JD is a 5 year, 3 month old cutie patootie who began therapy for articulation at the WVU speech clinic in the Fall of 2007 after being referred for a diagnostic. He was seen in the diagnostic class, and presented a lot of errors that have proven to be a challenge. He is a very silly boy, and he definitely keeps me on my toes! He is very well behaved during therapy, usually cooperates well enough to do the activities I have planned, but tends to have a few ornery moments. The little boy inside of me understands....sometimes you just have to be silly! :-)
First of all, J presents with several different phoneme distortions. At first, his speech may seem unintelligible to the average listener, but after speaking with him for a couple sessions and "opening my ears," it was much much MUCH easier to follow along with his conversation. I still have a few "HUH?" moments when I just nod and say "that's cool...", but now J is relatively easy for me to understand.
At the beginning of the semester, I administered the expressive language subtest of the Preschool Language Scale-4 (PLS-4) and the Goldman-Fristoe Test of Articulation 2 (GFTA). J's expressive language was excellent! He received a standard score of 108 (70th percentile) on the PLS-4, and actually never obtained a ceiling before reaching the end of the test. However, the the GFTA was a different story. He received a standard score of 44 (<1>
So far, things have been going pretty well. J's accuracy levels are fluctuating a bit, but strong productions are staying relatively high, and we're slowly (but surely!) starting to make some progress on sounds that aren't so strong.
I know what you're thinking... Where's the reference to an ASHA article!! Wellllll.... I am a huge fan of child literacy, and (i think this is a given) as upcoming speech and language professionals, we should all begin to consider how children who present with speech/language errors will fare in the schools. This article by Rvachew, Chiang, & Evans, 2007, lays out the facts pretty clearly: kids who begin school with articulation skills that are not well-developed are much more likely that have difficulty acquiring language and literacy skills as they progress through school.
I hope that all parents are as concerned if their children have speech problems. Luckily, J's mother is so interested, desperately wants to be involved, and is concerned about getting him help so he can do as well in school as possible!
Reference:
Rvachew, S., Chiang, P., & Evans, N. (2007). Characteristics of speech errors produced by children with and without delayed phonological awareness skills. [Electronic version]. Language, Speech, and Hearing Services in Schools, 38, 60-71.
Thursday, February 28, 2008
i wanna check you for (ar)tics...
Posted by caseyb213 at 9:04 PM
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2 comments:
Hey Casey,
I enjoyed reading about the therapy activities you are doing with your cutie-patootie. (And I apologize for all those times when I have been a few minutes late getting myself and the visipitch out the door.)
At first, when I read the information from your article about articulation affecting language and reading development, I thought it was a bit strange that just having a minor problem with pronouncing letters can impact how a child uses language and comprehends reading. But after thinking about it, I realized that language problems and articulation problems often occur together in kids.
And I'm sure that kids with articulation problems may have problems with confidence about their speech, making them less likely to talk in everyday situations. Also, this could cause them to be less than enthused about reading--especially out loud.
The article "What Phonological Deficit?" by was written by Ramus and Svenkovits in January of 2008, and explains that dyslexia and articulation disorders are related and often coexist in children. The authors suggest that phonological disorders are linked because they are the same problem, only manifested verbally or visually. They also suggest other problems may be related, such as short term memory. It's hard enough for kids to have one problem that affects them academically, let alone two together. It's just more eveidence for the importance of speech therapy, and starting young!
You and your “cutie-patootie” are quite the popular guys for this assignment.
I was interested to see how much progress J has made since I have seen him. I was glad to learn that you two are making progress on those difficult sounds.
I also am a big believer in child literacy. Knowing that J is such a hard-worker with dedicated parents, I found an article by Joanna Roberts and colleagues which makes your blog about J even stronger.
Roberts and colleagues did a survey on thirty-five children, half who had child literacy in the home and half who didn’t. Results were consistent with the fact that the overall quality and responsiveness of the home environment, the home was the most consistent and strongest predicator of children’s language and literacy skills.
Feel free to share the link below to J’s mother; it would be good reassurance for her to stay (which I know she would anyways) =-) Keep up the good work!
Roberts, J., Jurgens, J., and Burchinal, M. (2005) Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research. The Role of Home Literacy Practices in Preschool Children’s Language and Emergent Literacy Skills. (Electronic Version). 48, 345-359.
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