Re: NEW HERE - 21m old wih speech delay and bubble blowing question??

[Guest guest]

Bubbles, whistles, and blowing a feather across the table are good.

Giving kisses by puckering the lips and having the child imitate you is also a

good thing. Get the child to form the lips into an " O " and say the long " O "

sound. Using a wooden " O " (that is larger than the child's face...you can get

those in the craft department of WalMart), by bringing it to your face and

having the child copy it, is good also. -- In

, " Cassie " <cassie030281@...> wrote:

>

> My son is 21 months old and has a speech delay. I haven't gotten an " official "

diagnosis, but his pediatrician said it seems that he does have a delay, and we

have been referred to EI services.

>

> I didn't really notice much that he had a delay until the last few months when

his peers started passing him in the vocabulary spectrum. I mentioned it to his

pediatrician at his 18 month appt, and we were told as long as he was saying a

couple of words he was fine. A few months roll by and he still hasn't really

started saying real words. He has a few words, but most everything else is a

" duh " or a " guh " .He babbles and gibbers on constantly as if he's talking with

intonations and everything. He is very receptive though, and can name (by

pointing) to body parts, clothing items, and objects when prompted and also

follows commands (when he feels like it LOL). He refers to all his animals by

the sound they make rather than their name. A cow is moo (or a long grunt, he

doesn't close his lips for the mmm sound) a monkey is " ah ah " , etc.

>

> I've been working with him the best I know how to get him to articulate his

sounds. I feel that repeating the words over and over is to no avail, since he

knows what they are. So far he can say cah (car) doe (dog) uh-oh, aw doo (all

done) duh doo (love you or thank you - depending on the situation) and no -

which happens to be his best vocalized word.... ahem.

>

> I've started with some oral motor activites. I don't think it's so much that

as he eats well and can pucker, stick out his tounge, etc., but it can't hurt,

right? So we've been drinking yogurts and puddings through straws, practicing

the pucker and tongue sticking out. But when I attempted to do a bubble blowing

exercise with him I discovered that he doesn't know how to blow. He puts the

wand up to his lips and makes sound. So I give him a straw and a cotton ball and

show him that I blow through the straw to move the cotton ball. He LOVES it and

decides to give it a try. He puts the straw into his mouth and only makes a

ehhhhhhh sound rather than blowing. I bought him a whistle and showed him how to

use it. Same thing.

>

> Does this sound similar to what your child(ren) have and/or are going through?

Is he still considered a " late talker " if he attempts speech? How can I teach

him to blow as that is an essential part of speech?

>

[Guest guest]

thanks ... we'll try the feather thing; I haven't thought of that. I also

think I will try the party noise makers and see how that goes.

Also - anyone else - please help me out. Is my son's speech similar to your

child's? I'm looking for any kind of answers I get so many conflicting things on

the internet. I want to hear from " real " people! :-)

thanks again!

> >

> > My son is 21 months old and has a speech delay. I haven't gotten an

" official " diagnosis, but his pediatrician said it seems that he does have a

delay, and we have been referred to EI services.

> >

> > I didn't really notice much that he had a delay until the last few months

when his peers started passing him in the vocabulary spectrum. I mentioned it to

his pediatrician at his 18 month appt, and we were told as long as he was saying

a couple of words he was fine. A few months roll by and he still hasn't really

started saying real words. He has a few words, but most everything else is a

" duh " or a " guh " .He babbles and gibbers on constantly as if he's talking with

intonations and everything. He is very receptive though, and can name (by

pointing) to body parts, clothing items, and objects when prompted and also

follows commands (when he feels like it LOL). He refers to all his animals by

the sound they make rather than their name. A cow is moo (or a long grunt, he

doesn't close his lips for the mmm sound) a monkey is " ah ah " , etc.

> >

> > I've been working with him the best I know how to get him to articulate his

sounds. I feel that repeating the words over and over is to no avail, since he

knows what they are. So far he can say cah (car) doe (dog) uh-oh, aw doo (all

done) duh doo (love you or thank you - depending on the situation) and no -

which happens to be his best vocalized word.... ahem.

