Re: Pro Efa and results - long!

[Guest guest]

Debra - My son started to talk at about 2.5 - he had said only " da "

before that. He continued to scream and whine and point and grunt

instead of using his words and I realized that he had conditioned

himself out of talking. I felt like I wasn't only battling the motor

planning problem, but a habitual one as well. (does this sound

right?) He was used to being frustrated and used to a great deal

of " mommy ESP " , which is a hard habit to break. All of this was

before we entered ST - he was evaluated at 2.2 but we didn't get in

until he was 2.7, and that therapist was completely ineffectual with

him - he never said a word to her and was largely just disruptive

(but that's a story for another day).

For me, telling Zachary that some day he would be able to tell me

what he wanted for breakfast, which park he wanted to go to, and that

he wanted more juice. I would add that some day he was also going to

drive a car and have a job, just like daddy - just made it seem like

the natural progression of things and took some of the pressure off.

I could actually see him thinking about this - pretty amazing.

In the " transition period " of about 2.5 - 3 years old, we did lots to

foster any type of " conversation " - asking him if he wanted french

toast or pancakes and pointing to one hand for one and one hand for

the other. He would point to the hand he wanted. We then starting

adding 2 more choices (one one each leg). Sometimes we'd add

something funny, too - pancakes, french toast, dirt or bacon. It

took a while but he started to get the joke and eventually started

selecting dirt. Made it all the more fun and (I think) gave a depth

to the " conversation " beyond just item selection.

The other thing we did was string together words for him to repeat.

He had about 10 words in his vocabulary at 2.5, including eyes, ice,

I, go, out, bread, etc.. When he wanted to get down from the table

(or out of his car seat or crib...) we would ask him to say " I go

out " . He didn't have to string them himself, but repeat each word

after a parent. Within 2 weeks he was saying it himself. It was the

only sentence he said for a long time - months - but he said it clear

as a bell, and was proud, too. I figured I'd fight fire with fire,

habit with habit.

I hope this helps. It's a long process and I can only tell you what

worked for us. I'm very lucky in that Zach IS talking pretty well -

his intonation is off and he's only about 40% intelligible most of

the time to strangers - so I know this wouldn't work for everyone.

Good luck - hope you work your way out of this soon, but remember:

this too shall pass!

Marina

In @y..., " lollipop11230 " <ltathome80@a...> wrote:

> Hi, my son is now on his second bottle of pro efa and his behavior

> has gotten better and he cooperates with the speech therapists much

> more.My question is, he can now say many sounds and word

> approximations on command but, has hardly no spontaneous speech at

> all. I have to ask him after he screams and points to what he wants

> say the word and then he will say the word. Did anyone else have

this

> at first. What made them start using words to get what they want

> instead of screaming? Thanks for all your advice it's wonderful.

> Debra