Moving toward speech: How PROMPT Therapy Helps Kids Speak

When a child struggles with speech, traditional speech therapy often focuses on helping them say sounds by listening, watching, and practicing. But what happens when that isn’t enough—when a child knows what they want to say, but their mouth just can’t seem to follow through?

That’s where PROMPT therapy comes in.

What Is PROMPT Therapy?

PROMPT stands for Prompts for Restructuring Oral Muscular Phonetic Targets. It’s a hands-on, tactile approach that speech-language pathologists (SLPs) use to help children actually feel how to make sounds. We have a PROMPT for each sound as well as for broad speech movements such as jaw opening/closing and lip rounding and retraction.

Unlike traditional speech therapy—which often relies on visual and auditory cues—PROMPT therapy involves gentle touch cues on the face and under the jaw to guide the muscles needed for speech. The therapist physically shows the child where and how to move their lips, jaw, tongue, and voice in order to form words.

Think of speech like riding a bike—you learn not just through being told, but through someone stabilizing you and showing you how to move your body providing less and less support until you have the motor memory to do it independently.  

How Is PROMPT Different?

Here’s how PROMPT stands apart from more traditional methods:

Traditional Speech Therapy	PROMPT Therapy
Focuses on listening and repeating sounds	Focuses on how the muscles move to make sounds
Uses pictures, games, and verbal prompts	Uses touch cues on the face to guide muscle movement
May work well for kids with mild articulation issues	Especially helpful for kids with motor planning issues or apraxia
Targets sound production through repetition and feedback	Targets the physical foundation of speech production

Why Do the Muscles Matter?

Speaking is a complex motor task that involves coordination between more than 100 muscles! For some kids—especially those with speech motor disorders like Childhood Apraxia of Speech (CAS)—their brain knows what they want to say, but the message gets lost somewhere on the way to their mouth.

PROMPT helps reconnect that pathway. By guiding the jaw, lips, and tongue in specific sequences, it helps build muscle memory for speech. It’s like training the body to “remember” how to speak.

Over time, those guided movements become more automatic, and children can start producing sounds and words on their own with greater accuracy and ease.

Who Can Benefit from PROMPT?

PROMPT therapy can be helpful for a wide range of children, including those with:

• Childhood Apraxia of Speech (CAS)

• Speech motor delays

• Autism spectrum disorder

• Cerebral palsy or muscle tone differences

• Articulation disorders not responding to traditional therapy

It can also be used in combination with other approaches, including AAC, for a total communication strategy.

A Whole-Child Approach to Speech

PROMPT therapy isn’t just about talking—it’s about helping children feel what it’s like to speak. By engaging the senses and the body, PROMPT offers a new way into language for kids who may have struggled with more traditional routes.

It doesn’t just focus on how the mouth moves to make sounds—it also supports a child’s emotional growth, social connection, and thinking skills. During sessions, therapists use touch cues and interactive play to help children feel supported, connected, and confident. PROMPT also builds on each child’s strengths to support areas that need a little extra help, all while practicing real-life communication in meaningful, everyday activities.

For many families, it’s a breakthrough. For many kids, it’s the start of finally being able to say what’s on their mind.

Curious if PROMPT might be right for your child? Reach out to us at Terri@beyoutifulspeech.com to learn more. Every child deserves the chance to be heard—and sometimes, it just takes the right kind of support to unlock their voice.