BeingThePT

Frameworks

Foundations · every setting

VOICE

Child-centered communication

  1. VValues and preferences
  2. OObserve behavior
  3. IInterpret nonverbal cues
  4. CChoice within structure
  5. EEngagement drives learning

What it solves

VOICE keeps the child at the center of decision-making, even when the child is preverbal. It is the child-facing companion to PARTNER, which centers the family.

When to use it

Use VOICE whenever the child cannot or does not tell you in words what is working, which covers most of infancy and toddlerhood and many sessions well beyond.

In practice

Even preverbal children communicate through behavior, affect, eye gaze, and movement. Read those cues as clinical data, offer real choices inside the structure you have set, and let engagement, not coercion, drive motor learning.

VOICE is one of 14 frameworks in the Playbook

Read the full treatment in Chapter 2 of the Pediatric PT Playbook (Family Centered and Child Centered Care), with the cases, scripts, and documentation to match.

Get the Playbook