Re: Re: Hope for speech

[Guest guest]

This is a tough one.  I am going to throw it out there but many will argue with

the idea.

The thing that helped my son speak the most was steroids.   Dr. Chez  in

Chicago put my son on steroids for approx 1 year.  He didn't have most of the

side effects most people talk about.

However,  at 3 years old  we went in 1 month, barely 4 words  we were working

very hard to get out,  to at least 25 words in 1 month!

I have tried everything there is to try,  traveled all over the country for

this treatment and that,  and the only thing that is different from my son 

than many that don't speak is steroids.  I don't know if I would believe it if

it didn't happen for my son.

Now  saying that,  he is now 9,  still autistic,  but can very much

communicate,  is now attending Mood Bell  for intensive language

therapy.   He has a huge vocabulary,  but still has trouble structuring more

complicated sentences.   So we have still a long way to go.  But he is

improving rapidly at the school,  and is definately speaking in 4-5- word

sentences. 

Just so you know ,  my son was diagnosed as Severely autistic.  Now,  he

would be diagnose as Mild to Moderate.  Will he ever lose his diagnosis,  I

doubt it.  But the closer I can get means a better quality of life for him.

Of all the things I have tried,  Steroids have made the biggest improvement 

in my son's speech.

Sheri Steffens

Re: Re: Hope for speech

I was told a few months before my son turned five that he would probably never

speak because he had no words. I was crushed, but felt that I had to push it at

least for a little while longer. What if they were wrong?

Well, I hired a speech therapist and she came once a week for an hour. My son

babbled a lot but didn't have any real words. She tried so hard with him to have

him repeat a word or sound and you could see him looking at her mouth and trying

to figure out how to do what she was doing but he just couldn't. I was hanging

out with my son one day and heard him do one of his stimmy sounds " EI, EI " which

he would say over and over to himself for fun. I started saying " EI, EI " also

and he sort of stopped and looked at me and he smiled. We did that sound

together for a while and then would do it on and off over the next few days.

Then I tried to initiate this fun game by saying " EI, EI " first. When I did it,

he laughed and then he did it. Finally! Repeating!!!! I told the speech

therapist and she said it was a big breakthrough. She was also able to get him

to repeat that sound. I felt like this was the beginning of something big.

Then she left to go on early bed rest (she was pregnant) and I felt so

depressed. Here we were with a breakthrough and our speech therapist had to

quit. While waiting to hire another SLP (not so easy to find ones that will come

to your house and have experience with autism in my area), I decided that since

my son knew the song " Old Mac " that I would sing it to him and pause at

the part where it goes " EI, EI, O " and see what would happen. Guess what? He

filled it in! I laughed and praised and did it over and over to make sure it was

not a fluke. He laughed too and I could tell that he was pleased with himself.

Everyone who worked with him was astonished and we all praised him and clapped

and cheered when he did his " EI, EI " fill in for the song. I started leaving out

the part about " on this farm he had a ..... " and he said cow. More claps and

cheers. He was almost five and a half at that point.

He is now seven (just turned seven a few months ago) and he still isn't a fluid

speaker. He can say words (if I point at a pig and say " what's that? " he will

say " pig " , etc.), but he doesn't talk in sentences. Well, except " I want juice "

or " I want chips " which he knows he has to say in order to get them and we

worked on that a lot. He has great motor planning trouble (I believe he is

apraxic) and though he tries very hard, it is tough for him to properly

pronounce words when there is more than one word together. " I love you " is " I

wuh you " , although if he tries hard to say just " love " on it's own it is much

clearer. The fact that he will say things spontaneously, " I want video " or

" ball " to indicate he wants to play catch, is huge. We feel very blessed and

lucky. I never thought I would hear " Mommy " , let alone some of the other words

he can now say. It has shown me that he understands a lot more than we thought

too. And while he will never be conversational, we are still doing speech once a

week to get his articulation shaped up and to hopefully push him (in a good way)

to use language more and more. You never know! If I had listened to the speech

therapist who told me his chances of speaking were next to none, I wonder if he

would be using any language at all right now.

I encourage you to try. Step up your efforts if you have given up. I followed

all the advice about trying to get speech going from books and experts and none

of it worked, so I know your frustration. I spent thousands of dollars on speech

when he was two and three and it felt like I was throwing $100 bills out the

window of my car as I drove to each appointment. I stopped taking him when he

was three and a half because we were getting nowhere. But once I was told he

couldn't and he wouldn't, I had to try one last time. If your child babbles, see

if any of the babbling is a repetitive sound. If so, try to join in and see if

your child notices. I know it may have been a fluke for us. Just something that

happened that led to something else. But it happened so please don't lose hope.

I wish you all the best and I will pray for you and your son.

Rhoda

Re: Hope for speech

Our son just turned seven and still has no words. Lots of stories are heard

about kids talking later on in life. Anyone personally have inspirational words

for us to keep faith that one day he will say something? Thanks and God Bless.

Sincerely,

Juarez, M.S., Marriage and Family Therapist