Our therapy approaches, and how we choose yours
No single therapy approach fits every child. This page sets out the methods we actually use at our Multan centre — play-based speech therapy, parent coaching, ABA, sensory and motor skill-building, multisensory teaching — how each one works, and how we pick the right mix for your child after assessment.
Everything below is a family of methods, not a product. We are a small children’s therapy team at Inclusive Developmental & Therapy Centre in Multan, and what a child gets here depends on what the assessment finds — not on which service we would most like to fill.
We understand your child first, then choose approaches — never the other way round.
Methods delivered through play, at your child’s pace, so therapy feels like fun.
We coach you too, so progress carries over into everyday life at home.
Where do we start if you don’t know what’s wrong?
Start with what you notice, not with a diagnosis. Tell us the thing that worries you — not talking, hard to understand, meltdowns, clumsy, falling behind at school — and the assessment turns that into a plan. Parents do not need the right clinical word to get the right help.
Almost every family arrives with a worry rather than a diagnosis. That is normal, and it is enough to start. The chart below is roughly how the first conversation goes: you describe what you are seeing at home, and we match it to the family of approaches most likely to help.
If you would rather sort your thoughts before you speak to anyone, our free two-minute child development check asks the same kind of questions we would. If you already know your child needs looking at properly, a developmental assessment is the step that produces the plan.
How do speech and language approaches help my child talk?
Speech and language approaches work on two separate things: understanding what is said, and getting a message out. We help with both — from the very first words right through to clear, confident chatter that strangers can follow.
Explore Speech & Language TherapyPlay-based, child-led therapy
We follow whatever your child is into that day and sneak the learning into the play — because words stick best when a child’s actually having fun.
Learn moreParent coaching (Hanen-style)
We hand you a few simple tricks — modelling, leaving a beat of silence, adding a word onto whatever they say — so ordinary moments at home quietly turn into language lessons.
Learn moreArticulation & phonological therapy
Playful, targeted practice of the exact sounds your child keeps tripping over, until their speech comes out clearer and people can follow them first time.
Learn moreLanguage stimulation & modelling
Feeding your child a rich, steady diet of words, sentences and grammar through natural play, so their understanding and their talking both grow together.
Learn moreAAC & picture exchange (PECS-style)
For children who haven’t found words yet, we lean on pictures, symbols, gestures and simple communication tools — so they can still get their point across and feel properly heard.
Learn moreGentle stammering support
Gentle, no-pressure strategies for your child and for you at home, all pointing towards speech that feels smooth, relaxed and unhurried.
Learn moreWhich autism and behaviour approaches actually help?
The ones that build a skill the child is missing, rather than simply stopping a behaviour. Structure, predictable routines, a way to communicate and warm reinforcement do most of the heavy lifting here — always led by respect for the child in front of us.
Explore ABA & Behavioural TherapyApplied Behaviour Analysis (ABA)
We work out what sets a behaviour off and what keeps it going, then use warm, positive reinforcement to grow the helpful skills and ease the tricky ones — never cold or clinical.
Learn morePositive reinforcement
We catch children getting it right and pair that with praise and the things they love, so the good stuff happens more often — no telling-off required.
Learn moreVisual supports & structured teaching
Picture schedules and steady routines that take the guesswork out of the day, so a child knows what’s coming next and feels far calmer for it.
Learn moreSocial communication & play
We practise the quiet building blocks of friendship — looking together, taking turns, sharing, reading the room — one playful step at a time.
Learn moreAutism support program
One joined-up plan across speech, behaviour and daily-living skills, shaped around what each autistic child is brilliant at as much as what they find hard.
Learn moreWhat helps with sensory, motor and self-care skills?
Practical, repeated practice of the exact skill that is hard — gripping a pencil, tolerating a noisy room, doing up buttons — so moving, focusing, dressing and joining in all feel that bit easier. Please read the note below about who delivers this work.
Explore Motor & Daily Skills SupportSensory-regulation strategies
Calm, predictable sensory activities that let an overloaded nervous system settle, so a child can focus and join in. Formal sensory integration therapy is a licensed occupational-therapy speciality — this is skill-building, and we refer on where a qualified OT is what is needed.
Learn moreSensory diet — a daily activity plan
A personalised “menu” of movement and sensory activities dotted through the day, keeping your child comfortably alert without tipping over into overwhelm.
