Is more speech therapy worth it?

It is depending.

If your speech skill is improving after therapy session completed so you can go ahead to have more therapies to maximize the speech performance whatever you feel.

If your speech doesn't improving after therapy session completed in about one year so it isn't worth to have more therapies and you need change the communication method, especially move from oral language to sign language, or try use cued speech.

For me, I had speech therapies for 10 years (1990-2000) and never improved anything because I was too slow and struggled to learn the oral language, so the sign language worked best for me.
 
TXgolfer said:
I don't think the thread was hijacked. In fact, I think Grendel's post provided some good feedback. The name of the game is "mastery."I also thought your post#2 was good.
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I don't know how hayden's feeling about this since it's her thread, not mine. I agree that Grendels thread is good. It encourage lots of new parents to read that one. It's a good idea to create a new thread. Since Hayden is a young adult already, not a child.

My post second post which one is that. I posted twice.
 
Hayden said:
I was raised hearing, and I did 5-10 hours a week of speech therapy for 15 or so years. I haven't done any since I started college last year, and I have noticed (and my friends have noticed) my speech declining. I didn't know ASL so speech was my primary means of communication, but now that I'm learning to sign do you think it's worth my time to go back?
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If you use ASL so often so it isn't problem with ASL that weaken your oral language, but if you do oral language infrequently so it will affect your oral skill.

I have some friends are HoH, they were my ex-classmates from Class of 2006, they used ASL and oral language simultaneously without weaken the skills.
 
BecLak said:
Wirelessly posted

If 'perfect' speech is not what hearing parents are aiming for, then why is speech therapy a life-long endeavour instead of a obtainable short-term course which has a start and finish? If it was the aim to have only improvement in articulation and not perfect articulation, and since it is impossible for a Dhh child or adult to obtain perfect speech, then why bother at all?
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THIS times a million!!!!! I have NO BEEF with short term speech therapy, and a realistic view of speech ( not spoken language goals as the those two are completely different things) CSign, I am sorry I upset you, but I also think that you're a little too worried, and you might also have an unrealistic idea of what speech therapy can accomplish. Maybe a good idea might be to take your son to the local school for the deaf, and have the speech therapist there give you a honest appraisal of your sons oral abilities. Maybe this is just as simple as that you're unconsciously comparing your sons speech, with hearing kids speech. Besides, if the SCHOOL is saying that he can graduate from speech, I think that says a lot! My school kept me in speech until I graduated high school ( due to stuff like pitch, volume etc) I still have a deaf accent, I get told I talk fine...and as a matter of fact, I have people tell me " I didn't even know you were deaf?!?"I think you're a little too worried....
 
deafdyke said:
THIS times a million!!!!! I have NO BEEF with short term speech therapy, and a realistic view of speech ( not spoken language goals as the those two are completely different things) CSign, I am sorry I upset you, but I also think that you're a little too worried, and you might also have an unrealistic idea of what speech therapy can accomplish.

You are right DeafDyke. I am too worried. I definitely have unrealistic expectations of what speech therapy can accomplish.

Maybe a good idea might be to take your son to the local school for the deaf, and have the speech therapist there give you a honest appraisal of your sons oral abilities.

I will send them an email tomorrow and make an appointment to get an honest appraisal of his oral abilities. Thank you for the suggestion.

Maybe this is just as simple as that you're unconsciously comparing your sons speech, with hearing kids speech.

It probably is as simple as me unconsciously comparing his speech with hearing kids speech. I'll make an effort to be conscious of that going forward.

Besides, if the SCHOOL is saying that he can graduate from speech, I think that says a lot!

It absolutely says a lot! It's not like the school district wants to provide minimal services or anything.

My school kept me in speech until I graduated high school ( due to stuff like pitch, volume etc) I still have a deaf accent, I get told I talk fine...and as a matter of fact, I have people tell me " I didn't even know you were deaf?!?"I think you're a little too worried....
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You're probably right. I am a little too worried. Thank you for bringing that to my attention.
 
