Therapy Question: What do you think?

[MicheleB]

Our ST testing shows that my 9yo ds has expressive language delays and delays with grammar/syntax, word classes, etc.

 

My 8yo is delayed in language and articulation (sorry to be so un-technical) by 1 year, 1 month.

 

The therapist's thoughts are that since my 9yo cannot read, he is missing a lot of syntax/grammar and words 'ideas' (such as opposites). She feels that when he learns to read, he will come up to speed with these delays. I'm not sure I agree, but I have nothing wonderfully scientific to base my opinion upon. Just my feeling as a mother. I read a LOT out loud to this boy and I think he has broad exposure to the things the ST feels he's missing by not reading himself.

 

She and the director of therapy both thought that we should complete vision therapy, and *then* have ds go back to ST.

 

For my 8yo, he is doing ST 2x/month. I think she feels the same way about him... that he would not have his articulation problems if he could read and see how the words are spelled. ??? Ds9 doesn't read, and the only articulation problems he has is a slight lisp.

 

What think ye? :)

[Mom0012]

Well, my son has expressive language disorder. He began reading on the young side. He reads an hour a day and he's listened to audiobooks every time we get in the car since he was a little guy. We use SL, so he also listens to me read to him for about an hour a day. He still doesn't use irregular verbs correctly. He doesn't use "has" and "have" correctly. He doesn't structure his sentences in a clear way. I doubt very much it is connected with reading.

 

Will he outgrow it? I have to believe he will outgrow most of it, but I doubt he'll ever express himself as clearly and easily as most people do.

 

He did speech therapy through the school system for 2 years starting in preschool and then he did a year of private speech therapy. I never could get the therapists to give me any homework to do with him and I don't believe he ever made much progress as a direct result of the therapy.

 

However, I have recently felt that I need more guidance in helping him with his language issues and have finally found a therapist who will work with me on a consultation basis. She will see us once or twice a month and tell me what to do with him on a daily basis. I feel really good about this because we have had a lot of success with other therapies when I have been able to work with him on a regular basis.

 

As far as your therapist goes, is she helping your son? Or just telling you he doesn't need help? If it is the latter, are there other therapists available in your area that you can check out?

 

Lisa

[LizzyBee]

I would think reading will (or could) help with grammar and syntax, but not necessarily with articulation. My 7 yo had 3 years of ST for articulation and it helped immensely even though she is still not reading and writing.

Edited October 17, 2008 by LizzyBee

[Rod Everson]

 

What think ye? :)

 

Hi Michele,

 

I worked with an older child once with fairly pronounced articulation problems who was also struggling to read. He didn't know phonics, so that's what we worked on almost exclusively and within a few sessions his articulation began to improve. Eventually his mother told me that his speech improved more during our sessions than it did with the speech therapy he'd received much earlier, so I think that's where the therapist is probably coming from.

 

That said, a lot of kids are clearly helped by speech therapy alone, but the experience taught me that there is some value to physically seeing what you're supposed to be articulating.

 

I'm not making any recommendations here...just sharing an experience that seemed sort of strange to me at the time. I tenuously concluded that there might be some value to combining formal speech therapy with phonics instructions, i.e., to have the speech therapist using phonics manipulatives, etc., during speech therapy. Maybe some even do?

 

Rod Everson