From CST Academy’s Clinical Team
How Soon Will We Actually See Something Change?
Fast. Here’s exactly what our data shows, six months in, a year in, and beyond.
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The first six months
This is where the biggest jump happens: 30.4 points, on average, in just six months. Average VB-MAPP scores in our data moved from 26.7 to 57.1 in this window, a 113% improvement. This is also usually the stretch where parents notice something at home before it shows up in a formal progress report: a new word, a different way of asking for something, a tantrum that resolves faster than it used to.
Six months to a year
Growth keeps going, and this is often when skills start generalizing outside the therapy room. A request learned in session shows up at the dinner table. By the one-year mark, average scores improved by 209%, more than triple where learners started.
Past a year
This is where a lot of families expect things to plateau, and our data says otherwise. Scores kept climbing through 1.5 years (83.6) and 2 years (88.6), a 387% improvement from baseline. What tends to change at this stage is complexity: longer conversations, more flexible play, handling something unexpected and using coping strategies.
What Actually Moves the Timeline
No two children move through this at the same speed. What tends to affect the pace:
- Age at the start of therapy.
- Starting skill level.
- Weekly therapy hours.
- Whether our team is collaborating across speech, OT, or feeding therapy when needed.
- Family involvement, since skills practiced at home tend to generalize faster.
