My Baby Can Read Program: From a speech-language pathologist’s point of view, is this program useful?

Yes, if your goal is to teach your baby to read early, then I think that you can accomplish your goal with the My Baby Can Read program. It appears to be effective and interesting to babies. It can keep their interest and attention.

See this link for a review: http://www.theopinionatedparent.com/2007/04/13/my-baby-can-read/

However, I have some concerns: If you do this program, you are using up valuable time and energy to teach what is basically a splinter skill – almost a “human trick”. From an SLP perspective, the most important life skill is communication, not impressing others with early learned skills.

Instead, an SLP would concentrate on teaching social skills at this age, like taking turns passing a ball back and forth, making funny sounds and faces, labeling things the child is interested in, and looking at a caregiver’s face for shared enjoyment. Most learning happens just by watching the caregiver while he/ she goes about her business and talks to the baby, involving the baby where possible. If your baby has already mastered these social skills, then there would be no concern with adding reading. If your child doesn’t have social skills, or isn’t strong in her ability to connect to important adults in her life, then it would be better to concentrate on teaching these skills. If social skills are missed in babyhood, it’s possible that the child will not learn how to trust and connect to people, and that is a harder one to catch up on later.

What would be the benefit of learning to read as a baby?

A whole world opens up when a child learns to read. Literacy is like a key to open an amazing number of doors to worlds and experiences that would not be possible without it. If the child learns to love books at any early age, and experiences the success of learning to read as a baby could be life changing.

photo: chad_k

Ask a Speech Language Pathologist:  Is it true that your baby can learn to read?

Yes, a bright baby can learn to sight read (memorize words by how they look) and perhaps even to sound out new words, but it is rare. Most likely the baby would be memorizing words by their shape.

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.

Question: My 4 1/2 year old has speech delays and he has been improving a lot in speech therapy. however he has been stuttering for a few weeks now. Should i tell him to slow down, or just ignore it?

Answer: If it has just started then the best thing to do is ignore it & treat it like it’s no big deal. but be very positive about his speech. Say encouraging things like, “You are so good at your new sounds” etc. Let him know with actions and body language that you will give him as much time as he needs to say what he needs to say.

it is normal for kids to stutter any time in the preschool years, it’s just how long it goes and how severe it is that determines whether they need speech therapy for it.

Just a funny: My DD stuttered off and on for over a year and it cleared up on its own. the funny thing is that she “backwards stuttered” for lack of a better term. Instead of repeating first sounds I l-l-l-like cookies she repeated the end part of the word “I like-ike-ike-ike cookies”. I’m a pediatric speech therapist and in 11 years i’ve never seen another child do this!

Early Language Q&A: My two year old child is not speaking yet

Question:

My two year old child is not speaking yet. Should I be concerned? My mother in law says that she knows many children who didn’t speak at all until they were three years old, and then they spoke in complete sentences. Does this mean that I should just wait and see if my child will talk on his own? Or should I get help?

Answer:

You should try to get him evaluated by a Speech-Language Pathologist (SLP). Children usually have at least 50 words in their vocabulary by 24 months of age. Those who don’t are at risk for further language delays, pronunciation problems and even learning problems. Your SLP can let you know if your child has any other risk factors that might make him at higher risk for language related delays. For example, if his father was late to talk, and went on to need speech therapy or learning assistance, then the child is at higher risk for language and learning problems than a child whose father was a late talker who went on to do very well in school.

As for the children who don’t talk until three years – in my experience it is rare that a child can make it to three without talking and have no ongoing effects (But it does happen). If you dig deeper you often find that there are social, self esteem and learning problems associated with these late talkers. Also, many SLPs in our province have long waitlists so it is best to get your child’s name on the list early if possible.

Speech-language pathology is the study of disorders that affect a person’s speech, language, cognition, voice, swallowing (dysphagia) and the rehabilitative or corrective treatment of physical and/or cognitive deficits/disorders resulting in difficulty with communication and/or swallowing. Speech-language pathologists (SLPs) or Speech and Language Therapists (SLTs) address people’s speech production, vocal production, swallowing difficulties and language needs through speech therapy in a variety of different contexts including schools, hospitals, and through private practice.

Communication includes speech (articulation, intonation, rate, intensity, voice, resonance, fluency), language (phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics, pragmatics), both receptive and expressive language (including reading and writing), and non-verbal communication such as facial expression and gesture. Swallowing problems managed under speech therapy are problems in the oral and pharyngeal stages of swallowing (not oesophageal).

Depending on the nature and severity of the disorder, common treatments may range from physical strengthening exercises, instructive or repetitive practice and drilling, to the use of audio-visual aids and introduction of strategies to facilitate functional communication. Speech therapy may also include sign language and the use of picture symbols or Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC) (Diehl 2003).

The practice is called:

* Speech-language pathology (SLP) in the United States and Canada
* Speech and language therapy (SLTs) in the United Kingdom, Ireland and South Africa. Within the United Kingdom a Speech and Language Therapy team is often referred to by clinicians as the “SALT” team.
* Speech pathology in Australia
* Speech-language therapy in New Zealand

Other terms in use include speech therapy, logopaedics and phoniatrics.

from: wikipedia

photo: flickr: 42dreams