imagine.more Posted March 8, 2015 Share Posted March 8, 2015 So DD13 has been in speech therapy since they figured out her hearing impairment at age 8. About 5 years ago now. And yet looking at her old assessments on vocabulary and articulation, teacher comments, and what the speech therapists were working on at each point she's made hardly any noticeable progress. Her articulation has improved slightly, she can in theory make all sounds in isolation though in words or sentences she still struggles a ton with /s/ /j/ /z/ and blends (especially st blends and tr blends and xt she cannot say at all). She still deletes ending or beginning consonants frequently, still has a lisp with her /s/ sound (she sounds like she's whistling when she does it). But her vocabulary has improved only marginally in 5 years and certainly not enough to catch up her delays. According to tests she has the vocabulary of a 6 year old....and she's 13! And not a smart 6 year old quite frankly, like a bare minimum 6 year old because I have a 4 and 6 year old and both have higher vocabularies than their big sister. Her current therapist (old one in our town could not fit her in more than once a week for 30 min. so we looked for a new one) tested her vocabulary with the most basic of stuff! Of course she knows what an apple is and of course she knows what it means to ride or to run. But what she doesn't know is much beyond that, kwim? Every day she asks "what does that mean?" to basic words we use in everyday life like "fascinating" or "feisty" or "beyond" or "repair" and she doesn't know basic vocabulary for school like anatomy terms "uterus, vagina, intestine, lungs, etc." or like terms for geography "island, peninsula, reef, lake vs pond or lake vs ocean". We stop and explain words a lot, often needing to resort to gestures and hands-on explanations and googling pictures because she even gets confused by the words we use to define the term. So we're working on it at home and I'd love to work on it more. But, in speech therapy they're working on low-level skills still, making no progress, this new one also says she doesn't need therapy more than 30 min once a week, and when I ask for ideas of stuff to do at home they give me no advice or homework! I'm so frustrated. What can I do to fix this situation? She's on medicaid and gets therapy through that and I got approval from insurance to cover more speech therapy but the overbooked speech therapists don't want to see her more often. She's adopted and I've even debated petitioning for a higher stipend (she already gets a decent one) though that makes me uncomfortable or looking into social security though I don't know if she'd qualify (she has moderate-profound hearing impairment, intellectual disability, adhd, and dyslexia). DH is under-employed right now and while we're fine with our normal bills I don't see a way to add private speech therapy to the budget right now, kwim? Plus where would I find someone who would take her? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ElizabethB Posted March 9, 2015 Share Posted March 9, 2015 Can she read? if so, at what grade level? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MiMi 4under3 Posted March 9, 2015 Share Posted March 9, 2015 Has she been with the same therapists all 5 years? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Julie of KY Posted March 9, 2015 Share Posted March 9, 2015 It sounds like more than just speech problems. If she's asking what things mean, but not increasing in her vocabulary, then it's much more than just articulation. You should have some homework to do as well as working with the therapist. I'd probably pursue both a better speech evaluation as well as evaluation for learning disabilities. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PeterPan Posted March 9, 2015 Share Posted March 9, 2015 In our state she'd qualify for a multi-handicapped scholarship that would get her $20K a year. I don't know how much you're getting, but that's a lot of therapy. If you can get a higher amount and take it private, I would. You may be able to find the therapist you'd *like* to take her to privately and fight the school to get them to fund it and fund it adequately. Have you considered ASL for her? I just don't know how her vocabulary is supposed to improve if she has no paths in that aren't being hindered by the disabilities. My ds had those types of errors in his speech, and it was the combo of the terrible phonemic awareness and his motor planning. Have you tried LIPS with her? I just don't know, with her hearing impediment, how that will go and whether that's a good route for her. That's what got me asking about ASL. Is your goal in the ST communication or vocabulary? It seems like her vocabulary should be growing, even with her disabilities, if at least one of the methods of communication she's using is something she can process. Have you run a learning