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Language techniques: Who let the down out? DOWN, DOWN, DOWN, DOWN, DOWN

5/7/2012

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Hey all you fun loving people out there. Want to know a quick technique to encourage more clear, single words and keep your own complicated talking to a minimum?

Try modeling the word you are encouraging to the tune of a song. You can either replace every word with the word you are modeling, or most of the words, or occasionally replace words.

An easy song to use is "row, row, row your boat", but you can use more complicated songs as well (especially motivating for older children). I sometimes have fun myself just thinking of different songs that are fun to use to model words to. ("We like to move it, move it" "In the jungle the music jungle, the music sleeps tonight", or "shake, shake, shake, ...shake, shake, shake, shake your arms", or say the word "ride" to the tune of the lone ranger. There are sooo many ways to do this!!!)
 
I have also seen this work with kids who have echolalia, try singing the phrase that you are modeling (such as "Let's play jumping ghost") then pause and ask them what they want (then the phrase won't be the last thing you said), but they can remember the whole phrase easier!


Have fun rocking out your words!
 Love,
 Katrina



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Super Speaking Skills - breaking words down!

2/28/2012

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When working on language and encouraging our children to use clear single words, its helpful to break the word down and work on all of its different parts.  However  I had a wonderful reminder yesterday of how complicated speech is and how far we can go when breaking things down for our children. 
          I was working with my daughter and helping her with the "s" sound (she often says "th" instead of "sss")  I tried to help her understand to put her tongue behind her teeth instead of between her teeth. I showed her using my mouth, I held her in front of a mirror, I even tried to move her tongue for her.  She had many wonderful attempts at it, but she just wasn't putting her tongue behind her teeth.  Because she was so motivated to speak and play with me I had more opportunity to work on this than I usually do with other children with autism. 
       I tried breaking the skill further down and encouraged her to wiggle her tongue, this even seemed challenging.  I broke it down further and asked her to just stick her tongue out, she did but with her mouth wide open.  To sharpen the skill I had her do it with her mouth closed.  She once again was challenged with this.  She seemed to start to lose interest so I switched the game up, I had her making vowel sounds that she can do easily. She repeated funny sounds saying  me, mo, mu, mi, may, and then I threw in a tongue wiggle.  This time she did it!     
    She still has a way to go until she is saying her s's consistently, but it was so nice to remember all the little intricacies that go into talking.   The dozens of muscles we have in our face, our  lips, our tongue, our teeth, our voice box, our breathe, then of course also the brain neurons all firing at exactly the precise moment.   Making any sound at all is a minor miracle :)   Let's remember how complicated speaking is and celebrate every little step our children take!

       If your child has a challenge with clear words trying breaking it down into the smallest skills you can think of and build up from there.   Celebrate any and all attempts and remember to have fun!

Best wishes!   Katrina
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    Katrina Kramlich

     The founder of Inspired Spectrums shares her tips and experiences in working with children and adults with autism.  Word of caution: she is occasionally sentimental and this is often reflected in her blogs :)

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