Let them communicate…

Miracle L Team, as speech language pathologists we treat many patients who have different speech and language difficulties to communicate. When it comes to Autism spectrum disorder most of the parents are thinking that we as speech language pathologists “Take the child out of Autism Spectrum”. This is one of the misconceptions parents have.

Our GOAL is to facilitate them, by teaching them ways to communicate and live their daily life with the spectrum.

They can’t speak? Ok fine, let them communicate from other forms of communication. Somewhere along the line, they may even become verbal but as parents you need to have patience.

Do they have self stimulatory behaviours? Let them be and calm them down as long as it is not harming them or others.

Do they have temper tantrums? Guide them towards ways to communicate their needs rather than panicking, screaming back or giving what they want.

Our goal is to let them be themselves, while guiding and helping them to overcome the struggles of daily life. If they have the capacity, guide them further and further to live a nearly-typical life. It may not be perfect in your eyes or what the society is thinking. But it’s perfect in their own way. A lot of the times we are in a haste to “make them normal”. What even is normal? Every child is different and awesome in their own way, be patient.

For all those super mothers, with children in the autism spectrum. We as professionals know and we totally understand, as a mother that it is not easy to listen to the criticism of others and yet you are giving your child your everything to make life better for them. It’s unimaginable!

This valentines, we wish you will be happy seeing how much you give to your little children in the autism spectrum…

HAPPY VALENTINE’S DAY TO OUR SUPERMOMS!

Give an opportunity for your child to speak

Do you give an opportunity for your child to speak at home? Will you allow them to get their needs just by crying or in any other way rather than asking for it? Then it is time to stop it. This is the most harmful thing you can do a to a child these days. We know that you love your child more than the world, however you will understand why we are telling you that it is okay for a child to cry by reading this post.

Every human have basic needs such as,

1) Food 
2) Toileting 
3) Protection 
4) Clothes 

So now as parents you have a window to use these needs and give a chance for your child to speak

We as humans need to communicate our needs somehow. It can be by any mode of to communication such as;


i) Crying 
ii) Gesturing or Pointing 
iii) Verbally 

The first mode of communication of a human being is the birth cry. Thereafter, we evolve by gesturing and then saying one word.If your child is older than 2 years he/she must express their needs by using simple two words..

But unfortunately some parents cannot understand this. What they do is, as soon their child cries they willingly give whatever they want without getting any verbal outputs from the child or by analysing their facial expressions. Read our free speech therapy tips to get an idea on how to improve their communication skills.

Your child is really smart…he/she will understand this behavior of parents and after some time they will know that by crying he/she can get their needs. Because of that their communication will be restricted only to nonverbal communication..

Dear parents wait until your child is asking for their needs from you give an opportunity for your child to speak. You MUST prompt them to communicate. This is the only method to expand their vocabulary

Pronunciation Difficulty – උච්චාරණය කිරීමේ අපහසුතා

ඔබට මතකද ඔබේ කුඩා දරුවාගේ කතා කිරීමේ විලාශය? බොහෝ විට ඔවුන් වැඩිහිටි  අප කථාකරන අන්දමට වඩා වෙනස්ය. ඔබ සිතුවාද ඇයි දරුවා මේ විදියට කතාකරන්නේ කියල? එයට හේතුව වන්නේ සමහර ශබ්ද ඔවුන්ට උච්චාරණය කිරීමට අපහසුතා (Pronunciation Difficulty) නිසායි. ඔවුන් ඔවුන්ගේම වචන සාදාගනිමින් කථා කිරීම සිදුකරයි.

Phonological Processing Disorder යනු එක්තරා ආකාරයක උච්චාරණය සම්බන්ධ ගැටලුවකි. මෙය Speech sound disorder ලෙසද හදුන්වයි.

