Mere asks: Our ped. neurologist has told us that unless he has intensive ST twice a week he may NEVER talk (he has about thirty words, half of which he says backwards or only partially), so it seems pretty necessary to me. Does this sound familiar to you?
First of all...how old is your child. 30 words for a just turned 2 year old is not so bad but something to look into. 30 words for a three year old is a big concern.
But yes...it does sound familiar.
My 8 year old had a language explosion at 2 years and 3 months. It didn't concern me because, at the time, we thought he was a neurotypical child. But apparently we missed a whole lot of stuff. I also didn't notice that his eyes crossed until he was over three years old. Looking back at pictures, it's obvious. But at the time, I just thought I was imagining things. His speech progressed well but he had articulation problems. He sounded like Jar-Jar Binks. One of our favorite phrases was, "Please-ah, givey me dat." He also had terrible syntax. He could not pick up verb tenses. he had trouble getting words in the right order. He fronted, he lisped, and he had no r sound or r controlled vowels. At 5 he started speech at school and also private speech. At 6, he started OT.
Our third child, A is now 5. I'll describe he school day in my part two post.
He started speech therapy at 2 years, 4 months. At two we knew that he was waaaaaaay behind where his brothers had been. (Even the one with the speech problem.) He had about 10 "words" and most of those we only understandable to us. He was diagnosed with Apraxia of Speech and Dysarthria. Days before starting ST, he said "Dada" for the first time. A couple of months later, he said "Mama."
When he started speech...we had no idea how they were going to work with him. He made no sounds on command and usually just nodding and grunted. Every now and then he would point in some general direction and grunt.
He started out having private speech therapy twice a week. After a few months...he OT once a week. When he turned four, we discovered that he could qualify for school therapy also. He began speech at the school twice a week. (on top of private ST and OT) We also do a lot of extra work at home. A LOT!
Would he have learned to speak if we had not done this intensive therapy? I don't think so. Apraxia is motor-planning disorder and people with Apraxia don't just figure it out. He was untestable when we first started speech. Six months later, he was at the 1st percentile.
I do know that he has made extraordinary progress. He speaks very well but he still doesn't have normal speech. He's currently right over the 30th percentile.
However, now that he's learning to read...we see the same problems with decoding that we saw with his speech.
He read words backwards. (He used to say words backwards. ) He drops ending sounds. He substitutes letters. And he still has trouble with words that begin and end with the same sound. (pop)
It's like starting over and it's frustrating.
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B. is 3 1/2. He's currently in private therapy once a week which we are going to try to bump up, and receives therapy in three fifteen minute sessions through the school. Our private therapist is treating him for Apraxia. School has helped him a lot in learning how to attend and control himself. No one (doctors, therapists, teachers, etc.) seems to think we are dealing with autism, but still this is very unsettling. He can't say his own name or really get his point across to anyone outside of the family. He does sign a little which helps, but my day with him is like one very loooooong session of charades. We have seen lots of progress since he's been in therapy, though.
mere
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