[QUOTE=WIMomOf2][QUOTE=KajoliT]
[Kathy where would you get VB ABA from
[/QUOTE]
Kajoli - I'm not Kathy, but I'll take a shot. We actually found out about our VB/ABA provider through our speech/language pathologist. Two of our therapists are BCBA's, one of whom mentored under Dr. Vincent Carbone. There is a directory of the BCBAs in the country on the Behavior Analyst Certification Board's web site. If I remember right, you are from Tennessee. There are 110 BCBAs in TN. If you click on the therapists name, you can send them an e-mail for further information.
http://www.bacb.com/consum_frame.html
(Click on Certificant Registry and enter where you live.)
[/QUOTE]ABA techniques are very good and have been covered already very well so I won't blab there. We are also at about the same stage as you BTW and my dd is 4 yo.
Like Tzoya said: Speaking will flow from WANTING to communicate and having some kind of skill to do so.
One other technique is child based it's in a book I'm reading called Communicating Partners by Dr. J. Macdonald; I got it from the library sometimes libraries can get books from other libraries even if that library doesn;t have it.... so ask at the reference desk it's much cheaper than buying
Communicating Partners premise is imitating the child to become more like them and they in turn want to become more like you. Essentially, it sets the stage for nonverbal communication building that carries over to functional communication and onto conversations. I think this helps build the intrinsic the WANT.
It's also a very good book for kids all along the ASD communication way even who label and parents who want to expand this into conversation. Or even enhance conversations. There are many many examples and many different ASD kids in the book..
Speech/language is a skill. Diet doesn't teach skills. Education does. You don't mention what sort of special education your child is getting. This is KEY. Search PECS here. That is a visual way many, many children learn to understand what language is FOR. Verbal Behavior is a form of ABA that focuses on language (it's more complicated than that, but that's the gist of it). All of these approaches are supported by research an shown to improve language. Get as much of this as possible for your son and get parent training to learn how to implement this 24/7 Forget speaking. Concentrate on COMMUNCIATION. Speaking will flow from WANTING to communicate and having some kind of skill to do so. PECS icons that are exchanged in order to express wants and needs are a much higher level of communication than simply labeling things verbally. Trust that your son will speak once he understands what communication is all about.
Thanks so much everyone![QUOTE=KajoliT][Kathy where would you get VB ABA from
[/QUOTE]
Kajoli - I'm not Kathy, but I'll take a shot. We actually found out about our VB/ABA provider through our speech/language pathologist. Two of our therapists are BCBA's, one of whom mentored under Dr. Vincent Carbone. There is a directory of the BCBAs in the country on the Behavior Analyst Certification Board's web site. If I remember right, you are from Tennessee. There are 110 BCBAs in TN. If you click on the therapists name, you can send them an e-mail for further information.
http://www.bacb.com/consum_frame.html
(Click on Certificant Registry and enter where you live.)
[QUOTE=KathyK]Please try Verbal Behavior ABA. My son was verbal (barely 2 words) at
2.5yrs. He has had intense ABA (starting at 25hrs now 35 hrs) at 2.5yrs.
While ABA has helped so much with everything, last fall I switched agencies
to VB/ABA and the language has improved tremondously. My agency had
helped a lot ot non verbal children become verbal. You need to give this a
shot. I can not say enough about the benefits. A speech pathologist who is
familiar with the method will be beneficial as well. You got to go out and
fight for these services. Good Luck.[/QUOTE]
Kathy where would you get VB ABA from
We pretty much did the ABA method only didn't know at the time it was called ABA, we did what Shelley did. I did not realize how good I had gotten at predicting their needs to avoid the screaming for things. (this was age 2.5-age3, they were almost entirely nonverbal). So they had to attempt to ask for what they wanted before they would get it on the recommendation of the therapists. It did work, it was a lot of crying at first. With the labeling, they didn't do it for a long time. We looked at so many first word books, pointing at pictures and labeling, putting our hands over theirs to point at the pictures. The therapists wouldn't let them move to the next toy until they said a word or at least attempted it even if it was a grunt. Nikolas would make a pouty face and say fish so we would leave him alone. And then praise the heck out of them. They would smile and do it again. They have really just this last 6 months realized the power of language and now Andrew gets frustrated that I can't understand him. He never cared before. The boys are 4.5 and are on a 2.5-3 year old speech level. The gap might be starting to finally close a little bit. We probably are going to start ABA/VB soon as soon as I get the paper work back. I am a little leary of it, their speech path doesn't agree with ABA and doesn't think it would be a good match for Nikolas and probably is the cause of his resistance (could be), and I have to say she has gotten more out of them in a very short period of time voluntarily than any other therapist has ever before. But insurance is paying for it so I do want to at least try it mainly because of all the success stories I've read on her with it and speech. Sounds just like my son!!!mike was non verbal until age 4 and 4 months. oonly echololia. he was taking me to refrigrator or door othervise he would scream for things.
