Mothers who imitate their child with autism may help teach nonverbal social skills and feel more positive about their relationship with their children.
This case report describes a therapy approach where the mother imitated her 21-month-old child with autism. The mother and child were together for sessions with therapists for 60 minutes per month, and the mother was taught how to continue therapy at home. For the first two months, she spent 5 minutes every day playing with her child and responding to him. For the next two months, she imitated her child’s facial expressions and sounds during play. For the last two months, the mother stopped imitating and was responsive during play. The child’s joint attention skills improved more rapidly during the imitation phase than during the other phases of therapy. The mother also enjoyed being with her child more during the imitation phase.
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Responding to generalized imitation/sounds that goes with words besides oink with pig, moo with a cow, etc.
Feb 12, 2010 by Anonymousexample teaching the language therapist to dote on words that have long and short vowel meanings of two or more syllables, practice this step over and over with an essay and read aloud using breaths and syllable enunciations and differ them with nasal noises and use pictures of animals with sounds and nature that makes sounds of wind, raindrops, person makes sounds of things, stuff use familiar auto car sounds, honking and go over breathing normal with opinion of english syllable usage and preference of ongoing speech used as casual communicatives. Thanks kathy. p.s. syllables are great and have that ambience and effect on toning things down when we see a crisis arriving at the door, don't we? okay my favorite is chry san thi mum wow a mouthful and I do have to take a breath after forcing that word around.
Responding to generalized imitation/sounds that goes with words besides oink with pig, moo with a cow, etc.
Feb 12, 2010 by Anonymousexample teaching the language therapist to dote on words that have long and short vowel meanings of two or more syllables, practice this step over and over with an essay and read aloud using breaths and syllable enunciations and differ them with nasal noises and use pictures of animals with sounds and nature that makes sounds of wind, raindrops, person makes sounds of things, stuff use familiar auto car sounds, honking and go over breathing normal with opinion of english syllable usage and preference of ongoing speech used as casual communicatives. Thanks kathy. p.s. syllables are great and have that ambience and effect on toning things down when we see a crisis arriving at the door, don't we? okay my favorite is chry san thi mum wow a mouthful and I do have to take a breath after forcing that word around.
Nutrition and Essential Fatty Acids May Help Verbal Apraxia and Autism
Dec 2, 2009 by AnonymousCan nutrition help verbal skills in children with autism? A study reported the August 2009 issue of Alternative Therapies says yes, for some children. Combined vitamin E and omega 3 therapy may help a type of verbal apraxia (a type of speech problem) that may be linked to food allergies and nutritional problems.
Children with verbal apraxia have trouble pronouncing words and may have severe speech problems. Many scientists have thought that verbal apraxia is a brain disorder. This study suggests that verbal apraxia may also be related to metabolism differences and nutritional problems.
Metabolism is the process of making energy from food. Metabolism is a complex system of enzymes, proteins, fats, and carbohydrates that work together to digest food and turn it into energy that the body can use. People likely have a wide range of metabolic differences. Some of those differences can be quite large for some individuals. In this study, they suggest that some children with autism may have metabolism differences that affect how they process foods, and how their brain works.
What did the study show? This study tested 187 children with verbal apraxia, and many of them also had autism. All of the children took 400-3,000 International Units of vitamin E daily. They also took 1-3 grams of polyunsaturated fats (including omega 3 fatty acids) per day.
Almost all of the families (97%) reported improvements in speech, imitation, coordination, eye contact, and other skills with vitamin E and omega-3 therapy. There were few side effects reported during the length of the study.
The authors also described blood test results for nutritional information about 26 of the children. They reported low carnitine levels, high anti-gluten antibodies (suggesting a gluten allergy), low vitamin D levels, and fat absorption problems in most of the children they tested. They described how nutrition and metabolism might be different in some children with autism.
What do these results mean for children with verbal apraxia and autism? The results are exciting because 97% of the children showed improvements, and there were few side effects. Sounds perfect, doesn’t it? But it’s not quite as perfect as it sounds.
There are some major limitations of this study. First of all, the researchers asked parents to give their subjective opinion of improvements. The parents knew they were in a study. Although they were given specific improvements to look for, there is a possibility of bias in favor of reporting a good result.
Secondly, they did not use placebo controls. All of the parents and children knew they were getting the supplements. There is the possibility of the “placebo effect” which is when people taking placebo (“sugar pills”) report feeling better or actually show improvements. Many think it is the power of the mind/body connection that somehow influences how they feel or even how their body physically responds. There is scientific evidence for brain connections to the immune and endocrine systems to support these observations. It is possible that, in this study, the children and/or parents were hopeful that the supplements would work, and that influenced the outcome. There was a placebo effect observed in a recent study of citalopram and autism in children.
Third, the supplements may be helpful for only a subset of children with verbal apraxia. The researchers chose children with verbal apraxia who also had metabolism differences….
