Re: New Test For Speech Disorders

[Guest guest]

, My son Graham does this!! He still has articulation issues also. But

he frequently leaves of the past tense, pronouns and parts of verbs or verb

phrases. He is 4.8, should I see if our SLP should test for this? Would

she even know about it? STacy

> Hi everyone!

> KU researcher develops test to diagnose language disability

>

> LAWRENCE -- " Yesterday she walk to my house. " In a 5-year-old child,

> failure to use the past tense is one indication of a condition called

> Specific Language Impairment, or SLI, a disability that likely would

> go undiagnosed by traditional language testing.

>

> But now a University of Kansas faculty member is one of two

> scientists who developed the first diagnostic test designed

> specifically for the significant learning and communication

> disability.

>

> Mabel Rice, director of the Child Language Doctoral Program and

> distinguished professor of speech-language-hearing at KU, and

> Wexler, professor of brain and cognitive sciences at the

> Massachusetts Institute of Technology, have developed the Rice/Wexler

> Test of Early Grammatical Impairment. The test is designed to

> diagnose children ages 3 through 8 and can be administered by

> clinicians within an hour using books and toys.

>

> Based on years of research supported by the National Institutes of

> Health, the test identifies disabilities that are often overlooked

> but that pose barriers to learning and communication through

> adulthood. Specific Language Impairment affects approximately 7.6

> percent of 5-year-olds.

>

> " In the early years, it is easy to dismiss the condition as baby

> talk, but in kindergarten, a child with SLI clearly does not have

> mastery of language, " Rice said.

>

> Even then, a child may not be referred for extra help because

> traditional tests are not designed with this unique impairment in

> mind.

>

> It is difficult to pinpoint SLI. In many ways, the child speaks

> accurately and does not fall neatly into the category of a late

> talker, according to Rice. " Certain patterns in her grammar mark the

> impairment, " Rice explained.

>

> For example, a child will frequently drop " do " and " be " from verb

> phrases. Instead of asking " Does he like me? " she will ask " He like

> me? " The past tense of verbs also may be dropped, especially " -ed. "

>

> " Waiting for children to outgrow this pattern is not helpful because

> it involves more than just a delay in their development, " Rice

> said. " In fact, it may have a genetic cause. "

>

> Rice looks for a genetic link in SLI through studies of twins and

> families.

>

> SLI is a disorder that scientists are just beginning to understand,

> with the first significant research emerging in the 1980s.

>

> Children with SLI have normal intelligence and do not suffer from

> hearing loss, emotional problems or neurological impairments. Only a

> small number of children have difficulty with articulation. But an

> altered sense of language can hinder learning and reading as the

> child grows. Rice also believes that SLI results in low-level

> language performance in adulthood.

>

> " Early diagnosis and treatment are critical for future success, " she

> said.

>

> Rice has one of the broadest experiences with children and language

> disorders in the United States. Her team of researchers has been

> traveling across Kansas for nine years interviewing children as they

> reach age 3 and returning periodically to test the children's

> progress through their 8th year. This research will be extended to

> track the same children to age 13, making it one of only two SLI

> projects in the nation that can draw upon years of data from the same

> population. The broad scope of this study has allowed researchers to

> decode the sentence structures of children affected by SLI.

>

> The test is available through the Psychological Corp. in San ,

> Texas. For more information, see

> www.psychcorp.com/catalogs/sla/slaf011atpc.htm.

>

> The Child Language Doctoral Program is one of more than 100 programs

> in KU's Schiefelbusch Institute for Life Span Studies, which serves

> rural and urban Kansans through research-based solutions to the

> problems of human development and disability.

> http://www.ur.ku.edu/News/01N/NovNews/Nov16/sli.html

>

> =====

>

> Here's to more good news in the new year! (The apraxia 1/2 hour TV

> special with professionals, parents and children from CHERAB is being

> filmed January 10th and airing January 14th -stay tuned!!)

>

>

[Guest guest]

Hello,

My name is Nina and my son Adam & is apraxic. He is 3 & 1/2 and eats only 2 or 3

kinds of foods--cheese,....--it is not so important what he eats. But what he

eats is horrible for you and his pediatrician has been of no help to me here.

Has anyone else found food/eating problems and how did you overcome them? How

did you introduce new foods and get your child to eat them? Did Pro EFA help

with this too?

Happy Healthy and Wealthy New Year to everyone and I'm so glad I found you all.

Nina

----- Original Message -----

From:

[Guest guest]

Hi Nina

I have a 5.3 year old daughter, le with severe apraxia who

also has feeding problems. She only eats mashed potatoes, banana

yogurt, chocolate pudding and animal crackers-that's all. She is only

32 lbs and is way TOO skinny but she won't eat anyhting else. She

does get private ST besides what she gets at school and her private

therapist works on the feeding with her. Her problem is sensory and

oral motor and we are still working on it, slowly getting there.

