what to look for in speech therapist

[Amirah]

so my son is going to be 3yr old in june and he is not talking. we use OPOL( one parent one language ) to raise him bilingually in arabic/english and he is able to understand some things but he is not saying any words(other than a few words that don't exist like gaginga, bobinn). developmentally he is hitting all his milestones so we are in the process of looking for a speech therapist. i have no clue what to look for and i don't know anyone who has experince. the doctors office doesn't refer so we pretty much are on our own. if anyone can send me to a website or tell me what i should be looking for/asking that would be so helpful. i am just really down and feel like a failure for not being able to get him to talk and i just really don't know what to do

 

oh i am in mississauga/toronto area of canada so if anyone here is in that area and can recommend someone i will take that too

 

thanks in advance ya'll

[PeterPan]

If he's hitting all his other milestones developmentally, has good *receptive* speech, and is not talking, then what you're looking at is probably apraxia. The BEST treatment for it is PROMPT. I don't know if there are any PROMPT therapists in Canada. But the difference is so night and day, in my humble opinion, I would suggest you drive absolutely as far as you need to to get one. If you have to drive a long way, go, do several days of intense therapy, let them teach you the techniques, then go home and apply them for a month. Then go back and repeat.

 

My son had *2 sounds* (/m/, /a/) and one word (mama) when he was evaluated just before he turned 2. He was diagnosed with moderate verbal apraxia. The VERY FIRST SESSION of PROMPT the therapist had him saying words like: put, on, me, do, more, up... And he was saying them OVER AND OVER. I'm not kidding you, and I'm not exaggerating. Don't screw around with regular speech therapy, not if it's verbal apraxia. They can teach you to do it at home, and it will UNLOCK your dc. If it's all in there and can't come out because of motor control, the apraxia can help you get it out.

 

Now, one of the things they're going to do is quantify his speech. For instance, it sounds like he's saying some words. They're going to go through all the letters and sounds and actually quantify that. It might be interesting from your own perspective to do it. You've got a lot of sounds with two combined languages. There's an apraxia kids yahoo group where the topic of bilingual families has come up. It's not uncommon. I *think* the advice honestly was not to ask the child to speak in the 2nd language, to pick one language and get that one first. I think you can use the language around him for receptive purposes, but when there's apraxia, you may need to focus your efforts. Your therapist will probably have to stretch to learn how to apply the concepts to arabic. I studied some arabic in college for a practical linguistics class, so I understand a little of what's going on there. It's going to be a stretch. Get a really good PROMPT therapist (certified is my preference) and maybe she can figure it out. Basically it's going to involve the native speaker making the sounds for her and her seeing how each one is properly formed so she can teach it to the child. But honestly, I think you're going to have to focus on one for a while, sorry.

 

Deborah Hayden, the developer of PROMPT, has a video lecture on youtube. It's 45 minutes but worth watching. Google and you'll find it. Turned my son around. It's TOTALLY amazing. Regular speech therapy can't even come close. Don't even get me started about the stinkin therapist we visited who looked at me like I was paranoid and worried for nothing and said she'd work on "communication." He didn't need to COMMUNICATE, he needed to TALK!!! Communication means sign language, anythign they can use to bridge at get two-way going. Sign is great, highly recommend. Our speech therapist used it with our son in sessions. But it was a TOOL, not a substitute. The VERY FIRST DAY of the PROMPT therapy he was TALKING. Not signing, TALKING.

 

Just makes me so angry I could spit, sorry. And holding up flashcards won't help kids if they don't have the motor control either. Man I'm getting too hot under the collar. Just makes me angry. Being able to talk TOTALLY changes the child. Out comes their personality and away goes the hitting and the frustration. I can't even imagine what you're going through. I didn't even *realize* how withdrawn my ds was at age 2 till he started talking. He totally blossomed. Accept nothing less! It's a serious issue, because some of these kids do NOT start talking. Or they begin later but are unintelligible. You want the absolute best therapy you can get.

 

(And yes, I'm going to feel bad if I've told you all that and you can't possibly get to one! But see what you can do.)

[Amirah]

If he's hitting all his other milestones developmentally, has good *receptive* speech, and is not talking, then what you're looking at is probably apraxia. The BEST treatment for it is PROMPT. I don't know if there are any PROMPT therapists in Canada. But the difference is so night and day, in my humble opinion, I would suggest you drive absolutely as far as you need to to get one. If you have to drive a long way, go, do several days of intense therapy, let them teach you the techniques, then go home and apply them for a month. Then go back and repeat.

