Speech therapy materials for Children with Apraxia

Before purchasing Speech therapy games or materials or to help your child with apraxia, please have him or her assessed by a Speech Language Pathologist to make sure that you are working on the correct goals.

Once your child is assessed you should have a list of goals to work on. Generally, Speech therapy for a child with apraxia (also called Childhood Apraxia of Speech or Dyspraxia) consists of practicing sounds starting at a simple level and then moving to more complex mouth movements and eventually to words and phrases. For some children, your Speech Language Pathologist may recommend starting at an earlier stage with muscle strengthening games and activities (called Oral Motor exercises) or simple mouth movements. Many children with apraxia find sign language helps them communicate their thoughts when they cannot make themselves understood.

Early vocabulary and imitation goals: The Baby Babble DVD (http://www.talkingchild.com/shop_BabyBabbleDVD.aspx) includes Oral motor exercises and some early sign language, so it is ideal for toddlers and younger preschoolers with speech and language delays.

Articulation Goals: Check out this link for Kaufman cards: http://www.superduperinc.com/products/view.aspx?pid=NS1002&stid=

These cards, although pricey, are great materials for working at home with children with apraxia. For children whose goals are at the single word level, the back of the card has approximations from simple to complex. For example a picture may show BROTHER, and on the back of the card it shows that the child may say only the “b” sound at first but eventually progress to “budder” and then to the correct pronunciation.

Parents will find that using the cards to play speech therapy games with kids will work better than just asking the child to name the cards. One example of a speech therapy game is to hide the cards around the room and find them with a flashlight. Children are asked to name the picture on one card before they can search for another card.

Again, please check with your Speech Language Pathologist to find out what the best goals are for your child.

When should you use Speech Therapy DVDs for your child?

There are a lot of great Speech Therapy DVDs and materials available to help your child learn to speak well. But when is the right time to use them? As a Speech Language Pathologist for preschool children, I recommend having your child assessed first to see what her specific speech and language goals are. For example, if the goal is improved vocabulary and imitation, then your might use a DVD such as “Baby Babble” to enhance your toddler’s language skills.

http://www.talkingchild.com/shop_BabyBabbleDVD.aspx

The best thing you can do to help your child learn to communicate better is to talk to him and provide face to face play time. Buy games, DVDs and other materials to help with communication, but don’t use them alone. Babies and toddlers need interaction with real people – parents and siblings and other caregivers who talk to them and tell them about their world. If you haven’t learned any Language Stimulation techniques, ask your Speech Language Pathologist to show you how to interact with your child to get the maximum benefit from the time you spend with him.

Speech Therapy DVDs

Parents often ask about Speech Therapy DVDs for young children with speech and language delays. For early language stimulation, Speech Language Pathologists recommend the Baby Babble DVD. These DVDs are similar to Baby Einstein videos, but they use sounds and words instead of just visuals with music.

Check out this link: http://www.talkingchild.com/shop_BabyBabbleDVD.aspx
or look directly on Amazon’s website to buy it there.

Question:

My 12 month old daughter is not talking at all, only babbling. But some of her friends are only a few months older and they have dozens of words. Should I be concerned?

I don’t work outside the home, but I’m wondering if should put my baby daycare to help her speech development?

What about educational TV?

Answer:

She sounds fine! There aren’t many milestones for 12 month olds for speech, except they should be babbling, demonstrating that they can hear speech, and at least interested in communicating with other people.

Babies do not need daycare to help their speech and language development. Instead of daycare, she should be exposed to other kids at events like birthday parties and church so they can watch them. But the important goals for this age are bonding and playing with parents.

And she definitely doesn’t need TV. Research shows that those baby Einstein movies decrease children’s language and intelligence scores instead of increasing as advertised. Kids don’t gain any language or cognitive skills from educational TV until their language skills are at or above a FOUR year old level. TV or computers are not needed until age four, even then books and interaction with people are more beneficial.

If you do want to encourage faster speech development with your baby, I suggest using Baby Sign. I recommend Joseph Garcia’s Sign with your Baby book and DVD.