Speech at home...

[fluttermama]

Does anyone do speech exercises or therapy for their own child at home? I'm needing to some things with my 3 year old and I am looking for a gentle, fun guide to use at home rather than taking him into therapy.

[elizawill]

i'd love to know this too! i hope someone will reply, as my soon to be 4 year old could benefit from me working with him....but i also want it to be very gentle and fun.

[moodymaximus]

hm, i was thinking about this too! we have adapted John Holt's ideas of not correcting, but it occured to me the other day that maybe speech SHOULD be corrected? does anyone knows anything about it?

DS is newly 3, and he says the H sound for the F sound, for example. when i ask him to say "foot" rather than "hoot", he'd say it perfectly, but on his own it is hoot, hire, harm etc:LOL

he also shortens words. he's day "puner" intead of "computer", but again, if we ask him to say it, he will, but then will revert to his easier versions in his speech.

[b&c'smama]

I bought a CD called "Speechercise" from the Rainbow Resource catalog, but I haven't used it yet.

[Jennifer Z]

As far as correcting, this is the approach I take: If we are learning something else and correcting it would distract too much from the actual thing he is absorbing, then I let it go, but note what he was having problems with. Later on I will go back to it and just practice saying the word a few times. (for instance, he has problems pronouncing "L" correctly. We are doing a unit on habitats, which included the word "plant" a lot. I let it go when he is engrossed in the subject, but later on I will go back and do something where he says "plant" and help him work with pronunciation, but keep it in a very light context so it isn't frustrating for him.

I just ordered a few books to help with at home speech therapy. If they seem to work well, I will write about them. One is essentially a book of lists. (language targets) It lists all the little milestones of word usage you can have when aquiring language. It isn't so much to plan lessons on, just for me to keep track of things in the background and have an idea of other things to incorporate. When you are dealing with communication and language, there is obviously a LOT of opportunity to work it in to everyday situations. I just feel better knowing if I am unintentionally making big gaping holes in his language aquisition and I thought it would make it less stressful.

Although I do think unschooling is a great philosophy and can work with almost any kid, it wasn't working well for us at this point. (although I hope to move towards radical unschooling later) Ds can't ask questions at all, and can't really communicate wanting to learn more about a subject, so I went back to using curriculm, but keep it pretty relaxed. I have a visual schedule, but the items on the schedule might be a 20-30 minute activity, or a 2 minute activity. I made the categories fairly broad in a few areas and that allows me to really be flexible within those categories. We go at his pace through it, including Speech therapy. However, it helps ME know where we are and keeps me from stressing out about it. It is a coping mechanism for me to keep from projecting stress to him.

[fluttermama]

I found this tonight:

http://www.speechtx.com/index.htm

[nathansmum]

Originally Posted by moodymaximus

DS is newly 3, and he says the H sound for the F sound, for example. when i ask him to say "foot" rather than "hoot", he'd say it perfectly, but on his own it is hoot, hire, harm etc:LOL.

I wouldn't worry about this sound yet - it is one of the later developing souns. I had my ds assessed when he had just turned 4 coz his F's come out at P's. She wasn't concerned and just asked me to repeat the correct way of saying it without "correcting" him (he actually knows he can't say it). I will have him reassessed though next time our ST comes to see DD this month. One thing the ST found out through her playing/testing was that he was able for form the F sound in the middle of a word and at the end of a word so he was actually able to form the sound and said that it would likely develop in his own time (words like elePHant and enouGH).

Jennifer Z, how old is your ds (or was he) when you realised he didn't ask questions? My dd (almost 3) is speech delayed and doesn't ask questions or seek further knowledge or information but is only just becoming interested in telling me about things that she's interested in (in 2-3 word simplified sentences).

[elizawill]

Originally Posted by fluttermama

I found this tonight:

http://www.speechtx.com/index.htm

i'll have to check it out. thanks!!

as for the correcting stuff...i never correct my son really either, but i admit it is difficult to understand him at times..... not so much for me..but i know others have trouble fully understanding him. he can get very frustrated by it & i feel bad for him. but i do think a lot if it will work itself out with time -- so i don't want take him to speech therapy or sit around making him say something "correctly". i just would love some gentle ideas to help him say things more clearly. he's so incredibly sweet, and i hate to see my little guy struggle.

[elizawill]

here's another site...
http://mommyspeechtherapy.com


i've not looked through it yet though....soooo....caution to that and fyi

[Jennifer Z]

Originally Posted by nathansmum

Jennifer Z, how old is your ds (or was he) when you realised he didn't ask questions? My dd (almost 3) is speech delayed and doesn't ask questions or seek further knowledge or information but is only just becoming interested in telling me about things that she's interested in (in 2-3 word simplified sentences).

He didn't really start using sentences until 5ish. He turned 6 at Christmas and still doesn't. At 3 I was starting to wonder what was up (dh started talking at 3, so I wasn't all that worried until he passed that with no words), and it was during the evaluation process that I realized he didn't ask questions. He sort of did with his eyes, or at least I felt like he wanted to know something, but it was always with a concrete *something* right there, nothing remotely abstract.

He only started answering low level questions (what, where) within the last year. He doesn't really have the vocabulary or word retrieval to answer "why" questions yet, and I doubt he can really ask them until he can start answering them.

I don't think think it is because he isn't interested in things, because he seems excited every time I say "school time" and seems very interested. He just can't verbalize questions, so I have to really go by instinct on what he wants me to expand on.

[Openskyheart]

Hi Fluttermama (and Elizawill,)

I'm a homeschooling mom who was a speech pathologist for 12 years prior to homeschooling my kids. I worked with every age group from infancy through the elderly, but I specialized in early speech and language development. It's true that the "f" sound can be a somewhat later developing sound, but the substitution of "h" for that sound that you've described is a more unusual substitution. What are some other sound substitutions your son make? If it's only a few, then no biggie.

For what it's worth, my own dd was unintelligible at the age of 3, but she still wouldn't have qualified for speech therapy in our school district. She was unintelligible, but not unintelligible enough to qualify. Of course, I was able to work with her a bit at home, and now her speech is just fine . But honestly, other than working on her "r" sounds - which can be tricky and some people never get them - most of what I did to help her is the same thing that mother's have been doing for thousands of years.

In studying language development in a wide variety of cultures, I learned that it is actually natural, a natural part of "mother-speak," for mothers to "correct" their children's speech. It happens in the jungles of the South Pacific, and it happens on the plains of Africa, and it happens in the penthouse apartments of San Francisco and London. I love John Holt, but sometimes we over think things, and throw the baby out with the bathwater! It's fine to do what comes to humans naturally in this case. Just don't overdo it, or get too worked up over it, and it'll be fine.

One of the things I used to in do therapy was play with kids, and just find ways to emphasize the speech sound we were working on in our playtime. (Yeah - I used to get paid to play with kids all day ). You can also help him learn the "f" sound in the context of learning the letter "F." With the kids I worked with, I would have the parents make scrap books with pictures of words that started with their special letter.

You can also play silly games like having cotton ball races across the coffee table by blowing on the cotton balls using an "F" sound. Who can get their cotton ball to fall off the table first? (that would be your son, of course ).

I haven't looked at the sites you guys found yet, so if I've repeated any of their ideas, sorry.

[honolula]

subbing

[tallanvor]

I think a big part of whether or not to have your child do speech depends on the severity of it and if it's holding them back in any way. For instance, my son who is turning 5 in a couple of weeks, couldn't pronounce, I think, 4 sounds, as in not at all -- not beginning of the word, middle, or end. Not even on their own. We did a bunch of things at home to try and help him, but couldn't seem to get him through it. The things that were habit, I didn't worry so much about. But he was wanting to learn how to read. And in my thinking, I could see him learning to read, but not truly correctly because he couldn't pronounce those sounds and then they would become habit to say incorrectly. Perhaps muddled thinking, but at 4.5 we put him in speech therapy. He has greatly improved. And he can now say a hard c and a hard g, which he couldn't before.

[Jennifer Z]

Originally Posted by tallanvor

I think a big part of whether or not to have your child do speech depends on the severity of it and if it's holding them back in any way.

And in my thinking, I could see him learning to read, but not truly correctly because he couldn't pronounce those sounds and then they would become habit to say incorrectly.

It was reading that lead us to work on some of his articulation issues. With Autism, you usually don't even work on articulation so much until much later (because they really need a lot more attention on language and communication, which is totally seperate from speech production). When he started reading aloud, we started really noticing just how bad his articulation was (before he was so soft spoken, and spoke so rarely that we had no idea how apraxic his speech was). That really interferred with not only his reading (therefore spelling and comprehension and all the other things that build on reading), but also made it harder for us to give positive reinforcement/positive natural consequences to him using words. He was trying to use words, but we were struggling to understand them, and it was slowing down his language aquisition.

