my son can't hear some sounds

[momto4kings]

My almost 7 year old had expressive language disorder and articulation problems as a toddler. Currently the only sound he can't say is /r/, however, he softens the /L/ quite a bit and in general sounds babyish. My neighbor jokes that he sounds British.

 

Academically he is above great level in all subjects, except spelling and writing. He reads fluently both silently and aloud and for fun. He comprehends well both when I read to him and when he reads by himself. He is pleasant and well behaved most of the time. He follows directions well and gets along with others.

 

He has no hearing loss and no fluid in his ears. We have done several rounds of TLP and we regularly do auditory processing excersises.

 

I'm trying to do spelling with him by dictating words from "Phonics pathway" and providing immediate feedback. I've noticed that he has a hard time distinguishing b/d, r/w, and -ng endings.

 

My questions:

 

1. This method of teaching spelling worked very well with my other children, but I don't see it working as well with this child. What other method/program should I consider?

 

2. Most importantly, is there anything else I should be doing to help him with "hearing" the sounds corectly?

 

3. Is Earobics something that might be helpful? From what I can tell from the website, it is a reading program. I think he is well above a 3rd grade reading level.

 

Thanks for your time and ideas.

[Claire]

Earobics would likely be interminably boring for him since he is already reading. The best program for him would be FastForWord because it works specifically on training the ability to distinguish sounds (especially close ones) with accuracy and speed. However, the software alone is over $800 and you have provider hours on top of that. Most people pay $1,500 and up for FFW.

 

We had a lot of success with Sequential Spelling, which is a word family approach to spelling. It sounds as if your son is reading well enough to start in SS. (It quickly gets into multi-syllable words.)

[Myrtle]

My almost 7 year old had expressive language disorder and articulation problems as a toddler. Currently the only sound he can't say is /r/, however, he softens the /L/ quite a bit and in general sounds babyish. My neighbor jokes that he sounds British.

 

Academically he is above great level in all subjects, except spelling and writing. He reads fluently both silently and aloud and for fun. He comprehends well both when I read to him and when he reads by himself. He is pleasant and well behaved most of the time. He follows directions well and gets along with others.

 

He has no hearing loss and no fluid in his ears. We have done several rounds of TLP and we regularly do auditory processing excersises.

 

I'm trying to do spelling with him by dictating words from "Phonics pathway" and providing immediate feedback. I've noticed that he has a hard time distinguishing b/d, r/w, and -ng endings.

 

My questions:

 

1. This method of teaching spelling worked very well with my other children, but I don't see it working as well with this child. What other method/program should I consider?

 

2. Most importantly, is there anything else I should be doing to help him with "hearing" the sounds corectly?

 

3. Is Earobics something that might be helpful? From what I can tell from the website, it is a reading program. I think he is well above a 3rd grade reading level.

 

Thanks for your time and ideas.

 

"Earobics" is software designed by speech pathologists to remediate the problem that you seem to be describing.

 

For example, there is an activity in which a word is repeated over and over again, when there is a slight change made to the word, the child is to click (it's all done in the form of a game though) so for example...you hear a voice that said bed, bed, bed, bed, bed, dead (CLICK!)

 

Another activity separates the sounds in the words and the child has to mentally put them together. In the begining the voice says the entire word "bed" and then when the child successfully clicks on the corresponding picture the voice says the sounds with a slight pause between each one..."b..e..d" until finally the pause is very great.

[teachmom3]

We used this a decade ago with our ds, and it made a definite improvement in our ds's ability to distinguish phonemes.

 

It was pricey, although in the years that followed our using it, our public school district began providing it for children.

 

I have heard of Earobics described as "the poor man's FastForWord," but I do not know how accurate this description is.

 

HTH!

[Laurie4b]

You might have him evaluated by an audiologist specializing in auditory processing disorders regarding auditory discrimination. If Kathy in MD sees this, she might post. Her son worked successfully on this problem. A speech & language pathologist might also be helpful.

 

When you dictate, do you drag out the sound so that he can hear it especially well?

I would purposely mix it up for him with regard to the sounds he has a hard time discriminating. For instance, do a few word family rhyming words with the initial consonants being those he has trouble with:

 

big/dig/rig/wig

 

In another part of dictation, group words together that are alike: for instance, a bunch of words that end with b: Fib, blab, stub, grab, etc. Put them in sentences together so that the meaning helps him to group them in his mind. That way, if he remembers clearly one word from the list, he can pull up the others. "He blabbed that she fibbed about grabbing the pen." or words that have the b in an initial position: "The boy bounced on the boat on the bay."

 

 

Also, when giving the immediate feedback, or as a pre-dictation activity, show him the words with the letters that he has trouble with distinguished by color. so big with a blue b, but dig with a red d. Whatever color you use, use consistently for that letter.

 

As he reads more, that may actually help his discrimination. As he reads the word " iMportant " and notices it's not "iNportant," for instance, it may help him to start distinguishing those sounds when he hears the word . His brain may start using his visual skills to help his auditory difficulties.

[Kathy in MD]

My questions:

 

1. This method of teaching spelling worked very well with my other children, but I don't see it working as well with this child. What other method/program should I consider?

 

I recommend Sequential Spelling. It's fast and painless (once the student realizes that perfection is not needed.) Most importantly it sticks.

 

2. Most importantly, is there anything else I should be doing to help him with "hearing" the sounds corectly?

 

For me personally, drawing out the individual sounds helped me learn to distinguish the sounds I struggled with (short vowels). Over emphisising the constant blends I struggled with helped with those. By my late forties, I stopped having problems with them. Obviously this is not a good primary plan, which it was for me. It would help supplement.

 

My ds, having far more severe auditory problems, received far more intensive and modern help. He had years of speech therapy with a speech pathologist/therapist. The ST helped a ton, however he still struggled with listening to and contributing to a conversation. The Listening Program atthis point was mostly a waste of time, though it did somewhat reduce his sensitivity to sudden loud sounds. What really helped was BrainSkills, the home adminstered version of PACE and LearningRx. The auditory portion involves playing with sounds - substituting sounds, adding sounds and dropping them - and memory. It was after this program that he was able to join easily in conversations.

 

However, I don't think it would have worked if he hadn't had years of good ST. (He started BrainSkills when he was almost 11) BrainSkills wasn't complete enough to be a stand alone therapy. If it weren't for the ST, I would have done Fast For Word prior to BrainSkills.

 

The end result is that my ds now helps me pronounce Latin words. I struggle to pick out the pronounciation on fast chants. He nails them quickly. And boy, does he enjoy besting mom in something.