What is the bottom line for omega-3 and vitamin E from this study? In spite of the shortcomings of this study, the results are very promising. Children with verbal apraxia may benefit from vitamin E and omega-3 supplements, which may get their metabolism on a better track. And researchers will continue to explore the nutrition/metabolism link with brain function. Good nutrition is likely to be important for many brain functions, not just verbal apraxia.
Information, please
Nov 22, 2007 by dankohnI met with Thomas’ teachers (old and new) on Tuesday morning. As I predicted, there wasn’t really much to say because the old teacher didn’t have much information and neither did the new one. We had a nice time chatting for a while and they both had encouraging things to say about Thomas’ progress so far this year. His teacher enjoys having him in class and feels that he fits in very well with the other kids. He’s had to go back to sitting in a cube chair during circle time as opposed to sitting on the floor as he had been doing. Apparently he was a little too fidgety on the floor. He knows the letters in his name and can write the letter “T.” I also got to see pictures of Thomas playing with a mound of shaving cream – something he wouldn’t have even thought about doing a year ago! That was one of his goals from last year, too – playing with messy things. The teacher told met that she has a hodge podge-type class – there are a couple normally developing kids, some with speech delays and then some high-functioning autistic children. Their hope is that the kids with delays will learn from the typical kids. I think it’s cool that Thomas is in a class with some “normal” kids. Hopefully, this will help prepare him for possibly spending some part of his day in kindergarten in a mainstream classroom.
We will have the opportunity for a conference again in January so I’ll be looking forward to that one a little bit more. I’m disappointed that I couldn’t get more information out of this first conference because we always look forward to it. Jonathan couldn’t come anyway because it was during work hours.
Thomas has really needed the sensory input lately. Especially at night I’ve noticed that he has a really hard time settling down and being calm. After he’s had his medicine he calms down a little but right before dinner to right after his bath he’s a ball of noise and energy. Usually a good rubdown helps tremendously. He’s been clapping his hands very loudly and doing some hand-flapping lately too which is odd to me. I thought that hand-flapping would have presented itself a lot earlier in Thomas since that is a fairly common self-stimulation behavior. I think that the hand clapping is Thomas trying to imitate me since I clap my hands to get the kid’s attention sometimes. He must like the noise because he claps as loud as he can rapidly many times before somebody (usually me) asks him to stop. He has been talking a lot lately and asking what printed words say. He’ll point to the light switches and the knobs on the stove where it says “Off” and ask what it says. He knows exactly what it says but apparently likes to hear me say it. I know that he most likely will recognize words rather than read them and sound them out (at least at first). I’m pretty sure he recognizes the word “off” by now. Thomas has also shown an increased interest in books. His teacher said that they have individual book time every day and that Thomas will sit on the floor and look at a book for several minutes which she said was really great in terms of attention span.
They’re doing a “pet store” unit at school right now. I got to see what the kids have set up in the classroom and how they play with it. Thomas has emerging interactive play skills. He still engages in parallel play but is beginning to interact and ask questions when he’s playing alongside others.
Thomas has a great imagination, too! He was reading a Clifford (The Big Red Dog) book last week and his teacher asked what he was reading. He said, “I’m reading Clifford, but I gave him a new name. His name is Kobe.” The teacher had read a book she wrote about her dogs’ trip to the pet store and one of her dog’s names is Kobe. She thought is was cute that he remembered that and wanted to make it a part of the book he was reading.
Thomas’ last teacher was in on the conference too (sort of at my request just so I could gather as much info as possible) and she said again that she loved having Thomas in her class and was sorry to give him up but knew that he needed the higher-functioning class to really get the social interaction he seems to want so much. She said that when she sees Thomas in the halls, he says “hi” to her and says, “I’m going this way, okay?” or “We’re going outside now!” He just gives her a heads-up to let her know what’s going on and she thinks it’s very funny. Thomas is sort of a regular at that school now since he’s been there for two years and everyone knows him.
Over the river and through the woods to my folk’s house we go tomorrow for Thanksgiving. My pumpkin pies were not the disaster they might have been had I attempted to make my own crust. Most people are either a cook or a baker. I am a baker for sure, but one thing I cannot seem to get the hang of is the elusive flaky and buttery pie crust. Mine always end up crumbly. Or they’re too small; I can’t roll them out big enough but still thick enough. Or they crack and end up dry and tasting like dust. So I found those amazing little refrigerated piecrusts and went to town. I’ve officially given up on making my own crusts.
Thomas is excited to be eating turkey tomorrow and has been wishing everyone a Happy Thanksgiving. He said it to his bus driver on Friday without any prompting or urging from me. He must have heard someone else say it on the bus before he came home, but still! It was very cute. I got Hayley to try some extra (cooked) pie filling but Thomas would have none of it. I can’t blame him. Really, pumpkin pie filling doesn’t look too appetizing on its own. Grainy-looking orangey-brown lumpiness. But it was tasty! And Hayley seemed to enjoy it. I’m sure that I can interest them in the whipped cream if nothing else.
Happy Thanksgiving!