දෙමාපියන් හා නැදෑයින් දරුවාගේ මෙම කථා විලාශයට බොහෝ කැමැත්තක් දක්වයි. නමුත් මෙම කථා විලාශය ලමයාට වයස අවුරුදු 6 පසුවද පවතී නම්, දෙමාපියන් වශයෙන් ඔබ ඒ සම්බන්ධව අවධානය යොමුකළ යුතුය.

උච්චාරණයේ අපහසුතා (Pronunciation Difficulty) ඇතිවිය හැකි ආකාර කිහිපයක් තිබෙනවා.

එක් ආකාරයක් වන්නේ Articulation disorders සහ අනෙක් ප්‍රධාන ආකාරය වන්නේ Phonological processing disorders යනුවෙන් හැදින්වේ.

Articulation disorders ඇතිවීමට එක් හේතුවක් විය හැක්කේ, කතා කිරීමට අවශ්‍ය ඉන්ද්‍රියන් එනම් දත්, දිව, හනු, තොල් ආදියේ සිදුවන වෙනස් වීම් වලිනි

Phonological processing disorders , මෙම තත්වය මෙයට හේතුව විය හැක්කේ ලමුන්ට එම ශබ්ද නිපදවීම පිළිබඳව සංකල්පය/දැනුම මදිකමයි. මෙය වලකාලීමට කල යුත්තේ ඔවුන්ට ඒ පිළිබඳව අවශ්‍ය දැනුම ලබාදීමයි.

අවුරුදු 5-6 වන දරුවන්ට බොහෝ ශබ්ද උච්චාරණය කිරීමට හැකියාව තිබුනද සමහර ශබ්ද උදා : “ර” උච්චාරණය වයස අවුරුදු 6 වන තෙක් නිසි අයුරින් නොවේ. මේ නිසා දරුවාගේ වයසද උච්චාරණය අපහසුතා සදහා බලපායි.

පහත උදාහරණ බලන්න. මෙවැනි උච්චාරණය අපහසු බොහෝවිට දරුවන් පෙන්නුම් කරයි
සමනලයා- තමනලයා
රතු – ලතු
රඹුටන් ලඹුටන්
තාත්තා-කාක්කා

ඔබේ දරුවාගේ මෙවැනි උච්චාරණය අපහසුතා පහලින් Comment කරන්න .

ඔබේ දරුවාටත් මෙවැනි අපහසුතා ඇති නම් අදම අපගේ කථන චිකිත්සකවරයෙකු හමුවන්න…

Free 6 speech therapy tips for children

Most of the parents complain that their children won’t sit or work with them by staying at one place, like how they do in the clinical set up. We thought it would be helpful for our parents if we could give some tips on improving the child’s speech & language at home. Today we are giving Free 6 speech therapy tips for children.

Main reasons for your child’s speech delay are because,

1) Parents provide their needs before children ask for it
or
2) Due to being over exposed to screen time...

So as parents you need to keep your child away from these behaviors if you want them to develop.

TIP #1 

Self talk is one way to approach your child. As parents you need to comment on each movement/task of yours in simple language and let your child hear it.

Take any situation, such as in the kitchen. So every day when you prepare your meals, take your child with you and comment about what you are doing.
” I’m going to prepare our dinner, now I’m going to cut potatoes , can you please pass the potatoes…..after cutting I’ll put those in to a pot…”

This way keep commenting on your actions. Child will pick those in time and improve his/her vocabulary.

TIP #2 

Teach your child to use the table and chair. Most of the parents will allow their child to play on the floor but ultimately child will only learn to move here and there instead of doing his/her work by sitting in one place. So teach them to do their work on the tabletop.

TIP #3 

Don’t allow them to just play. As parents talk with them, ask questions from them even if they don’t reply. If they wont answer, you tell the answer also. Ask questions as much as you can.

TIP #4 

Make a list of your child’s preferences (eg food,toys,songs…) and use those to get the work done. This will help you and your speech & language therapist to use those as reinforces in future.