styles inventory on her? I know that sounds odd, but my ds turns out to be a VERY strongly kinesthetic learner. (The testing is included in the VMPAC, a motor planning test his SLP runs.) If she turns out to have a particularly strong modality, you might want to use that one for her instruction and how she's taking in content. And not to be rude, but if a dc has a hearing impediment and is having communication issues, they should be given ASL, not gestures. I know you have a load of kids and things, but I'm just saying it would be ideal to have the communication path that allows her to communicate with others. ASL will, gestures won't. Is there a deaf school in your state? Might be worth sending her away for, if necessary. Does your county have deaf services? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
beaners Posted March 9, 2015 Share Posted March 9, 2015 I have a feeling when she says they use gestures, they are miming to get an idea across to her? I know we have done and still do that a lot with our kids who came to use with a combination of no English and very limited vocabulary in their first language. It isn't exactly the same situation, but I know how frustrating it is to try to explain something and more words just don't help. Once my kids understand a word they can usually recognize it in the future and use it with practice, but getting to that point is tough. In our case we don't continue communication with those gestures. We use them to explain a word and then our kids use the word. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lauranc Posted March 9, 2015 Share Posted March 9, 2015 What about making a photo or picture book for vocabulary-- you could either laminate or get a cheap photo album to slide the pics in. When she doesn't know a word, add it to your list and every few days or week or whatever you print out a photo or the animated pic and add it to the vocabulary book. Or... get a picture dictionary or if you are thinking of (or already are) teaching ASL, here is one with ASL, English and it includes photos and sentences for words http://www.amazon.com/Gallaudet-Children%C2%92s-Dictionary-American-Language/dp/1563686317 I would suspect that she needs more visual input, and something that she can refer back to (like a book with pics and words and sentences and possibly ASL) --Laura Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Crimson Wife Posted March 9, 2015 Share Posted March 9, 2015 looking into social security though I don't know if she'd qualify (she has moderate-profound hearing impairment, intellectual disability, adhd, and dyslexia). DH is under-employed right now and while we're fine with our normal bills I don't see a way to add private speech therapy to the budget right now, kwim? She should qualify as "disabled" under SSI. Whether she would get the monthly stipend would depend on your family's finances. With her being adopted from foster care, there may be special rules that apply to your family's situation to make qualifying for the SSI monthly stipend easier (I'm not sure but it's definitely something to check out). Even without the stipend, however, qualifying for SSI may make her eligible for other program to help. In terms of the vocabulary, I'm looking at the Gander Publishing vocab materials. My DD is still young so I'm leaning towards "Picturing Vocabulary": http://ganderpublishing.com/pc_product_detail.asp?key=10B0B7B0322C45349B0B6EFFB52AF20F As your daughter is older, she'd probably benefit more from "Vanilla Vocabulary": http://ganderpublishing.com/pc_product_detail.asp?key=4711AB680B064776893789D1BD5E118D Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Crimson Wife Posted March 9, 2015 Share Posted March 9, 2015 Linguisystems also has some interesting looking software for learning vocabulary. No personal experience but it's these ones: http://www.linguisystems.com/products/product/display?itemid=10470 http://www.linguisystems.com/products/product/display?itemid=10471 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Heathermomster Posted March 9, 2015 Share Posted March 9, 2015 OP, given your DD's hearing issues, I almost wonder whether a PROMPT trained SLP would be more useful. Your child missed out on foundational sounds during early childhood that are required for language acquisition. PROMPT people work with apraxics, and as I understand it, literally teach mouth formation. OhE, am I off base here? And I can't see where ASL would hurt. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