> >

> > I've started with some oral motor activites. I don't think it's so much that

as he eats well and can pucker, stick out his tounge, etc., but it can't hurt,

right? So we've been drinking yogurts and puddings through straws, practicing

the pucker and tongue sticking out. But when I attempted to do a bubble blowing

exercise with him I discovered that he doesn't know how to blow. He puts the

wand up to his lips and makes sound. So I give him a straw and a cotton ball and

show him that I blow through the straw to move the cotton ball. He LOVES it and

decides to give it a try. He puts the straw into his mouth and only makes a

ehhhhhhh sound rather than blowing. I bought him a whistle and showed him how to

use it. Same thing.

> >

> > Does this sound similar to what your child(ren) have and/or are going

through? Is he still considered a " late talker " if he attempts speech? How can I

teach him to blow as that is an essential part of speech?

> >

>

[Guest guest]

Once the EI Speech Therapist starts coming to your house--they will also give

you lots of ideas based on his level of delay about how to help him progress.

Thats what they are for! My dd is almost 8yrs old with Apraxia. EI is

family-based and even though they may only come 2x a week- they are also

supposed to help the family learn for the days they are not there. they should

give you exercises and things to do during his regular day while playing and

feeding that he will not even know he's working at learning to talk, so that

when they come and he has to sit still and work during therapy--the things you

can do with him while they are not there are just as much work.

>

> My son is 21 months old and has a speech delay. I haven't gotten an " official "

diagnosis, but his pediatrician said it seems that he does have a delay, and we

have been referred to EI services.

>

>

[Guest guest]

If you have a " party city " in your neck of the woods,then this is a great place

to get all these things. Those plastic seasonal straws (that have the spirals on

them a like pumpkins,valentines, etc... make great speech therapy whistlers.The

idea is to get whistles and blowers in a variety of forms, which enables the

user to form different mouth shapes while producing sounds.

> > >

> > > My son is 21 months old and has a speech delay. I haven't gotten an

" official " diagnosis, but his pediatrician said it seems that he does have a

delay, and we have been referred to EI services.

> > >

> > > I didn't really notice much that he had a delay until the last few months

when his peers started passing him in the vocabulary spectrum. I mentioned it to

his pediatrician at his 18 month appt, and we were told as long as he was saying

a couple of words he was fine. A few months roll by and he still hasn't really

started saying real words. He has a few words, but most everything else is a

" duh " or a " guh " .He babbles and gibbers on constantly as if he's talking with

intonations and everything. He is very receptive though, and can name (by

pointing) to body parts, clothing items, and objects when prompted and also

follows commands (when he feels like it LOL). He refers to all his animals by

the sound they make rather than their name. A cow is moo (or a long grunt, he

doesn't close his lips for the mmm sound) a monkey is " ah ah " , etc.

> > >

> > > I've been working with him the best I know how to get him to articulate

his sounds. I feel that repeating the words over and over is to no avail, since

he knows what they are. So far he can say cah (car) doe (dog) uh-oh, aw doo (all

done) duh doo (love you or thank you - depending on the situation) and no -

which happens to be his best vocalized word.... ahem.

> > >

> > > I've started with some oral motor activites. I don't think it's so much

that as he eats well and can pucker, stick out his tounge, etc., but it can't

hurt, right? So we've been drinking yogurts and puddings through straws,

practicing the pucker and tongue sticking out. But when I attempted to do a

bubble blowing exercise with him I discovered that he doesn't know how to blow.

He puts the wand up to his lips and makes sound. So I give him a straw and a

cotton ball and show him that I blow through the straw to move the cotton ball.

He LOVES it and decides to give it a try. He puts the straw into his mouth and

only makes a ehhhhhhh sound rather than blowing. I bought him a whistle and

showed him how to use it. Same thing.

> > >

> > > Does this sound similar to what your child(ren) have and/or are going

through? Is he still considered a " late talker " if he attempts speech? How can I

teach him to blow as that is an essential part of speech?

> > >

> >

>

[Guest guest]

To your other question, yes, this sounds similar to how my son talked - at over

2, a few words (duh for dad, dog, dora, etc; bah for bob <spongebob>, ball,

bottle, baby, etc) and a lot of close-mouthed sounds. And yes, that makes him a

late talker.

