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Being a mom is exhausting

It’s hard being a mother. To say that I get it would be a lie. Having spoken to over 300 parents now in person (yes, I tried to count). The mothers have it the worse. First of all, mothers have a tendency to shoulder the blame for domestic matters. Secondly, if there is more than 1 child, things get hectic very quickly. And last, of all, there are so many things to take care of. Having 10-15 minutes of alone time is a luxury. That’s why I’m extremely grateful for moms who put in the effort. 

I had a mother who I was coaching for the past 2 years. She finally waved the white flag. Her son is speaking now, although not all caught up, she decided to stop for now. It’s incredibly difficult to carry out therapy at home yourself. You need someone to guide you, or better yet, work with an in-house therapist who...

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What is Virtual Autism?

This is a term coined by Romanian clinical psychologist Dr. Marius Zamfir. This is when a child exhibits autism-like symptoms due to screen-time (around 4-5 hours a day)... How real is this? We don’t know yet… But we do see a huge spike in autism diagnoses in the past 10 years… This might be one of the reasons why. 

Virtual autism doesn’t mean your child is autistic. It means your child will show autism-LIKE symptoms. Recent studies e.g. https://www.afahc.ro/ro/afases/2018/43-CristinaBalan.pdf have shown that getting the child off-screen time reduces the symptoms. In some cases, the symptoms disappear. When this happens, the child is actually not on the autism spectrum but has symptoms of such because of screen time and the lack of parent-child interaction.

Screen Time is Addictive

Let’s face it,...

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Sensory issues: texture and taste

Most ASD children have sensory problems. Each person’s sensory problem is different. We taste food differently even if it’s the same thing. So imagine a child on the spectrum whose sensory profile is all over the place, some places too sensitive, and some sensory seeking (not enough sensory stimulation). Inside our mouths, we have millions of sensory receptors. One of the reasons for ASD children being picky eaters is because of their oral sensitivity. The tricky thing is we don’t know how a child feels when s/he is eating a certain texture. We don’t even know how it tastes like to them. So we need to keep testing. Use a toothette (or anything equivalent) to assess and normalize the child’s oral cavity. It’s best that you check with a qualified speech therapist for this.

Oromotor...

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Intolerance to Uncertainty

Anyone gets anxious when you doing something you haven’t done before. Imagine yourself giving a Ted talk for the first time, would you be anxious? I would bet my money on it. Why? It’s because there’s an element of uncertainty. We, humans, are risk-averse. That’s why we get comfortable doing the same things over and over again, it grounds us and makes us feel safe.

Similarly, children who are on the spectrum have the same problem. However, their tolerance for uncertainty is much lower. Anything that is out of normal cannot be tolerated. Something as little as the orientation of your spoon on the dining table can trigger a huge reaction. This reaction is different for each child. That’s why it’s a spectrum disorder because their reactions can be totally different even if the reason (intolerance to...

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Language delay or commonly known as speech delay is when a child hasn’t caught up on all his speech and language milestones as compared to his/her peers. 

We’re not here to discuss milestones, a simple google search would give you the answers. In fact, here’s literally the first result on Google: https://www.stanfordchildrens.org/en/topic/default?id=age-appropriate-speech-and-language-milestones-90-P02170

So why are children delayed? Is it because of the use of gadgets?

Most of the time, there isn’t a reason that we can find for a child’s language delay. It’s a developmental problem and a child can be perfectly healthy, neurotypical, and still be language delayed.

Environmental Factors

Whilst the use of gadgets does affect a child’s communication. It does not cause language delay. It’s certainly a factor....

A 5-year-old should be speaking in adult form. What does that mean? 5-year-olds should be able to speak and communicate as well as we do in informal speech. Most speech sounds should be correct with exceptions to some consonant blends and maybe the /r/ sound. They should be able to speak in complex sentences and tell stories.

Here are some suggestions about what you should expect or do for speech therapy.

Is Your Child a Speech or Language Case?

It’s important to know whether your child has a problem with saying speech sounds correct or has a problem using language (enough vocabulary, speaking in sentences, using the right grammar, etc…). It might be that your child has a problem with both. And knowing this will help you decide how much therapy you need and it’ll also make communicating with your therapist a lot easier.

If s/he is a speech case then…

See a therapist, because the reason for a speech problem determines what approach a therapist would use for...

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Go get an assessment for Autism if you’re worried. 

No online survey or online therapist/psychologist can give you the answer. If you’re worried, the only way to get a diagnosis is to get it assessed personally by a professional!

Autism is a different operating system

People on the spectrum think, feel, and process information differently from neurotypical people (us). We cannot use our way of thinking to justify how ASD people feel. It’s a different way of operating in the world. That’s why we need to have empathy and try our best to understand why certain behaviors happen.

ASD affects different aspects

A child on the spectrum will show different abilities in speech, language, play, cognition, sensorimotor and social. Each person will be different and that’s why it’s a spectrum disorder. Their personalities go on top of...

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The book we’re referring to

https://www.amazon.com/Einstein-Syndrome-Bright-Children-Talk/dp/046508141X

Sowell wrote a book called “The Einstein Syndrome: Bright Children Who Talk Late” 

Einstein Syndrome, in my opinion, is another word for late talkers. Which is classified if a child has no other outstanding disorders, mental or physical impairments that contribute to language delay/disorder.

So basically a mild language delay. And the premise of the book describes how there isn’t a need for any intervention. Parents are guilt-tripped into taking their children to therapy. 

This is my opinion. How do you know if your child will suddenly speak or not? There’s no guarantee for that. Whilst I don’t discount the chance that your child is gifted, what’s the harm in helping your child develop...

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ABA PTSD

Recently more people came out to express how ABA had caused them to have post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). And the number of these cases might be few, but it’s significant enough for all parents to be worried about. Because from the account of these now grown-up ASD people, is that it was stressful to learn to behave like us neuro-typical people. And the therapy methods were much like teaching an animal.

Not only ABA!

PTSD happens to anyone who has a traumatic experience. It happens to bad therapy in general. I had a student who has PTSD with oral motor, that’s because they’ve been forcing her to open her mouth with the incorrect methods. This can happen to anyone in any industry, not only in teaching children. You can have a bad dentist, plumber, or whatever who can give you a bad experience!

Moreover, the...

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Both of these therapies are considered behavioral interventions. Because we teach at the behavioral level and do not use cognitive (very seldom), medical, or biological intervention methods.

ABA is shown to be effective for ASD children. Where in speech therapy, a larger range of people (children & adults) can benefit from the service.

The objective of speech and language therapy is to teach your child to communicate with you effectively. Which covers 2 main aspects language and speech. Language is any use of symbols, gestures, or words to get our message across. Speech is the use of sounds that we mutually understand to communicate. 

This means speech therapy will teach everything contributing to communication, articulation, language skills, storytelling, using gestures, social skills and etc…

Speech therapy also includes...