Improving ability to hear/distinguish speech

[Jimjams]

DS1'S SALT came round today to help me set up schedules at home and talk about introducing choice (so the private one obvoiusly!!!) in the home. Anyway we were chatting about DS1 and whether he tunes into speech at all. She said that she thought a lot of speech is completely missed to him, maybe almost all (eek!) or that he may tune in and out of sentences catching odd words or odd syllables.

Anyway we have used AIT in the past but ds1 wasn;t very good at tolerating headphones- a little better now. But she was also saying that recent research has shown that AIT does help but no more than any old classical music and that the benefits arise as it is structured and done daily. So we are going to introduce classical music every day- just did the first session and have to say he LOVED it- actually sat in the room listening (haven't introduced headphones yet) for HALF AN HOUR!!!! (left the room as soon as the music stopped).

Any other ideas- earobics is up my sleeve- but maybe too advanced at the moment. But any other ideas, weird unusual, mainstream or whatver.

She also said (and I am getting used to it) that for him language is the key and if we can give him language then he will be 'fine' (not quite! but able to live an independent life etc etc). Obviously being able to HEAR/PROCESS speech (whichever bit is going wrong) would help! Any ideas welcomed!

will have to try the classical music thing! My dd just loves any music though, her rhythm is unbeleivable ! I often wonder if she is really dh's child

When ds3 started school he could not cope with assembley, his SA put all assembley music on to tape to give him a sort of "aural timetable". He loves music and it really made a difference to how he coped. They put all songs (Easter, Xmas etc) onto tape now and he learns song words very quickly. He can now retain a song far better than his ability to use language. In his case music has helped his vocabulary improve. At the unit my friends dd attends they have a song for just about everything, "the morning song", "the play doh song" etc.

With ds4 the SALT has said his language will be held back by his inability to listen so I guess it comes back to joint attention again. Apparently thay are going to interact with him on his "own agenda" and then gradually move him onto everyone elses

Mozart is apparently the best classical music to try. I mentioned to our Early Years worker that he really loved it and she said it's very popular with children with ASD because Mozart used a lot of complex patterns in his music. Basically children who love patterns and structure seem to love Mozart!

"he" of course being ds1!

maddiemo- I think ds1 is doing that weird autistic thing where something goes wrong in the processing of speech, so rather than hearing "get your shoes" he hears g our sh" or something like that. I've noticed that often when he does answer a question there is quite a delay so it may just be that it takes him a long time to process and decode the sentence- by which time everyone has moved on and he's lost again.

JJ My ds3 has similar language processing problems. He is also very slow to respond and often requires simple instructions repeated, sometimes a slight change of wording is enough to throw him off track. We find that everyone moves on too fast for him which just makes him more confused.

Ds1's LSA told me this week she thinks his understanding of language is improving. Thinking about it afterwards I'm sure it's just contextual and he is now understanding her set phrases. Unfortunately

This is interesting, do you mind me sticking my nose in yet again?

Auditory processing delays are also a feature of my very-probably-not-ASD but-something-else ds - we used to call him "radio-contact-X" because it is like talking via satellite. Recognise completely the slight change of wording = bewilderment thing. Just last week he was at last au fait enough to say that mummy talks too fast for him.

Mentioning this because he might just be a useful sort of interpreter - ie, what he tells me is going on is probably what's going on with children who can't (at present) speak for themselves. So Jimjams I will think about, and ask him, how he hears/understands what people say, and what helps, and see if any of those things catch fire for you.

That would be interesting Binkie, I know a very high functioning asd boy who says his eyes see too much and that makes it hard for him to see what is important.

Jj Don't be too disheartened by the LSA set phrase stuff. It is probably true that he has tuned into his LSA's speech style and patterns. Ds3 is great at understanding with home, school, bus driver and my mum now. He needs a long time to tune into people, can be six months of seeing someone before he will use language unprompted. He does not generalise this but he is getting faster and better and is picking up bits of their mannerisms.

I am completely out of my league here, but often lurk on these threads, as I find them to be really important and informative.

Just picking up on the idea of patterns, phrasing, and variations on themes, in addition to Mozart (have you tried Mozart K. 265, 12 variations of "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star"?), you could try the Bach inventions....

