DownSyn Forum

mom2marty3 · Posted: May 03 2010, 4:49 PM Post subject: speech!

we were just at a DS conference this weekend and a speech therapist was there and she said there really is not age requirement when starting speech therapy. we were thinking about either getting marty a speech therapist or at least sitting down with one at our local Early On program to get pointers on what to do at home (they don't start speech therapy until 2 yrs old--isn't that somewhat late?). anyway, wondering if anyone else has their child in ST and at what age were they enrolled and your thoughts. thanks!

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wife to martin II

mom to marty III (8/6/09, T21)

"I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made." (Psalm 139:14)

MomtoAndrew · Posted: May 03 2010, 6:34 PM Post subject:

We had Andrew start with a SLP when he turned 1. IMO waiting till age 2 would be kinda late. Lots of things can be worked on much earlier than that (oral sensitivities, etc). I wish I had done more with Andrew, as far as the sensory things go, much earlier. He's 5 and I can't let him eat certain things (like a whole banana) because he bites off huge chunks (can't tell how much is in his mouth due to lack of sensitivity) and it can be quite a choking hazard!

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Nicki, proud SAHM to:

Brady the Magnificent (1 Cool

Li'l Miss Ellie (12)
Mr. Mikey-Monkey-Man (9.5)
Sir Andrew (DS, 7)
Mr. Owen (chronological age 9.5mos, adjusted age 7mos)

elizasmom · Posted: May 03 2010, 7:13 PM Post subject:

Our regional center also said no ST until 2 too. It's wierd cuz every kid is so different beyond the similarity of T21. We started doing speech privately when she was 16 months and finally got regional center to cover it by the time she was 20 months. My philosophy is you can't have too much ST but you can definitley have too little.

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Liz - Mom to Walker (3/24/02), Eliza (Ds) (5/6/05), Alden Jane and Noah Henry (5/2/08 )

Courtney · Posted: May 03 2010, 7:23 PM Post subject:

We started Lucy at 6 months. We began with oral motor development, which helped with feeding and drinking, as well as strengthening her mouth muscles to help speech and articulation.

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~Courtney
{Lucy, 5, Ds, AVSD repaired 1/08; Brodie, 3}

Friendship is born at that moment when one person says to another, "What! You too? I thought I was the only one!" -CS Lewis

EAS1971 · Posted: May 03 2010, 7:44 PM Post subject:

We started ST at 3 weeks. (At that time it was really just feeding therapy). It turned to true speech therapy closer to 1. But the ST came once a month from 3 weeks until 1, then moved up to coming every week. The earlier, the better.

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--Beth
Mom to Oliver, 5 (DS, ADHD)
and Sebastian, 4

SherryinWI · Posted: May 03 2010, 7:57 PM Post subject:

There is a lot you can do right now. Please listen to the podcast Teach Me to Talk with Kate and Laura. You can find it on youtube or listen directly from Laura Mise's website. http://teachmetotalk.com Go to the very begining from the first podcast.

First you have to see if your child is able to mimic sounds. If not then this is where you start....you need them to learn to mimic. You do this by mimicking their actions or sounds. You can learn more by following the website. Dr James McDonald also has some nice stuff which follows right inline with Kate and Laura. http://jamesdmacdonald.org/Articles/MacDonaldStart.html

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Sherry
Evan 12, Olivia 11, and Nate 8*

Hosted on Fotki

Momtoseven · Posted: May 03 2010, 9:03 PM Post subject:

Our early intervention also does not start ST until 2. Mark just had his eval and he will be evaluated to see if he is ready for speech. He has been seeing a DT which they tell me does a lot of pre-speech, but I also think 2 is too late to start.

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Maureen - Mom to Daniel(24), Brandon(22), Jordan(16), Thomas(14), Carrie(10), Samuel(7) and Mark (4)
https://www.carepages.com/carepages/MarkEdwardC32708

Aimee · Posted: May 03 2010, 10:06 PM Post subject:

We get to start ST once Piper turns 1 (adjusted for her prematurity) here in a couple months. Piper gets OT once a week, and PT just started once a month recently. Her OT, though, has done all of her oral-motor and feeding stuff as well. She's provided all the oral stimulators, feeding hints, cups, the honey bear- all that good stuff. It's worked out really well for us. If an actual ST isn't available, maybe an OT would suffice in the meantime?

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Aimee, Mom to Piper (5/2009) and Adalynn (5/2011)
http://aimeesbowlofcherries.blogspot.com

Kasey · Posted: May 04 2010, 12:16 AM Post subject:

Paige was almost 3 months the first time we saw a ST, it was for feedings, but it's all really important. We haven't seen anyone for a while, it's more on a as-needed basis right now. But I think you can do lots before actual speech therapy.

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Kasey, mom to Paige (4), Leigha (0!)

mary c · Posted: May 04 2010, 9:11 AM Post subject:

We started once a month at birth and then once a week at 6 months, twice a week at 9 months, etc. Anna has an excellent vocabulary but she talks so fast that some times people can't understand her well.

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Mary
Mom to Libby 6/92, Alex 9/93, Anna (DS)12/12/03

Please support the Down Syndrome Research and Treatment Foundation http://i139.photobucket.com/albums/q284/maryc_010/a13-1.jpg[/img]

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happymom · Posted: May 04 2010, 11:25 AM Post subject:

We started ot at about 6 weeks. She did oral motor with him . Here they don't start speech until 18 months which we thought was very late. We started speech privately at 4 months every other week. When we put in a request for speech to our early intervaention at around 8 months we used our private speech therapists evaluation. We were lucky that our speech therapist is one of the contracted therapists so they accepted her evaluation & gave him speech.

