In May, we celebrate Better Hearing and Speech Month. Each week we will bring you some pertinent and useful speech and hearing-related information from our team of fabulous speech therapists.

This week, we focus on articulation skills and developmental fluency.

Ideas for articulation skills

• According to ASHA, children should have a mastery of all English sounds by the age of 8.
• It is quite common in young children to have speech errors when learning to speak.
• An articulation disorder is when your child has difficulty creating or forming speech sounds correctly. Sounds may be omitted or improperly altered during the course of speech.
• The most common articulation disorders are ‘lisps’ when the ‘s’ sound is incorrectly produced or when a child substitutes a ‘w’ for an ‘r’ sound.
• Most articulation disorders present themselves when your child is between the ages of three and six. (ASHA.org or speechbuddies.com)

Ideas for fluency

• 5% of all children are likely to be disfluent at some point in their development.
• Between 2.5 to 5 years of age are the typical ages to see developmental stuttering.
• It is typical for children to go back and forth between periods of fluent and non-fluent speech.
• When children are expanding their vocabulary quickly and learning complex language skills, it’s natural to see and hear some disruptions along the way
• For most toddlers and preschoolers, most disfluencies go away on their own after a short period of time.
• Risk factors for stuttering include family history, boys are twice as likely to stutter, elementary school-age boys are 3-4 times more likely than girls; children will start having difficulty at age four are more likely to have a persistent stutter than those who begin at a younger age; if a child has a co-existing speech and/or language disorder increases the likelihood a child may stutter.

Typical speech patterns for toddlers and preschoolers:

• Repeating phrases (he took it-he took it from me) and whole words (But-but I don’t want to go.) Using filler words/sounds (um, uh, like)
• No tension or physical struggle when speaking No other problematic behaviors when speaking No negative reaction or frustration
• No family history of stuttering Disfluencies last less than six months Not typical (higher risk for stuttering)
• Repeating sounds or syllables (look at the b-b-b-baby) Sound prolongations (Sssssssssssometimes we stay home.)
• Blocks (child appears to be trying to make a sound but cannot) and/or physical struggle when speaking
• “Secondary” behaviors that go along with speaking difficulty (such as hand tapping, eye blinking, or throat clearing
• Negative reaction or frustration to speaking
• Family history of stuttering
• Disfluencies last longer than six months

What parents can do:

Reduce communication stress: these are techniques to put less pressure on a child in a speaking situation. Rephrasing questions as comments (You played outside today at school. It must have been fun; instead of What did you do at school?)

Talk about it: When a child is aware of their stuttering, it’s best to be open and talk about it in a positive way. Tell them it’s ok to have ‘bumpy speech.’ If the child doesn’t seem to have a problem, there is not reason to bring it up.

Practice patience: Give the child time to finish what they are saying. Don’t rush or interrupt them. Don’t tell them to ‘slow down,’ or ‘think about what you want to say.’ Phrases such as these don’t help.

Model good speech habits: parents can model speech habits that help with stuttering, such as slowing down their own speed when speaking, putting in more pauses between sentences and speaking in a relaxed manner.

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In May, we celebrate Better Hearing and Speech Month. Each week we will bring you some pertinent and useful speech and hearing-related information from our team of fabulous speech therapists.

This week, we focus on pediatric dysphagia or feeding and swallowing difficulties.

Things You Should Know

1. Dysphagia means difficulty with feeding or swallowing.
2. It is a symptom, not a disease.
3. Oral dysphagia refers to problems with using the mouth, lips and tongue to control food or liquid.
4. Pharyngeal dysphagia refers to problems in the throat during swallowing.

Some common disorders related to swallowing problems in children include:

• Brain injury
• Birth defects
• Cleft palate
• Cerebral palsy
• Gastroesophageal disorders, including reflux
• Heart or lung conditions
• Head or neck cancer
• Neuromuscular disease
• Prematurity
• Sensory problems
• Stroke

Signs and Symptoms of Feeding and Swallowing Problems (Dysphagia)

• Problems coordinating sucking, swallowing and breathing while bottle-feeding or drinking from a cup or straw
• Coughing
• Choking
• Gagging
• Color change during or after feeding
• Lengthy feeding times (greater than 30 minutes)
• Trouble chewing
• Congestion during or after feeding
• Change of breathing rate with feeding
• History of pneumonia
• Sensation of food being stuck in the throat
• Limited intake of food or liquids
• Refusal of previously accepted food or liquids
• Failure to gain weight
• Evidence of food or liquid in a tracheotomy tube during or after eating

Treatment for Dysphagia

Treatment for dysphagia is based on the nature and severity of the child’s feeding and swallowing problem.