but last year he start labeling and say words toward his need. he has lots of words, but not sentences. "the only sentences he learnd lets go eat and lets go home". im hoping he will start coversation very soon
dont loose hope, my friend doughter start to talk around age seven. i wished you could see her now.
good luck
lili mom to mike 5 mild/moderat autism
Hi, my son will be 4 in Feb. He sounds a lot like your son. He babbles a lot. But in the last few months he has started labeling a few things. Some animals and eyes, ears, nose. Is starting to count to 10. I don't think he knows what numbers mean though. He also says his siblings names on occasion and the names of some of his favorite characters, like thomas. Heard mommy a few times a while back. Sometimes I will hear a word and never hear it again. He doesn't label or speak at all on demand. I have heard him throw out these words in the middle of babbling. I still mostly get led around by the hand. He has been having so many more meltdowns than usual. I think the frustration is really getting to him. Anyway, we have been getting only 3 hrs a week tops for therapy the last year and a half and he is progressing, so don't get discouraged. I'm sure you will hear some words soon. We used Verbal Behavior~ABA therapy to get language out of Sarah..they basically put all highly reinforcers up high; toys, foods..videos..ect.. and she would have to grunt or learn to point for it and over time getting closer verbal utterances to the actual item..and slowly she would say the word:) Then we increase the demand to her saying "I want... and pointing to it:) over months and months the reinforcers were able to come down because she had learn her words had power and knew she had to use them..We praised her like crazy for all attempt but no reaction to screaming...we would redirect her and mold her hand into a point and get her to raise her arm to it...It's a very long tedious process but totally necessary for a child that was so against talking. Best of luck!Hi all. Well my son zach will be 4 years old in December and he is still nonverbal. He babbles ALOT, but he has been doing that for quite awhile so Im wondering if it is a precursor to talking or not. I have read a lot of posts on here about kids who are around his age and are at least labeling things and saying what they want, like food or toy. But my son doesnt do any of these things right now. I just wonder if/when he is ever going to talk. The thing is is just that I know he is so smart.. He figures out all kinds of things. We bought a plastic container to put his toys in so that he would have to ask to open it but of course he figured out how to open it on his own... right away.. Also he has really good eye contact. And he seems to be able to learn certain things, like recently to do a high five when we ask him, and to clap..He also used to do signs but havent seen that much lately, though they say he does them quite a bit at school... So I know he is smart, but I just dont know how to bring out the words. I have been trying to work on getting him to say what he wants, but its hard to get him to babble for something he wants, much less get him to say anything that sounds like the word.. I am just wondering if this will ever come..Also, we started him on mb12 shots 2 weeks ago, so Im hoping that will help him some, but who knows.. Anyway, just wanted to see what you all think or if anyone's child is similar to mine in this way.. Thanks for listening everyone!My youngest son (6.2 years old) has a severe language delay. When he was 4, he could make simple requests (i.e. I want water.), and do some labelling on command. His delay was 2 1/2 years, so essentially his language was at the level of a 1 1/2 year old. Even though he had early intervention and private speech, his language really didn't start to develop until after age 4. However, it was very slow. He was making appropriate gains, but the gap wasn't closing much.
We just started VB/ABA prior to his 6th birthday (long wait list). The changes I'm seeing are quite remarkable. He's now starting to speak in complete, grammatically correct sentences, rather than short phrases. He is still more observational than conversational, but he's on the brink. For the first time ever, his private speech pathologist told me he's having a language explosion. VB/ABA is without question the best thing we've done to help our son with language aquisition.
jen - It's sounds like the pieces are there for your son. I would model language for him and praise him like crazy for any attempts at it. At your son's age, we worked on labelling (both pointing to the object and attempting to say the name) and getting him to request things he wanted/needed by simply saying "I want_____ please." We also taught him to say "thank you." He couldn't say a lot, but he was polite. It took a lot of time, but he did eventually get it.
Singing also seemed to help our son learn to speak and string words together. His special ed pre-school used music a lot to help bring out language in the children. In fact, this past year in Kindergarten, I taught my son his address (it's a long suburban one) by making it rhythmic and sing-songy. He learned it fast!
Best wishes to you!
You might want to look at alternative communication methods as well, perhaps PECS or if he's ok with imitating then a sign language like Makaton. We use Makaton with Ds1 (speak to him as well) and it's been marvellous for helping his understanding and him communicating with us. Today I said and signed to him "We're going to the shops. We're going to buy juice and fruit" and he signed back "bread""a formal audiologic assessment should include behavioral audiometric measures, assessment of middle ear function, and electrophysiologic procedures using experienced pediatric audiologists with current audiologic testing methods and technologies."
Good luck with everything.
Thanks so much everyone. I appreciate all of the advice. I really like the ABA therapist that we have. She says she uses ABA and VB together. We have been working on try to get some kind of babble out of him in order for him to get toys, food, etc.. Then once he starts that we would move on to trying to get him to say the word, or something close to it. Is that pretty much what VB involves? Or is there more to it? Thanks again!Kajoli- VB is a method of ABA. I feel that the methods used by a good