How do I teach my niece, she has speech difficulties?

Question

She's 5 years old yet sounds like a 2 or 3 year old. Example: "You don't where me are!" (You don't know where I am!) She doesn't know all of her ABC's yet, she can get to H but after that she mentions any letter she knows in random order. I don't know why she has this problem, she hardly ever spoke until she was 4 years old when she learned "baby talk". Since then she's learned a lot from her kindergarten teacher. My sister is an irresponsible parent and doesn't want to teach her. I have her for the summer and I want to teach her as much as I can.

Will she become "normal"? What is this learning disability and can she overcome it?

Answer 1

this is typcial of cebral possy and central auditory processing disoder but don't worry this can be over come with some speech therapy and alot of reading over the summer will help umm, and also maybe let her try going to something like accdims plus or sylvain learning center to help her with it, I went to accedims plus when I was a little and it helped me a ton.

Answer 2

Join in her activities-

Infuse language into her environment-

comment on what she does, prompt her to expand her language alittle at a time-

coudl be anything from teh effects of neglect to auditory processing disorder to autism-

If she like books-write books about her-using things she ahs difficulty with

I.e take a picture of her hiding-and write "you don't know where I am"

Answer 3

It's too bad her kindergarten teacher didn't suggest she receive speech therapy at school. Her doctor could have done the same. I applaud you for wanting to help your niece. She would do best with a speech therapist, but you can certainly work on her ABCs over and over again, read to her, help her to recognize her letters and numbers, to read, etc. Encourage her to sing to you and tell you stories. Make a list of the "mistakes" she makes when she talks to you and focus on 2 or 3 to work on during the summer. The most important thing is to keep it fun.

Answer 4

You're right..in my state kids are reading by the end of kindergarten.

Get a library card and take out as many books as you can from the children's dept every week. Mark it on the calendar so she begings to learn dates too. Go to story hours and Browse through yourself and look for picture books you can tell stories about. Don't worry about reading but get her to learn to tell stories. Don't correct, she needs a good model: you tell a story and then her turn. Let her be creative, even if it sounds crazy. Ask questions, like you are interested and curious about what she said. This helps her to explain herself better. Turn off the T.V and color, cut and make things out of paper, have her make shopping lists by sounding out the letters. Then have her read it while you shop and she checks off the item. Have her draw and tell you a sentence about the picture. Keep it in a book and re read it to another person. Involve her in things you do around the house and talk to her and explain how things are done, let her join in and try not to correct her too much. Make learning fun and get her outdoors and climbing or swinging at the park. Physical development is important too, develops corredination and gross-motor control so that fine-motor control( like writing) can take place. Clay, pipe cleaners, cooking all will help.Try Homeschooler sites on the computer to  help you find projects to do with her!!

I realize my answer isn't specifically about speech but as a speech and language teacher I know that children have to have a need to communicate as well as the excitement about their own creativity so they want to tell someone something. Hearing a good story repeats English over and over so she will hear the correct phrases and sentences. Having her tell stories does the same. Books with funny sounds, rhyming words or animal sounds teach her to listen to the sounds and repeat them in a fun way.

Will she overcome her delay? Who knows, but you are on the right track!!