Treatment may include some or all of the following:

• Develop strength, range of motion, and coordination of the lips, tongue, cheek, and jaw muscles for efficient eating and drinking
• Help decrease oral sensitivity or oral aversion to foods and liquids
• Decrease behavioral resistance to feeding
• Work on strategies to decrease the risk for aspiration

The speech-language pathologist may also suggest the following after talking with the child’s medical team:

• A change in food textures or in the thickness of liquids
• A change in the feeding equipment, such as the nipple, bottle, cup or utensils
• Strategies to help with drinking and eating

Our speech therapists at Easterseals Arkansas are ready to help you navigate through feeding and swallowing challenges your child may be experiences.

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In May, we celebrate Better Hearing and Speech Month. Each week we will bring you some pertinent and useful speech and hearing-related information from our team of fabulous speech therapists.

This week, we focus on Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC).

You may have seen someone write in a notebook to answer a question. Maybe you have seen people using gestures to communicate. You may have seen someone point to pictures or push buttons on a computer that speaks for them. These are all forms of augmentative and alternative communication, or AAC.

AAC includes all of the ways we share our ideas and feelings without talking. We all use forms of AAC every day. You use AAC when you use facial expressions or gestures instead of talking. You use AAC when you write a note and pass it to a friend or coworker. We may not realize how often we communicate without talking.

People with severe speech or language problems may need AAC to help them communicate. Some may use it all of the time. Others may say some words but use AAC for longer sentences or with people they don’t know well. AAC can help in school, at work, and when talking with friends and family.

Here are important things you should know about AAC:

1. AAC supports speech development.
2. AAC builds language skills.
3. There are no cognitive prerequisites to AAC use.
4. AAC can reduce the severity and frequency of challenging behaviors.
5. It’s never too late for someone to develop better communication skills with
6. AAC.

At Easterseals Arkansas, our therapists are equipped with the knowledge and technology to help your child thrive and communicate independently with the help of AAC.

AAC may help some individuals with autism communicate more effectively.

Here are some things to know about autism:

1. Autism affects an estimated 1 in 54 children annually according to 2020 data released by the U.S. Centers for Disease Prevention and Control. Boys are four times more likely as girls to be diagnosed with autism.
2. Generally autism is seen as a different way of thinking.
3. Researchers know relatively little about autism that is considered the fastest growing developmental disability. They do know that autistic brains are larger and that they “prune” or shed excess neurons more slowly than neurotypical brains.
4. Scientists have identified that autism affects linkages between the parts of the brain that govern emotions, sensory input and executive functioning. Additional research has shown that autistic individuals are less able to pick up on some of the socially rich features of an environment. Experts simply don’t know why.
5. Multiple studies have proven that there is no link between vaccines and autism.

Easterseals Arkansas hires quality therapists and educators who are eager to help your child – whether they have been diagnosed with autism or not – reach their full potential with AAC.

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In May, we celebrate Better Hearing and Speech Month. Each week we will bring you some pertinent and useful speech and hearing-related information from our team of fabulous speech therapists. 

Language Development Facts:

1. How common is late talking? The latest prevalence estimates are 10 – 20% of 2-year-olds. The most significant risk factors for late talking are:

• Gender—Boys are at higher risk than girls.
• Late Walking – Late talkers have more motor delays when compared with typically developing kids.
• Low Birth Weight – Babies born with less than 85% of their optimum birth weight are more likely to talk late.
• Prematurity – Babies born earlier than 37 weeks gestation were at higher risk of late talking.
• Delayed Early Language Development – Language abilities at 12 months appear to be one of the better predictors of communication skills at 2 years.

2. During the birth to 3 period, new brain connections form at a rapid-fire pace of 700 a second! These connections are formed throughout a child’s day throughout their observations, interactions with others, and play! Check out this link for more information.

3. Besides being an activity that (most) toddlers love…“Music and music experiences support the formation of important brain connections that are being established over the first three years of life (Carlton, 2000).” This means that singing is an EVIDENCE-BASED PRACTICE. Every single time you break into a song with a child, you’re helping build the circuitry for social and language development. You’re setting the stage for words.

4. Research shows that young children need to hear about 21,000 words per day, although some hear as little as 6,000. The simple act of talking to kids helps them develop their vocabulary and their language skills, including listening, memory, and speaking. Your conversation is going to state the obvious, be repetitive, and ask and answer your own questions. Here are 3 strategies for expanding opportunities for children to hear and use more language throughout daily routines:

• Ask your child open-ended questions.

