Home Speech Therapy Exercises

Using my Repeat, Simplify and Wait process helps give children the time, tools and confidence to practice speaking.

If your child has Childhood Apraxia of Speech, these tips are really helpful. Combine oral language with sign, prompts and Pictos to reinforce and encourage. Always do it in a spirit of learning and fun.

Don't forget to give lots of praise for any speech attempt!

Let me know how it works out for you and feel free to ask me any questions!

Autism and ABA

I get a lot of questions related to ABA and why I don't support it.

For starters, I have never personally experienced ABA therapy. I've never experienced any autism-related therapy actually, though I would like to go to OT. I do get regular massages for my SPD.

My son has also not experienced ABA. While it was of course recommended when he first got his diagnosis, and it would be freely provided by my province's government, I just didn't feel right about it. I figured he will not end up worse than me as an adult. I also did not like the very "business" feeling I got when I called for services. The amount of hours they suggested just didn't jibe with me and how I wanted him to have a mostly "normal" childhood, not one filled with hours upon hours of therapy.

He had weekly speech therapy (still does) and before he started daycare, we spent our days playing and exploring the world. That was therapy enough for us, in my opinion.

I get my arguments against ABA from autistic adults (and teens) who have experienced it and felt abused by it. I am very uneasy about a lot of the techniques and the dialogue ABA professionals use. Things like "putting that behaviour on extinction" and ignoring the child until the child complies in a neurotypical/stereotypical way.

I also was very close to my ex-boyfriend's autistic brother. He was forever questioning how he felt or how he should behave. Everything was formulaic for him and he did not feel like he could think for himself. I feel that ABA makes people into robots. Socially acceptable robots.

I want my child to be able to think for himself. I don't want him to do things out of motivation for a candy. I don't want him to ignore his own needs in order to satisfy someone else. What happens when someone offers him a candy to touch his genitals? What happens when someone wants to pressure him to take drugs or commit a crime? A robot would comply. This is a major fear of mine.

ABA purports that autism is a behaviour disorder. It's not. Autism is a developmental disability.
The behaviours may not be neurotypical and may not be socially accepted, but that doesn't make them automatically wrong or a problem that needs to be fixed.

Also, the goal of ABA is to make the child "indistinguishable from typical peers" and attend regular school "without any supports." I do not share this goal or desire for my child.

If you can, please take the time to read autistic people's firsthand experiences with ABA. I am thankful to these people who have taken the time to inform us about what they went through so that others won't have to. I think you can appreciate their bravery, despite many wanting to silence them and the pain it must have caused them to relive these moments.

http://timetolisten.blogspot.ca/2014/03/conditioned-eye-contact.html

http://unstrangemind.wordpress.com/2013/01/27/no-you-dont/

http://juststimming.wordpress.com/2011/10/05/quiet-hands/

http://loveexplosions.net/2013/09/15/touch-nose-gummi-bear-what-is-aba-and-why-does-it-suck/

A whole series devoted to ABA on Emma's Hope Book.

http://thequeeraspie.blogspot.ca/2013/07/why-aba-therapy-unsettles-me.html

The creator of ABA, Dr. Lovaas, advocated slapping and shocking the children into compliance: http://neurodiversity.com/library_screams_1965.html

NOTE 1: If you are a parent and you currently have your child in ABA and you no longer agree with it, it's not too late to stop now and change course. When we know better, we do better. Don't feel guilty about that, just move on and continue to do your best with what you know.

NOTE 2: If you are a professional who wants to stand up FOR ABA, your comments are not welcome here and will be deleted if you even bother. This is not up for debate.

NOTE 3: If you know of any other posts similar to those above, feel free to comment and I will add them.

Brushing Protocol

Our Therapressure therapy brush

We've been doing the Wilbarger Brushing Protocol with the Little Man for almost a month now. The Wilbarger Brushing Protocol, also known as the "Brushing program," or just brushing, for short, is a therapy for sensory processing issues that was created by occupational therapist, Patricia Wilbarger.

It's used for people who are tactile defensive, and can be part of a wholistic sensory diet.

The Little Man is an interesting mix of sensory seeking and defensive, and it contributes greatly to his anxiety. It has caused a lot of problems with eating (limited textures, gagging), speech and general motor skills.

The therapy consists of brushing the person with a soft-bristled therapy brush roughly every two hours each day for a few weeks. This is followed by gentle joint compression. It takes 2-3 minutes to do and feels like a nice massage. It is taught by an OT to the parents and teachers who will do it, so that we know it is done correctly. (There are some videos out there that show people the technique, but I don't think it's a great idea to do it without professional help since doing it wrong can actually feel very uncomfortable and make someone more tactile defensive!)

