Does Speech Therapy REALLY work? | Autism PDD
Yes I believe it can help. We chose it cause Dabiel quit this skill at age 1 after his shots. I don't have a huge voc. either. I get bye with short sentences. Daniel had oral motor problems cause he has a large tongue. He couldn't even chew in infancey. His tongue still works strange today. Yes, Daniel has processing problems which is a dyslexia sign also. He also gotn visual spacial work with his private St he had. She was great and still help us ot today. Texans check out the therapist in Dallas/Plano/Mckinney (NTTI) they are great there! They take no ins.
I think speech therapy helps if it is not limited to the sessions with the therapist. I believe if between the sessions of speech therapy the parents use the techniques that the speech therapist uses, it helps language acquisition a lot. But if the therapy is limited to the work that therapist do with the child, then I am not sure it is helpful.
Daddy
The VB/ABA therapists would set up sitiuations for Sarah to have to use her language like when she was hungry instead of taking our hand to whatever...they would have her use her words either by pointing to a pic we had and making her utter the sound of it..and reward her..we used "I want" cards and would visually prompt her by showing her the card without saying it..till eventually we folded card in half..then a 1/4,,... and then just a piece of index card to none:)
Sometimes we would verbally prompt just the first syllable for her and then fade it out quicky.. When we played games we would purposely hide a puzzle piece without her knowlege so that she would have to ask "where is the puzzle piece?' and they would have her go ask me with a card "go ask mama" and I would pretend not to hear her so she would have to tap me on the shoulder or tug at me..and then I would respond to her with over the top excitement and give her the missing piece and thank her for asking me..
She was basically being taught how to notice her environment more..ask questions and go out of her way to get answers..we did many exercises like this because she never wanted to talk to us or if she could do it herself she would..we had to make her need us and reward her for seeking us out:)
I wish I could explain it better..since Sarah could read we did most of our programs using that aspect because she seemed to pick it up better written than verbal..so we always walked around with cue cards and for everything including on the playground to initiate conversation with peers and then faded them out asap. Tons of social scripts to make her language more natural..
Try to place highly wanted items up high so that your son has to get your attn. and make him use his words (no items if he screams or tantrums) to get them..one word now..reward him heavily and then build the words up to more of them to get what he wants..everything in ABA is teaching small do-able tasks and building on them and molding their language and behavior into more appropriate and rewarding them all the way. It seems kinda un-natural at first & robotic as they are learning the steps but they make it their own and it will flow the more they practice it.. Model constantly how they should respond if they could and give plenty of time later to allow them to process their answer..
Find books without words and have him describe what is going on..Alexandra Day wrote some beautiful books with just illustrations and no words..we used them at speech tx and at home in our home programs because it made her pay attention to details and made her express what she noticed instead of just reading the words~which she could do very well already. We still set up situations constantly all the time even now..
ETA: As for as placing her in spec. ed or ppcd at 3,4,5 years old we opted out of it and did full ABA at home because our consultant and therapists felt she needed intense 1:1 therapy to progress and the school couldnt provide this. She made tremendous progress with ABA and I feel personally she wouldnt of learned all the skills she needed from the school system...we did put her in a part time kinderkids 3 hours a day 3x a week for peer play with our ABA therapist to shadow her for 2 years..it was really small with 2 teachers and 8 kids:)
Best of luck:)
Tom has speech therapy once a fortnight at his nursery, but it is really communication, rather than just talking, therapy. The SALT uses Makaton, photos, objects as well as words to encourage Tom to communicate his wants and to express himself. I do the same at home and whilst he is verbal, I have seen more evidence of spontaneous communication with him signing and not saying anything than when he's been repeating words back. Eg the other day we were on a train and he made my hands sign "mummy, tom, jacob, train".
Knowing how difficult I still find it to express myself and to initiate talking, I will always give him the option of communicating in other means. We always talk to him and when I sign I say the words as well, but it's nice to know he has various options to help him.