So, we had the ST do an evaluation and we are taking a side jaunt into articulation for a bit at one of his STs to work on articulation issues. We meet once a week with her and I do the work at home for most of it. (the other ST is aware of what is going on, so that they also encourage correct usage, but they are sticking to the social aspects of communication and language usage). That way it feels more like a detour. We also aren't going to tackle every pronunciation issue he has, just the ones that are the most severe and unusual. (like /r/ or /m/ and /n/ are more common and our listening brains can translate it better), but not being able to pronounce /L/ and a few others are harder to figure out, especially when there are so many of them.

At this point, we aren't aiming at perfect articulation like you might for a typically developing (language wise) kid, we are just trying to help him become understandable enough that his efforts to communicate are reward with reciprocation because the other person can figure out what he is saying.

[elizawill]

double post

[elizawill]

Originally Posted by Openskyheart

Hi Fluttermama (and Elizawill,)

I'm a homeschooling mom who was a speech pathologist for 12 years prior to homeschooling my kids. I worked with every age group from infancy through the elderly, but I specialized in early speech and language development. It's true that the "f" sound can be a somewhat later developing sound, but the substitution of "h" for that sound that you've described is a more unusual substitution. What are some other sound substitutions your son make? If it's only a few, then no biggie.

For what it's worth, my own dd was unintelligible at the age of 3, but she still wouldn't have qualified for speech therapy in our school district. She was unintelligible, but not unintelligible enough to qualify. Of course, I was able to work with her a bit at home, and now her speech is just fine . But honestly, other than working on her "r" sounds - which can be tricky and some people never get them - most of what I did to help her is the same thing that mother's have been doing for thousands of years.

In studying language development in a wide variety of cultures, I learned that it is actually natural, a natural part of "mother-speak," for mothers to "correct" their children's speech. It happens in the jungles of the South Pacific, and it happens on the plains of Africa, and it happens in the penthouse apartments of San Francisco and London. I love John Holt, but sometimes we over think things, and throw the baby out with the bathwater! It's fine to do what comes to humans naturally in this case. Just don't overdo it, or get too worked up over it, and it'll be fine.

One of the things I used to in do therapy was play with kids, and just find ways to emphasize the speech sound we were working on in our playtime. (Yeah - I used to get paid to play with kids all day ). You can also help him learn the "f" sound in the context of learning the letter "F." With the kids I worked with, I would have the parents make scrap books with pictures of words that started with their special letter.

You can also play silly games like having cotton ball races across the coffee table by blowing on the cotton balls using an "F" sound. Who can get their cotton ball to fall off the table first? (that would be your son, of course ).

I haven't looked at the sites you guys found yet, so if I've repeated any of their ideas, sorry.

thank you! great ideas!!! and great insight. for me...the reason i don't correct my ds isn't because of a john holt philosophy....i don't follow john holt at all my concern was more if it would have a negative impact on my ds and his esteem. i'm glad to hear your input and advice. it makes sense. my son struggles with his "l" and "r" sounds a lot and uses a "w" sound in its place (i.e. you huwt my feewings). it's actually adorable...but i want to help him, so that it will pass eventually and not stick with him. if you have any other advice - i would really love it!!!!!! you can pm me or post here. thank you!!!! fluttermama...i'm not hijacking your thread....just piggy backing!! i'm so glad you asked this question!!!

[smocklets]

This book is great-
Play to Talk by Dr. James MacDonald(www.jamesdmacdonald.org)

It is really parent friendly, and Dr. MacDonald is personally very pro-homeschooling.

it is available on amazon, but I can't figure out how to link to it

[fluttermama]

my concern was more if it would have a negative impact on my ds and his esteem.

yes, me, too. I realized today that my son can't do the "f" sound or a "ch" sound. I ordered several fun speech CD's and DVD's on amazon. Did you know they had DVD's for autistic children with fun music? I also got the book "Super Star Speech" from amazon. This thread is so helpful!

[RoseValleyGirl]

My dh is a SLP, I asked him about the 'f' and 'ch' sounds when he got home. He said most kids have the 'f' sound by age 4 and the 'ch' is a little bit later. As far 'r' and 'l', he generally doesn't see kids until they are 7 or 8 (if those are the only sounds that is). And just in my experience with watching him, he doesn't use anything fancy for treatment with preschoolers. It's just lots of floor play, modeling and some targeting.

[saturnfire16]

I think the mispronunciations are so cute! Sometimes embarrassing.... my daughter is two and we were reading Green Eggs and Ham. Of course, the one part she likes the best is the fox in the box. When she says fox, it comes out like the four letter F word. So, we've had her running around stores saying this! Embarrassing but still cute! I figure that unless there is a physical problem causing the speech messups, they will probably outgrow it with time as they hear other people use words correctly.