participate, CLICK HERE to fill out the interest form for Spring 2023. To learn more and see if this opportunity is a good fit for your family, click here to read our flyer and click here to review the detailed schedule for Spring 2023. Four green speech bubbles with white text including parent comments on the Hanen Class at DFX

The Hanen More Than Words Program is a 12-week course to provide parents with the tools, strategies, and support they need to help their children reach their full communication potential. Here are some of the valuable things you’ll learn when you attend the More Than Words Program:

  • What motivates your child to communicate
  • How to use your knowledge about your child to set appropriate and realistic goals
  • How to make interactions with your child last longer
  • Tips for using pictures and print to help your child’s understanding
  • Strategies for how to talk so that your child understands you
  • Strategies for developing your child’s play skills
  • Ways to help your child make friends

Hannah Mellman photoThe course will be led by Hannah Mellman Zax, M.A., CCC-SLP. Before joining the team at DFX, Hannah served as a speech-language pathology instructor at the University of Colorado School of Medicine, where she provided assessment and early intervention services for families in the community, and participated on an interdisciplinary autism diagnostic team at Children’s Hospital Colorado. Prior to joining the faculty at Anschutz, Hannah was a fellow in the Leadership Education in Neurodevelopmental Disabilities (LEND) Program at JFK Partners. Her research and educational interests include language development, autism, and naturalistic and community-based intervention.

Hannah is a certified Hanen More Than Words and It Takes Two to Talk instructor, and is trained in the Early Start Denver Model (ESDM) and Prompts for Restructuring Oral Muscular Phonetic Targets (PROMPT). She received her master’s degree in speech-language pathology from the University of Colorado, and her bachelor’s degree from Tulane University.

Program Components 

  • 8 training sessions in small, personalized groups VIA TELEHEALTH
  • Three individual visits for you and your child with your speech-language pathologist in which you are videotaped while practicing with your child. Then you and your speech-language pathologist watch the videotaped interaction to “see” what’s helping and what you can modify to help even more (VIA TELEHEALTH)
  • A Hanen Certified speech-language pathologist leading the program
  • A pre-program consultation for you and your child with your speech-language pathologist
  • Please note: the Hanen MTW curriculum builds throughout the program. Therefore, at least one parent must commit to attending all 12 sessions (i.e., parents cannot trade off attending sessions).

Costs

  • More Than Words Class: DFX is offering this 12-week course to families for $900. The same course is typically offered by other providers for as much as $1,500. There is limited financial support available for Colorado-based families for whom paying the full tuition would be a financial hardship.
  • More Than Words Guidebook, 2nd Edition: A Parent’s Guide to Building Interaction and Language Skills for Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder or Social Communication Difficulties. The guidebook will be available for free through the length of the course to participating families; the cost to purchase the Guidebook is $54.

Details 

The Hanen More Than Words Program is a 12-week program that will be offered via telehealth on Tuesdays from 6:00 pm – 8:00 pm, March 7 through May 23. There will be a pre-program orientation scheduled before or during the first week. There will also be 3 weeks during the program with no group training and an individual video visit scheduled instead. Please fill out the interest form to register right away – this class is limited to 6 families. 

If you have questions or want to ask if you are a good fit for this program, contact
Hannah Mellman Zax, M.A., CCC-SLP at hannahslp@developmentalfx.org

To learn more about the Hanen MTW Program, visit: http://www.hanen.org/Programs/For-Parents/More-Than-Words.aspx.