Side note: For anyone who lives in the San Jose area of California, I attended an autism conference yesterday, and the keynote speaker was an incredible SLP named Michelle Garcia Winner, who specializes in children and adults on the spectrum, and I was so impressed with her. She really gets the whole social communication and executive function role in ST. I also went to one of her breakout sessions on executive function skills and homework, and it was fabulous! Here is her website: http://www.socialthinking.com/
Her practice is in San Jose, but she conducts seminars and attends conferences all over the country. Check her out.
My son is 2 1/2 years old and was getting Speech Therapy 4 days a week for 30 minute sessions up until July when the Speech Therapist just stopped showing up for no reason (I have yet to get an explanation from the agency). His speech did improve and he began using more one syllable words. I however found that his speech improved so much more when his ABA started working with him. She sees him 5 days a week for 2 hour sessions. To me the ABA's approach to getting him to understand and articulate what he wants is so much better than what the Speech Therapist was doing with him. The ABA ignores his outburst, gives him breaks when he needs them and offers him rewards for his accomplishments. He even gives her hugs at the end of their sessions. With the Speech Therapist, he would always be in tears. His ABA has gotten him to articulate things that his Speech Therapist could not accomplish in 5 months. My son had serious mouthing issues as well as biting issues that I constantly addressed with the Speech Therapist to no avail. The biting even got him kicked out of Day Care. In less than a few sessions with his ABA, the biting has completely stopped and the mouthing is almost non existent.
I think in order for Speech Therapy to work, the Therapist must be trained in working with ASD kids or at least Oral Motor issues.
Our dd began ST through ECI at 10 mos of age. She had a lot of oral
motor issues (apraxia) & feeding difficulties (main reasons for starting
therapy at that age), as well as making little to no sounds (no babbling,
cooing, raspberries, etc.). We stuck w/ ECI for about 6 months or
so...and felt like we were just not getting anywhere. We had it 1 x week.
So, around 18 mos, we began private ST who we are still with. We drive
45-60 minutes each way (we moved, but have continued with her), as
much as the drive drains me sometimes, & gas prices...it is worth it. Our
dd finally trusts & is connecting w/ the ST, I'd hate to disrupt that.
Our ST would like our dd in 2-3 x a week, to help all of her issues (same
as at 10 mos, but has made TONS of progress, & is now verbal), but
financially that wasn't feasible. So, our ST gives us stuff to do at home, &
that has helped. If anything, I think that is KEY...speech or any other
therapy sessions are good, but what can really make an impact is what
you do at home. We have worked on oral motor exercises, eating/
drinking, flashcards, etc.
I would push for more ST, preferably longer sessions (I know most SD's
do the 30 mins...that would do very little for our dd, she gets 60 mins,
which we usually ends up being 70 or so). And ask for things you can do
at home, as well as add'l things the teacher can incorporate in the
classroom to help. Also, if progress is w/ regard to lack of verbal skills,
you may want to start working w/ PECS. Best of luck w/ your school
decisions.
We have been doing private speech and OT this summer, they have done it both therapies together with both boys at the same time. I have seen no real speech therapy going on, it looks like all OT and floor time to me. There has been improvement in speech but I don't think it was anything the speech therapist did and it would have happened anyway. I keep taking them though because 1) they love it 2) insurance pays for it and 3) she has helped with other things. The teacher last year did so much damage to Nikolas he would hide in a corner and cower any time he was asked to sit at a table or a crayon came out. Now he smiles, sits at the table, colors, and talks to his therapist, shows her his animals and tells her what they are. So it has helped, maybe not in the way I first intended. But thanks to Shelley I pursued ABA/VBA against this therapist's advice (I think she has an outdated view of ABA) and he has been here twice so far. he is going to work hardest with Nikolas in communicating cause although Nikolas has the words he refuses to use them. He has no motivation to talk, he wants to point to everything and in the last couple of weeks it has gotten worse. I don't know if he is regressing or being lazy, why should I talk if all I have to do is point and you'll get me what I want. So with use of reinforcers our first goal is to get Nikolas to communicate and I am not to give him anything he wants until he asks for it or at least vocalizes something. It is working, I am still having to pull words out of him, but the goal is to teach him how powerful language is. If I had a choice between ABA/VBA and speech I would pick the VBA too, or a therapist that incorporated the ABA/VBA into the speech therapy.
