Guest guest Posted January 6, 2008 Report Share Posted January 6, 2008 , Language Acquisition is definitely a big hurdle you have to get over. My son has always had words, but was in the 3rd percentile for speech when he entered Kindergarten. His speech was definitely not conversational and was more receptive. He seemed disinterested in what other people said unless it involved him asking about or getting things he was interested in. Keep talking to him even though he gives you no indication he is hearing you or wanting to hear what you are saying. He is listening even though he never looks at you or responds. I think this is the biggest mistake parents make. They stop talking to their kids and asking them questions because they get no response. Are you working with a speech therapist? Or doing ABA? We did both. The speech therapist was from the school district and only came to my house once a week. Once a week is not enough. We used her to borrow materials and show us what we should be working on. Then I taught the other ABA people what to do. By fourth grade he was in the 85th percentile for speech. But it was working on things constantly. A lot of the time he didn't know we were working or learning because we tried to incorporate it in his usual activities. We worked on speech while we were swinging at the park or in the grocery cart at the store. They also love workbooks from Target or the local drug store because they are predictable. My son used to beg to go to the local teacher store to buy workbooks. Of course this also worked because I got so happy when he completed a page. Positive reinforcement, positive reinforcement, positive reinforcement !!! Remember these kids are corrected constantly for doing things weird or wrong. Try to ignore those behaviors and look for the one thing they are doing right and reinforce it positively. The Edmark computer programs were also a big help. They are all linguistically based and can be found very inexpensively at Surplus CD Roms http://www.surpluscdrom.com/ My favorite was Thinking Things, but Millie's Math House and Sammy's Science House are great too. All their programs are wonderful and fun. They learn language while they are doing other things like Math, Science and Reasoning. I also liked son or the Learning Company programs. After they learn how to use a program, they can do it independently and are learning without the cost of a therapist. It frees you up to do something else, because they will play them for a long time. Hope this helps, Marcia 805 497-8202 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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