Phonological awareness for speech-delayed preschooler

[Syllieann]

I want to introduce some structure into the day for my upcoming preschooler. I'm thinking of aar pre level or...? He'll be 3 and a few months when we start.

 

For background he did not say any words until after 2yo, not even mama. He was in speech therapy and I did a Hanen class. Hearing and comprehension are, and always have been, totally normal. In the last 7 months he went from the first percentile to normal in terms of expressive speech and recently graduated from therapy. However, I understand that he is still at increased risk for a language based learning disorder. He also still has some articulation issues that are improving with practice, but from reading other posts it sounds like working on the letter sounds explicitly helps too. I'm wondering if you more experienced mamas think it would be worth running through aar pre or similar (suggestions?) for this kid to improve phonological awareness before we try to start phonics instruction later. My olders just jumped straight into level 1, but they didn't have the language issues.

[PeterPan]

My ds has verbal apraxia, and his SLP likes everyone to go through Earobics.  He hit a point where he was doing stuff but struggling, so we went to AAR pre.  AAR pre is ADORABLE and very well set up.  We loved Ziggy.  Unfortunately, his degree of disability was such that it was entirely too hard for him.  Turns out he's dyslexic (and other things) as well.  He failed the Barton pre-test at newly 5 and we went into LIPS, following Barton's recommendations.  For him, combining Barton plus his speech methodology (PROMPT) was incredibly powerful.

 

If AAR pre works for him, that's a good sign.  If it doesn't, move on.  You can also blend it with a letter of the week study, kinesthetic activities for the letters, etc.  We really enjoyed Movement Activities A to Z.

[imagine.more]

Hm, I'd be reluctant to assume AAR Pre will work for him but you can find it used fairly inexpensively or always sell it if it doesn't work. Like Elizabeth, my DS5 could not do AAR at all, he also failed the Barton pre-screening so that gave me the answer on why AAR wasn't helping him at all. So I'm doing LiPS with him. And my son did not have severe speech delays, just a very minor one from the start, never quite enough to bother getting him assessed by professionals. Anyway, so if you already know your son has benefitted from help with speech therapies then you should almost expect to need a little extra pre-help before diving into reading, which you have of course intuited yourself anyway by even considering doing AAR Pre with him. Just know that he might need *more* than AAR Pre even. 

 

Susan Barton suggested a book with phonological awareness activities to me awhile ago for my son. Let me find it and I'll link you to it, it was very reasonably priced, I just happened to already be doing LiPS for a tutoring student of mine so I decided to have DS5 join in with that.

[PeterPan]

AAR pre didn't really have any tools for if the dc did *not* naturally, easily and quickly, get the skill.  So the games were about *eliciting*, but they had no *instructional* tools to bridge the gap if the dc has SN and doesn't just naturally hear it.  It's very hard on the dc to be in a position where they *want* to do the game and *can't* because it's too hard.  I don't know what your dc can or cannot do, but I can tell you my dc, in a very similar position couldn't do most of the tasks and the program had no way to bridge that.  

 

I'd love to hear what book Barton recommended to Manda.  

[Mom28GreatKids]

I am not there yet, as DS is only 3.5 and nowhere near ready any phonemic awareness or prereading yet. He has a working dx of severe suspected Apraxia and sensory and regulation issues. I am assuming LiPS and Barton are in our future. I am using AAR with my older (7yo DS) and know that little dude has a long way to go til he will be ready for that.

[Lecka]

He might not have phonological processing issues.  It is not a definite thing at all.  It is more likely, b/c hearing/saying sounds together is something that strengthens the association of a sound.  (Like -- you are really clear on what b sounds like, and how it is different than p, they don't sound kind-of similar.) 

 

He could be strong with hearing these differences, and separately, have a hard time with forming the speech sounds. 

 

But, they don't have to go together. 

 

I think, honestly, for his age, I would focus more on having a language-rich home and all those good kinds of things.

 

If you want to work on pre-school kinds of things, there are pre-school kinds of things out there.  But, it is not quite "if you do it earlier, he will make faster progress" sometimes.  But if you do it for fun and exposure, I think it could be good. 

 

Fun and exposure are always good. 

 

I am not saying "wait and see" ---- I am more saying, I think at this age, he would get a lot from general language exposure, that WILL be building a solid foundation for him, for when he is 4.

What I mainly don't think is that for a 3-year-old, you can overcome these things so that at 4 there is no problem.  I also don't think you need to start at 3 when you could start at 4, and think you would come out ahead. 

 

I just think -- 3 is young.

 

I also think ----- just being around language is very, very helpful for a younger child.  I think a lot of just language-y things are going to really be benefiting him and helping. 

 

I am not saying "wait and see" ---- I am more saying, I think at this age, he would get a lot from general language exposure, that WILL be building a solid foundation for him, for when he is 4.