Carter's mommy I'm not Shelley but that is exactly the problem we have with Nikolas. He has tons of words, but won't use them, and the ABA therapist is basically taking the approach of putting one of Nikolas' favorite toys in his hand and closing his fist and then saying what do you want? over and over and giving Nikolas the answer (turtle) but not giving it to Nikolas until he says turtle. And I am trying to carry that over by not giving him what he wants until he says something, I always know what he wants and I have a habbit of automatically getting it for him, so that is a habit I have to break. So I ask him the question, model for him his answer and don't give it to him until he has made the attempt to vocalize what he wants. Even if it sounds nothing like turtle I give it to him at this point. Once he can say a word then a grunt will no longer get it for him.
becasue he had zero speech at the time he started, by the time he was
enrolled into the special needs preschool at 3, he had good speech. In that
school he had pull out speech 2x a week, as well as group speech in class,
once a week. This year, he will have speech 2x a week but it will be with a
peer as well as him to work on his speech skills interacting with other
children.
I feel speech therapy really works but I guess it depends on the therpist and
how many times a week they get it. 2x a month wouldn't have done
anything for my child at the time when he wasn't speaking at all.
Thank you all so much for your replies. My son is nearly nonverbal. He only says a few words a day. The few words he learns are often lost soon after. The speech therapist we found seems ideal. Matty, ours sounds like the one you used. She's very experienced with ASD and has a son with Autism. She uses an ABA approach as well. So I'm hopeful.
But we live out in the country and it takes about an hour and 15 minutes each way to get to her. So, with all that travel and work to get there, I wanted to know if it would be worth it. Sounds like it should be.
ShellyR,
I would love to have ABA for my son, but financially, it's just not an option for us, unless we do it ourselves, which we may do, but even the consultant is QUITE expensive. Fortunately we have a large income tax refund coming in a couple of weeks which we will probably use for that.
If any of you haven't read my thread in the Education Issues section, please do and give me advice on whether to do the Special Ed class, Head Start, or just the home ABA program. I'd love to have more opinions. I just don't know what to do. We're leaning toward doing one of the classes, plus an extra 10-15 ABA at home, plus the Speech, of course. I'm getting tired thinking of it! LOL
Thanks so much!
[QUOTE=Screeech_2001]
Hi There!
I didn't read the other replies, so I am sorry IFfen I am repeating AnyBuddy. "some" of the "outside" SLP are kickin'!! However, we can not just leave it ALL up to THEM!!!
IFfen you have the chance to go to therapies with your child, then do so!!! Learn as much as you can....don't stop there! Bring it to your HomeFront!! to generalize.
Be CrEaTiVe!! 
ScReEcH
[/QUOTE]Welcome back, Screeech! Where ya been
Speech helps in the right quality and quantity. It might take a while, but I believe it helps.
My son had 100 words in his vocabulary by 3 but he just could ask questions or answer, make up sentences etc... when he started speech at 3 , BLAST OFF like Little Einsteins say... he started talking and now he is 4 and its unbelievable how much he has come though in just 1 year of school! He also gets occupational!
Hi There!
I didn't read the other replies, so I am sorry IFfen I am repeating AnyBuddy. "some" of the "outside" SLP are kickin'!! However, we can not just leave it ALL up to THEM!!!
IFfen you have the chance to go to therapies with your child, then do so!!! Learn as much as you can....don't stop there! Bring it to your HomeFront!! to generalize.
Be CrEaTiVe!!