Yes please binkie. I am beginning to think that a CAPD (central audirpoty processing disorder) may be at the root of ds1's complete inability to learn language (not to speak I mean receptive as well). he can only seem to learn language if it is presented to him visually- when he will then be able to pick up and say (in his own way) that particular phrase. Obviously he has some other weird auti things going on as well as he doesn't understand that the I want in I want biscuit is the same as the I want in I want trampoline......

Funny you should mention that maomao- he's listening to it now And I'm off to wake up ds2 (who will ruin the music!)

auditory even!

JimJams, I have some music CDs going spare that I'd be happy to send you. They are from the Baby Bright range, noises and everyday sounds to music and stuff. He might like them he might not but they are going spare and it would be my pleasure. Let me know if you want them ad I'll get your address and post them up to you, okay.

JImjams, Ben is the same with classical music. Apparently it stimulates parts of the brain connected to language. I think this is why the baby bumblebee videos worked so well for him because they are set to classical music. Have you tried them? I seem to remember you saying you had one...

Thank you ThomCat- very kind- I'll try anything - I'll contact you via another talker tomorrow.....

RexandBen- did you get the dvds? We got the videos for the action verbs but they're quite poor quality....

Great, no worries JimJams, hope he likes them.

I think with a lot of autistic kids it is highly contextual - as you may know my ds uses words incorrectly - he still will say "I want some toast on it" when being given a piece of toast. he wants marg but even if I correct him he insists that marg is toast. That is a fairly obvious example but it is always a good idea to look at when your ds is seeming to say something odd and it could be that two events are related in his mind and therefore to him one word can just be exhanged for another (makes sense to him!) Yes also to the sounds and not hearing properly - I think I mentioned before the 'panda' for mandarins - just heard the manda bit and changed it to panda.

I don't know how much of this is any help as obviously my ds is quite verbal now but he could have the same processing problems but just to a lesser degree.

He also loves music, particularly classical and anything with a strong rhythm.

Jimjams, I've really been thinking about this. I'm afraid where I've got to so far probably won't be very enlightening, in that I'm sure you've thought of it all already.

The crucial thing for my ds is the right prompt for him to tune in. Ds passed his baby hearing tests with such flying colours ("if only they were all like this" said the testers) that I couldn't believe that, as a toddler, he wasn't just deliberately ignoring me when I called him. Now I think that the baby tests check only how a child hears a "one-dimensional" noise - not much information (and therefore not much chance for overload) in a spoon tinkling in a teacup - whereas saying a name is not only knowing that collection of arbitrary sounds means "me", but also recognition of which individual it is who's speaking, and decoding of tone - and for a child whose brain doesn't automatically sort input into "important" ("that's mummy's voice" ) and "unimportant" ("bit loud because there's a bus going by" ) I can see it's a completely different experience.

Prompts which work were (first) the SALT stand-by "are your ears switched on?" which appeals to little mechanics; but now we can just say "X, can I talk to you?" or even "I've got a question" - we're trying to practice not having to use his name. Once he does tune in, I think he does still get a bit too much information but he's getting better and better at managing it - essentially, poor chap, I think he's able enough receptively to cope.

I am guessing, but I think your ds might be different as regards receptivity, so maybe finding prompts isn't the key, and instead it's still the underlying amount of info that's the problem? Perhaps a silly idea, but how might he get on with a computer programme that voices words, so that some of the ambient info (identity, tone) is filtered out?

Sorry if this is all same old same old!

That's interesting BInkie. We use his name as a prompt - or the word "listening".

IN his case he definitely wants to tune in and wants to understand. I'm guessing its a lot of effort for him though. I think there's some sort of interference- a delay maybe- or a wooshing sound or maybe he only hears the first syllable or some such weird auti thing. He has perfect pitch which is fairly common in non-verbal autistics- and apparently is something that they often lose as they begin to speak. Maybe he's just hearing the wrong frequency. That's prompted me actually- I must look up the stuff on perfect pitch and autism- maybe that's where the clue lies.......

I'm sure that you have read the work by Ann Savan in Aberdare but a quick recap can be found here

www.up-to-date.com/saitwebsite/mozartbackground.html

Amazing thing was that the Mozart also worked sppeded up, slowed down and played backwards! It reduced the kids bp and improved their motor skills. Facinating stuff

still thinking ... do you remember "For the Love of Ann" 30 years ago? Her breakthrough was whispering, I think - maybe also to do with reduced info - per the old linguistic chestnut that the Chinese cannot whisper because it can't accommodate tones.

How is he with other sorts of noises - car horns, dogs barking?