 

That is just my opinion, though.  I don't think it would hurt anything at all, if he was having fun with it, and it was going well.  I don't think there is a downside to giving it a try now, or to putting it away for another 6 months or a year.  When he is 4, if he has a hard time with it, it might be time to look at heavier-duty programs. 

 

But there are a lot of kids who DO have articulation/speech delays, and just don't also have a delay in phonological or phonemic awareness.  It is a risk factor, but many kids that do not have clear speech do great with this stuff. 

 

There are also kids with great speech/articulation, who do have trouble with phonemic awareness.

 

It doesn't seem like it would be that way -- but it is. 

 

Edit:  Here is the thing.... some kids who have apraxia, that is their only issue, and it is a motor planning issue (from my understanding).  It is a risk for kids to have fewer chances to consistently say sounds the same way, to hear the sound and tell it apart from other sounds.  But that is NOT an issue that automatically follow from apraxia (from my understanding).  Then, number two, some kids have apraxia AND more going on.  You don't know if you have more going on or not, and from your post, there is even reason to think "not," b/c his comprehension is unaffected and his expressive language has improved so much. 

 

So when you things just with "apraxia" ---- you might or might not have a lot in common with other kids. 

 

But -- I do think, it is good to be aware, and pro-active, and look into things, and be ready. 

 

I would also ask the speech therapist, and ask around more "apraxia"-focused places. 

 

In general, for the title, in my real life, in my town, the vast majority of speech-delayed pre-schoolers do not have any trouble with phonological awareness.  My son was unusual that he did.  So, that is why I like to come to this forum!  But really, just playing the odds, it is pretty likely he might not have any problem with phonological awareness just b/c he has a speech delay now. 

 

When I wanted to know with my younger son, b/c I was worried, we (or his therapist, b/c he has autism) made "minimal pair cards" that are picture cards, of basic objects, and have one letter difference.  So you have "ten" and "pen."  You put down the pictures, and say "point to pen."  If he gets it right (with a couple more examples, and the letters p and t) ---- then you say, "okay, looks like he is able to discriminate between t and p in the initial position aka the first letter in the word).

 

For my son with phonological processing issues when he was younger, the hard letters to tell apart were consonants with a similar sound (b/p, t/k, g/d) and then he had a lot of trouble hearing consonant blends with certain letters.  But he was at an older age.  But that was a way we checked some with my younger son.  (My younger son has "phonological processes" in his speech, but it seems that his hearing of the sounds is fine.  My older son had the same phonological processes in his speech (minus one my younger son has in addition to the others), but he did have the trouble with hearing them also.) 

 

He is a kid where, he may say the word wrong, but when he is asked to point to the word, he always gets it right. 

 

If you have "rhyming cards" they are another chance, too. 

 

This is not going to get into really picky stuff, but you would not be getting into really picky stuff with a 3 or 4 year old anyway, I don't think. 

 

But, that is also just my opinion.

 

If you do see some worrying signs, it is definitely good to look into programs and look into what ages they can be started and things like that.  It is really good to do.  I just hope you might be worried over nothing :)  But if you do have more cause for concern, I understand that, too. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited January 7, 2016 by Lecka

[PeterPan]

You can google for a chart on phonological processing development.  That way you aren't worrying about skills that aren't age-typical.

 

Fwiw, I REALLY like the MFW toddler/preschool activity cards.  They're inexpensive and use simple things like Melissa and Doug toys you might already have.  You can work on a LOT of valuable skills with those activity cards.  You'll hit working memory, sorting by colors, following multi-step instructions, all sorts of things.

 

Phonological processing problems are kind of a slow motion train wreck, where you watch it happening and don't actually intervene till later.  To pull out something like LIPS, that's pretty big guns.  Even with a gifted dc, you're *probably* not going to want to start that till 5 or 6.  The charts you find online of phonological processing development will give you a sense of what is reasonable and typical.  For instance, rhyming is pretty early and initial consonants are early.  

 

But to me, if I were picking on whether I worked on those things or some OTHER things, I could think of a lot of other things to work on.  Work on language and communication.  Work on working memory.  Get OT if there are any indications there (low tone, motor planning, continued W sitting, sensory issues, whatever).  Work on self-regulation.  Work on simple things like ability to clap to a beat.  Work on social skills like turn-taking.  Get him swim lessons!  Swim lessons and gymnastics have been phenomenal for my ds.  He takes way longer than anyone else to learn the same skills, and he's in with his peers.  That's when the differences start to become obvious.

