Well...three weeks into school and it has become clear that Liam's main challenge is his lack of receptive language skills. When he was assessed, he scored at 18 months with scatter to 24.
He just began therapies, and won't qualify for ABA for several months. What can I do in the interum in order to help him? Are there specific drills that anyone can suggest.
He labels well, but is obsessed with numbers and letters. He will count things all day, if left to his own devices.
Any suggestions would be appreciated.
Maybe the book "Teach me language" has some receptive language stuff? I haven't used it myself, but others have recommended it.
I hope other forum members see your question and have a better answer for you.
Hi there -
My son is delayed in receptive as well...he is 3 and is about at 20 months...
I use simple picture books - my son is a visual learner. Also, simple phrases and I have found that the some of the baby bumble videos helped him in learning action words and using them properly
I will have to go and look at my son's program book, but I believe the first receptive exercises he did were labeling pictures. We bought several packs of the Webber cards (real life pictures) from superduperinc.com. They would put out a field of 3-5 and ask him to point to the "dog". If he didn't, they would hand over hand put his hand on the correct answer. Later, they would just gesture to the correct response if he didn't respond within 3-5 seconds. They would present this trial several times each session for each target.
This worked on labeling and also following the directions. They would change the SD to "give me", "point to", "touch". They did the same exercises with 3D objects. Even though he knew the item, he still had to follow the instruction appropriately.
If you let me know specifics, I can look up some of his programs and try and describe them for you. Can he follow 1 step directions yet? How many pictures or items can he label. Right now, my son is into receptive categories, "give me all the vehicles" from a field of 4-6.
They present a field of 10 items and ask for 4 of them. Give me the spoon, the ball, the bird and the marker. He has mastered 3 items out of 10.
These are jsut some I remember off the top of my head. Let me know if you want me to look up some specific ones for you if that would help.
One thing that really helped my son was an electronic dictionary. He had significant language delays (at 18 months his skills were at the 6-8 month level). He loved the computer, so we bought this electronic dictionary (it was by Dorling Kindersley). We saw a lot of progress with this, and we asked his special educator why she thought it made such a difference. She said that when people speak, we change the inflections of words. If you ask your child “Do you want an apple?” you likely make the last syllable in apple go up in pitch. If you say “That is an apple.” You are likely to make the last syllable go down in pitch. To a kid with ASD, who processes information differently, he/she may think you are saying two entirely different words. The electronic dictionary always pronounced the word the same way. Once he mastered that, he was then able to grasp that a word could be pronounced more than one way (well, that was her explanation, and it seemed to make sense).
We also limited the number of words we spoke to our son until he seemed to show he understood the word, than we added a new one. I think we started with his name, and the word “more” (which we also signed to him). All three of these things help him gain receptive language skills.
Baby bumblebee DVDs helped my son a lot in receptive language.
Daddy
He sounds like a smart kiddo, who is similar to my son. Once my son understands what is expected of him, he "gets it" and never loses it. My son does a VB/ABA program and moved so quickly at the begining and continues to move along. It has to be rewarding for your child, so reward, reward, reward when he does what you want him to do.
I would suggest trying what I described above with pictures or items untill it is consistent. It might be more about following the directions as labeling the item.
Wh questions are very difficult to understand. I would start very simple and work up to that.
Set out 4-6 items or pictures of items. Say, "Give me the ball". If he doesn't, then hand over hand have him give you the ball. Don't use any other language.
You will want to change the direction after he understand one. "point to", "touch", "can you find", etc.
Here are some other targets that might be helpful.
Follow instuctions to do an enjoyable action in context.
say, "jump on trampolene", "get your puzzle", etc. Whatever he enjoys. Then, give him 3-5 seconds and if he doesn't respond, physically prompt him. Do this several times in a row. Then reward.
Simple motor actions.
Say "arms up", "clap your hands", etc.
Touch body parts on others or a doll.
Say, "touch the doll's head", etc.
The other thing, when he gets it right give him lots and lots of praise or another reward. Even if he requires a prompt, still reward.
Hope this helps.
Happened to run across this article today: "Using visual supports to enhance WH question". Here's the link in case anyone's interested:
http://www.iidc.indiana.edu/irca/communication/EnhanceWH.htm l
Wh discrimination is very hard. and I think that is what you are talkingThanks everyone for your replies. Saka. That is rather interesting as my son resonds better to by DH who speaks very slowly and has a slight monotone nature to his voice. I will look for a similar item to purchase. Daddy, we have had great luck with the bumblebee videos...crazy for colors continues to be his favorite. I guess I should invest in a few more.
Flip, here is the deal. He can label and sign close to 50 things. He can count to 100. Can count backwards from 20. Seperates things by color. Seperates things by shape. Knows his ABC and can identify them He just began saying them backwards. He sings several songs, knows his body parts. So I KNOW things are clicking away inside his head. But when you try to ask him questions...where ...what...it is over. He completely ignores you. He is ignoring the teacher when she is trying to direct him. I am torn between thinking he knows and understands what is being asked of him and would prefer not to do given task...or maybe he simply can't process the language yet. If you can offer any suggestions for sit down exercises, I would be greatful.
BTW...Liam is superobsessed with letters and numbers. He counts the steps I take. He counts cars when we are driving. He sees letters EVERYWHERE. I think he may be obseessing to the point where very few things interest him otherwise.
So...what do you all think?
YepperBepper
There are a lot more electronic options than when my son was learning to talk (almost 10 years ago). The things to look for would be a clear voice from the toy/book/software, and something that your child can control (push the apple picture, it says apple). Over time, we moved to books on tape, and read-along software.
[QUOTE=Daddy]Baby bumblebee DVDs helped my son a lot in receptive language.
Daddy
[/QUOTE]
On the Baby Bumblebee website they also have printable pictures that are from the video. They are great pictures you could use whether or not you watch the video and could help in the receptive area. And, they are free!
Thanks folks. You are awesome as usual. Just a little funny. We rented another Bumblebee video and should have it this week. However, I took the advice and downloaded the ABC's from the web page. This is when we found out that Liam was sounding out words. He was desperate to sound out the word shoe for the letter "s" . You can only imagine how it sounded. He was rather irritated when I kept telling him it wasn't the word he was saying, but shoe. He has looked at these cards almost 100 times since we downloaded. But the letter "s" card has been removed (by him).
Thanks Norway...I suppose I will give these videos a shot.
Today I happened upon some videos that cover WH questions -- the Child First "Able Individual" videos. They cost each, which is a pretty fair for a specialty product.
Here's the link to their website. They have 30 second video clips which give you an idea of what the videos are like: