Question for a friend regarding speech

[LittleDudesMom]

One of the volunteers at the book fair today came in a little late because she was in a child study meeting getting the testing results for her son. He is in second grade and extremely smart. He does have a speech issue. There are a combination of 6 consenent blends and single consenents that he has issues with. The speech pathologist said there were several times during the testing that she was unable to understand him (although I have never had a problem). He also scored below 25% on his Grammatical Completions, Word Articulation, and just an 11% on his Word Discrimination (which the pathologist indicated was him repeating what he heard - i.e., he could not distiguish between "falls" and "false".

His IEP will not be ready for another 30 days. The mom is concerned and wanted to know if there was anything she could do in the meantime. The pathologist (who is, now this is going back a number of years, the one I asked be removed from difficult child's IEP team because of her lack of understanding and bad attitude) told her she couldn't make any recommendations and "mom would just have to wait".

I told my friend that I would address it here on the the board to see if there was anything any of you could recommend she do to help her son. Any exercise activities or books that could begin to help.

Any suggestions?

I'm on the run, just got home from the book fair and need to be back at school in 35 minutes for a pta board meeting. I'll check back in later tonight or in the morning.

Thanks!

Sharon

 

[Sheila]

I am by no means an Speech Language Pathologist (SLP); the following is based on personal experience.

This may be more of an auditory processing problem rather than a speech-language problem. There are different kinds of APDs -- auditory discrimination can be one.

Auditory Processing Disorders (APD) doesn't have one thing to do with how well a person can hear; it has everything to do with what happens with the sounds as they travel from the ear to the brain. In other words, a hearing test is not the evaluation needed (although problematic hearing needs to be ruled out). An audiologist with-expertise in Auditory Processing Disorders (APD) would be the specialist required to do the sophisticated testing needed (not an Speech Language Pathologist (SLP)).

Many school districts do not want to provided Auditory Processing Disorders (APD) therapy. It can be very expensive, and as with all other therapies, there are no guarantees.

I'm jumping the gun a bit here -- mom needs to find out exactly what she's dealing with before deciding therapy.

There are some Auditory Processing Disorders (APD) links in various archives -- some in ECZ, General and Sp Ed Archives.

 

[LittleDudesMom]

Sheila,

that is exactly what I was thinking when my friend mentioned the word discrimination score. I will give her the information and then she can begin to investigate on her own.

Thanks,
Sharon

 

[SRL]

I agree with Sheila that auditory processing needs to be looked into as well. It's unlikely that the school would do anything beyond regular speech to treat it but there are aspects such as classroom adaptations that should be included in the IEP if it is present.

We had too long of a period of time between evaluation and start of therapy as well and it's so frustrating for the parent to feel so in the dark. Having been through that and knowing what I know now, this is what I would recommend:

Since summer is almost upon us, I would look around the area for summer speech programs at the district, private providers, hospitals, universities that train Speech Language Pathologist (SLP)'s etc. difficult child needed the break in the summers but I've known families reporting good progress made during that time when the pressures of school were off.

If she could find a private situation where she can sit in on the speech therapy sessions it would help her the most. She wouldn't be able to do this at school but it would help her learn the ropes and understand the kinds of exercises that would be helpful. I wouldn't recommend she use workbooks or formal exercises for pronunciation until she has help and modeling from an Speech Language Pathologist (SLP).

On the homefront, it's important that mom slow down her speech, get eye level with the child, and make eye contact. This will help maximize the child's ability to pull in the verbal and nonverbal info she's trying to convey.

 

[LittleDudesMom]

thanks for the info srl. I will print this thread out and give it to my friend tomorrow.

Sharon

 

[rdy4chng]

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: SRL</div><div class="ubbcode-body">I agree with Sheila that auditory processing needs to be looked into as well. It's unlikely that the school would do anything beyond regular speech to treat it but there are aspects such as classroom adaptations that should be included in the IEP if it is present.

We had too long of a period of time between evaluation and start of therapy as well and it's so frustrating for the parent to feel so in the dark. Having been through that and knowing what I know now, this is what I would recommend:

Since summer is almost upon us, I would look around the area for summer speech programs at the district, private providers, hospitals, universities that train Speech Language Pathologist (SLP)'s etc. difficult child needed the break in the summers but I've known families reporting good progress made during that time when the pressures of school were off.

If she could find a private situation where she can sit in on the speech therapy sessions it would help her the most. She wouldn't be able to do this at school but it would help her learn the ropes and understand the kinds of exercises that would be helpful. I wouldn't recommend she use workbooks or formal exercises for pronunciation until she has help and modeling from an Speech Language Pathologist (SLP).

On the homefront, it's important that mom slow down her speech, get eye level with the child, and make eye contact. This will help maximize the child's ability to pull in the verbal and nonverbal info she's trying to convey. </div></div>

Hi All (Newbie)
I would have to agree with persuing auditory processing. In our area we have a large state college that offers this service for free. They will do the testing and provide linkage to community resources. If your concerned about the speech personnel and her findings getting an outside source to evaluate him will provide you with more leverage with the school and IEP.