talks, but hard to understand-advice needed

[carolyn]

John is now 8, and can talk pretty well- He certainly gets all his needs met and his points made by talking. He has always been very shy, and outside of our family, never talks to adults or other kids unless he is in a rare mood. However, he is really starting to open up, and the problem is that most people can't understand him. He talks too fast, and has a rather "clumsy" way of talking (I can't think of any other way to put it) He leaves off endings, although that has improved greatly, but it is hard to know what he is saying especially if it is a new idea or is not directly related to the current activity- We are very persistent at figuring out what he is saying, but how can we help other people- when he is excitedly yammering away- I feel like right now I have to interpret for him, and I hate to do it- He also will say his words one at a time, waiting for us to repeat them back so he knows that we know- ( know what I mean ) I am so happy he is opening up to others, but I really don't know how to negotiate this particular situation.

[hidyperson]

I hate to say it - but he's far from the only one. My mother ( after my roommate being with us for 5 years ) can only undersand maybe 1/4 of what she says. A great deal of understanding her is knowing the context ( which can come out anywhere ) and her dialect.

Other's will know a lot more about this than I, in terms of teaching. All I can say keep trying. Helpful huh ?

[Emilysmom]

Carolyn,
About a year ago, our ST said she was planning to totally STOP working on articulation with Emily. I freaked out, because Emily was SO hard to understand at that point. The ST worked hard on getting Emily to slow way down when she speaks, and that seems like it has helped more than all the articulation drills she has ever had! She still needs reminders from time to time to slow down. I do think she knows that people (especially those who don't live with her) struggle at times to understand her, and I'm sure that's hard!! Her speech is still a bit like you described......clumsy. However, I continue to see improvements all the time. I hope she'll get to the point where she can remember how helpful it is to slow her speech down and won't rely on us to cue her.
I say.....keep encouraging him to slow down, get as much ST services as possible while he's young.

Susan

[MB]

My suggestion to start using the phone. He can start calling friends and relatives to take him to a favorite activity or to come over to your house. If his ST has given him the skills he needs such as slowing down, repeating, or spelling, I think you might see him start to adapt his speech to get what he wants.

Use of the phone was very helpful for my son. He could not use visuals such as pointing. The ideal of asking someone to go to a movie or bowling was motivation enough to fix his speech.

Hope this helps.

mb

[lespring]

This is the exact situation Angela was in, and about the same time we started using Cued Speech with her. When we cue, the endings of words (that she cannot hear, and that alot of kids with DS just are not aware they are there) become visible to her. So if she said something like, " You go store?" I'd cue, "Try it again, 'Are you goING TO THE store?" With my cues emphasizing the words she left out. Sometimes I would only target a certain part...like the ING...just depended upon my mood. When we started cuing, in 3 months she gained a full year of speech skills.

Angela is 10 1/2 now. People who dont' know her can understand about 80% of what she says, which I think is pretty good considering she does have a moderate heairng loss.

[Emilysmom]

Leah,
I want to hear a lot more about this!!!

[lespring]

Here is a youtube video done by the national cued speech association. It doesn't show you how to cue, it shows you what CS LOOKS like. There is a family with a child with DS on the video as well. We're TRYING to get a study going, but we first have to have people who are not only willing to cue, but both parents and staff cuing. It's hard to get both on board sometimes. That's beginning to change though. Friday I'm speaking to a masters program, a group of 100+ SLP's who are all currently working in the school districts. And I've taught several other groups of professionals as well.

DO NOT be intimidated by thinking, 'that looks too hard!" CS is FAR EASIER to learn than ASL! You can learn the entire system in a weekend!

Keep in mind the video is geared towards deaf/hard of hearing learners, with MENTION of other applications like DS and Autism.

youtube.com/watch?v=plPw4H-ZsMg

[carolyn]

Hey, thanks you guys for all the help. All the suggestions are things for me to add into the mix. I think I use cued speech to some degree already-but what you are talking about is much more expanded and really a simple and effective tool. Thanks also for the positive feedback- I am determined to make him understandable- There are so many people in his life who want to hear is thoughts and opinions- and I am anxious to take myself out- I think having me interpret takes away the intimacy of conversation.

[CC]

Just a thought but have you ever considered using an augmentative communication devise, not to take away from his verbal but to help him communicate on his own more till the verbal gets better

CC ~

[chasesmom]

Leah, I have never heard of cued speech, so where can I find out more about it before I talk to Chase's speech teacher about it? He too tends to forget the ending somtimes and doesnt always use the proper words.....like he will also say "go to store?" when he wants to know when we are going to the store. I know he can do it, but I think he either just forgets or it is just too much bother to say it right, does that make any sense?
Robin

[lespring]

I have more information on my website, www.downcues.com

[kellyds]

This is VERY interesting to me. The info under "Why not ASL" on your site makes a lot of sense. Joshua is just two, so it wouldn't be too late to switch him over. Thanks for giving me something to chew on. ;D

[kellyds]

I found this to get started learning:

web7.mit.edu/CS/Art/

I'll be doing a lot of studying. From what I have learned about auditory processing, this makes SO much sense.

Does anyone know how this might affect a child's ability to read or spell later, since it's all phonetic?

[lespring]

CS is (to put it very simply) phonetics on the hand. ASL has NO correlation to written language. But CS has a 100% connection. Every sound you make has a way to cue it.

Lets take a typical first grader, having their Monday morning spelling PRE-test. One of the words is "like". How to 1st graders spell that? Usually "L-I-K", right? They have to learn that there is another letter that makes on sound. In Cuing, I cue the same sounds you hear in the word. Deaf kids who cue, spell the word "L-I-K" just exactly the same as hearing kids do. They, too, have to learn there is another letter that has no represention.

This is FAR DIFFERENT for a deaf kid who uses ASL. For those kids spelling is 100% memorization. Can you imagine having to memorize all those words you learned to spell? There is no such thing as relying on the rules of English, and the rules of spelling when you hear a sound, because when the word is signed....there is no correlation.

When my daughter sees the cue for the sound "ee", she knows there is more than one way to spell that sound. She has to remember what the rules are. (she doesn't know this, by the way.) Or the word "great". Hmmmm is it "ea" or "ate".

You can also teach liasons. Liasons are what we use in running speech to make our words flow together. For example, the phrase "dip it in". That is NOT how we say it in running speech. In running speech we actually say "di pi tin". Try teaching a kid to say the sentence WITHOUT liasons. It doesn't sound like natural speech, does it? Nobody taught you to speak in liasons. It's just the natural progression of normal speech. Every language has liasons.

Today Angela was trying to say "Pineapple juice". We don't say, "pine apple", as you might think. Instead we say "pi na pul". Teaching your child to say a sentence using liasons will encourage more fluent speech. When you use CS, you cue liasons. Your child can SEE liasons within the words and will naturally learn to put it together that way in running speech.