Guest guest Posted November 7, 2007 Report Share Posted November 7, 2007 Hi! My son with PDD-NOS is 18, and although he spoke very late, and is still receiving speech therapy, is very verbal. So, I'm basing these suggestions on things which I have seen in other kids, or heard about at conferences, etc. rather than personal experience. 1. Some parents have seen dramatic increases in speech after eliminating dairy. Have you tried this? 2. Educationally- do your children use PECS, sign language, or a communication device, such as Dyna-Vox? I live in PA, and in this state you can borrow a wide variety of assistive communication devices FREE for a few months. All you need to do is have the school, or a speech therapist, etc. write a request. You can contact PaTTAN, PIAT, or your local IU for info if your school doesn't give you info. The devices can consist of one or two buttons, which say a few words, or phrases, or a keyboard, which will say words aloud after they are typed. Some devices have pre-recorded voices, while others can record the voice of a parent, which some kids prefer. One of my friends had a child who was non-verbal, who started to show definite improvement in his own speech production after he started to get more interaction from peers and staff while using a Dynavox. Also, some regular computers are pre-loaded withprograms which speak or read text out loud. I saw some videos of a therapist having great results with ASD kids with apraxia, who video-taped the kids in situations where they talked, and spliced it into another situation where the kids did not speak, then showed it to the children. They spontaneously began to be able to speak more in those situations, even though they were probably aware of the fact that the tapes were manipulated. It seemed to release their speech, when they viewed themselves on tape appearing to be speaking in different situations. If your children are completely non-verbal, then this wouldn't be helpful at this time, but it may be something to file away for later. 3. Some non-verbal kids seem to respond very well to music, and can sometimes sing along, even if they cannot speak. This is also true for children who have problems stuttering. Different parts of the brain are being used. Singing can sometimes be used as a springboard for speech production. You might want to look into music therapy- or at the least, try to have lots of education videos which incorporate singing! Good luck! __________________________________________________ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted November 7, 2007 Report Share Posted November 7, 2007 thank you for posting this. You are right, my son who is none-verbal, has started to sing songs with the two syllables that he knows. Da and Dee. He will sing " It's a small world " from beginning to end, with out missing a note. it's very exiting to hear him. I don't know if it has to do with staring chelation, but I am very hopeful, whatever the reason. Before that he used to just whistle the songs. Zurama On Nov 7, 2007 7:47 AM, Carol Eshleman <carolleshleman@...> wrote: > > > > > > > Hi! My son with PDD-NOS is 18, and although he spoke very late, and is still > receiving speech therapy, is very verbal. So, I'm basing these suggestions > on things which I have seen in other kids, or heard about at conferences, > etc. rather than personal experience. > > 1. Some parents have seen dramatic increases in speech after eliminating > dairy. Have you tried this? > > 2. Educationally- do your children use PECS, sign language, or a > communication device, such as Dyna-Vox? > I live in PA, and in this state you can borrow a wide variety of assistive > communication devices FREE for a few months. All you need to do is have the > school, or a speech therapist, etc. write a request. You can contact PaTTAN, > PIAT, or your local IU for info if your school doesn't give you info. The > devices can consist of one or two buttons, which say a few words, or > phrases, or a keyboard, which will say words aloud after they are typed. > Some devices have pre-recorded voices, while others can record the voice of > a parent, which some kids prefer. One of my friends had a child who was > non-verbal, who started to show definite improvement in his own speech > production after he started to get more interaction from peers and staff > while using a Dynavox. > Also, some regular computers are pre-loaded withprograms which speak or > read text out loud. > I saw some videos of a therapist having great results with ASD kids with > apraxia, who video-taped the kids in situations where they talked, and > spliced it into another situation where the kids did not speak, then showed > it to the children. They spontaneously began to be able to speak more in > those situations, even though they were probably aware of the fact that the > tapes were manipulated. It seemed to release their speech, when they viewed > themselves on tape appearing to be speaking in different situations. If your > children are completely non-verbal, then this wouldn't be helpful at this > time, but it may be something to file away for later. > > 3. Some non-verbal kids seem to respond very well to music, and can > sometimes sing along, even if they cannot speak. This is also true for > children who have problems stuttering. Different parts of the brain are > being used. Singing can sometimes be used as a springboard for speech > production. You might want to look into music therapy- or at the least, try > to have lots of education videos which incorporate singing! > > Good luck! > > __________________________________________________ > Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted November 7, 2007 Report Share Posted November 7, 2007 From stuff I read in my teens, autistic individuals typically hear human voices more poorly than other sounds. I have long used snapping my fingers, knocking on the wall, or clapping as a means to get my sons' attention because yelling until I am hoarse usually accomplishes nothing. That may be another reason music may be useful. My oldest son prefers music without lyrics -- typically music from video games he has played. He searches it out on the internet and downloads it to the computer and plays it in the background while he is online. His father liked classical music, which is also just instrumental. My hearing has improved with getting healthier. I didn't even know I had any hearing problems until I began hearing things in songs about a year or 18 months ago that I had never heard before. Most songs used to sound to me like unrelated bits and pieces of interesting, poetic phrases and sentences, some of them rather " psychedelic " in nature. Then I began hearing more clearly and some of the psychedelic phrases weren't at all what I had thought they were and many songs turned out to be more of a story format about ordinary events. Like the guy trying to catch the " moon train " was really trying to catch the " noon train " to go downtown and meet his girlfriend. I used to think all artists were clearly higher than a kite whenever they wrote anything because of all these bizarre phrases, which turned out in some cases to just be my unidentified auditory processing problems. I am 42 and these improvements in my hearing began when I was 40 or 41. So I think there is much hope for resolving such issues in ASD kids, even older kids, if their health problems are resolved. HTH. -- Michele talithamichele@... http://www.atraceofme.com Send a letter. Get a bumpersticker. Make a difference. http://www.solanorail.org Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted November 7, 2007 Report Share Posted November 7, 2007 > > .... Then I began hearing more > clearly and some of the psychedelic phrases weren't at all what I had > thought they were and many songs turned out to be more of a story format > about ordinary events. Like the guy trying to catch the " moon train " was > really trying to catch the " noon train " to go downtown and meet his > girlfriend. I used to think all artists were clearly higher than a kite > whenever they wrote anything because of all these bizarre phrases, which > turned out in some cases to just be my unidentified auditory processing > problems. > Not sure if you meant your post to have this effect, but I got a great chuckle out of it. Thanks! Anne Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted November 7, 2007 Report Share Posted November 7, 2007 >>Not sure if you meant your post to have this effect, but I got a great chuckle out of it. Thanks! >>Anne ---- :-) " Laughter is good medicine " . And I was class clown in school. :-P -- Michele talithamichele@... http://www.atraceofme.com Send a letter. Get a bumpersticker. Make a difference. http://www.solanorail.org Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You are posting as a guest. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.