ScReEcH I'm wondering--does speech therapy really work? Or do we all just do it because it's offered? My son is fortunate enough to have been approved for Medicaid funding for 3 hours per week plus he will get it through the school district. I'm excited about this, but on the other hand, the speech therapy through Early Childhood Intervention didn't help a bit. Granted it was only 30 minutes twice a month, so maybe that's why. But over the year with ECI his speech actually regressed. But really, is there research showing its effectiveness? Mason gets 3- half hour sessions per week through the school. To us speech has been so beneficial. Mason was non-verbal until the age of 3 when he started speech therapy. He is now fully verbal. He still has his impediment and a lot of areas that he needs to work in, but for the most part he can get all of him needs met through talking. For us speech therapy has been amazing. I do agree that 2 times a month isn't enough. I think you will begin to see a major change with all the new help your DS is going to get. Good luck!! Marilyn, We did 2 hours of speech tx a week (private) along with ABA and if I had to do over I would of took the 0/wk spent on speech and gotten her at least 7 hours more of ABA therapy..they do everything that speech therapist do in a much less formal way..with lots of reinforcers to motivate your child. If you decide to do speech therapy make sure they use reinforcers to help your son..our ABA therapists taught ours how to ignore the fits..and use rewards, timer.. and breaks to keep her interested and focused:) In my opinion 30 min/2x a month is not near enough. ECI did this amount for Sarah for 8 months and I saw no progress at all... Good luck on getting him help:) Our speech therapy worked really well. We didn't do ABA, but used a speech therapist and occupational therapist that incorporated floortime into their therapies. They also trained me to do floortime at home and it became our lifestyle. Like anything else, it so depends on the therapists, but we had great results! Our speech therapist advises ABA as does OT. Our dd sees them once a week for an assessment of 30 minutes each and if there are changes they update recommendations.
This summer he had a huge developmental growth spurt. His speech clarity improved a LOT, all on his own, no speech therapy. He did enjoy his therapy sessions, but we will not be continuing them. We will have him tested for a processing disorder and go from there. While I agree with the other posters that 2 x a month therapy is not helpful, maybe increasing the sessions like you said would be helpful. But, if after some time you dont see improvement, then there might be something else going on DS is verbal and we doing private ST every fortnight. The therapist is trained to work with autistic kids and is simply fantastic. I sit in the session and see that she uses VB methods. It seems to work with our son. Mary We did private speech for 3 hrs. a week for six months and saw a major improvement, therapist was exp. in ASD so she used an ABA approach which worked very well. I felt as if I was getting bonus ABA sessions... We've been staying at my parents house for the summer and the therapy center here only had 1.5 hrs. week avail. for my son, and he hasn't learned much at all the past couple of months, plus the ST was very young. I think quantity and quality make a big difference.
2 times a month really isn't enough consistency to make speech therapy effective. I think your new program sounds great!
My daughter spoke maybe 5 words and only 1 word at a time at age 4 and now she can talk sentences with 5-6 words and she is 6 yrs old. It worked on her. She talks non-stop. She does have an IEP with speech at school.
important!
my son's issue are plain articulation delay at this point and we really need
a speech therapist who understands "speech" to deal with articulation.
she works with him 1 x week for 1 hour and then sends me on my way
with training and work to do during the week with our ABA therapists. the
combination of the the 2 therapies makes it worthwhile.
if it was just speech alone i think it would be a waste of time. our IEP had
him doing 90 min/week but not 1:1!!! with such severe articulation
problems he would never had improved had i not gone private and ABA!
if you keep speech make sure you up the amount and it is 1:1
LIMO - VB/ABA is the best therapy for developing speech. However, I do think speech therapy is very worthwhile. My son receives 90 minutes of speech each week at school. Even though I think the therapists at school are good, they don't specialize in working with ASD kids. One told me point blank that she was a "general practioner." For this reason, we sought out a private speech/language pathologist. She was the first therapist who was able to test our son, and she has guided us for several years now. Her work and advise has really been priceless.
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