Speech at home... - Page 2

[AuntLavender]

If you take your child to ST then you have to work on it at home

because no one can afford to take their child to ST as much as their child needs it. The mother or father's home involvement is key and ST likely won't do a thing without it. My 4 years 8 mos ds has apraxia and dysarthria. He speaks in vowel sounds except for "m", "n","b",and "l". He is very hard to understand. We've been taking him to ST for 2 years. We're homeschoolers. I feel the ST is like a tutor for me to do ST at home with him.

We do the Beckman Oral Motor Protocol exercises for his mouth. We use Kauffman cards but alot of it our ST comes up with as my son progresses. I use whistles at home and straws and we play games. You can probably do it at home alone if your child's case is not severe but I think professional guidance is optimal.

Some library book recommendations (somemay have to be ILLs):

Easy Does It for Apraxia & Motor Planning by Catherine E. Chamberlain and Robin Strode

The Late Talker: What to Do If Your Child Isn't Talking Yet by Marilyn C. Agin, Lisa F. Geng, and Malcolm Nicholl

Here's How to Do Therapy: Hands-on Core Skills in Speech Language Therapy by Debra M. Dwight

Becoming Verbal with Childhood Apraxia New Insights on Piaget for Today's Therapy
For Parents, Teachers, and Speech Therapists by Pam Marshalla

Kaufman Speech Praxis Workout Book by Nancy Kaufman, M.A., CCC-SLP

Becoming Verbal and Intelligible A Functional Motor Programming Approach for
Children with Developmental Verbal Apraxia by Kathleen E. Dauer, Sandra S. Irwin, and Sandra R. Schippits

Apraxia Uncovered The Seven Stages of Phoneme Development by Pam Marshalla

[moodymaximus]

[QUOTE]

Originally Posted by Openskyheart

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?

we understand him very well, so it is difficult for me to say what sounds he substitutes, i think my brain processes his language as "normal" unless it is somewhat funny, like foot-hoot he can say the F sound i he concentrates on it.

[theatermom]

Originally Posted by 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.

I guess it depends on what you mean by "correcting". From what I understand, Holt advocated using the correct word in a sentence without directly correcting the child. So, for instance, instead of this:

"Can I have some tate (cake)?"
"Not until you say "cake". Can you say cake?" or "The word is "cake" not "tate", try to say "cake"" or so on

You might do this:
"Can I have some tate?"
"Yes, you may have some cake" or "No, the cake is for later" and so on.

I think that in every day conversation it's helpful to not correct, but to parrot the correct speech. When working intensively with a child, correction is important, but should be gentle, fun, and usually part of a game. Also, the sessions should be relatively short. This is particularly important when the child knows that s/he's not pronouncing something right. You definitely don't want to make the kid any more self conscious than s/he already is.

[Lillian J]

My son had a few idiosynchracies in his pronounciation, but, for whatever reason, I really didn't think much about it. When he was really little, people would even comment on his "English accent," which he had no reason to have. But as he got a little older, it sounded as if some sounds were a struggle. At one point, I was told by a kindergarten teacher that it sounded as if he had a tongue-tie. I mentioned it to an old friend who mentioned it to another old acquaintance who said, "Well, of course he has a tongue- tie - I always assumed she knew that!" So I took him to an ear, nose, throat doctor who was recommended, and he confirmed that there was a tongue-tie, and he wanted to cut it. I went to another specialist for a second opinion, and he was amazed that all this talk had been going on, because there was no tongue tie! Eventually, the speech problems just went away on their own - pretty much by the time he was seven, as I recall. I'm not saying there aren't children who really need help with speech problems, but I can say from personal experience that sometimes these things can get blown way out of proportion. Lillian

[theatermom]

Originally Posted by Lillian J

My son had a few idiosynchracies in his pronounciation, but, for whatever reason, I really didn't think much about it. When he was really little, people would even comment on his "English accent," which he had no reason to have. But as he got a little older, it sounded as if some sounds were a struggle. At one point, I was told by a kindergarten teacher that it sounded as if he had a tongue-tie. I mentioned it to an old friend who mentioned it to another old acquaintance who said, "Well, of course he has a tongue- tie - I always assumed she knew that!" So I took him to an ear, nose, throat doctor who was recommended, and he confirmed that there was a tongue-tie, and he wanted to cut it. I went to another specialist for a second opinion, and he was amazed that all this talk had been going on, because there was no tongue tie! Eventually, the speech problems just went away on their own - pretty much by the time he was seven, as I recall. I'm not saying there aren't children who really need help with speech problems, but I can say from personal experience that sometimes these things can get blown way out of proportion. Lillian

Yup! I think it depends to a large degree on the extent of the problems, and how much they're interfering with everyday quality of life. My oldest son, for instance, was virtually incomprehensible to strangers at the age of three. This was very, very hard on him, as he had a huge vocabulary, was already reading, and had a strong need to communicate with others. He knew what the sounds should be, but couldn't get his mouth to cooperate. We found an awesome ST who worked with him weekly, and he was completely on track within 6 months. It made a huge difference to him!

My 2nd ds, OTOH, has a similar issue with physical production of speech, but with only a few sounds. He's not into any form of correction, and would balk at ST. So, we're riding it out with him, and I suspect that by the time he reaches 7, all of his sounds will naturally be in place.

So, in general, I think that it's easy to blow the need for clarity of speech out of proportion, but in certain instances, depending on the extent of the problem or the temperament of the child, more action is needed. That said, I really hate those milestone charts listing what percentage of speech should be recognizable by what age and so forth. So not helpful! :

[ColwynsMommy]

Originally Posted by theatermom

You might do this:
"Can I have some tate?"
"Yes, you may have some cake" or "No, the cake is for later" and so on.

This is exactly what my son's speech therapist told us to do. Not to correct him per se, but to respond to him using the correct pronounciation. I still do it out of habit, and he's been out of therapy for about a year and a half.

[musicmomto5]

We had my dd evaluated at age 4 because she was getting frustrated that people outside the family couldn't always understand her. She has a frontal & lateral lisp, and some other issues. I am so glad we had her evaluated. After asking a million people in our various homeschool activies, we found a great lady that comes to the house. She works mostly with homeschoolers because she says they actually do the daily practice needed. She teaches me how to work with her, and then when we have either mastered what we are doing, get stuck, or whatever, I call for another appt. Sometimes we have a weekly session for a few weeks, and sometimes there are a few weeks in between. Just depends on what we are doing. DD has made fantastic progress during the past year. I am so glad we got her evaluated.

[fluttermama]

I do understand that many speech issues are blown out of proportion. But then there are children who are trying desperately to communicate and people can't understand and it won't hurt to do some things to help a bit.

I think the Super Star speech book is really good showing the target sounds for each age group...like age three is only three sounds to work on and then it gets greater as the child gets older. It's a very gentle, game oriented curriculum written by a homeschool mom.

[SueQnatural2]

I think the Super Star speech book is really good showing the target sounds for each age group...like age three is only three sounds to work on and then it gets greater as the child gets older. It's a very gentle, game oriented curriculum written by a homeschool mom.

It sounds like it would be helpful to us. I ordered it and am looking forward to using it with my 4 yo.