Eye contact...
Wednesday, December 8, 2010
Children with specturm diagnosis have difficulty in eye contact and theory suggests that human eye contact increases the anxiety among them. but, eye contact is a part of development as it assist in communication and socialization. Many a time it is difficult to get the eye contact from the child with ASD even if you physically prompt.
The main idea to promote eye contact is creating a need for child. this indirectly enhance the communication, verbal or non-verbal. The simple line is always remembered "create needs and provide opportunities to child".
for eg: tickle the child for 3 times with counting numbers and then stop. Since the child likes the act he would look at you or ask for more. This example was giving opportunity by tickling him and then creating a need by stopping the activity. once, he looks at you, appreciate and reinforce by giving him a kiss or smile.
Use verbal command often "look at my face". However. it is found that "look at my face" is reinforcing than look into my eyes. The step is data collection. Maintain a record for how often the child looks at you on demand. If sometime the child does not follow use the physical prompt to encourage him to look at you.
The timing for eye contact and persistence is important. If he is engaged in other activities it is difficult for him to acknowledge the command. Prompt him physically or wait for his involvement.
Posted byNeeti at 8:31 PM 0 comments
Labels: autism, child disability, early intervention, eye contact, parenting tips, play, speech therapy
Early Stimulation II
Wednesday, November 17, 2010
Early visual stimulation
Young babies are attracted by bright, irregular shaped or patterned objects. Irregular shaped objects enhance the contour, depth perception and discrimination function of vision. It is good to use patterned objects and surrounding to enhance visual functions like bed sheets and dresses. Use of large, bright, red objects in the line of the vision is suggestive. Move child hands for hand regard and midline orientation. Expose the child to various areas of house and let the child interact with family members during meal time and play time.
Mirror shadow attracts the child. Expose the child to mirror and assist him to watch himself and tap on the floor. Mirror should be placed 7-8 inches over head or in front of the child to avoid accident and this placement enhance the visual function. This activity is important for body image development. Body image is important for efficient use of the body parts in space.
Large sheets of colour paper or gift wrappers attract the child not only for visual awareness but also for movement. Place the plastic sheet under the child. The child gets excited to move when he hears the crepitus sound of sheet while moving.
Posted byNeeti at 8:10 PM 0 comments
Labels: child development, developmental disability, early intervention, speech therapy, vision therapy
Mouth play II
Friday, October 22, 2010
Activities for improving oral functions
Because of hypertonia and hypotonia of oral muscle, most of the children with disability have feeding problems. It includes inability to chew, poor control tongue for moving bolus, poor jaw coordination and instability. Many of children have poor oral sensitivity varying from hypo to hyper sensitivity which also affects the feeding and speech. Children with hypersensitivity are hesitant to try new taste and tend to swallow the food than chewing. They are “picky eater”. The hyposensitive child takes longer time to eat and keeps the food inside mouth for longer time. They are less aware if the food stick around the mouth and most of time they have hanging tongue or drooling. Because of poor oral tone they develop open mouth posture.
Mouth play can improve all these above problem and even can prevent the problem to arise if started as earliest.
- Deep pressure around the jaw improves the jaw stability and awareness. It helps in improving the tone of facial muscles and helps in oral function like chewing, swallowing and sipping.
- Firm pressure on the root of the tongue with the help of spoon increases the muscle tone of tongue and increases the voluntary control over gagging. Controlling gagging reflex helps in preventing the vomiting.
- Blowing plays an important role in developing oral functioning. Assist the child to learn blowing and sipping. Both the activities play an important role in breath control and tone regulation.
- Exposure to different type of food helps to desensitize the oral hypersensitivity.
- Pleasant touch around the mouth reduces the hypersensitivity. Touch should be firm but given in a playful way so the child accepts it well. Activities like bathing and grooming can distract the child and child readily accepts the touch. For younger children mouthing toys can be helpful which assists in chewing and improves the oral tone. For elder children chewing rubber stick, tubes or chewing gums are advisable.
