Jacob’s Birthday
by Susan Porcaro, Rogue Valley Clinician
Jacob’s first visit to the Rogue Valley Clinic in Medford
was over a year ago, the day after his fourth birthday. He
was one of our top priority children since he had many articulation
errors, but he did not qualify for early intervention speech
and language services. There were many sounds that Jacob could
not produce correctly. Fortunately, both his ability to imitate
the correct production of sounds and his auditory discrimination
skills were above average. He started working on the “l”
sound and began to make progress quickly; yet using the correct
“l” in his spontaneous speech took several months.
Meanwhile, he mastered the “v” sound, then the
“sh” and “ch” sounds. His oral motor
skills improved as he worked consistently practicing the exercises.
By the time he had accomplished using the corrected “l”
in his conversational speech he was able to produce the correct
“s” and “z” sounds.
His work on the “s” and “z” sounds
continued until he was able to produce the correct sounds
in consonant clusters. His progress and motivation were consistent
as he continued to improve his speech. His speech became easier
and easier for an unfamiliar listener to understand. Jacob’s
language skills are excellent and he is interested in many
things.
Then Jacob was presented with a challenge. His dentist said
that he needed to wear an appliance on his teeth. When the
appliance was in place, Jacob could not produce the “s”
sound easily. Through some practice and the time it took for
him to feel comfortable with the appliance, he was soon back
to his clear production of the “s” and “z”
sounds in conversation. He had met that challenge and overcame
it. His persistence produced success.
During the past few months Jacob has learned the “th”
sounds, both the voiced and voiceless sounds, and is now using
the correct sounds in his conversational speech. He also has
learned to produce the “r” sound, which is the
last error sound in his repertoire of sounds. Meanwhile, his
oral motor skills have improved, and he is enjoying rhyming
activities. Jacob is now five years old. He is able to invite
his friends to his birthday party using all the correct sounds.
Jacob has given himself the gift of good speech. His hard
work, patience and persistence have allowed him to accomplish
this goal within the year.
Jacob has contributed some of his artistic creations to the
Rogue Valley clinic. A little monkey he made in his science
camp last summer is on the front door and greets the children
and their families as they enter the clinic. We are proud
of Jacob’s accomplishments and we wish Jacob the happiest
of birthday celebrations.
Markus
by Karen Aguilera, Klamath Falls Clinician
Sometimes, a child responds to therapy in a way that is quite
astounding. They are ready and able to learn a new way of
speaking. Therapy geared to exactly what the child needs,
the key to unlock their speech, is all that is missing.
Markus is one of those children. For several months after
beginning preschool at the Early Intervention program, where
he was placed for speech and language therapy, Markus had
been silent most of the time. His mother was a bit surprised
when he actually attempted to speak on his first clinic visit.
I believe that Markus had been reluctant to speak around
his peers because he probably thought they wouldn’t
be able to understand anything he said. Indeed, his speech
was quite unintelligible even to me, even though I have spent
years listening to children who have severe speech and language
disorders. Markus was making some speech sounds that are made
with the tip of the tongue (“t”, “d”,
“n”) with his tongue blade, and his tongue tip
was tucked underneath.
The speech sounds were a bit inaccurate, and his unusual
tongue position made it difficult for Markus’ tongue
to move quickly from one sound to the next, so stringing together
words and syllables smoothly was extremely difficult for him.
Testing showed that Markus is very bright. He really wanted
to communicate with people, but he was able to produce very
few speech sounds correctly, much less string syllables and
words together into grammatically complete sentences.
Markus has been seen individually for several months at this
clinic. We have already targeted a wide variety of consonants
and vowels in different word positions. Because of our service
delivery model of intensive, one-on-one treatment sessions,
there is adequate time for him to practice the new sounds
in words up to a hundred times during a session. Markus has
also learned to make his tongue move faster, and is learning
to use the correct tongue positions for speech sounds. He
has now mastered many targeted sounds in different word positions,
and we are moving these sounds into sentences, giving him
the opportunity to practice grammar as well.
Being able to make himself understood has given Markus new
confidence in himself. He is well on his way to being a competent
communicator thanks to Oregon Scottish Rite Clinics.
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