Speech Language Therapist out there can you please give me some ideas on how to get my 22 month old son 2 talk

Question

He receives services already from a slt and he does not connect with her so i would like to know can any slt or parent who has a child that is diagnose with autism please help me because i am very new to this and it is hard trying to understand what he wants and he does not talk. The only sound he make r an "eeeee" sound or "aaaaa" sound and that's it.

Answer 1

Does he have eye contact with you?

Boy, there's big therapy out there to help that. I'm not on the cutting edge of what that is, I know they are doing new things now that they didn't do 10 years ago. Have you looked up information on autism, and has your doctor helped guide you to support groups?

Answer 2

First off,  I totally understand your frustration.  If your son is trying to communicate, his frustration is 10 fold.  

Here's a  good website with information on working with your son. a

http://www.geocities.com/speppera/Speech...  

Stanley Greenspan has some great books on the subject like "Floortime" and "The Child with Special Needs."  These will give you great ideas on how to work with your son at home.

I started out using signs with both my speech/language delayed son, and my daughter who has autism.  Sign language really helps work the language connections in the brain.  As children learn to use spoken language, the signs will drop away.  If your child never gets spoken language, you'll have a head start on learning communication skills.  http://commtechlab.msu.edu/sites/aslweb/...

I would start with something simple like "More"  

Get your son's favorite snack. Give him a little bit. When he starts indicating he wants more, do the sign for "more" while saying "more" and give him a little peice. Repeat several times.  Then, hold your son's hands and guide him to the "more" sign while saying the word.  Then reward him with some snack.  Be extremly over the top animated while doing this to really capture his attention and make him want to continue.     Keep repeating this lesson until the sign "more" comes spontaniously from your son.  Then add on something like "drink" "milk" "Juice" "Cracker" or "Cookie" depending on your son's preferences.  Once you open the door to communication, you'll see how to expand on this.  My son doesn't have autism, but did have severe speech/language issues.  He made up his own signs for his favorite moves at the time, Bugs Life (antenna from his head) and Star Wars (opening and closing his hands rapidly like explosions)

If you have a digital camera, take pictures of your son's favorite acitivities, the park, swing, slide, pool....his favorite foods, drinks, etc....  Print them up and  start slowly.  Just drinks for instance.  When he's thirsty, show him the drink pictures.  See if he'll choose one. If not, show him the choices as you normally do. Once you find out what he wants, show him the picture, say the word, and present the drink. Lots of animation on your part.  Eventually he'll make the connection and be able to use the picture to show you what he wants/ needs. Sometimes actually pictures of items familiar are easier than "pecs" pictures.

Please feel free to e-mail me if you want more ideas, need to talk, etc...

Having gone through two children who had speech language issues, I understand the frustration that you're feeling right now!

Answer 3

Picture exchange would be a good place to start if he has a diagnosis of autism.  Now...each child is different and it is really hard to say if he will be receptive to it...but the encouraging thing is that he is making sounds.  Some children with autism will not produce any sounds.  

As far as a start for picture exchange...you'll need pictures and I will leave you a couple websites at the end.  The most common program used to create pictures is Boardmaker, but even taking pictures with a camera or finding clipart of different things he uses or wants on a daily basis will work.  The first step is sort of a two adult process.  Pick out something that you know he'll want.  Place the picture of it in front of him and the actual item out of his reach, but where he can see it.  One person needs to be infront of him and one behind him.  Have the person behind him take your son's hand and pick up the picture and hand it to you.  Then you say, "Oh, you want _______" and give him the item.  If it's a toy or something of the sort, you'll have to take it away and repeat the process again.  Do this several times in a row.  If he starts picking up the pictures without hand over hand assistance then he's picking the concept up.  I would to this process daily to ensure he gets the concept.  Then add another picture and another....and so on.  You'll see the point when he no longer needs hand over hand and can do this on your own.  

The easiest items to start with are tangible items...actual actions, like eating and drinking, get a little bit more involved...but it's a great place to start.

http://trainland.tripod.com/pecs.htm

http://www.do2learn.com

Answer 4

There are many different programs and techniques you can do. For me what I do is work with pictures. I will take pictures of needs such as tiolet, drink, different foods of likes, and ask what he wants then he will pic the picture and give it to you. This is called PECS known as picture exchange communication service. I have worked with many kids of different challenges and this way really helps. You can end up making a book of PECS then for whatever he want will pic the picture. Eventually is susposed to help them talk, you hold the picture up to your mouth after he pics is and say what it is. So he can visualize and hear how the word is pronounced. I suggest this because of his age, but am not professional just have experience...