The above activities do need an Early interventionist, Occupational therapist or Speech therapist guidance.
Posted byNeeti at 8:50 PM 2 comments
Labels: cerebral palsy, child disability, developmental disability, Down's syndrome, early intervention, feeding, oral issues, parenting tips, play, speech therapy
Mouth play I
Tuesday, October 19, 2010
The child learns through their mouth first. The mouth sensation develops even before their birth. Around 5 months in utero or womb the child brings the hands to mouth and sucks the hands. This is the first exposure of mouthing. After birth the child first exposure to mouthing is mother feeding. During feed the child does not even get touch sensation inside mouth but also around the mouth. This is favoured by rooting reflex which is a primitive reflex. According to Freud's psycho-sexual theory of development, the oral stage is a primary focus of libidal energy or libido. At the age of 3 months the child start bringing his hands in midline and starts mouthing. This way the child preoccupies with the pleasure of mouthing. Oral stage prepares the child for better oral functioning. It prepares the child for sucking, chewing and swallowing and later for speech.
Mouthing the toys and other objects helps the child to learn jaw control, chewing, tongue movement and speech. During this process the child learns to use different part and angles of the mouth. This prepares the child for transition of food from liquids to solids.
This is a normal process and most of the children undergo to this process by their own but it is not automatic process for children with special needs. They need assistance to learn it through guidance with early interventionist or occupational therapist.
Posted byNeeti at 10:43 PM 3 comments
Labels: autism, cerebral palsy, child disability, Down's syndrome, early intervention, occupational therapy, oral issues, parenting tips, play, primitive reflexes, sensory integration, speech therapy
Happy feeding
Thursday, October 14, 2010
Feeding to infant is difficult but pleasurable act. It is not only the source of the nutrition but also for emotional and early communication. Infant spends most pleasurable time with mother during feeding. However, feeding is not pleasurable to mother and child every time. Many a time it needs lots of effort from parents. But, little modification may bring comfort and pleasure to both.
1. The feeding position should be comfortable to both child and mother. Mother should be comfortable and have proper support in cradle position for infants and tailor position for toddlers. The child hands should be placed forward and head tilted little forward. This helps in smooth swallowing and prevents choking and aspiration. This position not only provides stability but also opportunity for eye contact and early communication of their emotions. This position also helps in head control and midline orientation. It is important for children with Down’s syndrome and cerebral palsy. For children with special need, this position avoids the excess air intake which may lead to stomach cramps.
2. Environment plays an important as well. The environment should be calm and less distraction. The act should be pleasurable by adding some music or singing lullabies
3. Mouth play is important for developing better oral functioning and speech
Enjoy feeding!!!
Posted byNeeti at 11:44 PM 2 comments
Labels: cerebral palsy, Down's syndrome, early intervention, feeding, nutrition, parenting tips, sensory integration, speech therapy
My child does not speak...
Friday, October 8, 2010
Child development is amazing. All the developmental milestones are fixed but flexible. Many a time child does not follow the sequence and time but most of the children follow the predictable developmental sequence. Parents always keep a track of their child development. However, many a times the parents miss the track and most common is the speech and communication delay. There are many myths and mis-believes are associated with the speech development. Many say the girls speak earlier than boys or someone spoke late in the family so the child is granted to speak late. Here we forget to face the reality. It may happen the child may catch the pace of development but what would happen if it does not catch the pace? In that ignorance we lose the critical period of child development.
There are few red flag sign like
- Not speaking or uttering specific words at 15 month
- Not responding to his/her name
- Not understanding the simple commands
- No social communication
Either one or all symptoms are present….the only mantra that’s works is an immediate evaluation
Evaluation may point to
- Developmental delay
- Autism
- Hearing loss
- Speech and language disorder
- Other less known conditions (deprivation/abuse, cerebral palsy, central auditory processing disorder, Landau-Kleffner Syndrome, selective mutism)
Early detection and evaluation may assess the risk factors. Early intervention may provide the opportunity for the child to improve significantly. Early intervention is must for all children who are deviated from their normal development.
