When I test a child, I do a battery of formal tests and a spontaneous language sample. For an spontaneous language sample, I audiotape a conversational sample of a child’s speech (50 to 100 utterances) and analyze it. It offers a lot information about grammar, syntax, semantics, pragmatics and and overall conversational skills.
Archive for the ‘Language Therapy’ Category
Spontaneous language sample: the speech pathologists stethoscope
Saturday, August 29th, 2009Motivation comes in different forms for different kids
Tuesday, August 18th, 2009Problem: I am working with a child who is not motivated to do anything during the session. The only thing he enjoys doing is spinning in my chair, which he does immediately upon entering the room.
Since spinning in the chair is motivating, I would use it as a reward for cooperating and doing what is asked of him. Seat him in a stationary chair. When he successfully accomplishes the task at hand, he gets to spin in the chair. I would limit the spinning to one or two spins. Then he returns to the other chair and to his work. You can up the ante a bit too. If he does _________, he gets to do one spin. But if he does ___________, he can spin two times.
Language Therapy or Speech Therapy—which comes first?
Wednesday, July 8th, 2009Re: If the child has a language delay would you concentrate either directly or indirectly on language and leave speech till the child is older?
It is important to do a complete analysis of the child no matter what the age. What is involved in a complete analysis varies depending on the age of the child.
When starting to work with a child, I make a determination as to what I will focus on first. It might be a facet of language, or speech, or both. Factors also to be taken into consideration are the time spent with the child per session, the ability of the child to focus on the task(s), the motivation of the child, and the involvement of parent(s).