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Anyone else hs'ing a minimally verbal child?


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I'm looking for btdt advice from anyone who has successfully homeschooled their minimally-verbal autistic child (bonus points for those with ADHD sprinkled on top... ;) ). My son will be six next month and we're using Simply Classical Level A as his "formal" curriculum at the moment. I don't really know how much he's getting out of it, but it's what we're doing since I don't know of any alternatives that would fit any better. His echoics are emerging, but we see very little spontaneous language throughout the day. Receptive language is also impaired.

 

I have a masters in special ed and we have a wonderful team of therapists (OT, PT, speech, and ABA), but I still feel lost some days. I would love to hear what worked for those who are farther along in this journey. What did you find to be most vital to your child's success? What do you wish you'd done differently? I guess I could really just stand to hear a success story or two...or even just some perspective. Thanks!

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Have you gotten an evaluation for Alternative and Augmentative Communication? Schools are using AAC with their non-verbal autistic students and it's amazing how much it can unlock a child's potential.

 

This is a great suggestion.

 

I initially thought you were asking about high school for a minimally verbal child, I have more experience there since that's the level that I teach, and I was going to say that AAC would be the #1 thing I'd do.  

 

In my classroom, AAC has been a game changer for kids expressive and receptive language, I've also seen kids grow their spoken language by copying from the device.  Finally, it's been great for literacy skills!  I can't say enough about the power of AAC. 

 

PM me if you want more info on what we use, and how we use it, plus resources.  

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Have you tried PROMPT?  

 

Actually, there are two "prompt" things you could look at.  Rapid Prompting is what you want for instruction.  AMAZING book.  There are some videos online and someone came on a while back using a modified version.  They had videos on their blog.

 

Then there's PROMPT for speech.  That could unlock his speech, and I would encourage you to confirm whether there's praxis involved.  PROMPT is what you want for praxis of speech, and I would encourage you *not* to trust your SLP.  Get a 2nd opinion and find out whether PROMPT would help him.

 

Even though PROMPT got my ds speech, we still have had language issues to work on.  Have they done some receptive language testing on him like appropriate parts of the CELF or CASL?  My ds had very low single sentence comprehension.  We had to work on that separately, which we have done with The Grammar Processing Program from Super Duper.  You can do it entirely with pointing if you wish, no need for him to speak.  I use it both ways (receptively and expressively), but I'm saying you could work just on receptive.

 

For my ds, all comprehension was so hampered by the language disability that regular academics were nigh unto worthless.  I would read a picture book multiple times and he still wouldn't know the story, etc.  For us, it was more important to work on the language problems, unsexy as that may be.  For fun and intellectual stimulation, we've had good success with K'nex kits (lots!!), DK picture books on topics, where we'd go through identifying all the weapons, all the transportation, that kind of thing, hidden picture art books, hidden picture books (Highlights, circle the things), mazes, dot to dots...  These are things we do a lot!  

 

My ds has SLD math as well, so we use Ronit Bird for that.  Is your ds getting ABA?  It may be they're hitting academics or going to.  

 

The language held my ds back from understanding a lot of things.  I would test and make sure you know where he's at so you're not wasting your time.

Edited by OhElizabeth
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Actually, there are two "prompt" things you could look at.  Rapid Prompting is what you want for instruction.  AMAZING book.  There are some videos online and someone came on a while back using a modified version.  They had videos on their blog.

 

 

PROMPT is a great method, but probably not right for a kid who can echo but struggles to communicate.  In that case, it's unlikely that the issue is motor.

 

Rapid prompting, however, is a new version of facilitated communication under another name.  Facilitated communication has been shown over and over again to be a sham, and one that can be very destructive to families.  Please find a communication system (low or high tech AAC, sign, enhanced natural gestures, intensive work on verbal speech, some combination of the above) that allows the child to express thoughts and ideas that are undoubtedly their own.  

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PROMPT is a great method, but probably not right for a kid who can echo but struggles to communicate.  In that case, it's unlikely that the issue is motor.

 

Rapid prompting, however, is a new version of facilitated communication under another name.  Facilitated communication has been shown over and over again to be a sham, and one that can be very destructive to families.  Please find a communication system (low or high tech AAC, sign, enhanced natural gestures, intensive work on verbal speech, some combination of the above) that allows the child to express thoughts and ideas that are undoubtedly their own.  

 

Maybe we're not talking about the same things?  The Rapid Prompting book I read was an educational method.  I've personally met a mom who used it (for education) and when I read the book I found it very inspiring.  My ds didn't need her exact methodology.  

 

Unless you've actually done the VMPAC on the dc, I would be really hesitant to assume what is or is not going on with his motor planning.  My ds has verbal apraxia + ASD and went through an echoing stage.  Actually he only just shed it in the last few months.  You can have receptive problems *and* the motor planning problems.  You really don't know without detailed testing to tease it all apart.  

 

What I've read is that 50% of the speech problems in autism are due to (undiagnosed) praxis.  Since the best intervention for praxis of speech (PROMPT) is newer, less people are trained on it, meaning it's easier to get missed.  I'm merely saying don't let it get missed.

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Roseto27, you wrote that 'his echoics are emerging'.

Though I would ask about his 'self-echoics'?

With self-echoics, it involves getting them to say something.

Then waiting 2 to 5 seconds, and then asking them to repeat what they just said?

 

With echoing, it is a reflexive verbal response to a functional stimulus.

Though self-echoing, relies on verbal recalling what was just said.

I would also ask if you have been doing 'Echoic Chaining' with him?

Where a word is deconstructed from 'point to point', into the sound units that form it.

Which can be used to develop Self-Echoics.

 

With Echoics, it can rely on a stimulus such as a picture, to retrieve a word, or series of words.

But with Self-Echoics?  It can develop the ability to form words.

To then continue to expand associations with it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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I don't have any thoughts, but I have some experience with "functional communication training" and "mand training" with my son. 

 

Mand training helped a lot with his spontaneous language.

 

A boy we see at school has started mand training recently, and I saw him say "water" at the playground about two weeks ago, which I thought was exciting (though I don't know him that well). 

 

We have done the kind of ABA where language is divided up into:  mand (requesting), tact (labeling), echoic (repeating a word after someone), and intraverbals (filling in words in a song). 

 

My son had a strong tact repertoire, and so we had a lot of "tact to mand transfers."

 

If this is all gibberish b/c it is just not what you are doing ------ just ignore it.

 

But if any of it sounds like what you are doing, I would love to chat about it :) 

 

 

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