Professional Perspective
Watch the video below.
https://vimeo.com/385516118Children with Language Disorders often have difficulty understanding and/or processing what is said to them and/or have difficulty expressing their thoughts. It can impact all academic areas because all academic learning is mainly verbal. Reading comprehension, math word problems, and written expression becomes especially problematic for a child with a language disorder. A full comprehensive evaluation is needed to determine how the language disorder is impacting academic achievement.
Is This Your Child?
*This information is meant to be an educational and general interest program and is NOT intended to replace professional therapy, counselling, diagnosis or advice.
How many apply to your child?
- Has limited vocabulary for their age. *Not sure what the standard vocabulary is for your child’s age? Ask your pediatrician or health care provider for guidance.
- Struggles to say sounds or words (stuttering)
- Speaks in short, fragmented phrases
- Says words in the wrong order
- Uses a lot of filler words like “um,” or use “stuff” and “things” instead of specific words
- Confuses verb tenses
- Repeats phrases when telling a story or answering a question
- Has trouble learning new words
- Often seems frustrated by their inability to communicate thoughts
Parenting A Child with Language Disorder
The following are some tips you can use to help your child practice comprehension and begin to develop skill and confidence around language processing. Remember to be patient and consistent and don’t get discouraged with your child.
Talk a lot to your child. This will help your child learn new words.
Read to your child every day. Point out words you see.
Point to signs in the grocery store, at school, and outside.
Speak to your child in the language you know best.
Listen and answer when your child talks.
Get your child to ask you questions.
Give your child time to answer questions.
Set time limits for watching TV and using computers. Use the time for talking and reading together.
Previous
Next
General Parenting Tips that Can Help -Self-Advocacy
What is Self-advocacy?
How to Begin
The Approach
Some Pointers
What is Self-advocacy?
Self-advocacy for our children involves:
- Accepting that they learn and see things differently than the other.
- Understanding what they need to be able to learn.
- Asking for what they need.
In the beginning of receiving a diagnosis, many children and parents may find it difficult to know and understand what they need. In addition, many children may have been struggling for a long time already and their self-esteem may be a bit diminished.
Be patient with your child. As you discover how to support and accommodate your child to help them maneuver academically and socially, it will become easier for both of you.
As you and your child become comfortable with their learning disability, your child’s confidence and self knowledge will grow. Now they will be ready to self-advocate and ask for what they need at school and beyond.
How to Begin
Work through this question with your child on a regular basis or when you see they are facing a new challenge, “What do I need?”
You may need to prompt your child if they are younger or new to self-advocating by asking them additional questions such as: Do you need to ask for more time to finish your paper? Do you need to ask to write your test in a room where there aren’t so many other children and things going on to distract you? Do you need to ask your teacher for extra help to understand division with two digits? Do you need to ask to for a buddy to work one on one to practice your lines for the play?
The Approach
Because our children may not always pick up on social clues, it is important that we help them learn and practice their approach. Below are a few things you can encourage your child to prepare themselves to ask for their requests:
- Use a friendly and positive tone.
- Pick a time when the teacher (or other adult or peer) can give them their attention.
- Make sure they know what it is they need to ask for and why.
- Allow them to practice their approach and question with you first if this helps them feel more comfortable.
- Remind to always say “Thank you”.
*Be prepared to self-advocate with your child in the beginning. Allow them to do the asking but realize that your reassuring presence may just be the confidence boost they need.
**Encourage your child for every effort they make when trying to self-advocate.
*** Depending on your child’s personality (if they tend to be a bit more aggressive), you may need to spend some time working with them to learn the difference in their approach between a request and a demand. Be patient – all new skills take time and encouragement.
Some Pointers
Some of the following pointers might help:
- Write out a list of what you want to discuss with the teacher.
- When appropriate, praise the teacher for specific things you feel good about. For example, “Mrs. Brown, thank you for spending extra time with Johnny and working on behaviour. We really see results.”
- If you have a problem, discuss the specific things that bother you as they relate to your child. Do not generalize. Do not say to the teacher “You are not teaching my child. This is going to be a wasted year.” Instead, you say, “The math program does not seem to be working for Johnny. Is there a way we can change it to better meet his needs?”
- Approach the teacher to discuss these concerns in a positive, non-threatening way.