Posted byNeeti at 11:33 PM 0 comments
Labels: early intervention, parenting tips, red flag sign, speech therapy, Therapy
TV the idiot box...
Wednesday, September 22, 2010
Most of the times parents of children with language or communication delay complaint or have concern about their children watching television for longer time. Recently a parent approached me and had a concern that child talked very less and whatever he talked was monotonus or like parrot talking. During assessment it was found that both the parents were on full time work and they left the child at home alone. A nanny took care of him and most of the time child was kept in front of cartoon channel and there was very less human communication with child.
Other child of 6 years was indulged in watching a DVD. She had almost memorize the whole DVD and she could repeat the whole DVD without mistake. most of the time, child was preoccupied with the self talking and it was all about the DVD content.
Researches have proven that excess TV watching is associated with delayed language development. Research on early brain development shows that babies and toddlers have a critical period for speech and communication development and that needs direct interactions with parents and other significant care givers for healthy brain growth and the development of appropriate social, emotional, and cognitive skills. Children who watched television alone were 8.47 times more likely to have language delay when compared to children who interacted with their caregivers during television viewing. As recommended by the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), children under the age of 2 should watch no television at all, and after age 2 watch no more than one to two hours of quality programming a day. Therefore, exposing such young children to television programs should be discouraged. Parents should engage children in more conversational activities to avoid television-related delays to their children language development, which could impair their intellectual performance.
Posted byNeeti at 10:01 PM 2 comments
Labels: autism, child disability, child education, children, communication, developmental disability, disability, early intervention, education, Learning disability, parenting tips, speech therapy
Vowels in Speech therapy
Thursday, August 26, 2010
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For the children who are learning to speak, it is difficult for them to pronounce the vowels and consonants combination in initial stages. It is advisable to start with lax or open vowel sounds than the stressed vowels. Lax vowels mean which are open and have short sound like /a/ than /o/.
Posted byNeeti at 11:05 PM 0 comments
Labels: autism, early intervention, information sharing, knowledge sharing, parenting tips, sensory integration, speech therapy, tips
Babbling...
Thursday, August 19, 2010
Children with apraxia or children with Autism, mostly have low oral tone and poor oral coordination. It is hard for these children to plan, coordinate and execute oral movements, resulting in poor verbal skills. Imitation and verbalization both are difficult for them.
As normal speech development, a child at the age of 5-6 month starts babbling. Babbling helps the child to practice oro motor function and develop the ability to change what he hears and understands the motor act of verbalization. Babbling helps in syllabic understanding and production hence, it facilitates the normal speech and language production. Babbling at earlier stages has vowel both short and long vowel but, long vowels predominate. After this, babbling changes to reduplicated babbling - sequence of identical, repetitive sequences of CV syllables (e.g /ma/ma/, /da/da/). Later it changes to CV, V, VC, VCV format.
Initial forms of vowels are /a/, /aa/, /oo/ and then /i/, /e/ and then dipthongs (combinations of 2 different vowels like ie/, /io/)
Initial course of speech therapy should follow normal course of development. Babbling should be a part of curriculum and used as methodology during speech therapy. However, teaching to speak is not easy task. The child who does not speak will take longer time to learn to speak than child who can speak few words.
Posted byNeeti at 11:20 PM 1 comments
Labels: ADHD, autism, child disability, early intervention, parenting tips, speech therapy, tips
Easy Flashcards
Friday, August 13, 2010
Recently i started designing flashcards and got an easy idea. Cut the cardboard of the desired size and put stickers. These stickers are easily available in markets and durable. They are mess free than the cut and paste books. They are attracting because of their colors.
Posted byNeeti at 6:32 PM 0 comments
Labels: autism, early intervention, education, flashcards, parenting tips, speech therapy, tips
Speech sound production
Thursday, July 29, 2010
http://www.talkingchild.com/speechchart.aspx
Posted byNeeti at 10:53 PM 0 comments
Labels: child disability, children, early intervention, information sharing, knowledge sharing, parenting tips, speech therapy, tips