After 2-3 weeks of daily therapy, the OT will re-assess the person and see whether it should be continued or tapered off.

I had heard a bit about it before this was proposed for the Little Man (it was proposed for me and my SPD, but I couldn't find an OT to teach me when I looked). There's not tons of science or studies backing this practice up. Nevertheless, we went into it with an open mind, figuring it doesn't hurt anyone (it feels really nice actually!) and the brush cost us $5.

Our OT set up the schedule and with the help of the staff at school, we've been doing it daily on the Little Man. To our great surprise, we've noticed A LOT of changes very quickly.

Since we started the brushing protocol, he's been:

-more calm, will sit with us
-asks for hugs
-sleeps better
-eats better (larger quantities and more textures)
-talks more
-drinks water (!!  From a cup!!)
-more focused
-seems less anxious
-seems more confident
-more self-aware when upset and able to let us know verbally

I think that him being less anxious means he is better able to relax and eat. I know I spent a great deal of my childhood very anxious and eating was very anxiety-provoking to me. Also, when you can't handle all the different things assaulting your senses all at once, it's hard to find a sense of predictability or stability in the world. The world feels very dangerous to someone with SPD - or at least it did for me growing up and I'm pretty sure my son has experienced a similar sentiment.

As a bonus, the Little Man seems to really enjoy being brushed and the OT agrees with the results we've been seeing, so we're going to continue for the next few weeks.

If you know a person who is tactile defensive with Sensory Processing Disorder and/or is Autistic, brushing is a therapy that doesn't take a lot of time or investment to try and see if it will help. It's just one part of a well-rounded OT program and easy to do at home.

As for me, I need to book more massage appointments for myself :)

Being A Burden

He woke up often at night, scared. He would call out to me. I would sit with him and tell him jokes to ease his anxiety.

It was hard to get him to eat anything. He was picky and had problems chewing. He would choke easily and drool a lot. Eating was always a big mess. He did better with liquids, but I had to give him a straw and watch him carefully to make sure he didn't choke.

He had problems going to the bathroom by himself. I helped him pull his pants down and he'd sit on the toilet for what seemed like hours sometimes. He would later tell me it was difficult to coordinate and relax his muscles to do what they needed to do.

His balance was not good, so we had the help of a physiotherapist and OT. He didn't really like it, but eventually he did the exercises and got some confidence. I remember him walking with the aid of a support harness and the OT hanging on tightly to help keep him up. He still tired easily and fell often, sometimes hitting his head quite badly.

His speech was slurred and hard to understand, so we got him speech therapy. Again, he didn't always want to cooperate, but we all pushed him and supported him in his efforts.

Otherwise he spent most of his day quiet in front of the TV. Or sometimes he listened to music and closed his eyes. It was hard to get him to interact with me. And sometimes when he did, he was verbally abusive. He was very controlling about the way things should be in his room.

He was a challenge and a lot of work, but I love him and I never gave up on him.








I'm talking about my father before he died from Parkison's. I was his caregiver.



He never wanted to be considered a burden. That was his fear. I never considered him a burden, even if at times he did not make the process easy and he certainly wasn't always nice. He abused me verbally my whole life, up until just before he died.

I never once thought of killing him.

Do not tell me caring for someone with special needs is a burden. Do not tell me my father was a burden to society.

Do not tell me caring for my Autistic son is a burden. Do not tell me my son is a burden to society.

Do not tell me either of these situations makes it understandable to murder either of these people, no matter how abusive or difficult things get.


This was written for Flash Blog for Isabelle Stapleton

Intensive Speech Therapy

The Little Man started specialized speech therapy for his apraxia. We're happy to be working with the best of the best - she's an expert in motor-planning speech issues - but it is really intense.

She works him really hard and he has been a real trooper keeping up with it. It's a lot for him - he looks at us periodically for support and we're both at his side cheering him on. He accepts her touching his face and manipulating his mouth to get the right positions and pronunciation. That's a lot for a three year old, especially one with sensory issues. He fell asleep in the car on the way home, poor thing.

However, he is eager to learn. We've been doing his exercises at home and he seems to feel it's a game. He's already sounding more clear. I am really proud of this little guy.

