Sue Ward's Public Library

Owning two languages places one in a position to think about language itself, to reflect on its functions and to treat it, as Baker describes, as an object of thought rather than as simply a means through which one can express thoughts. Even preschoolers demonstrate the ability to reflect on language. For instance, a child will exercise phonological awareness when asked: "If the 's' sound of scream is taken out, what is left?" And grammatical awareness is tapped with the following item: "'I be sick.' Is this the right way or the wrong way to say it?" In both of these examples, the child must think about words (Shaffer 1999). Metalinguistic awareness is considered "a key factor in the development of reading in young children" (Donaldson 1978) and "a crucial component of cognitive development because of its documented relation to language ability, symbolic development, and literacy skills" (Bialystok 1991). Bilingualism enhances many metalinguistic abilities, including sensitivity to the details and structure of language, early word-referent distinction, recognition of ambiguities, control of language processing, and correction of ungrammatical sentences.

Metalinguistic awareness (MA)
is defined as an
awareness or bringing into explicit consciousness of linguistic form and
structure in order to consider how they relate to and produce the underlying
the meaning of utterances.

Code-switching and translation are examples
of bilinguals’ MA.

I want to focus on autistic children, but it’s special needs in general,” Kullberg said. “We want every child to be able to be creative and express themselves.”

The big part of it is just knowing in general how to keep (autistic children’s) attention, to keep them more drastically engaged,” Kullberg said. “It’s not that they’re not intelligent, you just have to approach them in a different way.”

Trying to determine why professionals and parents are reluctant to introduce AAC to this population is of great interest to me.

Both groups fear that if AAC is introduced into the intervention, then the child will not talk or stop talking. In addition, if AAC is introduced, there is the feeling that the professionals have given up on speech production. However, research has clearly not shown that. What it has consistently shown is that if AAC is introduced into the intervention plan of children with severe expressive communication disorders, there is often a marked increase in speech output.

The use of AAC requires a skilled evaluator and trainer to insure the child's needs and abilities are properly considered.  For SLPs who do not feel adequately trained or skilled in AAC methods, evaluation, and treatment, arrange for or request technical assistance.  Please note that with proper planning and implementation, AAC is extremely unlikely to interfere with the child's development of speech.  If providing support to an AAC user, SLPs should familiarize themselves with the benefits and current research literature on AAC.

In the early phases of treatment for children with moderate to severe CAS, appropriate frequency may range from 3 - 5 individual speech therapy sessions per week. 

There are a number of features of speech therapy that appear to be most successful to children with apraxia of speech.

Many experienced speech-language pathologists use multiple methods and approaches rather than a "one approach fits all" notion, taking many of the methods mentioned above and using them based on the individual child's needs. There is no one "program" that is right for every child with apraxia of speech. 

 Speech skills with emphasis on articulation and intelligibility would be targeted in therapy during this period (Swift and Rosin, 1990). An individual analysis of oral motor strengths and challenges is important to determine what specific skills need to be addressed, for example, does the child have low muscle tone or muscle weakness in the oral facial area? difficulty with motor coordination? difficulty with motor planning? Are other speech areas such as voice and fluency affecting intelligibility? Each of these areas can be worked on if they are affecting communication ability for an individual child.

Therapy may also be approached through the needs of the curriculum. In this approach, vocabulary would be taught based on the vocabulary that the child needs for success in science or social studies. The therapy may be proactive, teaching in advance the language skills that the child will need for the official curriculum, formal and informal classroom interactions, following directions in class and learning the rules and routines, and skills for interacting with peers.

Play with your kid, then engage in a two way conversation,
giving your kid plenty of time to respond in [remember that eye
contact is important too]. Encourage the kid's attempts at speech, so that he is reinforced to keep trying. Playing
with your kid is extremely important for speech acquisition
and for developing appropriate obedience and respect from your
child.

some Down Syndrome kids become withdrawn at school because teachers and
others put an emphasis on kids learning more and more words e.g.
in English, reading, mathematics - being school word focused so
to say - whereas the kid actually needs to work with speech with the social
words he is comfortable in using and is comfortable to being
spoken to in.