Toddler Development and Resources

[Guest guest]

Welcome Bridget and ,

As a mother also, I understand when there are concerns

with your child's speech development! I went through these

same fears with both my son's when they were age 2. I too

was told that because my children were so young it can be

difficult to know if their misarticulation were a

delay/disorder or likely a matter of immature development.

My youngest son Jadd had a milder form of apraxia, with

comparison to his older brother Khalid, who was severe

apraxic at age 2. To be sure of my concerns and having

worked with Khalid, I began doing familiar exercises with

Jadd, even though I was told by professionals that he did

not have apraxia and would most likely outgrow his speech

delay. I continually felt certain Jadd had more than just

an immature development in his speech. Though my concerns

were not validated and even at age 4 Jadd's speech issues

were still considered just a delay.

What was most frustrating, that even if Jadd was not severe

in speech, he still needed the right help to sound out words

correctly. Because Jadd was not considered severe, we had

battled getting the right therapy services for him. To add

to my worries, I did not want Jadd to start school talking

like a baby and to be continually misunderstood when he spoke.

Well needless to say, he did start kindergarten with these

very problems.

It was not until age 5 that Jadd was finally diagnosed

with Oral Apraxia and began appropriate speech services.

We were fortunate that he has had supportive teachers and

a great school therapist who have worked with us. We all

made a great team for Jadd!

Today Jadd is 7.7 years and has worked hard on his speech and

overcame most of his apraxia! Occasionally there are some

sounds Jadd leaves out in words, yet he is quick to correct

his words as he now notices how he sounds to others. After

3 years of speech services this coming May, it will be

decided if Jadd will continue ST in the fall.

For both my son's their beginnings were difficult, confusing

and even heartbreaking at times. A tough road to have traveled

twice, so much misunderstandings, yet the outcome of all their

efforts have been most amazing and well worth the hard work

involved! They both are very bright kids and doing remarkable.

I do enjoy their good sense of humor and the way they look at

life and what truly matters most to them! (Basketball)

For some suggestions, throughout the internet there are

lots of free and inexpensive therapeutic ways to have fun

and engage your child in speech and new language

experiences. Below are just a few informative websites

with speech activities that you can do at home while

you are searching for answers and services for your child.

Follow your heart and best wishes to you both on your

quest.

Mustafa

Mom to Khalid 15.2, Jadd 7.7, Danya 10.2

Listed below are several links to " Toddler Development "

highlights found at

http://www.babycenter.com/toddler/toddlerdevelopment/index

Index of Articles:

What to Expect When

http://www.babycenter.com/toddler/toddlerdevelopment/index/#todmonth

Suspecting a Delay

http://www.babycenter.com/toddler/toddlerdevelopment/index/#toddelay

Stimulating Development

Toddler Physical Development

http://www.babycenter.com/toddler/toddlerdevelopment/index/#todstimdev

Toddler Social & Emotional Development

http://www.babycenter.com/toddler/toddlerdevelopment/index/#toddlerphysical

Toddler Speech & Language Development

http://www.babycenter.com/toddler/toddlerdevelopment/index/#toddlersocial

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How to Help Your Child Develop Phonological Awareness

" You can play an active role in helping your child acquire

phonological awareness. Begin drawing your child's

attention to the sounds of speech as you read books or

poems that contain speech sound play. Look for nursery

rhymes and books that emphasize speech sound play, such as

Dr. Seuss books.

Use of Rhyme to Develop Phonological Awareness

" When you are reading books, stories, poems and riddles,

emphasize and stress the words that rhyme. You can also

provide rhymes yourself or ask your child to give rhymes to

words in the story. You might also use songs or finger

plays to illustrate the sounds of speech.

You can also play games that highlight the rhyming aspect

of words. To play " I Spy, " for example, ask your child to

" spy " an object and come up with the word(s) that rhyme

with it. During a car trip, children can say names of

objects and places that rhyme (such as car/star or

hat/cat).

Making up your own rhyming riddles is also fun. Say a

string of rhyming words and ask your child to think of

another word that rhymes with them. For fun, you could have

the family or a party group sit in a circle. Say a word

that rhymes with several other words, then toss a ball to

one child. The child must say a word that rhymes with the

first word before throwing the ball to another person in

the circle, who continues the rhyme pattern. Remember, make

the rhyming games fun! Don't " drill " rhymes. The child

should enjoy these activities. "

Speech Therapy Activities

http://www.speechtx.com/index.htm

Using Nursery Rhymes to Teach Language

Learning nursery rhymes provide children with practice in

many different areas, memory, language concepts, numbers,

rhyming words, and the rhythm of language. Because nursery

rhymes are rhythmic, children seem to catch on quick to the

words. We can use nursery rhymes to teach different

language concepts. Here are a few ideas to get you

started…

1. Jack Be Nimble. Change Jack to the Child's name. For

example, " be nimble, be quick. jump

over the candlestick. " Then let her jump over the candle.

