As I posted before, my son was deaf until he was 18 months old and just started speaking at all this past July.

He's in speech therapy now. The therapist works with him a half hour, two days a week (total of one hour) and then gives us homework to do together.

I just don't get it. He, for example, can say "pup". He can say "pee pee". He can say "puppeepee". But he CAN'T say "puppy". He says "put-ye". Or "go". He can say "no". But says "goa". Through a LOT of work (and tears, on both ends) we have gotten him to say "go" a fwe times, but its like he just keeps saying "goa".

How do I get him to understand?? He doesn't say "pop", he says "paht". I know little kids don't speak perfectly, I don't expect that, but he doesn't even attempt to make the sounds. He seems to understand that he is saying it wrong, but like doesn't care? He knows that no one can understand him, and he wants to be understood. But no matter how hard I try I cna't get him to say it right.

Any suggestions???

Mom,
I think you need to give you and your son an emotional break. Both of my sons have been having speech therapy for most of their life. It is a long process, you see sometimes it is a processing issue not simply a pronouciation issue.

Crying and having him cry with you is only going to make the whole situation worse. He will think you are angry with him if he doesn't "perform" right and you get upset.

These things take time, really they do. My sons do not speak clearly even yet, you just be patient and repeat repeat repeat ....casually....

I will tell you one thing give it some time. My nephew was the same way and he out grew it. Just have patience

Its hard to have patience--he starts kindergarten in 18 months and we REALLY don't want him behind. He's got a genius IQ but can't talk.

Thank you for your advice--I'm just frustrated!

although my situation was differnt from yours my son was delayed beacuse of hospitalizations, we started him off with signing for things he wanted, then added the word to the sign and eventually he did not use the sign at all.
His hearing may not be as perfect as you think as of yet and he may need to "feel" the vibrations of the words.

ps I just read your other post about not allowing sign language- but if you use it along with the word sound you may find that eventually the sign disappears as the word is learned.
My "naormal" 5 year old still doesn't pronounce all her words correctly- but that will come in time. children learn by reward (so to speak)in that once they learn that a certain word siad correctly will get the response wanted they will adapt to using it all the time. Associate the words with the sign until the word is acheived- then request the word only. children get just as frustrated with they can't communicate their wants and needs as much as you are frustrated they aren't getting what you are tryign to get them to learn.

Try signing- it may work for you- at least the communication will be there at first and the frustrations on both parts will be eliminated because you and he will understand what is wanted or said. then eventally the word will unfold- time will only tell. But at least it is worth a try. Communication is a big key in learning- once they figure out that by doing the required command (word sound or sign) they get their point across the rest comes easily.

Sagus and I used sign language along with the verbal words.. it really worked... and now the boys do not use sign at all.

my first son also used sigh language during his delayed speech and eventually quit using it.

I have a normal 6yr old girl who doesn't pronounce everything right. we just correct her and go about our business. it will come in time.

instead of just speech therapy- how about early intervention? where he would be going every day to a preschool type environment? they can teach him how to communicate with you and you with him- part of the frustration is because he can't communicate his needs to you and you can't understand them. once a established method is used he will continue to do well and eventually only use the correct verbal methods of communication.

His hearing may also still be a factor- he may still have some type of muffled hearing in that he doesn't hear key enuctuations you are using but he can hear himself/ feel the vibrations when he talks.

I noticed those "deaf" with a hearing aid will often speak when a upward thrusted tongue and forced air though the nose to feel the vibrations of the words (sounds like they are talking through their nose.)

talk with your local disabilities/special needs board to find out what is available for you in your area.

Is he no longer hearing impaired, or is there still a bit of hearing loss? I'm thinking he may hear but can not distinguish between different sounds.

For instance when people started saying "It's the bomb" I thought and said "It's the bong" Even when being verbally corrected I heard and lip read "bong" (of course that may have something to do with the person who was correcting me) It wasn't until I seen it written out that I knew and understood that it was the Bomb.

The N sound and G sound between 'No' and 'goa' feel the same in the ear canal for me. Just for giggles I had Danny stand behind me and say both at random, switching up, and you know due my hearing impairment I hear no difference. And to tell the truth they look the same in lip reading.

The lips of a speaker pronounce words slightly differently when they are compounded. Your example of Pup and Pee-Pee while unable to say puppy - Please note you are forming two p's close together in the middle with puppy - which is far different than form one p in pup or pee. Unrelated words look exactly the same when lip reading.

The best example is Present, President and Presence. These are indistinguishable from each other in lip format in normal everyday speech. Present and Presence is a good example of how words are close enough to sound the same inside one’s head when s/he speaks. Try it, the format of the tongue and lips and the vibration qualities are so close that it is difficult to distinguish. Try it with your fingers in your ears too, feel the words as they vibrate. You may want to try that with words that your son is saying just to get a feel for what he is saying and how it relates to what is supposed to be said.

I also think he is having difficultly relating the sounds he hears outside his body to the sounds he makes inside. For instance you may note that a recording of your own voice sounds nothing like you to you when you hear it played back. This can lead to some major difficulties for the late learner of verbal speech. They are expecting the sound that they hear themselves making to sound like the sound you are making. And your example of ‘Pop’ and ‘Paht’ are similar enough and do sound the same when spoken to a degree.

I talk too low - but then I hear/feel my voice fairly loudly in my ears (head actually) this is due to my deep voice and the vibrations of my speech vibrating the skull, ear canal, etc. I am constantly uncertain if I am pronouncing words correctly due to the "wrong" sound I am getting in my head compared to what I think I hear from outside. When my sinuses are plugged up my hearing gets worse and the vibrations get louder which leads to me sounding off when I speak I over compensate attempting to make my own sounds from inside match the sounds of the outside voices.

IT is very possible – highly probable - that he still has hearing issues which no test has uncovered – minor tones and loss of ability to distinguish between different yet similar sounds. And I am hearing that in your post.

Emotionally: He may very well be unwilling to train as well. Pushing him to do so will only make matters worse and I assure you that life itself, peer pressure, etc will lead to him sooner or later desiring to learn how to speak properly. Not only did I stutter terribly I was also very sloppy in my speech patterns. It wasn’t until I started school and became a laughing stock with my peers that I got the real desire to speak normally. Until that time all the speech therapy in the world was lost on me simply because I was stubborn, bored and thought there was no reason why I had too. I know that sounds like a harsh road to tow, however many of us do things our own way first until we make those mistakes.

There is another condition known as "central auditory processing disorder."

quote:

People with this ailment have difficulty distinguishing between phonemes--the basic building blocks of language--and particularly between consonants like b, d, p, which fly by in milliseconds during conversation. The condition may also retard reading, since the children can't easily match up the indistinct sounds they hear with the letters on a page.
(Time Magazine, July 5, 1999, pp.26-27

This is an old article but it was featuring a video-game program developed by Scientific Learning Corp. of Berkeley, California. This program was called "FastForWord" and was developed to aid children who cannot process the sounds of language fast enough to comprehend normal speech. It might be worth looking into.

DD