SPEAK Week 2

It has been an awesome two weeks.  Check out the previous post to learn more about the things we learned if you're interested.  Today's post is mainly for celebrating the people that loved on Kiddo and helped both of us learn so very much, as well as final thoughts Nancy had about Kiddo and his future.

Nancy Kaufman:

First of all, a collage, comparing Kiddo working with Nancy in 2014, and just this past few weeks.  Seriously, this lady is amazing.  She knows her stuff, and she is happy to teach it to parents so they can reinforce what the kiddos have been learning at home.  She is passionate and dedicated to these kids and her methods, and they really do work.  

Nancy's Final Thoughts:

In our final meeting with Nancy, Nancy told me how smart Kiddo was, how much progress he's made, and how she's convinced he'll do great and be resolved soon.  I was surprised by this, and so I asked her where she thought Kiddo was on the apraxia spectrum.  He has been stuck in the severe to moderate severe range for so long I thought it would just be awesome to hear we were in the moderate range.  But what she told me, blew me away.  She said she thinks he has mild apraxia!  

During one of his sessions she had told me he sounded very nasal.  I asked her what that meant exactly and she said he sounds very nasal and congested and that we should get an ENT (Ear, Nose, Throat) appointment as soon as we get back.  (I already set up the appointment for August 17, haha).  She told me it could be something simple, like allergies or congestion that could be treated with medicine, or possibly some form of an obstruction that might require a medical procedure or surgery to fix. She explained that when you hear someone talking with a pinched nose it's much harder to understand what they're saying, that generally the vowels are the same, but the consonant sounds are distorted or left out all together, and so getting that fixed will do wonders for his clarity.

She thinks in another year or so, he shouldn't need speech anymore which would be awesome.  I really hope she is right about the nasal thing, because getting that corrected sounds a lot easier than several more years of intensive speech therapy.  Praying he doesn't require surgery, but if it will help him, then we'll do whatever he needs.

I asked her why she thought his language was so far below his peers.  She thinks it's because he has some red flags for autism (which we've had him tested for, he just doesn't have enough flags to be considered on the spectrum), and this is just one of those flags.  She thinks he needs a social skills therapist moreso than a speech therapist, and we should look for social skills groups in our area when we get home.  Also, the fact that he hasn't really had opportunities to practice using language could be a factor, and so she recommends we spend more time encouraging him to use longer sentences and correct grammar, then we do working on his articulation, and we should see his language really take off.  A language take off sounds great to me. :)

So overall, I feel reassured with this news, though if the ENT doesn't find anything then I don't know what we'll do except to continue with the intensive speech therapy until he doesn't need it anymore.  But, anyway, Kiddo with the amazing Nancy Kaufman.

Lessons I'm Learning from Nancy Kaufman

People have asked me if going to see Nancy Kaufman is worth the money.  It is expensive, add in the travel expenses and family sacrifices to make it work and it is costly.

But it's worth every penny.  Every new word, new phrase, new lesson learned is worth it.  I've seen her methods before.  I've attended her sessions at conferences.  I've purchased and watched her DVDs teaching her methods.  I watched her work with Kiddo for four days in 2014.  I've put into practice what I've learned from her.  But watching her work with your own child, determine what your child needs to work on and is capable of, and then teach you how to do it yourself is invaluable.  

The top three lessons I've learned from Nancy Kaufman during our time at SPEAK:

1) Push for more, because he is capable of more. 

I've watched speech therapists work with my son and drill him on two and three syllable words, trying to mold those words into perfection before moving onto longer words and phrases.  Because the more words he says, the harder it is to understand.  I've done it myself with him.

But according to Nancy Kaufman, this is wrong.  Instead of focusing on making sure a child can say bunny correctly (how often do kiddos say bunny every day, anyway?) focus on getting them to functional speech.  "I want bunny", even if it doesn't sound clear, is better than a child being able to say just bunny perfectly clear.

I had learned this last time we were with Nancy Kaufman in 2014, but I'm seeing just how much she expects of Kiddo, and he is meeting her expectations!  I would try and add one word to the length of his sentences, she is adding anywhere from 2-5 words to his phrases.

On Monday (the first day) she showed him three pictures of a boy in sequence, first of him chewing bubble gum, then of blowing a bubble, and then of it popping.  She asked him what was happening in the pictures and he said "Boy blow bubble."  Last Thursday, she was having him say "He is blowing a bubble.  It popped."  And today during his sessions she was having him say "He is chewing bubble gum.  He is blowing a bubble.  It popped on his face.  He needs to wipe it off."

Can you believe that?!  From a three word phrase to four complete sentences..  Amazing!!  Sure, it wasn't perfectly clear.  Sure he needed prompting for quite a bit of those four sentences.  But we're working on that, while teaching him how to use language he's heard for years but has never had the opportunity to use himself.  Because he needs...