 

We knew for a long time that my ds had phonological processing issues, because he wasn't recognizing rhyming, none of the things you normally expect.  Even though we knew and tried things, it really didn't *matter* that we were trying early.  Lecka is correct that you can see things happening a long time before you're really going to intervene with big guns.  The big guns are so intensive, you just aren't going to make them go through that so young.  And it doesn't MATTER.  You have so many other things to work on.  Working memory, work memory, working memory.  Self-regulation, OT, sensory.  Get an adaptive living scale and go through the language development steps and make sure he's on track and USING the language skills.  It's not enough just to be able to articulate them; they actually need to USE it.  Do dot to dots and coloring and puzzles.  

 

The bummer about AAR pre is that it's pretty expensive.  We had fun with what we were able to do, and we loved Ziggy.  It's just that it's so expensive (and rightly so, not quibbling), that if you realize it's not going to work for him you're bummed.  And I read lots of people saying oh my kid did it at such and such age.  Well there's a range, kwim?  Waiting wouldn't have helped us anyway.  I'm just saying it hurts when you start to buy programs and realize your (clearly very bright, even gifted!) dc *can't do* them.  

 

Fwiw, we really liked the Saxon K5 math.  I'm not a saxon lover, but it is SO adorable, so rich with language, so great for that age (3/4).  You really can't go wrong.  I picked up the tm for stupid cheap on the amazon marketplace used and the reproducibles where in the back.  That's another way to work on language, get some fun time in, but not really be emphasizing things that aren't working.  And for my ds, if he couldn't articulate the sound, he couldn't discriminate it.  You can find the minimal pairs pages like Lecka mentioned online by googling.  I used some with him and also a DeGaetano book from Great Ideas for Teaching.  I think it was called Attention Good Listeners.  You have minimal differences pairs on the page and can do all sorts of activities (expressive, receptive, for working memory, etc.).

Edited January 7, 2016 by OhElizabeth

[Mom28GreatKids]

I agree with Lecka that no matter the problems that MAY lie ahead, 3 is way too young. My little dude is 3.5 and we have done nothing in that regard, though he is looking at letters and asking (not with words) just with signs and gestures what they are called. So there is some early readiness, but the very earliest I would try AAR pre with him would be next fall, and he will be 4. I had forgotten about the MFW preschool stuff. It is good and he would enjoy it. Thanks for the reminder OhE. Off to refresh my memory.

[Storygirl]

OhElizabeth mentioned a ton of helpful things in her post. I just wanted to agree that we loved MFW preschool activities and Saxon K math (done for preschool). I think Saxon math is better for age 3.5 or 4, but it definitely can be started before age 5. Sonlight preschool is also fabulous. Basically a booklist of stories and nursery rhymes, but it is language rich, which is what you want in your home.

 

I think if you want to do something regularly at age 3, you can keep it light and fun. Buy an alphabet coloring book. Make your own alphabet collage, with a page for each letter, cutting out pictures from magazines for each page. Read a lot of nursery rhymes and preschool poems and picture books of all kinds. Do an alphabet puzzle and practice saying the letter sounds. I think regular fun preschool things will help you discern whether there is a phonological issue there.

 

For what it's worth, DS11 had speech delay. Spoke only a few words until age three, then had a speech explosion and caught up with speech. He had no trouble learning to read and had good phonological awareness. He does have other language-based issues (pragmatics, reading comprehension) now, but his phonics are good.

 

On the other hand, DD10 has dyslexia, and she had no speech delay at all. So you never know.

[Syllieann]

Thanks everyone, these posts are so helpful! So I guess my Hanen training integrated into life is the best thing i can do for now. I'll hold off on AAR pre and just set up activity stations on varied topics as our way of introducing some structure.

 

I think he would like the movement activities A to Z book. It's going on my wish list. I'll check out the mfw cards too; those sound promising.

 

Curious about the book, Manda. I'd love to know what it is if you find it!

[Lecka]

I think the Hanen is really good, and activity stations sound good, too.  There are some really simple visual schedules you could do with your activity stations that are helpful sometimes.  I think if you are seeing difficulty with transitioning or unpurposeful activity when you would like to see purposeful activity, they can be good for that.

 

Unpurposeful activity is like ----- it is time to play, but he doesn't actually pick something to play with and play with it, he just moves from one thing to another without playing with it. 

 

You can use them as a way to help show "we are going to be doing this activity station right now, it is not time to randomly do something else" (within reason for his age and stuff). 

 

If he is doing good with the implied structure of the activity stations, I don't think it is needed.  If you feel like you need to go one step up from implied structure to really explicit structure, this is an option.

 

If he "gets it" just by you setting up the stations and expecting him to do them, I think that is great! 

 

If you get cards, too, they work kind-of the same way as a visual schedule ------ there is a card, and an understanding of "we are going to do this card now."  If it works well, you can make your own cards for other activities you do, too. 

Edited January 8, 2016 by Lecka

[ElizabethB]

Talking Letter Factory is good for that age for learning letter names and sounds. You can start modeling some blending while reading books on an occasional word or two here and there.