Learn moreFine & gross motor skill building
Fun activities that build both the little finger movements and the big whole-body ones your child leans on all day, from doing up buttons to climbing the stairs.
Learn moreHandwriting programs
Step-by-step help with grip, forming letters and getting ideas down onto paper — especially for the children who find writing a genuine slog.
Learn moreSelf-care & daily-living skills
Growing your child’s independence with the everyday things — dressing, feeding themselves, using the toilet — at a pace that suits them, never rushed.
Learn moreWhat helps a child who is struggling at school?
Teaching that starts from what the child can already do, not from where the syllabus says they should be. We meet children who learn differently right where they are and teach in the way that finally makes it click — so they can catch up and get on.
Explore Special Education & Learning SupportIndividualised Education Plans (IEP)
A written plan of clear, tailored goals and strategies, so home and school are finally pulling in the same direction for your child.
Learn moreMultisensory, remedial teaching
Teaching reading, spelling and writing through sight, sound and touch all at once — the approach that tends to work best when dyslexia or a learning difficulty is in the mix.
Learn moreScaffolding & differentiation
We break a skill into steps a child can actually manage, prop them up just enough, then quietly take the props away as each stage clicks into place.
Learn moreSchool-readiness support
Building the talking, attention and self-care skills a child needs to walk into school and settle in, rather than sink.
Learn moreWhat does a therapy session actually look like?
A session lasts around 45 minutes and looks like play. Your child sits on the floor with a therapist and a few chosen toys, and the toys are the target. Every activity has a goal behind it — a sound, a word, a turn, a request — and the therapist records what happens.
What the therapist is watching is narrower than it looks. How many times did your child start something themselves, rather than answer? Did they look up when their name was called? Did they hand something over to get help? Did the sound come out correctly when it was at the start of a word, but not in the middle? Those small counts are what tell us whether an approach is working.
The last few minutes belong to you. We show you the one thing that worked in the room and how to run it at home, because a session a week cannot compete with the rest of the week. Mahnoor Baloch, our founder and Speech & Language Therapist, oversees each child’s plan and the goals that sit under it.
If your child has just been given a diagnosis, nothing above changes. The diagnosis tells us where to look; the assessment still tells us where to start.
What usually changes first?
Understanding usually moves before talking. Parents often notice their child responding to their own name, following a short instruction, pointing, or bringing things over to show, well before a single new word appears. Attention and sitting time grow early too. New words then tend to arrive in a cluster rather than one at a time.
We will not put a timeline on it, and you should be wary of anyone who does. Two children with the same starting point can move at very different speeds, and progress is rarely a straight line — a good fortnight is often followed by a flat one.
What genuinely slows things down is usually practical: missed weeks, an untreated ear infection or hearing problem, a house where everyone answers for the child before they get a chance, or a plan that nobody at home had time to run. Those are all fixable, and we would rather talk about them than blame the child.
On the hard days — and there are hard days — our little reminders for tired parents exist for exactly that.
What can I do at home tomorrow morning?
Pick one routine you already do every single day — breakfast, getting dressed, the walk to the car — and turn it into a talking slot. Name what your child can see, wait a full five seconds after you speak, and add one word onto whatever they give you. Ten minutes daily beats an hour on Sunday.
Get face to face. Sit or crouch so your eyes are level with your child’s. A great deal of what looks like not listening is simply not seeing your face.
Leave the gap. Most of us fill silence within two seconds. A child who is slow to find words needs about five. Ask, then count to five in your head before you help.
Add one word, do not correct. If your child says “ball”, you say “big ball” or “ball gone”. If they say “tar” for “car”, you simply say “yes — car” and move on. Being corrected tends to make a child say less; hearing the right version said back to them does not.
Offer a choice. Holding up two things — “milk or water?” — gives your child a reason to communicate, which is the part that motivation actually depends on.
If you are not sure whether what you are seeing is worth acting on, the common situations parents bring to us may sound familiar.
اردو · Urdu
اگر آپ سوچ رہے ہیں کہ ”میرا بچہ بولتا نہیں“ یا ”بات سمجھتا ہے مگر بولتا نہیں“، تو پہلا قدم علاج نہیں بلکہ جانچ ہے۔ جانچ کے بعد ہم بتاتے ہیں کہ آپ کے بچے کو گویائی کا علاج چاہیے، رویّے کی تھیراپی، یا دونوں۔
In Roman Urdu, the messages parents send us usually read: mera bacha bolta nahi, baat nahi karta, der se bolna, zaban saaf nahi, bacha aik jagah nahi baithta. Any one of those is reason enough to get in touch — you do not need the clinical word for it. Speech and language therapy is گویائی کا علاج; the therapist is اسپیچ تھیراپسٹ.
