Articulation? | Autism PDD

I have a question about articulation..I am thrilled about my daughter finally using 4-5 word sentences; however, I would be more thrilled if anyone could understand her

Thanks, Renee

There is a language disorder that has something to do with inability to pronounce certain constanants or vowels, but I cant think of it right now, if I do I will come back and edit...... Perhaps you could ask the speech Therapist about it?

Renee,

Articulation, enunciation, and voice modulation are all on-going problems for autistic individuals. My son is 14, and still has speech therapy in school. He struggles to speak--his face literally contorts in his efforts to voice whatever's in his head. A good example of Andy's difficulty with articulation is the word: criminal. He loves to watch Law and Order with me, but I'm always having to correct him on the pronunciation of that word. If he breaks it down by syllable, he can say it. If he tries to say it normally, he garbles it EVERY time!

I would encourage you to ask for more speech therapy for this issue. The more help our kids get with their speech, the less likelihood that they'll be made fun of by their peers.

Kim

Renee...
My son is 3 with autism and also has articulation problems. He
leaves the initial consonants off almost all his words. He also says 4-
5 word sentences, but they are not at all understandable to anyone
but me. His developmental peds said that he has apraxia of speech
which is a motor disorder that is basically a miscommunication
problem between the mouth and the brain. She said his brain knows
what he wants to say, but his mouth is not able to correctly follow
the instructions. In the last month he has begun to add the correct
consonants to about 60% of his words. I have tried 4 different
speech therapists and have finally found one that can get through to
him. The key to his success, I think, is patience. He also has other
speech difficulties related to his autism, like echolalia. I think that
with speech therapy and time your daughter will overcome this. Has
your ST taught you any visual cues for the consonants she does not
pronounce? My ST taught me to touch certain parts of my face,
neck, or mouth to cue him where the sounds should be coming
from. I know that this is really helpful to some kids.....especially if
she has good eye contact with you when you are speaking. School
has helped him a lot to. I think spending time with people who do
not understand him unless he makes the effort to pronounce things
correctly has been a great motivator for him.
Karen

My little guy is 4 1/2 and he says some phrases, and lots of words and 2 to 3 word sentences, but has difficulty w/ pronouciation as well...its cute now, but I was worried as he gets older it will stick...I've spoken to his s/t once about it recently and was told that he seems to have the ability to pronouce most of his constanants and all of his vowels...and its common for children learning to speak to say a word how they think its sounds? or mix up a constanant like a b w/ a d...like rubber bucky, actually Nick calls it "wubba-da-ducky"...or for example, he'll say "buc guess you!" for god bless you after a sneeze, and in that phrase he mixes up I feel because I always say it so quickly, lately I've been slowing down how I speak to him and he's getting it better...

Best of luck!

Ali

We've got articulation problems too. With Dominic you have to listen really hard to what he's saying otherwise, sometimes, you have no clue. Lol poor guy must get frustrated w. mom.

Dom (Garbled--1 or 2 clear words)

Mom (Wow! Can you say that again for me?)

Dom ( Looks at mom like she's nuts)

Lol

Apraxia I think is the articulation problem speech disorder.

Depending on the age of the child, it is still normal for them not ot have mastered many sounds, dropping sounds etc.. up until about age 8 or so. Another thing to look at is the legnth of the connection between the floor of the mouth and the tongue. We discovered (because his SLP found it) that my oldest DS was tongue tied and had his tongue clipped 2 years ago in July. It made a tremendous difference in his articulation and intelligibility. My son was actaully severely tongue tied as he could not touch the roof of his open mouth, trouble putting his tongue behind his teeth, couldn't lick a sucker or ice cream cone. He also couldn't do clip clop noises or make many other noises with his mouth because of it. After the surgery he can now do all those things.