TIP #5

If your child is attending speech therapy, ask your speech therapist about the goals/ activities they are working on and practise those at home

TIP #6 

Next question will be “How many times?”
I would say 300 times per day
More trials you do,more results you get.

Because those were selected according your child’s capabilities, so the more you practice better the effects are.

Make sure to talk with your child as much as possible.

If you think engaging in these Free 6 speech therapy tips is a tedious job or that the child is not willing to cooperate you can consult a speech therapist. Before you go to meet your speech therapist we would recommended you to read this.

Change of voice?

Have you experienced a change of voice recently? There are lots of voice related issues that we hear on a daily basis. That is because most of us do not know about voice disorders/voice change and vocal hygiene.

Voice disorders are characterized by changes in pitch, loudness or quality of the sound. Professional voice users are highly prone to voice disorders. The above can mostly affect teachers, bus conductors, politicians, lawyers, actors,singers, vendors ,etc who use their voice excessively for their professions. They and mostly children who use their voices in high pitches and males who have puberphonia (males who have a different pitch than the usual) are prone to have voice disorders.

Examples of voice disorders include:

  • Laryngitis
  • Vocal cord paresis or paralysis
  • Spasmodic dysphonia

The most common symptoms of voice disorders/voice changes are,

  • Reduction of loudness in voice
  • Harshness of voice
  • No Voice
  • Frequent throat clearing
  • Coughing
  • Tension in the neck muscles
  • Change of voice
  • Be too high or low or change in pitch
  • Sound strained or choppy

You may have tension or pain in your throat while speaking, or feel like your voice box is tired. You may feel a “lump” in your throat when swallowing, or feel pain when you touch the outside of your throat.

Tips to avoid change of voice,

  • Use your normal loudness ,pitch of your voice
  • Avoid speaking in noisy situations or use amplifying devices while speaking
  • Drink more water
  • Stay in a dust free environment
  • Reduce alcohol intake

If you are suffering with any voice disorders/voice changes like the above, meet our speech pathologist. It is time you get an initial assessment done and obtain your therapy plan without any delay. Moreover, many individuals suffering from the above have been cured with extensive speech therapy. Therefore, do not let it harm your vocal cords, there are professional speech therapists who are ready to help you.

The human voice is the most perfect instrument of all.

ARVO PART

Autism is unique


I am writing this just to say, how each child with autism spectrum disorder who are in the same age group is different from one another before they start a speech therapy session.

Characteristics of autism is different and its unique. Because of that, parents will ignore some of the behaviors of the Autism Spectrum Disorder which their child shows. So keep in mind that children with autism are unique.

The plot

There were 4 children who were diagnosed as autistic and these are few characteristics which they showed during that time and all were in a room with few toys.

Here comes the first. He keeps running around the room. Then he explains each and everything around him and he associates it to his day to day life.
He saw a picture of a cake, he start saying “Let’s make a cake” he again say “I’ll eat cake” then he utter the word “Chocolate”.

All these he told without any help, it was totally independent. He talk to himself and he try to associate things around what he saw, in that case it was a “cake”.

Then he grabs a toy and shows it to others and ask “play play” and asking other kids to join. At times he calls by name of a kid also. He also read some words from a book.

While he was doing all these activities the other girl was sitting next to her father and reading a newspaper. She was not concentrating about other kids who was talking or anything that was happening around her.

The third kid watching all these silently didn’t utter a word but he was smiling with everyone and making faces with me. After 10-15 min he spoke few words with me very softly. As I understood he wanted to play with other kids and but he didn’t want to ask. So he mainly lacks communication skills & social interaction.

Last child grabs a toy and he starts playing with it on the floor. He keeps doing this action again and again without any interaction with children around him.

Take home message; each child have different phases. As parents, speech therapists or any other professional, we need to understand it and help them to grow.

I am sure that you will have another story to tell us, so share your experience about your super kid and let others understand about it.

Keep in mind that children who falls on autism spectrum disorder are unique and we need to address their issue in unique way.