As parents of language deficient children we know how incredibly isolating this condition can be. Yet a great many children with this and related disorders like autism can be highly visual and with the right strategies can participate in and grow from exposure to sports. While our boys were clearly very visual, they were globally [...]
Feel you can't go shopping with your autistic child? As parents of language impaired children with the kind of behaviors that this brings, I frequently get asked about family activities. We all live in a society that is constantly checking the P's and Q's of life, what is acceptable and what is not. Despite all [...]
Preschool Language problems What are preschool language disorders? Preschool children (3 to 5 years old) with language disorders may have trouble understanding communication and talking. What are some signs or symptoms of preschool language disorders? Some children have problems with understanding, also called receptive language. They may have trouble: [...]
Childhood Speech problems (Apraxia) What is childhood apraxia of speech? Childhood apraxia of speech (CAS) is a motor speech disorder. Children with CAS have problems saying sounds, syllables, and words. This is not because of muscle weakness or paralysis. The brain has problems planning to move the body parts [...]
Montessori and the Child with Special Needs Recently I have received quite a few questions about children with special needs (autism, ADHD, and others) and how they can fit into the Montessori environment. Since many of the questions were similar, it seemed like a good idea to jot down some thoughts about this topic. [...]
Speech therapy from reading: our story Anyone who knows me will tell you that I place high importance on Speech and language therapies. I spoke about our good friend Elaine Stevick in a recent post, who did such great work with our boys and our team over the years. This post dealt largely with [...]
School and the Autistic child. A lot of families in our group connected with me over the summer about choosing a school for their special needs child. So I thought this would be a good topic for my next post. One of the most important decisions any parent of a special needs child will [...]
What are speech/language delays and disorders? Speech is the sound that comes out of our mouths. When it is not understood by others there is a problem. Speech problems, such as stuttering and mispronunciation can be very frustrating. Language has to do with meanings, rather than sounds. Language is a measure of intelligence [...]
What is autism? Autism is a developmental disability. Children with autism, also known as autism spectrum disorder or ASD, have social, communication and language problems. They also have restricted and repetitive patterns of behavior, interests, or activities, such as flipping objects, echolalia, or excessive smelling or touching of objects. Autism may be mild or [...]
Your speech therapist and developing language. When Val and I look back on the boys' early years, we could remember several specialists who provided communication therapies to the boys. But there was a core to the boys' problems. When you cut through all the behaviors, the anxiety and the confusion one thing was clear. Behind [...]
