Communication

[Guest guest]

Please miss, please miss, I don't know about PMT! I only ever got during

MT!

Anneliese and Toddler Tim

communication (was Re: GOODBYE and thick skinned)

>

>

> We all know about PMT (if not first hand - the time I decided I

> definitely had PMT, the M never arrived as I was pregnant with DS2)

> but does anyone get an attack of 'ovulation ratties'? I am starting >

>

[Guest guest]

Sheldon has gotten to a point where I think he has thoughts that he

wants to communicate with us but has no way to do that. He signs a

lot right now but he just doesn't have enough signs to talk about a

lot of things. He tends to learn new signs and lose other ones every

few weeks and it's sometimes hard for him to come up with the correct

sign. Our speech therapist has tried PECs with him and he will

sometimes use pictures during his sessions but won't use the pictures

that are velcroed right on the front of our fridge to ask for juice

or snacks. Actually, he doesn't use the pictures at all right now,

only signs. However, he never signs 'eat' or 'drink', just stuff he's

interested in like 'helicopter', 'car', 'horse' and 'home'. He can't

say any words at all, the only thing he can do is make a 'k' sound

for car or truck.

I guess my question is what modes of communication have parents of

nonverbal kids found successful? Of course, any ideas for encouraging

speech would be great too. He's never before seemed interested in

communicating with us and I really want to help him now that he is so

any ideas about communication would be great.

--

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Stacey Fleming

flemings@...

[Guest guest]

Wow Sheldon sounds exactly like Grace. We, too, use sign and she does the first letter thing. Although we have never used the pictures, I am going to try it, great idea. As far as your question we also have problems with her learning new and forgetting old signs. Also we get "power struggles" where she will just refuse to sign at all. For example: we are trying to break her of the bottle, and for about a week she absolutely refused to sign for a sippy. She actually went a whole day refusing to drink. During these time we just try to be persistent and try not to give in too her. Unfortunately we sometimes have to give in, like when she refuses to eat or drink because of the mito. Also I think some of this comes from her knowing she is "different," and I think she is really trying to talk. We do hear certain sounds regularly and think that she thinks they are words. I believe a lot of the communication problems are frustration. I know she is mentally right on, but physically she cannot do what her mind wants.

Have you tried getting him around children his age, with the same problems. Grace goes to a playgroup once a week with children her age. All the children in the group have had serious speech problems. Although Grace is the only one left that cannot talk yet. But the class uses all sign and verbal words. It is great because, although they are young, they seem to be comfortable with kids with there own way. Also the group is ran by two speech pathologists and a music therapist. There are children in her group at two years old were completely non verbal, now at about three are talking at or above age level. If you are interested in something like this I would call your counties department of MR/DD.

I hope this is some help.

[Guest guest]

Wow Sheldon sounds exactly like Grace. We, too, use sign and she does the first letter thing. Although we have never used the pictures, I am going to try it, great idea. As far as your question we also have problems with her learning new and forgetting old signs. Also we get "power struggles" where she will just refuse to sign at all. For example: we are trying to break her of the bottle, and for about a week she absolutely refused to sign for a sippy. She actually went a whole day refusing to drink. During these time we just try to be persistent and try not to give in too her. Unfortunately we sometimes have to give in, like when she refuses to eat or drink because of the mito. Also I think some of this comes from her knowing she is "different," and I think she is really trying to talk. We do hear certain sounds regularly and think that she thinks they are words. I believe a lot of the communication problems are frustration. I know she is mentally right on, but physically she cannot do what her mind wants.

Have you tried getting him around children his age, with the same problems. Grace goes to a playgroup once a week with children her age. All the children in the group have had serious speech problems. Although Grace is the only one left that cannot talk yet. But the class uses all sign and verbal words. It is great because, although they are young, they seem to be comfortable with kids with there own way. Also the group is ran by two speech pathologists and a music therapist. There are children in her group at two years old were completely non verbal, now at about three are talking at or above age level. If you are interested in something like this I would call your counties department of MR/DD.

I hope this is some help.

[Guest guest]

Wow Sheldon sounds exactly like Grace. We, too, use sign and she does the first letter thing. Although we have never used the pictures, I am going to try it, great idea. As far as your question we also have problems with her learning new and forgetting old signs. Also we get "power struggles" where she will just refuse to sign at all. For example: we are trying to break her of the bottle, and for about a week she absolutely refused to sign for a sippy. She actually went a whole day refusing to drink. During these time we just try to be persistent and try not to give in too her. Unfortunately we sometimes have to give in, like when she refuses to eat or drink because of the mito. Also I think some of this comes from her knowing she is "different," and I think she is really trying to talk. We do hear certain sounds regularly and think that she thinks they are words. I believe a lot of the communication problems are frustration. I know she is mentally right on, but physically she cannot do what her mind wants.

Have you tried getting him around children his age, with the same problems. Grace goes to a playgroup once a week with children her age. All the children in the group have had serious speech problems. Although Grace is the only one left that cannot talk yet. But the class uses all sign and verbal words. It is great because, although they are young, they seem to be comfortable with kids with there own way. Also the group is ran by two speech pathologists and a music therapist. There are children in her group at two years old were completely non verbal, now at about three are talking at or above age level. If you are interested in something like this I would call your counties department of MR/DD.

I hope this is some help.