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Married ,Mommy to 8
girl 26 married with dd,boy & baby boy 1/17/11, boy25 married with, boy, & baby boy 4/6/11, boy 22, girl 20 maried 5/3/11,girl 17, boy 14, boy 12, Netanel 6 with DS

mom2marty3 · Posted: May 04 2010, 1:33 PM Post subject:

SherryinWI wrote:

First you have to see if your child is able to mimic sounds. If not then this is where you start....you need them to learn to mimic. You do this by mimicking their actions or sounds. You can learn more by following the website. Dr James McDonald also has some nice stuff which follows right inline with Kate and Laura. http://jamesdmacdonald.org/Articles/MacDonaldStart.html

thanks for both of the links, i will check them out! i was at a DS conference this weekend and the ST mentioned Dr McDonald and his findings (me and my husband high-fived each other after hearing about mimicking your child's babbles because it's a great language builder--and i thought all this time i was just going to be teaching my son to continue to babble the rest of his life). marty mimicks very well but doesn't have very many consonant sounds (mostly "ooo" and "ahh" and occasionally a "ma" will pop in there).

the ST at the conference said blowing bubbles can be a great tool and marty's PT said she will invite the ST on staff to come give us tips to work on over the summer (he doesn't have regular programming over the summer). i've also just read that object permanence (i.e. 'peek-a-boo') and language are closely related from a cognitive perspective because they are both abstract concepts.

_________________
wife to martin II

mom to marty III (8/6/09, T21)

"I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made." (Psalm 139:14)

JanAndFamily · Posted: May 04 2010, 7:06 PM Post subject:

Here are a few other resources we've found helpful for DIY-ing speech:

Libby Kumin's "Early Communication Skills for Children with DS"

"It Takes Two to Talk" by the Hanen Centre (more for about 18mo+; similar to MacDonald's approach)

Baby Signing Time DVDs

Baby Babble DVDs (focus here is on sound production and oral motor skills; they also have sections at the end to teach the parents how to do a number of ST things themselves - very useful!)

DownsEd's Issues and Information articles on speech

And whatever you can find on here (as a number have mentioned above) on working on oral sensitivity. Christopher didn't seem too sensitive as a baby, so I slacked off a bit. Now we have to have 2 people hold him AND wrap him in a blanket to brush his teeth. Oh how I wish I had been more diligent earlier, even though he didn't seem to need it so much at the time!

Happy communicating!

Jan

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wife and mother of Katherine (2004) and Christopher (Aug. 2007, DS)

earlyam · Posted: May 05 2010, 10:40 AM Post subject:

Ethan started seeing his ST when he was 5 months old as I was really keen to start signing with him. Luckily I was able to self refer to the ST service....otherwise Ethan would of been well over a year before we saw anybody! Along with the signing our ST has also been invaluable in helping Ethan with transitioning from breastfeeding to using a sippy cup!

We aslo have a developmental therapist who is a huge fan of oral-motor exercises, so we do lots of oral-motor exercises with Ethan........bubbles are always great, getting them to blow a toy trumpet, sitting in front of a mirror with them and getting them to copy you doing silly faces, blowing kisses, making sounds etc (Phonics are good for this!).......Downsed are also fantastic in their work with speech and language, we do the See & Learn programme with Ethan and love it, it's really helped Ethan with his signing!

http://www.seeandlearn.org/en/gb/default.aspx

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Jo, Mum to Georgia 11/11/03 ( BIG High School Musical fan) and Ethan 16/12/07 (DS)

Tarheelmom · Posted: May 08 2010, 8:07 PM Post subject:

Julia started ST twice a week when she was 8 months old and continued until this past week when she turned 3. We were also told the "no ST until 2" but I questioned why not and they didn't' have a great answer so I pushed and we got the service. Waiting until 2 just seems ridiculous when dealing with a child with DS.

_________________
Kimberly

DD Sofia 11-20-05
DD Julia 05-04-07
DD Olivia 09-04-09

mom2marty3 · Posted: May 11 2010, 7:51 AM Post subject:

you know what's ridiculous??? i just read in a Parents magazine that "children who had been enrolled in a home-based language program before 6 months of age were almost four times more likely to develop age-appropriate language skills than those kids who started later. It took the other children an average of two years to catch up."

???

...

so why are they introducing ST so incredibly late, especially with our children who already have the possiblity of delay in language??? i guess i'm going to have to fight for this. there isn't a ST outside our local special education school district and through Early On, he won't see one until he's two!!!

_________________
wife to martin II

mom to marty III (8/6/09, T21)

"I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made." (Psalm 139:14)

JanAndFamily · Posted: May 19 2010, 9:03 AM Post subject:

In the meantime, if private therapy is too expensive, there may be a college near you that offers degrees in speech therapy. They generally offer therapy at VERY reduced prices in order to give the graduate students some practice (while supervised by a professor).

I've also heard some on here mention being able to see a ST at Down Syndrome Clinics. I don't know much about them, but it might be an option to investigate in order to be able to get some input sooner instead of later.

Jan

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wife and mother of Katherine (2004) and Christopher (Aug. 2007, DS)

SherryinWI · Posted: May 20 2010, 9:18 AM Post subject:

Quote:

so why are they introducing ST so incredibly late, especially with our children who already have the possiblity of delay in language???

Because...most all of our children do have language delays as well as syntax and articulatation issues and more incidence of Childhood Apraxia of Speech. Our children tend to need speech therapy for a long time...so they cost $$$ more. It is all an issue of funding. If you are in an area that has extra funds you luck out and they will work it out that they provide more services to your child. If you are in an area that is underfunded for the need in the community the purse strings are tight and they will offer and recommend as little as possible. Remember they do not have to provide the best services for your children and what I am slowly learning is that the evaluations and assessments can be greatly manipulated.

_________________
Sherry
Evan 12, Olivia 11, and Nate 8*

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