imagine.more Posted March 9, 2015 Author Share Posted March 9, 2015 We really want to have her learn ASL but the nearest deaf school and nearest classes are in Pittsburgh 2 hours away. We've called multiple places to find ASL closer but nothing is available except through the private colleges as a full $3000 semester class for adults getting a degree. I think it's absurd nobody has taught her sign language before but because she is not deaf just hearing impaired and at 85% hearing with aids nobody thought it was necessary. But like I said we have no resources to learn or teach asl in our city. Her 5 years of therapy was split between 4 therapists. One in CT, one in Reading, two in Altoona here. The first ones were before she came to us in Altoona. She also had therapy in school of course but just 20 min 7 times in a grading period. She is diagnosed mild intellectual disability, iq 69 so right on the edge. And dyslexic and mild adhd Inattentive type. She can now read at a high 2nd grade level after 12 months of Barton. Previously she was a non-reader basically. We're almost through level 3, 2 more weeks, yay! As for gestures I didn't mean she can't understand words, just that if I'm explaining 'underneath' for example I'd obviously gesture under a table or under a book to demonstrate the point. Hopefully that answers the background questions. Now off to read more responses :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Crimson Wife Posted March 9, 2015 Share Posted March 9, 2015 No personal experience, but this is the program that Gallaudet uses for its beginning ASL courses: http://www.amazon.com/Signing-Naturally-Student-Workbook-Paperback/dp/B00BQ1WMAS/ref=pd_sim_b_5?ie=UTF8&refRID=0QS82BQB93G31ECFZVCV My personal priority is learning Cued Speech because that will reinforce spoken English as DD's primary langauge. I would like her to become fluent in ASL but as a 2nd language down the road after she's reading and is generally at a higher functioning level. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lauranc Posted March 9, 2015 Share Posted March 9, 2015 Check this out http://www.cilscpa.org/programs/index.html Says they offer sign lang classes throughout the year. May be helpful?? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
imagine.more Posted March 9, 2015 Author Share Posted March 9, 2015 Check this out http://www.cilscpa.org/programs/index.html Says they offer sign lang classes throughout the year. May be helpful?? Thank you! I showed my husband this and he was all "oh yeah, when the deaf school returned our call that's what they recommended" ....of course he never told me this, oy! They did just get back to us last week but still, sheesh! We had called them awhile ago to see if they knew any resources out here and they had said they'd look into it and call us back. We'll definitely be contacting them tomorrow and see when their next class is. It won't be quite the immersion a deaf school would offer but should get Ana and us started and I'm sure we can try to do some independent study after we have the basics. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
happycc Posted March 24, 2015 Share Posted March 24, 2015 I do not have a child with a hearing impairment but I do have a child with autism with possible Apraxia and is nonverbal. We were not progressing in Speech either. I decided to take the pressure off of making sounds, words, etc and use ASL to teach my son to communicate with me. His ABA therapists uses ASL. They put out 10 toys. Whatever toy he wants, they take, they make him sign for the toy using ASL and he signs either with physical or verbal prompt and then he gets the toy. They mark how often he goes through this. He know knows 43 ASL signs without needing prompts! We do not qualify for deaf services but this is how I have incorporated sign in my family. We hired a deaf person to come to the house and teach our whole family sign. He taught us games, flashcards, videos, made us act it out etc. Our family Watches Signing Time videos, Switched At Birth, Seventh Heaven and you tube songs that have been interpreted. Then we just incorporated it throughout the day with him. It has been very motivating for my son when his siblings signs with him and understands what he wants. We did find two speech therapists who knows some signs and again signs were incorporated with speech. I was not expecting verbalization. I just wanted communication-a sharing of ideas. Now he is starting to make sounds and we think we have heard a few words pop out. Do whatever you can to immerse your family in the deaf culture. Find deaf people online near you and have them over for dinner or whatever. He might need some physical body movements to move on in speech therapy. ASL signing has taken my son's speech therapy sessions to the next step when we were at a standstill literally. He started out looking like a Charlie Chaplin silent movie character. Not one sounds coming out of him to now tons of sounds. I am so excited. This just erupted after we made the decision to go full ASL 3 months ago after a year of no movement if not resistance. I can send you a link of what ASL does to the brain and what kinds of brain connections it makes. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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