CSign said:
You're probably right. I am a little too worried. Thank you for bringing that to my attention.
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wanna a try "ignore on her"? :ugh3: your post does sound like you did scratch with your own nails on the blackboard.
 
GrendelQ said:
As a parent, it's my responsibility, one I love, to ensure my child has the mastery of language(s) she needs to overcome any communication limitations. When my daughter is older, it will be up to her to decide what's valuable to her.
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I very strongly advocate letting the child take the lead, or at least paying close attention to how the child responds when making these kinds of decisions. My son was in speech therapy for a few years and was getting nothing out of it. He could mimic sounds like "oo", "oh", "ah", etc. but he couldn't distinguish between words like "blue" and "yellow". He also hates wearing hearing aids with a passion. So we took the cues from him, dropped the speech coaching, and put 100% of our focus into a mastery of ASL.
 
Mountain Man said:
I very strongly advocate letting the child take the lead, or at least paying close attention to how the child responds when making these kinds of decisions. My son was in speech therapy for a few years and was getting nothing out of it. He could mimic sounds like "oo", "oh", "ah", etc. but he couldn't distinguish between words like "blue" and "yellow". He also hates wearing hearing aids with a passion. So we took the cues from him, dropped the speech coaching, and put 100% of our focus into a mastery of ASL.
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Needless to say, Reading the book is the key igniting every kids' life. It's a must.
 
CSign said:
You're probably right. I am a little too worried. Thank you for bringing that to my attention.
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:laugh2::laugh2::laugh2::laugh2:

I think she's forgotten that your child is a signing child.
 
CSign said:
Nobody is making fun of her. Stop trying to stir the pot please and thank you.
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Didn't know that she was talking to you :)shock:). Oddly, in the thread it shows that she was talking to beclak. You can said that to yourself "stop trying to stir the pot". I am sure that you already know that OP is deaf, why bother to come here and meddle with deafies/hoh posts in this thread.
 
Frisky Feline said:
Didn't know that she was talking to you :)shock:). Oddly, in the thread it shows that she was talking to beclak.
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You may have missed this part addressed to Csign:
deafdyke said:
THIS times a million!!!!! I have NO BEEF with short term speech therapy, and a realistic view of speech ( not spoken language goals as the those two are completely different things) CSign, I am sorry I upset you, but I also think that you're a little too worried, and you might also have an unrealistic idea of what speech therapy can accomplish. Maybe a good idea might be to take your son to the local school for the deaf, and have the speech therapist there give you a honest appraisal of your sons oral abilities. Maybe this is just as simple as that you're unconsciously comparing your sons speech, with hearing kids speech. Besides, if the SCHOOL is saying that he can graduate from speech, I think that says a lot! My school kept me in speech until I graduated high school ( due to stuff like pitch, volume etc) I still have a deaf accent, I get told I talk fine...and as a matter of fact, I have people tell me " I didn't even know you were deaf?!?"I think you're a little too worried....
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CSign said:
Nobody is making fun of her. Stop trying to stir the pot please and thank you.
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Of course you were. And it was funny.

Frisky's earlier suggestion to just use the ignore feature was a good one.
 
Bottesini said:
Of course you were. And it was funny.

Frisky's earlier suggestion to just use the ignore feature was a good one.
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No, I was not making fun of DD in any way. My post was made in jest/sarcasm though, because sometimes that is the only way to respond to something.

I'm not into "making fun" of people. Not my style.
 
GrendelQ said:
For years my daughter's pull-out communication therapy was focused on ensuring her ASL was fluent, accurate, and she could effectively communicate with those around her. I see this as the equivalent of "speech therapy" others participate in during which a child is guided towards effective, accurate spoken language. I don't expect or hope for "perfect signing" just as I don't expect or hope for "perfect speech" or "perfect writing." I do hope and work for fluent and accurate grasp of languages that will enable her to communicate effectively without obstacles in any environment she chooses.