As far as blowing goes, the first time he blew anything was on a (bad spelling?)

pre-hierarchal horn. It makes noise if you suck or blow. The next big thing to

get his attention was a Percy (from train) bubble blower. I looked all

last year for one, and now that he blows on his own, I saw them at AC moore for

about $5. Another one that was fun for him was a bubble cup. Cut a small hole in

the side of a paper cup, and insert a straw (cut down to 2-3 inches). Cover the

top of the cup with a piece of fabric, and rubber band it down. Now, dip the top

of the cup (fabric) into a bowl of bubbles, and blow. It makes a very cool

" bubble tower " .

It took a while of these tricks to teach him to blow bubbles, even with the

therapist holding his mouth into blowing position. But it definitely helped

strengthen the muscles.

>

> My son is 21 months old and has a speech delay. I haven't gotten an " official "

diagnosis, but his pediatrician said it seems that he does have a delay, and we

have been referred to EI services.

>

> I didn't really notice much that he had a delay until the last few months when

his peers started passing him in the vocabulary spectrum. I mentioned it to his

pediatrician at his 18 month appt, and we were told as long as he was saying a

couple of words he was fine. A few months roll by and he still hasn't really

started saying real words. He has a few words, but most everything else is a

" duh " or a " guh " .He babbles and gibbers on constantly as if he's talking with

intonations and everything. He is very receptive though, and can name (by

pointing) to body parts, clothing items, and objects when prompted and also

follows commands (when he feels like it LOL). He refers to all his animals by

the sound they make rather than their name. A cow is moo (or a long grunt, he

doesn't close his lips for the mmm sound) a monkey is " ah ah " , etc.

>

> I've been working with him the best I know how to get him to articulate his

sounds. I feel that repeating the words over and over is to no avail, since he

knows what they are. So far he can say cah (car) doe (dog) uh-oh, aw doo (all

done) duh doo (love you or thank you - depending on the situation) and no -

which happens to be his best vocalized word.... ahem.

>

> I've started with some oral motor activites. I don't think it's so much that

as he eats well and can pucker, stick out his tounge, etc., but it can't hurt,

right? So we've been drinking yogurts and puddings through straws, practicing

the pucker and tongue sticking out. But when I attempted to do a bubble blowing

exercise with him I discovered that he doesn't know how to blow. He puts the

wand up to his lips and makes sound. So I give him a straw and a cotton ball and

show him that I blow through the straw to move the cotton ball. He LOVES it and

decides to give it a try. He puts the straw into his mouth and only makes a

ehhhhhhh sound rather than blowing. I bought him a whistle and showed him how to

use it. Same thing.

>

> Does this sound similar to what your child(ren) have and/or are going through?

Is he still considered a " late talker " if he attempts speech? How can I teach

him to blow as that is an essential part of speech?

>

[Guest guest]

Hi Cassie!

Since your child is 21 months old- it's great to do things to stimulate speech,

however until you know what you are dealing with you probably don't want to try

to do speech therapy until you get the chance to observe a speech professional

and see the type of therapy needed for your child. They'll give you homework.

I mean don't get me wrong -I'm not talking about ways to encourage speech

-that's fine. But when you say " I've been working with him the best I know how

to get him to articulate his sounds " , especially just in case it's apraxia,

that's what I'm talking about. Apraxia is a tricky and very frustrating

condition for all, and you want to make sure you are fully aware both of

limitations of the motor planning and on the power of the motor memory when it

comes to verbal approximations for an apraxic child. By the way this is why I

love Kaufman's kit because it's developmentally appropriate as a hierarchy

of verbal production. You see once inappropriate approximations get " stuck " in

the motor memory you have to teach them to unlearn it before they learn the

right way (ask " Bobo " or " Doo Doo " ) And the fact that you say his receptive

ability is high also makes me suspect it's an impairment vs a delay. Typically

with delays the receptive and expressive is about the same. This is why I'm

thrilled you are taking him for the EI eval.

Quick question -apraxia is not the inability to do an activity ever -it's an

issue of doing an activity on command each time. If you put peanut butter on

various areas of his mouth...does he lick it off on first attempt or use his

finger? If you and him look in a mirror and take turns making funny faces can

he imitate your funny faces? The ability to blow for an almost 2 year old is

one of the warning signs of apraxia as many of us with children that have oral

apraxia were not able to blow their 2 little candles out on their birthday cake.

I'm also noticing that you say he doesn't close his lips for the " mmm " sound.

