By Pam Marshalla
Q: I am working with a 2 year old who is exhibiting labial, alveolar and velar assimilation. For example, gog for dog, pup for cup, pomb for comb, and bum for gum. He produces all of the phonemes correctly in isolation and in syllables. Receptive language skills are age appropriate. Where do I start to correct this? I’ve been with him for 6 weeks. I am discovering through my reading that assimilation usually resolves around 3 years of age. His…
By Pam Marshalla
Q: I have a five-year-old child with cerebral palsy, developmental delay, severe apraxic and dysarthria. Jaw control is limited, she drools, and the tongue retracts when feeding. I am told by her speech reports she needs oral motor work 3 times to 5 times a day. Might you have any suggestions on what I could do? She is in school speech three times per week for 30-minutes and she does see a PROMPT therapist. My experience has taught me that…
By Pam Marshalla
Q: Is there a website or document that describes the problem of pronouncing R’s as W’s? My friend’s 7-year-old daughter has this speech problem and she is now having reading difficulties. I feel the school has not diagnosed this because both parents are from Puerto Rico and the teachers probably think it’s an accent. I recognize the problem because my brother had it, and it was also not diagnosed because my parents are German and everyone just assumed it was…
By Pam Marshalla
Q: How should we write IEP goals for oral-motor? The answer I always give is: DON’T. Our goals are not to improve jaw, lip or tongue function. Our goals are to improve speech. Write SPEECH goals. Oral-motor techniques are just that: TECHNIQUES. Oral-motor techniques are used to help us achieve the speech goals we have set. For example, let’s say that we are working with a child who has no back sounds – no [k] or [g]. Our therapy techniques…
By Pam Marshalla
Q: My preschool client with apparent childhood apraxia is not willing to participate and often walks away from or gets annoyed with therapy plans and procedures. What should I do? He sounds like most of the kids on my caseload. Childhood apraxia comes with its pure stubbornness at times. But I don’t think that “behavior” itself is always the issue. There is a reason for the stubborn behavior. What I usually see with preschool kids like this is that they…