When would we tell you to see someone else?
Whenever the right help is not ours to give. Hearing concerns go to an audiologist. A suspected medical or neurological cause goes to a paediatrician. Formal occupational therapy and sensory integration therapy need a licensed occupational therapist, and we do not have one on staff. We say so plainly and help you find the right person.
Two things send us straight to a doctor rather than a therapy room. The first is loss of skills — a child who had words, gestures or eye contact and has since lost them needs a medical opinion promptly, not a course of therapy. The second is any concern about hearing, because a child who cannot hear speech clearly cannot learn it, and no speech approach compensates for that.
We also want to be straight about what these approaches are and are not. They support, teach and build skills. They are not a cure, and nobody here can promise you an outcome. Any centre that guarantees your child will talk by a certain birthday is selling you something.
If you are weighing all this up and want a person rather than a page, message us with what you are seeing and we will tell you honestly whether we are the right door. For the practical side — timings, what to bring, how a block of sessions works — our full list of parent questions covers it.
Frequently asked questions
Questions parents ask us about method — how we choose, how sessions run, and what happens if something isn’t working. Anything else on your mind? Just ask us.
What therapy methods do you use?
We draw on well-established approaches rather than one branded method: play-based, child-led speech therapy; Hanen-style parent coaching; articulation and phonological work; picture exchange and other communication aids; Applied Behaviour Analysis and positive reinforcement; visual schedules and structured teaching; sensory-regulation strategies; multisensory remedial teaching; and individualised education plans. Which of those your child actually gets is decided after assessment, and it changes as they grow.
Can my child have speech therapy and behaviour therapy at the same time?
Yes, and many children do. Speech work teaches a child what to say and how to say it; behaviour work helps them use it across the whole day, sit long enough to learn, and cope when something goes wrong. When both run together we keep one shared set of goals, so the two sides of the plan pull in the same direction instead of working on different things.
Do I need a diagnosis or a doctor’s referral before you can start?
No. You can bring your child to us with nothing but a worry — no report, no referral letter. We assess first, and support can begin while any medical or psychological diagnosis is still being worked out. If we think a paediatrician, an audiologist or a psychologist needs to see your child, we say so and explain why. A hearing check is often the first thing we ask about.
Is ABA harsh? Will anyone punish or force my child?
No. Punishment has no place in the way we work. Applied Behaviour Analysis here means noticing what sets a behaviour off and what keeps it going, teaching the skill the child is missing, and rewarding them warmly when they use it. Sessions are play-based and follow the child’s lead. If your child is distressed, we stop and change what we are doing — you are welcome to watch.
How many sessions a week, and how long is each one?
Most children come once or twice a week for a one-to-one session of around 45 minutes. Sessions run in short blocks, and at the end of each block we go through the goals with you and decide together whether to carry on, change the plan or finish. What you practise at home between sessions matters as much as the session itself.
Are these approaches evidence-based?
Yes — every method here is widely used across children’s speech, behavioural and developmental therapy and is taught in mainstream training. We do not claim a proprietary programme or a guaranteed outcome. What turns a sound technique into real progress is the fit with your particular child, the warmth of the person delivering it, and what happens at home on the other six days.
Can sessions be in Urdu, and does speaking two languages at home confuse my child?
We work with families in Urdu and English, and we coach parents in whichever language you actually use at home. Growing up with more than one language does not cause speech delay. When we count how many words a child has, we count Urdu, Saraiki, Punjabi and English together — that combined total is the true measure of what your child can say.
What if an approach isn’t working for my child?
We change it. Every block ends with a review where we look at the goals, what moved, and what did not, and say plainly whether the plan should carry on. An approach that has shifted nothing after a fair trial is ours to fix, not your child’s failure. Sometimes the honest answer is that a different professional is the right next step, and we will tell you that too.
Not sure which approach is right for your child?
That’s exactly what the first assessment is for. Tell us what you’re seeing at home and we’ll tell you the best next step — even when that step isn’t us. No jargon, no pressure.
MPS Road, Block A Model Town, Multan (near Bloomfield Hall School, Street No. 2) · Mon–Sat, 10 AM – 7 PM