Doesn't matter if you are hearing or deaf, if you use poor grammar, spelling, pronunciation, or sign, people will focus on what they perceive as your ignorance rather than what you are trying to get across. And more important than what others think, your ability to communicate fully and effectively will be limited by your lack of fluency and accuracy. As a parent, it's my responsibility, one I love, to ensure my child has the mastery of language(s) she needs to overcome any communication limitations. When my daughter is older, it will be up to her to decide what's valuable to her.
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Great post Grendel... :)
 
"Perfect" speech and speech therapy

BecLak said:
Wirelessly posted

If 'perfect' speech is not what hearing parents are aiming for, then why is speech therapy a life-long endeavour instead of a obtainable short-term course which has a start and finish? If it was the aim to have only improvement in articulation and not perfect articulation, and since it is impossible for a Dhh child or adult to obtain perfect speech, then why bother at all?
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It is actually not true that speech therapy is a lifelong endeavor anymore. The ability to speak well depends upon the ability to hear well. Learning spoken language without hearing is very difficult and did require years and years of therapy prior to cochlear implants. However, that is no longer the case. My daughter was implanted at 15 months. By age 4 she was in therapy for only an hour once every other week. By age 6 she was completely finished with therapy. My friend's son was implanted at age 6 months and was completely finished with therapy by age 2. Children implanted early with today's technology are able to hear so well that they develop spoken language naturally in parallel with their peers with normal hearing. The correct term is not perfect speech. Like Cloggy, I have never known a parent to say they want that. Rather, we want spoken language to develop naturally, and so perhaps natural speech is a better term. It is not forced. They hear and go through the same stages as their peers with normal hearing, making the same speech and language errors as their brains are sorting it all out as all children do. Some good examples - substituting f for th, w for l, saying builted it instead of built it. These are all errors that my child who was born with normal hearing made as well as my child with cochlear implants.
 
Wirelessly posted

ciavmom said:
BecLak said:
If 'perfect' speech is not what hearing parents are aiming for, then why is speech therapy a life-long endeavour instead of a obtainable short-term course which has a start and finish? If it was the aim to have only improvement in articulation and not perfect articulation, and since it is impossible for a Dhh child or adult to obtain perfect speech, then why bother at all?
Click to expand...



It is actually not true that speech therapy is a lifelong endeavor anymore. The ability to speak well depends upon the ability to hear well. Learning spoken language without hearing is very difficult and did require years and years of therapy prior to cochlear implants. However, that is no longer the case. My daughter was implanted at 15 months. By age 4 she was in therapy for only an hour once every other week. By age 6 she was completely finished with therapy. My friend's son was implanted at age 6 months and was completely finished with therapy by age 2. Children implanted early with today's technology are able to hear so well that they develop spoken language naturally in parallel with their peers with normal hearing. The correct term is not perfect speech. Like Cloggy, I have never known a parent to say they want that. Rather, we want spoken language to develop naturally, and so perhaps natural speech is a better term. It is not forced. They hear and go through the same stages as their peers with normal hearing, making the same speech and language errors as their brains are sorting it all out as all children do. Some good examples - substituting f for th, w for l, saying builted it instead of built it. These are all errors that my child who was born with normal hearing made as well as my child with cochlear implants.
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This is an area that hearing people will never full understand. A Dhh child/person undergoes speech therapy to obtain clear precise speech and diction as close to a hearing person's speech as possible. I did achieve speech to the point of only very few people namely audiologists and kids could guess otherwise. However, the immense effort to maintain this clear precise speech and diction is never-ending, it doesn't get any easier. 'Oh but you speak with ease, you don't appear to struggle'. That comes with years of bluffing it deary, it's tiring and exhausting. I have news for you, it never comes 'naturally' for a Dhh child/person. Don't fool yourself. HAs and yes, even CIs will never fix that. (With the exception of late-deafened). There is no respite, unless a Dhh child/person is given the tools to survive without their voice for a time. It's cruel.
 
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