- Keep the focus on your child, not the teacher’s shortcomings. For example, relate specifically how and why a particular behaviour modification practice will not work with your child, instead of complaining about the teacher’s poor application of a behaviour modification program.
- Offer assistance in the classroom when possible. Decide with the teacher if this involvement is appropriate for your child.
- Offer your time and talents. For example, when possible volunteer to be a grade mother/father, help with a field trip, tape a textbook chapter for a student with learning disabilities, etc.
- When you make a request or suggestions, illustrate very specifically to the teacher how your suggestions can be implemented. Follow up your requests with a letter of thanks.
- Attend all meetings and conferences.
The Words of The Expert
If you just found out your child has a language disorder, you might have a lot of questions about what to do next. Whether your child has receptive language issues, expressive language issues, or both (mixed receptive-expressive language issues), follow these steps for ideas on how best to support your child. Click on each of the suggestions below to get more information about it.
1 Learn all you can about your child’s language disorder.
Understanding how your child’s language disorder affects her makes it easier to know how to help. Maybe she has trouble following directions or seems uninterested when others are talking. Or she might have trouble finding the right words to say and explaining something that happened in a sequential way.
Learn more about how expressive language issues and receptive language issues can play out in everyday life. And explore terms you might hear from teachers and doctors about language disorders.
2 Investigate treatments and therapies for language disorders.
Talk to your child’s teachers and doctors about treatment options for language disorders. Speech therapy can be especially helpful. Learn more about what speech-language pathologists (SLPs) do and terms they use.
SLPs can help kids learn to speak in longer, more complex sentences and explain events in a logical sequence. They can help kids learn the vocabulary of everyday directions and improve active listening skills. SLPs can also show you how to work with your child at home. If your child is at school, find out how students may be eligible for free speech therapy.
3 Look into school supports for language disorders.
Schedule a meeting with the school to talk about whether your child might be eligible for special education services. Bring any reports you may have from doctors or specialists. These could help with the IEP.
Talk about what supports and services might be helpful. An IEP might include speech therapy or social skills goals. If your child doesn’t qualify for an IEP, talk to the school about informal supports that could help. And if the school hasn’t yet evaluated your child, find out how to request a free evaluation.
4 Help your child be a self-advocate.
It’s important to help your child develop the ability to ask for what she needs, both in and out of school. This might take a lot of practice, especially if your child struggles with spoken language. Help her recognize her strengths and challenges. Then discuss what self-advocacy can look like in grade school, middle school, and high school.
5 Understand the possible emotional impact.
Having a language disorder can make it hard to engage in everyday conversations. Your child might have trouble putting thoughts into words or misunderstand what others are saying. These kinds of obstacles can impact your child socially—and emotionally. So it’s important to keep an eye out for signs of anxiety and depression. Don’t hesitate to reach out to your child’s doctor if you have concerns.
6 Learn how to help your child at home.
How to help your child will depend on your child’s age and specific struggles with language. If you have a young child, for example, it may help to repeat back short phrases she uses, and then expand what she says into a longer sentence. You can ask the SLP for more strategies.
Give your child plenty of time to respond to questions and try to resist the urge to jump in and fill silent moments. Role-playing is another great way to help your child practice what she can say in different situations. Help your child practice picking up on social cues, like facial expressions and voice pitch. There are hundreds of age-specific tips for helping kids with social challenges, like interacting with kids and adults that you can find online. You may also want to use apps to help with spoken language and listening comprehension.
7 Find support.
Consider reaching out to other parents of kids with language disorders in an online community. They can share helpful tips and experiences, and you can ask questions (and get answers from experts).
8 Keep in touch with the school.
Staying in contact with your child’s teachers can let you know whether her supports and services are working. A strong partnership with your child’s school allows everyone to work together toward your child’s success.
*Kelli Johnson, MA, is an educational speech-language pathologist, working with students from early childhood through 12th grade.
The Words of a Parent
- LISTEN
- READ
—
“Encouraging a child means that one or more of the following critical life messages are coming through, either by word or by action: I believe in you, I trust you, I know you can handle this, You are listened to, You are cared for, You are very important to me.”
Take-away Tips
Parenting a Child with Language Disorder? Tips to Help
Parenting a Child with Language Disorder? Tips to Help