Rank: Newbie
Joined: 7/28/2010
Posts: 2
Points: 6
Location: New York
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Hello Everyone,
As I read through these posts I see myself in each one. I am a mother of 2 little boys. One is almost 3 years old, the other a newborn. The older one is the one that I am worried about.
Background. My son was born with bilateral clubfeet that have been treated, but has also been diagnosed with overall low muscle tone. He is an active little boy, but is not talking.
He has been in Early Intervention (EI) and has had speech therapy for almost 2 years, with little progress. He says a handful of words - like daddy, door, ball - less than 10 in total and they all begin with either the "b" or "d" sound. He seems to comprehend a good amount- follows simple directions- such as "Where are your shoes?, go get your shoes." He primarily get his point across through gestures, pointing and leading.
We had him recently evaulated again, since he is aging out of EI and they think he might have apraxic speech? Can anyone explain further? What is the treatment? Prognosis? It seems you can tell he is trying to think of something to say to you, when asked "What is this?" but can't get it out. Then again, they say he is too young to test for it.
Do you think his low tone has soemthing to do with his speech delay. He sleeps with his mouth open, but has never drooled. WHen playing or concentrating, his has open mouth posture with slight tongue exposure. He eats fine, but does overstuff on things that he likes, but will stop when told. He drinks well through a straw and has learned how to drink from a cup recently.
Any ideas? Thoughts? What can I do? Help!! We are really worried.
Thank you.
- Mommy D
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Rank: Advanced Member
Joined: 1/22/2008
Posts: 737
Points: 1,947
Location: Colorado
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Hello Mommy D,
Welcome to the forum! This is a great place to share your concerns and questions and to get support from other parents and some information and ideas to try.
If your son is almost 3, he is not too young to have an articulation test. Has he been tested with the Goldman-Fristoe Test of Articulation or some other standardized test? It is important and helpful to look at the types of errors your son makes. Does he omit a lot of sounds? Is there a pattern to that such as mostly beginning sounds or mostly ending sounds? Does he use his b and d substitutions for most sounds? Is he able to produce more sounds on imitation (is he "stimulable" for change?)
Has his SLP worked on a small set of "functional" words and provided you with pictures of these words to practice daily? (...with suggestions about how to practice to try to assist him to produce sounds better?)
Has his SLP worked on sets of words that start with particular sounds (such as on a one-sound-a-week basis)? --words such as those that start with vowels, or h, m, p, t?
Have you been given suggestions for techniques you can use to provide him with language models at his level? I always suggest NOT asking direct questions but rather to make simple comments about things that give the child a model to copy if he is ready and able to imitate.
In terms of apraxia of speech. Even if it cannot be definitely diagnosed in a child turning 3, you can look for the hallmarks of it--difficulty sequencing sounds in words, variable errors depending on the other sounds in words, groping movements of the mouth while the child tries to produce sounds, voicing errors such as saying "d" for "t", and several others. Even without a diagnosis of this form of speech production difficulty, articulation skill building should be worked on.
You mentioned several very favorable skills that your son has--being able to drink through a straw, drinking from an open cup, not drooling. I don't think you need to be too concerned at this time about his open mouth posture and his slight lisp. The focus needs to be on building points and manner of articulation (what articulators do the work and how to make the movements) and on building up his vocabulary to at least 50 words and then getting combinations of words.
Has an augmentative system been tried with your son such as having small pictures he can exchange for things he wants?
Keep in mind--your son does speak. By that I mean, he already communicates the way you want him to--he just needs to gain more skills to do more talking more easily. You have reason to feel encouraged. I should say, too, that it is very positive that your son understands what you say to him and he tries to communicate with you.
I hope you will write back! Best wishes to you and your son.
Mary Lou B. Johnson, M.S.,CCC-SLP
http://www.helpyourchildspeak.com
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Rank: Newbie
Joined: 7/28/2010
Posts: 2
Points: 6
Location: New York
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Thank you so much for your response Mary Lou. I will answer all your rquestions as soon as I can.
Thank you for pointing out the positives in my son's case and making me realize not to focus solely on the negatives.
But in terms of the negtives, I will update you.
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