2) Scripting, scripting, and more scripting.

Again, I've learned about scripting from her before.  It simply means telling your child what you want them to say, because they don't know how to say it themselves.  It is something that you need to do continuously to help your child grow in language.  So for example, if Kiddo goes up to our hotel elevator and tells me "Push button," I now correct him and say, "I'm.." and pause to let him correct himself and finish the sentence with proper grammar, giving him the opportunity to say "I'm pushing the button."  If he were to leave off the 'the' then I say, "I'm pushing the..." and he will say "I'm pushing the button".  It's a constant process of teaching proper language, but one that he is picking up quickly with the constant practice and the push that he needs.  Because, like above, he is capable of it.  He can handle it.  I cannot accept two or three-word phrases from him when I know he can do more.

And finally,

3) Cueing before the mistake is made

Cueing speech means giving either a verbal, visual, or tactile indication of what or how something is supposed to be said.  For example, Kiddo has a hard time saying m and n if it is at the end of a word.  The cue for m is to put two fingers across your lips to indicate your lips are closed for the m sound.  The cue for n is to touch the side of your nose, because the n sound is nasal and vibrates in your nose, and that way the child can feel if they made the sound properly.  

So, since we know Kiddo tends to leave off the m and the n, we cue him as he is saying the word to remind him to add that sound.  

For example, if we want him to say "I'm eating," we say "I'm'' while putting our fingers across our lips to remind him of the final m.  And 9 times out of 10 he does it. But if we forget to cue him, he reverts back to what he's used to, which is simply to say I since the m is hard for him and the motor planning for the m is not wired into his brain yet.  We want to erase the old pattern of leaving off the m and n and so we are working to create a new pattern that overrides the old one, if that makes sense.

It may all sound exhausting or overwhelming, but honestly, I'm finding it exciting because I'm hearing and seeing the growth right before my eyes.  He is saying things that are blowing me away, and I am beyond thrilled to be learning how to help both my kiddos share their thoughts with the world.  

SPEAK Week 1

We made it to the Kaufman Children's Center!!!  I've been waiting for this for years (seriously!) and FINALLY, Kiddo and I are in Michigan for two weeks of intensive therapy with the amazing Nancy Kaufman in her SPEAK program.  We just finished the first week and both Kiddo and I have learned a lot and we still have one week to go.  :)

We started off with an evaluation, in which Nancy was very impressed with how far he has come in the two years since she last saw him, but we still have quite a ways to go.  Here are the goals we are working on while we're here:

Articulation goals:

• Final and medial (middle) m (ex: tummy and game)
• Final and medial (middle) n (ex: bunny and on) 
• S blends (ex: sleep, sweater, stop, snack, scoop, etc.)
• Th (ex: three, Ethan, with)
• Medial L (Ex: yellow, hello)

Language goals:

• Using appropriate verb tenses
• Using proper pronouns (he/she)
• Using proper grammar (a, an, the, to, is, are, etc)
• Using longer sentences with all of the above goals (ex: "She is kicking the ball."  Before he would just say "girl kick ball")

He is working with Nancy and two other therapists, and they are all awesome and enthusiastic and I don't know what I'll do without them when we go back, haha.  Kiddo is a champ, cooperating really hard and though he mentions he's tired to me from time to time, he just keeps working.  I am sooo proud of him.

Each day he also gets a one-hour speech session with three other kids who are participating in the summer SPEAK program to work on social language skills.  It begins with Lisa, an awesome music therapist singing a few songs with opportunities for the kiddos to practice speech.  Then Nancy leads them in a fun game or activity that requires the kiddos to let her know who's turn it is, what they want to do, etc.  And then they end with a craft project, that the mommies and daddies come out and help with, and encourage our kiddos to ask the therapists for the materials they need.  Lots of good stuff.  We've also been enjoying getting to know the other people here for SPEAK.  In fact, we're all going to meet at the Detroit Zoo on Sunday which should be lots of fun. :)

After each day's hard work, we go somewhere fun to celebrate Kiddo's hard work, such as Chuck E Cheese's, to a playground with some of our new friends from SPEAK, to the movies to see Secret Life of Pets, swimming in our hotel pool, and playing at the McDonald's play place and trying to collect all the Secret Life of Pets toys they have in Happy Meals.  I've been reinforcing what he's been learning in his sessions and it seems to be sticking. :)  For example, he gave me a big hug the other day and told me "Mommy, I'm squeezing you!"  Another time, we went to the playground and I was pushing him on the swings.  Normally he would just request "Higher!" but this time he told me "I want to go higher!"  And when we went to the pool he told me "Look my legs float like a stick!  Not like a rock."  I was blown away by the proper grammar in that statement. :)

Proudly showing off the visor he decorated in one of his speech sessions. :)

Can't wait for week 2, but then I also don't want it to end. :)