Closed-ended questions can be answered with a simple yes or no, so they fail to promote language development. Instead of asking your child, “Do you want water?” try asking a question that gets your child using more specific words: “What would you like to drink: water, milk, or juice?”

• Turn your child’s words into sentences

If your child points to something, resist the urge to give it to her because you know she wants it. Let her use her words. When your young child says, “Wah-wah” and points, say, “Oh you want some water?” as you hand her the water. Then, intentionally say, “Here’s your water.” By doing so, you’re modeling using sentences for your child.

• Include little ones in family discussions.

Include your little one in dinnertime table conversations, family gatherings, and family talks. Family time is great for rich conversations. Your little one can keep in touch with family members who live far away using video chat or by talking on the phone. It may not be as great as a face-to-face conversation, but it’s conversation.

5. The use of sign language has proven to be beneficial for children in a wide variety of settings. Teaching sign language to preverbal babies has proven to benefit children in their later years. Research shows that sign language speeds up speech development, reduces frustration in young children by giving them the means to express themselves before they know how to talk, increases parent-child bonding, and lets babies communicate vital information, such as if they are hurt or hungry.

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Aaron Likens: I was asked to write a blog post on Independent Living, and I have asked my father to write about his experience of seeing me move out of his house in 2012. Wow, that was a long time ago. This is his first adventure into writing a blog post. Be kind.

Independent Living

by James Likens

Many times, when I would attend presentations about Autism Spectrum Disorders given by my son, Aaron Likens, parents would often ask me what the most important piece of advice I could give them about their child(ren) on the Autism Spectrum. I don’t know if I was right or wrong, but most of the time I would say “accommodation”.

A child on the spectrum, regardless of age, has things that he or she can do quite well. It might be a subject in school, an activity, or an unbelievable knowledge base on some subject. But there are also things that, if not very difficult, can be downright impossible. I could write a long litany of things, but to quote Aaron at his presentations, “If you’ve met one person with Autism, you’ve only met one person with Autism.”

In the past eleven years, Aaron has given over 1,000 presentations to nearly 100,000 people.

Those include parents, teachers, students, professionals, police officers, and FBI agents. Whether he is standing on a stage, in a classroom, or sitting next to someone on an airplane, people have often said, “If you hadn’t told me you had Asperger’s syndrome, I never would have believed it.” This is something that he does very well.

I read a synopsis of a study about ASD young adults done by Drexel University, Philadelphia, PA, that said the following:

In the U.S., 66% of young adults in their 20s live independently,1 meaning outside of the parent’s home and not in a supervised living situation such as a group home. Our own analysis of young adults with autism indicated that only one in five of those with autism have ever lived independently since leaving high school.2

Those figures cover the entire Autism Spectrum. For those on the higher end of the spectrum, 45% have lived independently at some point in time. Aaron has lived outside of my home since his late 20s.

His former employer had moved to Texas from St. Louis and said he would rent Aaron his condo at half the price of what rent was in the complex. After discussing it with me, Aaron took him up on the offer. He has not lived with me since.

Is he independent? Yes and no. Like I said, there are some things that Aaron is amazing at, and there are others that are very difficult, if not impossible. That’s where my advice to that father comes in: accommodation.

I knew even before Aaron moved into that condo that there were things that I would have to help him with, if not do them myself. For instance, Aaron has had a cell phone for more than a decade. He still hasn’t set up his voice mail because he’s afraid it will be bad news. He has booked hundreds of airline tickets all over the world on-line, but if he needs to change a flight or there is a problem, he can’t call Delta to deal with it. There are other things that present him with a problem, but most of them have to do with communication. That’s where I help out with accomodation, speaking on his behalf. It’s not that he is a failure, it’s that he has a disability.

On the other hand, Aaron has traveled to 10 foreign countries, on his own, and navigated airports, custom, taxis, trains, subways, and walking. He has made his own hotel reservations (on-line), rented cars, driven in foreign countries, and found his way back when he got lost. He’s a professional race flagman for a national go-kart series, and part of the flag team for IndyCar and the Indy 500. He travels up to 20 weeks a month for his motorsports engagements.

I think it is important to let a young person on the spectrum know that the parent(s) will be there for them, to help out when they can’t help themself, without a lecture that they should learn how to do those things. That safety net can be the difference between living independently or living at home.

Today Aaron owns a condo, lives with his cat Kansas, and continues to bring hope to families across the United States and around the world. That’s worth whatever accommodation it takes.

1. Arnett J. (2014). Clark University Poll. Clark University. www.clarku.edu/clark-poll-emerging-adults

2. drexel.edu/~/media/Files/autismoutcomes/publications/LCO Fact Sheet Living Arrangements.ashx

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