Any "do it yourself" manual for speech therapy?

Question

My son is almost 4 (in Oct.) and he has a little expressive speech delay. He was tested by our school district and he gets speech therapy at school 2 times/week but only during school time. However the speech therapist at school seems disinterested to work with kids , she does not seem she loves her job . I would like to homeschool my son and do it myself all the work .He is above average academically (math , phonics) , has 4-5 words sentence right now . but has some language comprehension (doesn't seem to "get" stories from books , is unable to give elaborate answers ex . "what is the boy doing" --he says "I don't know" ) and his speech is unclear .

I would like to purchase some material that will teach me how to teach him and how to improve his speech. I cannot afford private speech but would buy any expensive books or curriculums I need.

Any advice about how to improve his speech highly appreciated .

Answer 1

try books on tape from library.start working on kindergarten readiness.dolch words, rhyming songs. record him talking and singing.try another speech lady info @other locations

Answer 2

Private therapy should be paid for by your health insurance.

Answer 3

Communicating Partners Program.

It's developed for homeuse (but can be used in school and therapy too).

It's free - unless you want to buy books about it.

It's effective (or at least for us and many others).

Answer 4

I was a speech-language pathologist in the schools for two years.  Here's my advice:

When he started getting speech therapy, you should have had to attend a meeting where they wrote out a plan (IEP) of what his goals are in speech therapy.  If these goals were well written, you would be able to know pretty much what they were doing and work on some of them at home.  You can also schedule a meeting with the therapist and ask what you can do at home.  If she is disinterested in talking to you, a phone call to the principal or the districts speech pathology supervisor may help you out.  At the next IEP meeting (they happen every year, but you can call one earlier if you would like) you may ask to have goals written for work at home - just be sure to let the therapist know you want to do this so she has time to think about it.

If he were homeschooled, the district would still be required to provide therapy if you wanted it, but probably you would have to bring him to the same school and see the same therapist.  You can decline it anytime you want.

Based on the general information you gave, you may try things like playing Simon Says and reading aloud from very simple books for his comprehension.  Anything that requires him to listen, but try to make it fun.  Unclear speech is difficult because there are so many causes and problems that I don't really know what you would need to work on.  Some kids, all it takes is making them aware that each sound in a word is important.  Playing with rhymes is good for this.  Looking at the goals on his IEP should help there.  Speech therapy isn't hard, so if you have an idea of what to work on to supplement what he gets, you should do pretty well.

Investigate your local universities to see if they offer therapy.  As a student, both universities I attended gave discounted therapy so their speech-pathology students could practice for their degree.

And try to understand the speech therapist's point of view.  I really cared about my students, but I had 75 kids spread over 4 different schools in a large city that I had to schedule and plan for, and sometimes it was nearly impossible to do what I felt needed to be done for my students.  I really experienced the feeling of impotency.  It could just be that she is stressed or burned out.  Be sure to thank her for what she has done, and without critisizing, ask her for help with activities for home.

Lots of luck!

Answer 5

Hanen has a good proven program for helping children with speech/language delays, as well as those with autism.  

http://www.hanen.org/web/Home/Parents/ta...

Check out their program "It Takes Two to Talk" which is geared to children with language delays, and "Target Word" to help with expressive delays.

Good luck!