What about kisses? Does he know how to do that? Again the trick is 'on

command'

In addition to the EI eval -did your pediatrician who acknowledged a delay in

speech, speak to you about a speech and hearing evaluation? That can be outside

of the EI evaluation through your insurance- and it should be covered (or out of

pocket but again it should be covered)

You probably will benefit from reading The Late Talker book as many of the " what

should I do next " questions are in there. Below are a few of the parent

suggestions that I wrote for the book that were in the parent handout for this

article:

http://contemporarypediatrics.modernmedicine.com/contpeds/data/articlestandard//\

contpeds/492004/136315/article.pdf

Anyway hope this helps for now and hope that it's not signs of oral apraxia and

that it's not verbal apraxia. But even if it is -there is so much hope and the

prognosis based on this group over the years is very high for the majority to be

mainstreamed by kindergarten -which is awesome!

=====

[Guest guest]

At 18 months I called my pediatrician and was told it was normal if they

could not say much....but my older child was speaking so much better at

that age I knew something wasn't right. I demanded intervention for my

son and got it.. thankfully so because he was just diagnosed with

apraxia. Although my son can blow bubbles, blow out candles and ping

pong balls across a table (which is the new speech pathologist

technique, great idea btw and he has got it figured out.) My advice

if you don't mind me giving it is, just hear your instincts and go with

them, if your gut is telling you something is wrong with your child and

he/she cannot speak the way you expected them to in following the normal

developmental guidelines, don't just accept the " every child is

different " line of bull...(excuse the language) doctors don't always

know best... I feel I lost a good 2 years of the " correct " therapy had I

known what was in my best judgment and my thoughts, things may have

turned out differently...but I left it to them and now my son although

ahead thanks to to the early intervention, is just doing a little better

than if he had none. In my opinion, had they listened to me two years

ago and he got the right one on one treatment, he may be more in line

with his friends and their language. It really upsets me because I was

on top of this from day one.. when he was born and he had a metopic

suture early closure (craniostenosis) I asked if this could effect his

development, they said no, it was too mild.. now I am finding that they

may have been wrong about that too. Motherly instincts are almost always

right..ask questions and don't accept whatever they tell you as an

answer. I've learned they are not always right. Good luck.

> >

> > My son is 21 months old and has a speech delay. I haven't gotten an

" official " diagnosis, but his pediatrician said it seems that he does

have a delay, and we have been referred to EI services.

> >

> > I didn't really notice much that he had a delay until the last few

months when his peers started passing him in the vocabulary spectrum. I

mentioned it to his pediatrician at his 18 month appt, and we were told

as long as he was saying a couple of words he was fine. A few months

roll by and he still hasn't really started saying real words. He has a

few words, but most everything else is a " duh " or a " guh " .He babbles and

gibbers on constantly as if he's talking with intonations and

everything. He is very receptive though, and can name (by pointing) to

body parts, clothing items, and objects when prompted and also follows

commands (when he feels like it LOL). He refers to all his animals by

the sound they make rather than their name. A cow is moo (or a long

grunt, he doesn't close his lips for the mmm sound) a monkey is " ah ah " ,

etc.

> >

> > I've been working with him the best I know how to get him to

articulate his sounds. I feel that repeating the words over and over is

to no avail, since he knows what they are. So far he can say cah (car)

doe (dog) uh-oh, aw doo (all done) duh doo (love you or thank you -

depending on the situation) and no - which happens to be his best

vocalized word.... ahem.

> >

> > I've started with some oral motor activites. I don't think it's so

much that as he eats well and can pucker, stick out his tounge, etc.,

but it can't hurt, right? So we've been drinking yogurts and puddings

through straws, practicing the pucker and tongue sticking out. But when

I attempted to do a bubble blowing exercise with him I discovered that

he doesn't know how to blow. He puts the wand up to his lips and makes

sound. So I give him a straw and a cotton ball and show him that I blow

through the straw to move the cotton ball. He LOVES it and decides to

give it a try. He puts the straw into his mouth and only makes a

ehhhhhhh sound rather than blowing. I bought him a whistle and showed

him how to use it. Same thing.

> >

> > Does this sound similar to what your child(ren) have and/or are

going through? Is he still considered a " late talker " if he attempts

speech? How can I teach him to blow as that is an essential part of

speech?

> >

>