Verbal Dyspraxia

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DS1 (ASD) has unclear speech - although some words can be clearer than others. Our main priority is building up his language and we have not been worrying too much about the odd pronuniciation. Some of his first words have got slightly better over time - Helicopter used to be 'Eingogga' Now it is 'Hellicopta' But other words are still very slurred and unclear to the point of incomprehension to anyone but us. 'Want Sweeties' is 'Ont Seeties' What is the therapy for verbal dyspraxia ?

What is his SALT input currently ?

My boy (ASD) also has verbal dyspraxia and the ABA tutors work endlessly on him copying the letter sounds - eg saying "m" "m" while copying their mouth movements. Also, in front of a mirror is good. Then they work on him copying the mouth movements for whole words, then sentences. I found traditional SALT no use. The letters he has found hardest are j and l? Is your boy the same?
My DS also tends to drop the ends of words - eg he says "puu" for Push. But if the word ends in a vowel sound, he is fine - eg he can say mummy perfectly, but not mum (which comes out as "Mu"). I think we are way behind on verbal dyspraxia in this country, and imho most of the Salts haven't got enough knowledge of it (except Moondog on here).

We have quite good SALT input at the moment. We have an NHS SALT who has given us some visual schedules to help him to learn time/task concepts, and we have a private SALT who works with him more regularly and who uses VB based speech therapy. The VB has been a big success, even in the 6 weeks since it started, DS1 has really come on with what he can say - almost mini sentences. I don't know if there is any rythme or reason to what he can pronounce or not pronounce. He can say 'Marks and Spencers' quite clearly but 'Morrisons' comes out like 'OnOns' . I think I will just keep an eye on it for now but I just wondered what the specific therapy for dyspraxia is. But as you say, often the fact that autistic children can't make sounds clearly is often just written off as being one of those funny little autistic things.

Yes, VB is exactly what we use too - lucky you to find a Salt who will do it, I wish I could! The NHS ones all just seem to come armed with visual timetables but no actual methods of getting him to speak! Bizarre! From all I've read, esp from the US, the kind of repetition and practising of sounds/words in front of a mirror (as per what they do in VB) is about all the therapy there is for verbal dyspraxia. I think you are right that people over here tend to think - it's just part of autism, so let's not bother with words but move to pix instead

Well the VB one is not NHS but yes we are extremely lucky to have her as she is fantastic. She comes from an LEA background but is now a self employed therapist with a leaning towards VB. I'm ambivalent about the visual schedules but the NHS SALT is at least friendly and postiive so I want to keep her on good terms. I think their approach has its place but as you say, 'Hello, what about the speech?' Also as the NHS ones only work at a consultancy level and do not regularly work with the child, I don't think it is realistic to expect the parent to put in all the spadework if it is not an approach that ticks many boxes for what the parent knows is needed overall.

My DS (4.5) has verbal dyspraxia but not ASD. His is quite severe and we kind of follow the nuffield dyspraxia programme - basically building up from single sounds using pictures/toys/copying and on to consonant/vowel combinations (building blocks of words) - e.g. we will drive a car up a 'path' of pictures of boo, baa, bay, bee and repeat for other consonants and vowels. He still doesn't have some single sounds (s, sh, th, ch for example) but has progressed well recently with the CV combinations which is allowing him to attempt more words and improved his confidence. We also have target words we practise aiming to go from approximation to sounding like the real thing. From what I can see from US sites this constant drilling and repetition is the most popular way to go. It's a hard slog though!

Thanks - I have heard of the Nuffield system and I might try to research that more - as you say though a lot of slogging ahead. I must try to get the day extended from 24 hours, it's not enough !!