10 Year Old Slowly Making Progress

by Maria
(Ohio)

I have a soon-to-be 10 year old son with verbal apraxia. He has been receiving speech services since he was almost two years old. There are no other delays, in fact, he's pretty bright.

I just had a meeting with his speech pathologist and teachers, at his school, regarding his IEP. His speech therapist said he is progressing but ever so slowly. Especially where his sh/th/ch sounds are concerned. He can do it when asked but then seems to forget in normal conversation.

He is very lazy. In the way he sits, in his sentences when he writes, and in his speech. He will admit this. It obviously is not important to him. I don't know how to get through to him that this is important. Is this just being a boy, his age, personality....? I asked the pathologist and teachers for suggestions but they had none.

What are your thoughts? Any advice is appreciated.

Thank you.

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May 14, 2015
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by: Rosario

1. Video tape him during a conversation, then play it back to him without having him look at the video to see if he understands and or likes the way he speaks. this may raise some awareness as to how he sounds and may motivate him to self-monitor his speech.

2. Download Quick Artic app (it's free) and have him practice his sounds using this app 10 minutes per day. I believe you can record his output in this app so he can hear himself.

3. Have him practice reading poems/tonguetwisters containing his sounds while he tapes himself.

Hope this helps.
May 13, 2015
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by: R Lucas

Maria,

You could certainly try tangible rewards to motivate him (food, video games, activities, etc.) but I'm afraid if he doesn't feel it is important and doesn't have the motivation there isn't a lot you can do.

It may just be one of those things where he's going to have to learn by having "bad" communication experiences as he gets older that will make him more motivated to change.

It can be difficult to get young students to "care" about improving speech skills if they don't feel a directly negative impact from them (or don't care about the impact).

Sorry that I don't have any better advice than that.

Luke
HomeSpeechHome

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