Speech therapy at home? - Anyone tried it - need ideas?

My3LilMonkeys wrote: I want to try to do some at home speech therapy for Brooke. She has a great vocabulary, but her pronunciation is not good - even Madison can pronounce most things better than Brooke. I have to translate what she's saying to other people all the time - even her aunts and grandmothers.

I called to see about professional speech testing, but it's not covered by insurance and the evaluation alone is a few hundred dollars. So I want to try to work with her at home, but other than sounding the words out for her and having her repeat after me (which isn't working too well), I have no idea how to go about it. I've googled it, but most of what I find is things for sale or speech therapy for the deaf.

Any suggestions?

zdk753 replied: Is she just having problems pronouncing things or is it certain letters she isn't saying right?

Dylan couldn't say r, l, ch, & r so I put him in speech class at school. His therapist gave me some worksheets that had different exercises to do to get him to start putting his tongue where it is supposed to be like pretending he is licking peanut butter off of his lips, roof of his mouth, & teeth. Some of the exercises he has to do is saying different words w/ those letter in it. Some w/ the letter in the front, middle, & end. Other things are saying things that are outside or around the house w/ those letters. There's more, but I don't want to bore everyone esp. if that isn't what Brooke's problem is.

The main thing that his therapist stresses though is to only correct their errors a few times a day. She said the best thing to do is to repeat what they say using the correct words. Eventually it should click how they are supposed to say certain words.

Celestrina replied: Have you contacted the local intermediate unit? In PA they are the ones who oversee special education. They should do an evaluation and classes all covered by the county. Ben has been seeing a speech therapist for over two years (he's four). How old is she?

mom21kid2dogs replied:
All states have an Early Intervention program (frequently called something else in eavery state) and it's their job to serve children 5 & under with any kind of known or suspected challenge. They can set you up with a screening and assist you in getting her any indentified service. It's a Federally funded program so it's no cost to you. To find one in your area, call any service provider who deals with children (Head Start, Children Services, Health Department) and they should point you in the right direction. Good luck!

My3LilMonkeys replied: She is almost 4. It's mostly certain letters (she says dink instead of drink, things like that), compounded by the fact that she talks super fast and tends to repeat words - for example, if she's trying to say 'Mommy, I want to go to grandma's house", she'll say "Mommy - Mommy I want - I want - I want - I want to go to - I want to go to grandma's house." Kind of like a stutter, but with whole words instead of letters.

I'm not sure what a local intermediate unit is - I'll have to look into that. I did try our local Head Start and they said they don't do anything like that. I have heard of early intervention though, so I'll have to see if I can find them.

Thanks!

gr33n3y3z replied:
and ages 5 and over the school does it

gr33n3y3z replied: maybe try and get her to slow down when she is talking and make her slow down by telling her to repete it bc you didnt understand her

mysweetpeasWil&Wes replied:
This is exactly the service we get for Wil. Call your school district main office and ask about early intervention for speech delays. They should point you in the right direction. The process is a little long, but well worth it. Someone from the organization came out to interview us. Checked to see if Wil was even eligible...Never asked how much my DH makes or anything, just to see if Wil really needed the therapy. Then we met at the district office for the big evaluation. There was a ST there, school psych, special ed teacher, and maybe an OT. After that we got setup with weekly in-home speech therapy. No cost to us at all, plus Wil is guaranteed a spot in preschool, again at no cost. They will work on ST in the classroom too.

boyohboyohboy replied: early intervention did amazing things for jake. i highly recommend them...
and we were told that if he still needed the services when he was school age they would attend with him to help in anyway.

lovemy2 replied: Definately - contact your School District - they have to provide early intervention services...they will point you in the right direction or ask her Ped - that is what I did when I had Olivia evaluated when she was younger....we thought she had a lysp - she was evaluated and found to be fine but it was a great relief to know that service was there for FREE....

Good luck!

A&A'smommy replied:
We had that problem with alyssa and still do sometimes she just trys to talk to fast and we can't understand her and she has done this since she was old enough to start talking she just wanted to SOO bad that she couldn't stand it (still does this sometimes) but it will help a LOT to be consistant, tell her to slow down, and repeat. I would still call and see about an evaluation!

redplaydoh replied:

Bryan does this too. It's been described as somewhat of a tic that is not uncommon for young children to have. They usually outgrow it as their brains/bodies mature. I *think* it's called palilalia or paliphrasia... but it should be nothing to worry about.