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Learning to read and speech issues
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My youngest is 7 and was adopted from China last year. He was born with a cleft lip and palate which has been partially corrected, although he has a series of operations to go through.
He’s really wanting to read like his brother who is nearly 8. I bought Delightful Reading because it was quickly evident that RME wasn’t going to be nearly as effective for him. We’ve been working on recognizing letters and their sounds but his problem is that he can’t physically MAKE some of those sounds, and won’t be able to until his palate is corrected. It confuses him when we’re working and the sound he makes does not match mine (sometimes it’s not even close…for example, his “t” sounds like a “k” and his speech sounds very “open” in general.)
Should I skip this part and move ahead to whole word recognition? I don’t want to skip over important steps of being able to “sound out” words that can be.
Any advice?
I haven’t had experience with this particular issue, but I just wanted to encourage you as you work with him – what a blessing to have such a determined teacher.
Our three youngest kiddos joined us through adoption, the littlest at age three with little speech in any language, and it has taken a lot of time (he is 8 now) to figure out his own particular processing issues. I think you are right in the sense that you shouldn’t skip over important steps, and I’m wondering if there are other modalities you could use. Could you do something like All About Spelling, where you use letter tiles to build words? Is there a computer-based spelling program where you can type in the words and hear them pronounced? When our kids were younger, they loved the Letter Factory DVD, and learned a lot of their sounds through the jingles. He may not be able to make the sounds yet, but perhaps he could remember them and hear them in his head?
Don’t know if this is any help! Blessings, enjoy.
– Aimee
Can you understand him when he says words?
I know that people who are unable to talk for various reasons have learned how to read – I just don’t know much about the process of doing it…
I think I would spend some time with the letter sounds, but don’t expect him to be able to make the sound… just trust he is learning it without the “proof”… And I would also move onto the sight word and other portions of the program. If it is also hard to understand him when he says words, there can be other ways to see if he is understanding… for instance when he reads a word having him point to a picture from a selection… and of course having him find the word out of various words…
I know this isn’t the same at all… but I know the “Teach your baby to read” does a LOT of the teaching expecting no response from the baby – but having you trust they are learning it (so keep progressing with the lessons) – and once the baby can do things like point to the picture that matches the word… they recommend only doing that occasionally because the babies find it annoying to be “tested” all the time. Again, it isn’t the same thing exactly… but it sounds like he is getting frustrated with the process because he can’t make the sounds – not that he doesn’t know what sound it should be…
hope that helps some!
He is very hard to understand. His vocabulary skills are miraculous (helps that he has a brother his age who talks non-stop) and his narrations have skyrocketed lately. Besides what we do together, he does play with the fridge phonics and the Leapster Letter Factory. I know he can hear the correct sound, but it seems to confuse him when I ask him to find a letter that we say so differently. It’s like he hears what he’s saying and knows it doesn’t match what I’m saying.
He hasn’t had speech therapy yet. The cleft palate team we’re working with said it might benefit him somewhat at this point to be in therapy but it must be someone who specializes in clefts. The closest one is two hours away, which is the therapist on our cleft palate team. Since it would mean multiple trips a week, we haven’t begun yet. But since he’s struggling with this it might be something we’ll have to try.
I’m going to try to keep progressing, keeping it light and playing lots of games with letters. And yes, emphasize simply choosing the correct letter for the sound without having him say them so much and trust that he knows the sound even though he can’t make it. Delightful Reading has letter, blend and word tiles which I’m in the process of cutting out. We’ll work a lot with those to build words and maybe begin the first lesson, going very slowly. He really wants to read so I need to get him reading real words.
Thanks ladies. Any other thoughts are more that welcome.
Robin,
I am a speech pathologist by training. Most therapist have had some training in cleft palates. I would encourage you to look closer to home for a therapist. It would really benefit your child.
Tracey
Thanks Tracey. I’ll do more research and see what I can find. My earlier searching was disappointing. The only other lady I found was only 45 minutes away but she was VERY full. She said cleft wasn’t her specialty but that she had had quite a bit of experience. She referred me to ETSU and hour away (we live in East TN) but the program she was talking about was no longer there.
I may call this woman back and see if she’s had an opening or could work us in. Daniel has had one surgery since we’ve had him but it may be another year or two before they do the next one on the palate itself. I don’t want to wait that long if we could be making progree now.Robyn, I can totally relate. DD and DS both were adopted from China at ages 3 and 5 respectively. Both were also born with cl/cp. DD is 5 1/2 and DS will be 6 next week.
I live in TN and would be glad to ask our ST if she knows anyone East of us who might be available? PM me if you’d like me to ask her. She has been an answer to our prayers. She comes to our HOME (so helpful!) once a week. I am able to still do things with our other children and/or observe her techniques with DD. She will start with DS in a couple of weeks.
As for reading and the letter sounds, I could have written your follow-up post. DD is the same way; knows the letters but it is like she hears something different. So many of her consonants are the same, but she knows they are different. This makes no sense to most reading I’m sure but I know you can understand what I’m saying Robyn.
I wish I had an easy answer but I don’t. DD wants to read so badly too. She is showing so many signs of readiness, but when we try she gets so frustrated. I wish it didn’t have to be so hard for some of our children.
Let me know please Robyn if you find anything particularly helpful b/c I’m always searching.
Robyn,
I am assuming they have tested your child’s hearing. It is very common in children with cleft palates. I hope you find someone close to home. Do you have any universities nearby with a speech path program? It might be called the communication disorders dept. They are reasonably priced usually. Although it would be students treating your child, I would not hesitate, as they are highly supervised. I always say I did some of my best treatment sessions as a grad student=) I could help you if you lived in OK!
Yes, his hearing came back fine. i’ve been “on the hunt” in the past few days and uncovered a woman in Johnson City (an hour away but we have violin there twice a week.) He has an evaluation scheduled with her in two weeks. Cleft is not her specialty either, but she said she’s had a lot of experience including an adopted boy from China whom she was very fond of. She’s excited to begin with Daniel. I’m praying this helps him. Thanks for all your help, ladies.
Robyn,
I wish you well in your pursuit to help your son. She does not have to an expert in just cleft palate to be a good therapist in that area. Speech pathologist often have many areas they are good at without specializing in just one area. I am so glad you found someone a little closer to you.
Blessings,
Tracey
Robin, I asked my ST but she didn’t know anyone. She told me she would ask around with colleagues though. I will let you know if she has any suggestions on Tuesday when we see her for our weekly appt., but in the meantime hoping this ST works out for you!
I may call this woman back and see if she’s had an opening or could work us in. Daniel has had one surgery since we’ve had him but it may be another year or two before they do the next one on the palate itself. I don’t want to wait that long if we could be making progree now.
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