Luke's Tuberous Sclerosis Page
Speech Language Early Childhood Intervention |
I would like to share some of the activities that have been suggested that we do with Luke to stimulate Speech/Language Development. I am sure this article is not complete and we would love to know of any additional ideas that someone may want to share. These activities have been collected from our Speech Therapist, Physician, Educators, books and people we have talked to.
Associating Early Childhood Intervention Schedule with Daily Living Routine:We have found it very helpful to teach Luke within our daily routine by associating a teaching activity with a daily living routine. For example: When we eat, we focus on the words drink, num num, more, hot and cold. When we are bathing, we focus on water. When we get dressed and change a diaper, we focus on mama dada. When we drive in the van we focus on singing songs. When we are playing we get out the pop in pals and focus on the words up, down, and bye bye.Simplistic Language Narrations:Simplisticly narrate to your child their activities and interests. Narrate to then as if they are listening to a ball game even though you may be driving the car, changing their clothes or fixing dinner.Follow your Child's Lead and Interest:Instead of following your own agenda and spending energy trying to manipulate your child to the direction and actvity that you want, follow your child's lead and enter their world and follow them around and what they are intrigued with. You can then easily slip your agenda in within their world. Take a moment and crawl with your child and truly emmerse yourself into what they are studying. For example they may come across a farm toy. Draw their attention to the mommy cow and baby cow to reinforce mama and baby vocabulary.Anticipation:Teach your child to anticipate an activity through language. For example, when going to get the bottle or drink say, "Luke wants a drink", "Drink" many different times and teach the child to anticipate an activity or item through speech. Another way to reinforce this teaching is through music. A child can learn to anticipate the next line of music or physical activity that accompanies the music.Imitation:Teach your child to imitate your activities or sounds. Imitate what activity or sound that your child is doing. When there is cognition of the imitation by the child, gradually try to change the activity to something else. For example may be banging your hands together and then try to get him to bang a spoon together or you may be making a rasberry noise and then change it to bababa. Along with this activity you can also introduce taking turns by narrating Mommy's turn and Luke's turn.Sound Box:Put together a tupperware container that contains several items that can be accompanied by an interesting sound to share with your child. The focus isn't necessarily on the word for the item, but rather the sound of the item. This is to create interest for the child to learn the association of a item with a sound or word. The Sound Box may at first contain a dog(bark bark), cow(moooo), airplane(voom), train(choo choo), snake(sssss), etc... Gradually add to the box. Use the Sound Box every day with your child.Word of the day:Select five collections of words that you would like to focus on with your child. A schedule that we used with Luke was Monday "Off/On"; Tuesday "Mama/Dada"; Wednesday "Drink/Num Num/More"; Thursday "Up/Down/Bye Bye"; Friday "Hot/Cold". Incorporating Photographs: Children appreciate looking at real photos. We created a placemat for Luke during his meals by laminating photos on cardstock that were items that we wanted to encourage during his mealtime. We used photos of mommy, daddy, big brother and himself on one side and basic foods that he enjoyed on the other side. Point to the item and say the word. In addition to that we also made a photo book for him to play with from an 4x5 inexpensive album. The plastic pages were easy to turn for a toddlers fingers and the pictures were things that he was familar with.Reading Books:Read books to your child to encourage language development. The books may vary with intense rhyming or repetive patterns. For example: Brown Bear Brown Bear by Eric Carle; Dr. Suess Books; Oh my Oh my Oh Dinosaurs by Sandra Bouyant. This creates language interest for child as they listen to the rhyming and repetive patterns. I also really enjoy the Dorling Kindersley books that are available through large chains or individual representatives. These books contain real pictures for the children to study. They are much more interesting and relative to a child. I particularly suggest the "First Words" book. It can be purchased as a regular hard back book or a board book with durable pages.Music:Music of course can stimulate language. Music is playful, interesting and emotional. Many non verbal children are able to complete phrases to music. Sing the actual words to the music or substitute the words with bababa to encourage consonants. Teach a child anticipation as they will be able to expect the next phrase or activity. Create a music box and have the child select an item that would then correspond to a song.Other Resources:There are several different books that are useful that are available for purchase through Hanen. They include: You Make the Difference... In Helping your Child Learn; It Takes Two to Talk; Learning Language and Loving It; You and Your Baby: Building Communication. These books are available through Hanen at 416-921-1073 info@hanen.org. I also have found a wealth of information on the internet on Speech Lanuage Development. Following are two sites.The Speech Source An excellent internet resource for speech therapy resources and listing of other internet sites. The Hanen Centre We really appreciate the philosophy of the Hanen Center and the training they give for parents. Excellent resource. Please let us know if you have any further ideas or suggestions. We would be interested hearing about anything that has been useful to you. This home page is intended to be a family resource for families affected by Tuberous Sclerosis. It does not intend to constitute medical advise. Viewers are warned not to take any action with regard to medical treatment relying on the information provided on this page without first consulting the patient's physician.
Deanna Runyan-Wall E-mail address: deannadawn@lukets.org Last updated: April 5, 2008 Created: December 5, 1996 |
|
A SPECIAL NEEDS MOM BLOG JOYFUL & JUGGLING
WATCH LUKE'S FOOTBALL TOUCHDOWN ON INSIDE EDITION
LUKE'S Tuberous Sclerosis LIFE STORY
A MOTHER'S JOURNAL of Accepting Tuberous Sclerosis
PRACTICAL FAMILY RESOURCES |