 

My son had *2 sounds* (/m/, /a/) and one word (mama) when he was evaluated just before he turned 2. He was diagnosed with moderate verbal apraxia. The VERY FIRST SESSION of PROMPT the therapist had him saying words like: put, on, me, do, more, up... And he was saying them OVER AND OVER. I'm not kidding you, and I'm not exaggerating. Don't screw around with regular speech therapy, not if it's verbal apraxia. They can teach you to do it at home, and it will UNLOCK your dc. If it's all in there and can't come out because of motor control, the apraxia can help you get it out.

 

Now, one of the things they're going to do is quantify his speech. For instance, it sounds like he's saying some words. They're going to go through all the letters and sounds and actually quantify that. It might be interesting from your own perspective to do it. You've got a lot of sounds with two combined languages. There's an apraxia kids yahoo group where the topic of bilingual families has come up. It's not uncommon. I *think* the advice honestly was not to ask the child to speak in the 2nd language, to pick one language and get that one first. I think you can use the language around him for receptive purposes, but when there's apraxia, you may need to focus your efforts. Your therapist will probably have to stretch to learn how to apply the concepts to arabic. I studied some arabic in college for a practical linguistics class, so I understand a little of what's going on there. It's going to be a stretch. Get a really good PROMPT therapist (certified is my preference) and maybe she can figure it out. Basically it's going to involve the native speaker making the sounds for her and her seeing how each one is properly formed so she can teach it to the child. But honestly, I think you're going to have to focus on one for a while, sorry.

 

Deborah Hayden, the developer of PROMPT, has a video lecture on youtube. It's 45 minutes but worth watching. Google and you'll find it. Turned my son around. It's TOTALLY amazing. Regular speech therapy can't even come close. Don't even get me started about the stinkin therapist we visited who looked at me like I was paranoid and worried for nothing and said she'd work on "communication." He didn't need to COMMUNICATE, he needed to TALK!!! Communication means sign language, anythign they can use to bridge at get two-way going. Sign is great, highly recommend. Our speech therapist used it with our son in sessions. But it was a TOOL, not a substitute. The VERY FIRST DAY of the PROMPT therapy he was TALKING. Not signing, TALKING.

 

Just makes me so angry I could spit, sorry. And holding up flashcards won't help kids if they don't have the motor control either. Man I'm getting too hot under the collar. Just makes me angry. Being able to talk TOTALLY changes the child. Out comes their personality and away goes the hitting and the frustration. I can't even imagine what you're going through. I didn't even *realize* how withdrawn my ds was at age 2 till he started talking. He totally blossomed. Accept nothing less! It's a serious issue, because some of these kids do NOT start talking. Or they begin later but are unintelligible. You want the absolute best therapy you can get.

 

(And yes, I'm going to feel bad if I've told you all that and you can't possibly get to one! But see what you can do.)

 

 

there is plenty of people with PROMPT training around me almost every place i looked at has 2 or 3 ppl within their practice trained in it. thank you so much !! i literally almost cried reading your message. i am off to google the stuff you mentioned above :grouphug:

[Jennifer-72]

You may want to see if any of the ones trained with PROMPT also have Hanen Training. Hanen trained SLP's are really interested in training and working with parents on how to help their children. I love the way Hanen programs approach language delay. Being able to target ds's speech with both Hanen and PROMPT was extremely effective for ds.

[Tokyomarie]

You may want to see if any of the ones trained with PROMPT also have Hanen Training. Hanen trained SLP's are really interested in training and working with parents on how to help their children. I love the way Hanen programs approach language delay. Being able to target ds's speech with both Hanen and PROMPT was extremely effective for ds.

 

I second the recommendation for someone who knows the Hanen programs.

 

My son was very much like yours, Amirah. We weren't doing OPOL, but we were an English-speaking family living in Japan. Ds's sisters were bilingual English/Japanese and often used Japanese together at home, yet Ds wasn't picking up any language and was, yes, making up a few of his own words. He may be mildly apraxic based on our remembrances of his behaviors, but his official speech diagnosis was severe phonological speech delay.

 

We started speech therapy at 3yrs 4mos. Our therapists were Hanen trained and very parent- education oriented. I'm not sure of the specific approach for his speech sounds, but it was very effective for helping him to develop the actual sounds, which we worked on several times daily outside of therapy days.

Edited March 9, 2012 by Tokyomarie

[Amirah]

thanks everyone who commented so far i'm taking notes and googling lol