speech therapy often doesn't work?

Question

I have been a speech therapist for 8 years now. I can't seem to get kids to generalize their speech sounds outside the speech setting. Anyone have any bright ideas?

Answer 1

I was born with a 40% hearing loss.
After 10 years of speech therapy, no one can even tell.

Don't give up on your students...It takes years.

Eventually, it will sink in.

Answer 2

At my school the speech therapist does one 30 minute in the speech room to develop skills and 30 minutes in the classroom to generalized skills per week. We have found that working on communication and speech skill during play and in a more natural setting help the children generalize their skills. This allows allows the classroom teacher to see how to work on these skills with the child. It has helped me learn how to work on the children's speech goals in the classroom which means more practice for the chilld and in the natural environment. I would also have in-services to train the staff in how to implement speech into the room to help expediate the child's progress. This may be more difficult for children in general education when the teacher has 23 other chilldren, I am speaking from a Special Ed. background in which we have reduced class size.

Answer 3

The methods I used:
Designate a "good speech chair" at home. I recommended the kitchen, where a child can sit for 1/2 hour in the evening and talk while a parent cooks dinner.
Use the color orange as a reminder. Every time the child sees an orange object, it reminds him/her to use good speech. I chose orange because it is not as commonly seen as other colors (using green, red, yellow, etc. will drive a kid crazy, as they are more common and the kid would see it too frequently).
The child can have a "speech buddy" who is in the same speech group. They keep tabs on each other. As you know, kids love to catch goofs in each other. They can keep score of the errors and report back to you the next therapy session.
For kids who have repaired clefts, liken glottal stops to hitting a "pothole". They quickly learn to "drive on a smooth road".

Answer 4

It is often necessary to have instruction in a more natural environment. It is common for children to not be able to generalize information, beyond speech. It is important to get them outside of a formal setting, to a place where they have to communicate to function, and plan a practice where it is meaningful for the children. Such as ordering food, asking for help at a store, or something the students can relate to. If the instruction feels false, staged, or unrealistic, then it has no meaning for them, and progress is little if at all.
I realize that budgeting and time is an issue, but what about something on school grounds, such as the cafeteria, office errands, or something that promotes your skill while feeling real to the students.

Answer 5

Do you send homework to the parents? My son has been in speech for over a year, and one of the most frustrating things for me is that his therapist doesn't communicate what they are working on. If she would tell me "this week, let's work on the SSSS sound", it would be so helpful. It is like pulling teeth to get her to communicate with ME, and how can I help my son practice what they are working on (because let's face it, parents are the full time teachers-he spends 16 or so of every 24 hours with me), if I don't know what it is. If it is practiced on a regular basis, outside of a one-on-one environment, it will become second nature alot sooner. The connection to it being a part of everyday speech vs. how you talk to your therapist is something everyone has to work on together. My son's Early Interventionist actually made me a set of Coffman (sp?) cards, and they have made a huge difference. This way despite the fact that I don't know what my therapist is working on with my son, I can still be active in working on SOMETHING with him. Okay done with my rant now, but seriously, involve the parents, it does make a difference.

Answer 6

Do you work with the classroom teachers? I wish my SLP did! I teach D/HH kids speech and what I ask parent is to have the kids read out loud everyday for 5 minutes. I send my SLP a weekly list of words which I also write into sentences and ask her to reinforce my practical vocab. but she won't so I send it home and I am on the phone way more than other teachers because I am always talking to the parents. The kids have agendas in my school and I write it in there eveytime I meet with them. Later at the IEP the parent is complaining and I open the agenda and the parent hasn't signed for two weeks- whose not helping the kid! It take a village! I use a high quality tape recorder and have kids read into mic and play back.

Answer 7

Get their hearing tested for unilateral impairment especially high frequency. The speech setting does not equate with the communication environment of the real world. The world is noisy and mastering communication in a controlled small group or individual one-on-one setting is only the first step.

Answer 8

The problem you are facing is the same problem faced by sped teachers. You teach the strategies but students don't generalize them.

Here is something that might work. In order to get kids to understand that they must use your strategy everywhere, make them cognizant of errors and correcting techniques.

Record the student, you, and/or another student (without speech difficulties) pronouncing words (Record up to 10 words). All of you repeat each word right after each other in a slow clear voice. Then have your student listen to how he/she says the word and compare him/herself to how the others say the words. In this strategy you are making your student cognizant of his/her errors and at the same time modelling the correct pronounciation. Record your student repeating these words once per week and ask them if they hear an improvement...I think you will be surprised at your results.

Recording will sound like this (student) thippery; (teacher) slippery; (another student) slippery...make the student aware of error and model the correction
Good luck.

Answer 9

My son who has autism has done wonderful with his speech therapy. He has had the same teacher (not counting the students that have come in and helped or observed for college credit.) His teacher has done some things out of the classroom with him and his other autistic classmates and everyone of them are audible. In the beginning most of them didn't talk or couldn't be understood. My son only said mom and dad at 4 yrs old. He is now 10 and you can't shut him up! LOL. She took them out onto the school grounds and got them to introduce themselves to other people and put them in other "real" situations instead of keeping them in the classroom all day. I honestly believe this is what helped them improve. She also encourages them to help with corrections as long as its not in a rude manner, this way the students learn from each other and when they are returned to the classroom they are continuing to correct each other and it even comes home with them b/c my son will correct us on certain things.

Answer 10

I would suggest you work on these skills in the environments they are expected to be used. In this case a classroom. For it to be effective it has to happen when it needs to. The students face many other milestones in a busy classroom than they do in your quite therapy office. I have had many therapists who work in the classroom and I have noticed a great difference in my students. It also allows classroom staff to learn techniques you use so they can provide support when you are not present