Re: appropriate therapy?

[Guest guest]

Appropriate therapy seems to vary by the child. For my son it has been

Prompt, and the technique is not that intense, but they will only train

SLPs in the method. Have you emailed them to find out if there is a

therapist in Japan? They do train internationally!

For my son at home therapies last summer were geared at getting him to make

more verbal attempts. An example of an inappropriate therapy was what his

EI therapists did. They withheld something from him until he requested it

with the exact words they wanted. " More bubbles " while holding the bubbles

out of his reach. He just could NOT say something like that on command! I

did similar games as them, but allowed approximations and allowed him to

use other words and gestures to make the request. Then I modelled the

correct language and if he attempted to repeat it I praised him even if it

sounded nothing like what it was supposed to do. Yes it was slow going,

but I got him over of being afraid to talk which is where the inappropriate

therapies along with teasing from a neighbor child had gotten him.

Someone made a reply about Dr. Camarata not recommending drilling of

sounds. This is clearly inappropriate for my child who has a language

disorder in addition to the apraxia. Drilling of sounds or words out of

context of functional language doesn't help him at all. Repetitive

language within the context of games does help. My son is very aware that

certain sounds (such as L) are harder for him, but he still won't just sit

and drill L. He plays games with lots of L words and is making great

progress! Perhaps this is an appropriate approach for an older child.

A huge improvement I've seen with my son recently is in his language. He

is learning to use synonyms for when he is not understood! The other

day in the bath tub he dropped a penguin toy outside the tub. I exclaimed

to me " Penguin (well his word for it which isn't that good) bwopped! " I

said, " Yes, penguin DRopped! " and emphasized the proper dr sound (something

he usually does ok with, but couldn't get out that night. I tried to get

him to repeat the dr sound a few times by saying dropped. My husband was

outside the room and came in and started helping encourage him. After

about four attempts and saying " bw " instead of " dr " each time he finally

said, " Penguin fell down! " He of course was very much praised! I

mentioned the difficulty with the dr sound to his SLP and she worked on a

few words yesterday in therapy and guess what? He said them all

correctly. *sigh* She also read a book with him where the cat repeatedly

wants a snack (she's also working on s-blends and final s's where in both

cases he simply doesn't use an s at all!) He just couldn't say it in

therapy. He leaves therapy and immediately declares " SNack time! " Which

just blew us both away that he would spontaneously use the sound which I

don't think I've ever heard, but he couldn't use it when modelling. I know

it's the repetition and proper modelling and he just needed processing

time. I've heard the sn blend a couple more times last night, but usually

he is sticking with just n. It will come along in time.

If you are truly stuck without a therapist I think the best approach, and

it's not easy, is to figure out where your child is at and with the context

of normal language and play pick certain sounds to work on in various

words. For my son simply labelling everything in sight like his EI

therapist initially did just didn't do anything. It was too many words,

too many sounds and not things he could duplicate. My son also seems to

require being able to say the word correctly to store the language

correctly. Until he an say a word well it isn't an automatic part of his

receptive or expressive language. My son's therapists started with the

sounds he could easily produce and built up to challenging sounds. This

helped him gain confidence and develop a small but functional and

understandable core vocabulary which helped him function better away from

his family, aka interpreters.

Good luck!

Miche

>Please tell me if there is a book out detailing what appropriate

>therapy is so that I can begin it at home. I have very little hope of

>finding someone here in Japan to give my son what he needs. I am doing

>everything I can think of by doing word play and communication games,

>singing songs with fun sounds, etc., but I want to be more focused in

>what we do at home to help him.

>

>I went to the PROMPT site, but it won't elaborate on the techniques,

>and I guess the training is so intense that not just anybody can do it.

>However, I must do something, so am looking for some sort of written

>material to guide me.

>

>Any suggestions?

>

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