You can also add words. " jump over the red

candlestick. " or " jump over two candlesticks. "

2. Little Boy Blue. This is a great one to teach

prepositions. " He's under the haystack fast asleep. " or

" He's behind the haystack fast asleep. " or " on top of " , " in

front of " " beside " Have a picture of Little Boy Blue and

the haystack so that when you recite the words and use a

different preposition, the child can put little boy blue

where he belongs. If you are working on colors, you can

recite " Little Boy Red/Yellow/Green " . If you're working on

pronouns, you can recite " Little Girl Blue " , " she's

somewhere around the haystack " .

3. This Little Piggy Went to Market. It's OK to change the

words using different animals and different nouns/verbs.

Put

some choices on a board and let the child choose. For

example, " This little sheep went to school, This little

sheep stayed home, This little sheep at cake and ice cream,

This little sheep had none, This little sheep

cried/laughed/yelled 'baa-baa- baa' all the way home.

4. If you're working on numbers, 1,2 Buckle/Tie My Shoe

and 1,2,3,4,5, Once I Caught a Fish Alive, are wonderful.

Have

the numbers and point to them as you say them.

5. Polly Put the Kettle On. Ask the child what his/her

favorite food is, then

change the name, cooking utensil, and food. For example,

" Lenora put the pan on, Lenora put the pan on, Lenora put

the pan on and we'll all have pizza. You can also change

the food item name in Peas porridge hot.

For words to all of these nursery rhymes and more visit

www.zelo.com/family/nursery

Speech Therapy Activities

http://www.speechtx.com/index.htm

Dyspraxia and Therapy Techniques:

Dyspaxia, also known as Developmental Verbal Dyspraxia

(DVD), Developmental Apraxia of Speech (DAS), and

Development Articulatory Dyspraxia is a rare disorder.

Children with severe phonological impairment may sometimes

appear to be dyspraxic so if you suspect a child with this

condition, a differential diagnosis should be completed.

Recommended reading: Ozanne, A. (1995). The search for

developmental verbal dyspraxia in B.Dodd, Differential

diagnosis and treatment of children with speech disorders.

As with most other speech problems in children, no one

knows why some children have dyspraxia and others do not.

Research by Shriberg, Aram and Kwiatkowski (1997) suggests

that developmental verbal dyspraxia may be associated with

difficulties in managing the required variation of

connected speech (articulation,co-articulation, pitch,

prosody etc). Others believe that children with dyspraxia

have difficulty producing speech because of auditory

deficits.

Characteristics of Communication Problems

1. Correct use of consonants and vowels is limited, even

though the child may be able to produce a wide variety of

sounds. Child can make the sound by cannot use it when

needed. " Volitional " or deliberate production can be more

difficult than spontaneous production.

2. Correct pronunciation of multisyllabic or " difficult "

words is limited (ex., " dinosaurs " , " peanut butter

sandwich " , " choo choo train " ). Difficulty with fast

repeated speech sequence tasks like puhtuhkuh.

3.The child can produce some sounds (or combinations of

sounds) at certain times and not at other times. (ex., one

time the child correctly says " table " and the next time

incorrectly say " nable " ).

4.Vowel errors in conversational speech change (ex., one

time the child correctly says " bed " and the next time

incorrectly says " bad " ).

5. Difficulty with several of the suprasegmental

components of speech (pitch, vocal quality, rate, stress,

intonation, and loudness).

6. Speech errors are NOT typically immature ones.

7.Searching is noticed as the child tries to produce

some sounds or place articulators (the lips, tongue, soft

palate, teeth and cheeks) in some positions (also called

" trial-and-error " or " groping " behaviour).

Therapy Techniques:

1.The most common recommended therapy approach is a

motor skill training approach. This is like " oral

gymnastics " -

training the mouth by practice to combine speech movements

and sounds more quickly and accurately. Various sorts of

sound, syllable and word drills can be incorporated.

Sometimes just the movements are trained at first, without

speech.

2.Low-pressure verbal activities such as singing Old

Mc, finger plays, and repetitive books can give the

child success to build onto.

3.Imitative drills are more difficult. It is recommended

to use a therapy technique that provides cues to the child

about how to produce the speech sounds (i.e. PROMPT or cued

speech).

4.Use augmentative communication if the child is

unintelligible.

5.After a CV combination is achieved /lah/, teach to

repeat the combination /lalalala/, then to alternate

/lalelalelale/, then to put into a word /lahlepop/.

Publication information: Copyright ã " Speech Therapy

Activities " 1999, 2000, 2001. All Rights reserved.