I have noticed that DS is recently having alot of difficulty sequencing sentences. He is always mixing up the words in a sentence. I did not notice it before but since his language has picked up in the last few months, its becoming more and more apparent he has major issues in that area.
For example, he came up to me the other day holding his fingers up " Mommy, I got fingers in my juice" when what he was trying to say was " he got juice on his fingers". Or the other time when he said " I can't find my blue room in my blanket" when what he means is " I can't find my blanket in my room" (his room is painted blue) .Another time he said," I hurt myself, Chelsea (our cat) scratched my claws on my face."
We do alot of modelling for him and usually interpret what he says back to him correctly. And he repeats it back correctly.There are times he has no problem putting his words together in a sentence.But he does have short-term memory issues and misplaces things easily.He is also showing alot of intonation and pronounciation problems.He says "neatballs" for "meatballs" and calls the cat "Selsea" instead of "Chelsea". When we correct him, he is able to say the words correctly without any difficulty but a few minutes later, he reverts back to "Selsea" or "neatballs".
He has been recieving speech in preschool for 1/2 hr 3 times a week and is not doing any speech therapy atm for the holidays. I feel he needs more intensive speech therapy and am thinking of getting a private ST at home to work on his speech.
Is this just a learning phase since he is starting to use longer sentences and I am being paranoid or should I increase the amount of speech therapy he is getting? DH is not being supportive atm.He thinks DS is doing great and has come a long way and the sentence sequencing issues will resolve eventually. I do agree he has come a long way but something tells me he needs more help then just us modelling and correcting him everytime.
Would really like your opinion on this one. Thanks guys.
We have done private speech with my oldest for years and have seen it work wonders. I highly suggest it especially if he is struggling with language and mixing words up. My youngest has dyspraxia and we are looking at private speech for him because he isn't reaaly talking yet.
It could be a learning phase... Could be verbal dyslexia or working memory issue. Some kids recall sentence structures/words better by using visual memory by reading sentences (text) or through picture boards (visual) rather than just verbal.
Pictures may also work to "show' him what he is saying and why it's kinda silly and how to say what he's visualizing. It may help for him to think of sentences in this way.
Doesn't sound like apraxia - mixing up word order isn't a symptom of apraxia. Apraxic errors would be noticed with the sounds in the words - also he would'nt be able to just repeat correctly with a model w/apraxia. You are describing a syntax/semantics issue. Talk to the SLP who works with your child and I'm sure he or she will have some insight for you. Also, modelling is actually a great way for your son to learn. Good luck.We did use PECS at the start when he had very little language but faded it out because he was scripting PECS out of context most of the time so we faded it it out as the ST advised. Now he uses alot of spontaneous language but they come out all mixed up. His ST is on holidays so I have to wait till she is back to clarify this issue.
I am going to continue with the modelling and see if it improves. Definitely going to look for a private ST .Thank you all!