Debbie

le

> My name is Nina and my son Adam & is apraxic. He is 3 & 1/2 and eats

only 2 or 3 kinds of foods--cheese,....--it is not so important what

he eats. But what he eats is horrible for you and his pediatrician

has been of no help to me here. Has anyone else found food/eating

problems and how did you overcome them? How did you introduce new

foods and get your child to eat them? Did Pro EFA help with this

too?

> Happy Healthy and Wealthy New Year to everyone and I'm so glad I

found you all.

>

> Nina

[Guest guest]

Hello Nina

My son is much like your Adam. He was 3 in April & eats nearly nothing.

He use to eat peanut butter sandwiches, but the slp tried doing a feeding

evaluation on him using that back a few months ago & it made him have the gag

reflex. So now he won't eat that. Right now all that will eat is apples

cut up, shredded cheddar cheese & crackers. Sometimes if I convince that

we are out of all that he will eat a hot dog. I have tried everything!! He is

my 4th child, none of the others were ever this bad. I hate the fact that he is

getting nothing good in him. Oh did I mention that he will eat every type of

sour candy available!! I have heard a few others mention this, I don't know if

this has something to do with his slp giving it to him at one point to wake up

the mouth. Maybe he really likes that wide awake feeling in his mouth??? Who

knows.

has been on Pro Efa since the end of August. Although it has helped the

vocabulary so much, I can't say it has done anything for the eating problems. I

wish I had some advise, I will be waiting to hear any posts to this question. I

have tried putting cheese on the things he doesn't like, sprinkles on just about

anything you can imagine, etc, etc. The only thing that has worked for us is

letting spear his apples or hot dogs with toothpicks. For some reason he

likes to do that & I thought it sure would be good for the fine motor skills. I

just have to keep a close eye on him!! Hope you get some good responses.

Tammy I. mom to 3 1/2, 5, 17 & 20

>Hello,

>My name is Nina and my son Adam & is apraxic. He is 3 & 1/2 and eats only 2 or 3

kinds of foods--cheese,....--it is not so important what he eats. But what he

eats is horrible for you and his pediatrician has been of no help to me here.

Has anyone else found food/eating problems and how did you overcome them? How

did you introduce new foods and get your child to eat them? Did Pro EFA help

with this too?

>Happy Healthy and Wealthy New Year to everyone and I'm so glad I found you all.

>Nina

[Guest guest]

Although this test description sounds like something unique, and Im sure it will

be helpful for professionals, there are other ways to analyze your son's speech.

Doing a basic language analysis should be able to tell your SLP this kind of

information and if it is a concern for you then yes...always bring it up! SLP's

are here to help and the more we know about your child and the concerns you

have, the better we are able to address those concerns.

SLP-to-be

[Guest guest]

Hi everyone!

Wow, when I sent out the article about the new speech test for

apraxic children who are doing well but still talk in a babyish way,

I didn't know that so many would answer about food challenges. I do

have two great websites to recommend (and there are links from each

of them) which are two of the best I've found for eating challenges.

So to Nina, Debbie and Tammy-here they are, please let us know if

they help and good luck!

The first is New Visions

" provides continuing education and therapy services to professionals

and parents working with infants and children with feeding,

swallowing, oral-motor, and pre-speech problems.

New Visions was established in 1985 by Suzanne , Ph.D.

Its programs are located in the Blue Ridge foothills of

County, Virginia. "

http://www.new-vis.com/

And the second is Ellyn Satter Associates

" The Finicky Eater

Help! My child is very picky! The list of foods he will accept is

very short.

The Poor Eater

My child won't eat anything. I have done everything I know to do,

but she just won't eat a thing. What should I do?

The Obese Child

My child eats too much. He is quite chubby and I really worry that he

will grow up to be fat.

(a direct link to this page for helpful advise)

http://www.ellynsatter.com/Pages/Parents.htm

To Stacey and - I did share this info with Tanner's school SLP

so far and she does work on this " baby talk " stage (?) he's in

indirectly with Tanner already. She said it is a normal

developmental stage for all children to go through and that apraxic

children do go through it. (so perhaps like everything else they go

through it later and it lasts longer?)

For those that don't know what test I'm talking about since it got a

bit fuzzy with the feeding questions -here it is again!

http://www.ur.ku.edu/News/01N/NovNews/Nov16/sli.html

Don't forget the next meeting for CHERAB is this coming Monday,

January 7th. Details at http://www.apraxia.cc under " meetings "

=====

Here's to more good news in the new year! (The apraxia 1/2 hour TV

special with professionals, parents and children from CHERAB is being

filmed January 10th and airing January 14th -stay tuned!!)