A ? that has been asked before BUT ....

[christie]

I need to ask again, because this ? has haunted me forever Why is it that in the speech area for our little ones with DS some words come out as clear as a bell and yet others our totally un-inintelligible (sp) Chris seems to truly have nooo inbetween Many words he has noooo problems what so ever but others YIKES

Just sitting here wondering....

CC

[amyzimoski]

Great question! I would also like to know! My daughter does the same thing.

Amy

[jennanne]

I am by no means an expert but from my experience of listening to my own children learning to talk some sounds are harder to master than others. My almost 5 year old daughter still hasn't gotten the "th" sound it's still "f" as in wif instead of with. I too have noticed that some words come out clear and undestandable and others are quite garbled.

[shellk]

Kourtney is one of those kids as well....She loves Lelo and Stitch and can say lots of other words starting with "st" but when she say stitch it always comes out with a "b" and no one uses the "b" word around her...Strange..Thanks for making me wonder also ???LOL

Michele

[Claire]

Adam 6 has the same problem. I wonder also, maybe I;ll ask his speech therapist next week. He can say the first part of the word or the last but never both together, also has a problem with B and P sounds.

[MB]

It is my understanding that 1. some of the letters are in the range where a lot of our kids don't hear. S is a difficult sound to hear if you have a hearing loss. 2. Like the rest of the muscles, poor muscle control in the mouth makes the harder to form letters/sounds difficult to understand.

MB (Fourteen sets of tubes from the age of 6 mos. to 9 yrs.)

[rickismom]

Many factors could be at play:
the high arched mouth make certain letters harder
hearing plays a part
and there are certain words WE tend to chop the end off of, or blend with the next....

[Debbie]

I have problems saying certain words if I don't have the sound down right in my brain. Sylabul, oh shucks, I don't know how to spell that right! I know you are talking about something different here but, I just wanted to add my own experience's.

I had speech problems and had speech therapy during my elementery school. I couldn't say my r's. I still have some problems with certain word's especially with alot of r's in it or sounds in word's I don't know how to make.



Debbie, An adult who has Mosaic Down syndrome

[Claire]

It is so nice to get your imput Debbie. I always like hearing from you. You bring so much knowledge to this site. Thank you Debbie.
Claire

[steffipoo]

;D CC HI!!!! Ya know I wish I knew the answer to that ?. olivia has fantastic speech yet there are a few words she just cannot get. Most words and sentences run off her tongue very naturally and spontaneously.As a matter of fact Kyle was giving her the ole Kyle speech lesson in the car yesterday and she said australia,tyrannosaurus...LOL YET to this very day even though she repeated those perfectly she still says JERUMP for JUMP and WUN for run. She only says WUN when used in a sentence cause she sings that darned Barney song every time she washes her hands..I NEVER LET THE WATER WUN...LOL I know a lot of the speech issues are because of conductive hearing loss, wax in ears or repeated otis media(sp). I'll tell you what has worked really well for us lately is using the WORD FAMILIES when teaching her to read. I try to make her a book every few weeks to learn to read but before we do this I start with words that are in the same group. For example...I will make a paper and laminate it. It will have an ending sound or middle sound or beginning sound.... IE...

-AD....SO she will put the letter in front of the ending sound and we will make new words all in the same group.SAD,MAD,BAD,GLAD,DAD etc. Then after she has those down I will make her a book using as many of those words as possible. This way she has a few weeks to master the sound and different word families and is VERY FAMILIAR msaking it easy for her to read the book which in turn raises her confidence levels 2 fold. I try to concentrate on one thing with Olivia for a while cause I think she needs that and then she is set up for success ya know? Off topic a bit but I love your ? and would be curious to find out what other people think as well.

[carolyn]

I would agree this is one of most mystifying and often frustrating aspects of Downs. I think that in addition to all the things previously mentioned, there is also some brain /processing dysfunctions in many of our children. It really isn't just a muscle tone/articulation situation because sometimes it is so clear and easy and other times .... soo difficult for John to express himself. Many of his speech problems are common, but on a larger scale than most kids. ie. dropped ending sounds & mispronounced sounds (In Johns case 1 sound, such as M is used to replace many others, like f,v and p- so funny sounds like money, van like man so you don't know which word he is actually trying to use unless you get the whole picture...)and add the articulation problems to the language problems, (does not always add ending like ing, s or ed to words) and limited use of verbs, few pronouns... He is just plain hard to understand. another odd aspect of his speech is how he can learn entire phrases- Pizza ready Momma, No school me today, stay home- those he learned all as a group, but he uses 1 word to express most everything. So he can learn sentences, but perhaps lacks the ability to construct them on his own in his head right now.
I am amazed at how much he has learned regarding speech in the last year, and am so pleased with his progress, however he has much work ahead to make himself understood by others. That is my ultimate goal, to help him be understood by the teachers, our friends and family and the guy taking his order at MacDonalds. Speech and language are my mission. On a personal note, I do find that music, sing a-long type is very useful in getting new sounds and words. He is willing to do many repetitions of a song with out it seeming like "therapy". Any other ideas by you guys are eagerly sought.

[SuziF]

Ok, Meri is definately in this category. Her fav, Sponge Bob, comes out most times as "Ponge Bob". Every so often she throws out a real zinger~ like when she was with her Godmother one day & clearly called her "Bernadette".Then she goes ages before trying the same word again.Somehow along the way her beloved blanket has become "Tee" & yet the cat is always "Kitty"
Before adressing any of her brothers by their names she'll refer to them as "Brufers" or "Boys" (Occasionaly "Nick",
& "Maff" but almost never Sam by name)
There's a whole 'nother group of words that she prefers to sign rather than speak.These include more,star, fish & a few others.I do give alot of credit to Love & Learning. Receptively, even on her acessments the girl understands EVERYTHING you tell her.