Spelling and Speech Delay/Apraxia of Speech Advice

[RKWAcademy]

Can anyone share their experiences with beginning spelling for lower elementary kids with speech delays? 

 

For background, my six year old son has been in speech therapy for over three years.  In total, he's doing very well.  He is still working on his R controlled vowels.  He occasionally still says /f/ in place of /th/.  He has really struggled with /r/.  He was diagnosed with Apraxia of Speech.  It must be a fairly minor presentation because from the therapists: first he had it, then he didn't, then maybe he did but it doesn't matter for therapy. 

 

He is doing well with reading (we do All About Reading level 3 right now).  We've just begun spelling this fall using Apples and Pears.  He struggles with "hearing" the sounds /w/ vs /r/ and /th/ vs /f/ for use in spelling.  His vowels are iffy, too, but the /r/ and /th/ seems to be more problematic in spelling.  Our speech therapist is pretty good but doesn't seem to favor homeschooling.  When I asked her about his misspelling of words like 'run' and 'the' she basically just said, keep correcting and if he were in public school, he'd have a IEP for just such a problem.

 

Does anyone have any experience with similar speech delays impacting spelling but not so much reading?  I'd appreciate hearing what you used successfully for spelling. 

[PeterPan]

Wow, what an unhelpful SLP!   :glare:   My ds has verbal apraxia, originally diagnosed moderate, now severe.  He started speech therapy with PROMPT at newly 2.  He's now getting 2 hour sessions weekly thanks to our disability funding.  I can tell you that PROMPT would give you some more tools to help him feel the sounds, say the sounds correctly, motor plan the sounds correctly, and thus connect it to written.  PROMPT is totally hands-on.  My ds is also dyslexic (among other things), so we ended up combining the hands-on on PROMPT with LIPS that Barton recommends.  He failed the Barton pre-test, so that's why we did LIPS.  LIPS plus PROMPT is *exceptional*.  

 

So I think you have several things there.  In general it's common for a dc not to distinguish auditorally things he doesn't yet pronounce correctly.  However, if you apply that to this situation, that means you have targets he's not saying correctly that you think he's saying correctly.  I don't know, I'm not there, I'm not an SLP.  

 

One way to sort through that is to do the Barton pre-test.  It's free, quick, and would give you some useful information.  I suggest you try that, see what happens, then take the next step based on that.  

 

That's pretty phenomenal that he's doing AAS3, btw.  Did he do AAR pre?  I tried it with my ds, and although it was adorable and well-done, it was just totally out of reach for him.  So if he's doing that well, that's a really good sign!  That's why I'm thinking it's more how he's hearing the sounds and pronouncing them that is the issue.  Thing is, for motor planning, /w/ and /r/ are VERY DIFFERENT.  Those are common transpositions in young speakers, but for motor planning they're totally different.  You're also talking about sounds that are not typically fully acquired by that age, even in speakers with no challenges.  

 

In general, LIPS might give you enough tools to be able to work through this.  Here's the Barton pretest link  Student Screening

 

If you want to look more into PROMPT, The Prompt Institute - Home

 

[RKWAcademy]

Wow, what an unhelpful SLP!   :glare:   My ds has verbal apraxia, originally diagnosed moderate, now severe.  He started speech therapy with PROMPT at newly 2.  He's now getting 2 hour sessions weekly thanks to our disability funding.  I can tell you that PROMPT would give you some more tools to help him feel the sounds, say the sounds correctly, motor plan the sounds correctly, and thus connect it to written.  PROMPT is totally hands-on.  My ds is also dyslexic (among other things), so we ended up combining the hands-on on PROMPT with LIPS that Barton recommends.  He failed the Barton pre-test, so that's why we did LIPS.  LIPS plus PROMPT is *exceptional*.  

 

So I think you have several things there.  In general it's common for a dc not to distinguish auditorally things he doesn't yet pronounce correctly.  However, if you apply that to this situation, that means you have targets he's not saying correctly that you think he's saying correctly.  I don't know, I'm not there, I'm not an SLP.  

 

One way to sort through that is to do the Barton pre-test.  It's free, quick, and would give you some useful information.  I suggest you try that, see what happens, then take the next step based on that.  

 

That's pretty phenomenal that he's doing AAS3, btw.  Did he do AAR pre?  I tried it with my ds, and although it was adorable and well-done, it was just totally out of reach for him.  So if he's doing that well, that's a really good sign!  That's why I'm thinking it's more how he's hearing the sounds and pronouncing them that is the issue.  Thing is, for motor planning, /w/ and /r/ are VERY DIFFERENT.  Those are common transpositions in young speakers, but for motor planning they're totally different.  You're also talking about sounds that are not typically fully acquired by that age, even in speakers with no challenges.  

 

In general, LIPS might give you enough tools to be able to work through this.  Here's the Barton pretest link  Student Screening

 

If you want to look more into PROMPT, The Prompt Institute - Home

 

THANK YOU!  I'll look into the PROMPT and LiPS.  I saw mentionof LiPs but haven't looked into it yet.  I have heard of Barton and thought that was more reading.  I'll research all of those!

 

Yes, we started AAR with pre-level when they were four-ish.  They moved pretty swiftly through AAR.  They love it and my DS with Apraxia keeps up with his twin sister just fine.  I should mention that that boy is obsessed with books.  I think absent his speech delays, he would have been a very early reader!

 

I do agree that he still doesn't say those sounds correctly and that is what he isn't "hearing" properly for turning that into spelling.  Thank you so much for your input.