Speech advice for wife07mom09

Sorry, I just thought it may be a bit easier to just start another thread.  I can tell you legitimate concerns on what to do about your DS's echolalia.  I can only speak from my experience but I thought I would just let you know an outline of what we did.  He just turned 4 a few weeks ago.

So I explained my DS's backstory briefly, but I will also put out there he never did ABA and he is hyperlexic (knew alphabet by age 2, knew sounds by 2.5, knew all shapes/colors by 2.5 and would decontruct items by describing where these shapes were, sight words and sounding out words by 3, and knew the names of all the United States and could put together a puzzle of the states on his own before turning 3)  HOWEVER-- he could not understand WH- questions, could not tell you what his name was if you asked him and had no verbs until about age 2.5-- he had a TON of nouns as you could probably gather based on his interests of letter, numbers, and states.

So at 2 years old, I was super concerned.  All he could say was: ma (mom), da (dad), ba (ball), moo (for a cow if he pointed at it) and he did not say the word "no" in relation to even not wanting something.  Instead, he would throw the item and grumble something.  In fact, right before I started writing this, I forgot about how he used to "jargon" all the time.  Bascially, he would look at you and start what would sound like a conversation-- with inflection, tone, and plenty of gestures/ faces.  He would usually at this time also point to something not there and comment further.  I called this "being a professor" because just watching him, it looked like he was giving you a very important lecture. LOL

We started speech right after he turned 2.  The first objective was to help him communicate when he wanted something.  So the first real lesson was teaching him the sign language for "more" while saying it and then adding something you want more of. I think it was with goldfish crackers or something.  My son figured this out quickly and it really helped at home since he could only drag me to somehting and whine before learning this word.  "More" grew to "more crackers" which turned into "more crackers please" that finally went to "I want more cracker please mommy".  Obviously not overnight.  Then we broke off the words "I want..." which can be used in other ways.  The thing about kids with speech delays like my son is that they need to be directly taught the meaning and use of something.  They are gestalt processors (learning in chunks of language instead of words)  Something we take for granted that we learned language in a more natural way.

Next, we needed to expand his verbs (all he knew was "go").  We started out by doing just a few - like a handful.  The prompt would be spoken "The girl is running." while a flashcard was placed in front of DS.  Then say the prompt again "The girl is (pause) running"  The hope is that DS would at least repeat the word in the pause we left.  Then we got to the point that we could just show him the card.  Once he mastered a verb, I would try to find a place in real life and do prompts with him.  So lets say there was a girl running around the store-- I might have pointed out to DS-- the girl is_______.  There are endless ways if you stop and think about it to incorporate speech exercises without sitting at a table.  I also watch everything DS watches in order to see if he has echo from a TV show and to ask him questions while he is watching in order to work on answering questions.  I might ask "what color are the girl's shoes?" or just comment "That boy looks really sad".  Work it into your lifestyle.  I am already a teacher in realife, but this has been the most lifealtering change in my thinking.  I know DS needs me to be invested in his success and still be a happy mom that isn't sitting him down and drilling him constantly.

Something interesting about my son is that he does really thrive on impressing me with what he knows.  He actually likes to do the flashcards and all th therapy stuff.  I am lucky in that respect.  When I was new to all of this, which I am assuming you are at this point, I researched like crazy and was very pleased by multiple items available to help with speech.  If you do ever want to use flashcards to begin noun or verb building, there are a few things to look for
1) make sure that it is an actual photo (research shows that real photos are the best choice from what i have read) 2) they are usually labeled by concept (verbs, feelings, opposites, nouns etc) but since they are just photos, you can change it up to expand ideas quite easily.  I started with verb specific ones.  Then we went on to go togethers (bread and toaster, talk about how the bread goes in, then show in real life, then bought him a play toaster for his play kitchen that allowed him to practice--- string along a concept and make it tangible KWIM?  Now he will open up the freezer hand me the waffle box and ask me to cook it in the toaster)  I personally like the flashcard from smethport and Laurie, but truth be told, some of the photos are quite old school looking.  I also like them because the cards are large, have a plastic case and are made of kid friendly paper. 

Not sure if you have a Kindle or Ipad, but there are a lot of apps you can buy as well.  You don't want to just hand it to your son and say have fun, but guided and then alone time would benefit your child as well.  People have a lot of feelings about the amount of screen time kids get, so really this is a personal decision.  One of the best apps for speech would show four photos and it would say a phrase like "He is cutting a pepper"  DS would have to touch the right photo.  For us it was very effective.

Like I said in the earlier post, his echolalia is fading away gradually as he gets more and more language to build from.  I still get so excited when I hear a new verb!  It is music to my ears.  His newest thing is to ask me what everything is doing "Mommy, what is the kid doing?"  "Mommy, what is the cat doing?"  He may not have the right verb to explain it yet and I tell him "The cat is scratching the post"  Then I might hear him use scratching the right way or the wrong way.  The other day he was laughing and putting his face into one of my big Lily plants and the leaves were tickling his face.  He said "Mommy, what this plant doing?"  I replied "I don't know, what is it doing?"  He exclaimed "The plant is splashing my face!"  Not exactly the right word, but he is on the right track LOL.

I hope this helps.  Sorry it got so long!