Mama On A Motherly Instinct Mission

The Little Man had an Occupational Therapy (OT) evaluation yesterday. We had seen one before at the Children's Hospital in the feeding clinic, but I didn't like the way they work (wanting me to bride him to eat good foods by using things like chocolate and ice cream). Not only that, but the psychologist there isn't great with autism and they don't really "believe" in sensory issues - it's just not their thing. So rather than butt heads, we thanked them for their time and stopped going.

Fast forward to us applying for the QC disability allowance and needing a real written evaluation done. I've already learnt that if you want something done around here quickly, you need to go private. Luckily, we have private insurance to cover most of this. The QC government gave me a month to supply them with evals in OT and speech therapy - I luckily managed to get that extended by calling, but all this stuff needs to be done. So I went to the semi-private clinic he normally goes to and got a new OT there. She actually works at the Children's (so again, not a big believer in sensory integration issues) but she did a total developmental assessment on him.

He needs some fine motor skills tweaking, but is mostly age-appropriate (3 years) which is great news. Because of that, we probably won't qualify for the disability allowance, but I don't care at this point. What was really helpful was having her confirm my Motherly Instincts (so useful when you listen to them!) about him really needing to focus on language and social skills.

It's just so annoying out there, with some many businesses trying to make money off of parent's fears and uncertainty - the whole, "if you don't do something right now and do it really intensively and spend eight hundred million dollars on therapy, well....."

No, I know my kid. I know him better than anyone. Crazy intensive ABA therapy would stress him out more than do good. He has problems speaking, maybe apraxia, maybe dysarthria, maybe both. It doesn't matter what, but that's what needs to be worked on. He's a good kid, a bright kid, a quirky kid, but one who is capable of learning and wants to learn.

So really, the OT just reaffirmed my instincts and strengthen my resolve to find a speech therapist who will go into his daycare maybe once or twice a week and work with him. I'm a mama on a mission, a clear mission, to continue to follow my instincts.

The Blame Game

We attended an autism conference last weekend. It was a mix of the regular money grabbers, useless studies (we want to know how stressed special needs parents are - hey guess what, we're stressed! Now what? Do I get a cookie?), and hokey stuff like hyperbaric oxygen therapy (which I was informed *only* works if you do exactly 40 sessions and spend at least $5000. Of course! My hubby writes a longer analysis on his blog.)

There were also a lot of people looking to blame someone or something, but when you talk to them, they all seem a little ASD themselves. Sorry but there's probably a large genetic component!

The blame game doesn't get you anywhere, you just have to deal with what you have. Look, even I think there's probably some chemical out there that is slowly poisoning us or building up over time and messing with our DNA or neurological system or whatever. But I don't think it's vaccines, I don't think it's a conspiracy and I don't think a fad diet is going to cure him.

I think I just have to do the best we can with what we got, which is a very sweet, friendly, intelligent and beautiful little boy. Why would I want to blame anyone for that? I created a masterpiece. 

Don't Stop The Stimming

This is a sad, but poignant article written by an autistic adult about how she was forced to stop her stimming behaviours.

It is beautifully written prose and clearly explains how she was hurt and silenced.

It should serve as a reminder to everyone to allow your child to express themselves in the way they know how and that makes them comfortable.

What do you think after reading it?

You Don't Need to Talk to Lie

I was surprised today when after I caught my son pouring his chocolate Pediasure all over the floor, he lied when I asked him who did it. At first he just looked away and pretended not to hear me, but I asked again. I asked a few times. Finally he "said," "swish, swish, " which is his way of saying, "drink." Even without being able to talk, he was still able to lie. I told him, "no, the cup did not make the mess, you made the mess!" and he started giggling. He's cheeky that one!
Still, it's impressive and it shows he understands. Also, if you agree with this small study it's also a mark of intelligence.

In health news, he has grown quite a bit in the last two months. His EEG was normal. I told the psychologist I wasn't interested in using her techniques to get him to eat (bribe him with chocolate or ice cream to make him eat other foods) and she seemed to be offended and left the room. We're working solely with the OT right now and that's helping a lot. We have to commit to doing strengthening exercises with him daily, but it's worth it! They seem to be working!

We go back to see the speech therapist in April and we'll decide then if we need to get a specialist in dysarthria or apraxia. In more positive news, he has started verbalizing, "hi" and "bye" again. He used to only say them to my dad and when he died, he stopped. It's been just over a year and I finally get to hear those words out of his mouth again, though much quieter and shyly. I hope he does not believe that saying those words makes people he loves disappear. This is one thing I have had a very hard time dealing with. I don't want my baby to worry or be sad.